us from getting married,’ Sonny tried, but then, ‘Oh God-.’ He stopped abruptly and placed both hands on the table.
‘What is it?’ Dr Ben asked. Sonny bowed his head, seeming to have the weight of the world on his shoulders when he looked up and opened his mouth again to speak. Closing his mouth, he stared intently at the table as if weighing up whether to say anything more or not.
‘Come on, Sonny, whatever it is I’m sure we can sort it out.’ It was Sybs who spoke next, looking across the table and giving Sonny a reassuring smile.
‘I’ve just realised!’ Sonny inhaled sharply before letting out a long sigh.
‘Please, just tell me,’ Cher pleaded, putting down her mug of tea.
‘It wasn’t just the figurines that were in the cellar ….’ He started hesitantly.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Love, I’m so sorry. I really am,’ he shook his head and closed his eyes momentarily. ‘We left your wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses in the cellar too.’
Silence followed.
Cher swallowed and blinked as she struggled to process what he was saying.
Sybs gulped.
And Dr Ben pushed his glasses back further on his nose.
‘Cher, please, don’t go … ,’ Sybs said quietly when Cher stood up, her face crumpling and her shoulders dropping in despair as she went to walk away. ‘We really can sort this out, your insurance company will cover all your losses and you’ll be able to get a new dress,’ she added, swiftly, but Cher wasn’t listening. Instead she rounded on Sonny and after placing both palms on the table top she stared at him for a few seconds before saying,
‘You said it would be OK. You promised we would bring the dresses back upstairs as soon as the rush had died down!’
‘I know, love, and I’m really sorry we didn’t,’ he pleaded. ‘We were both so busy, I was trying to get Barry sorted out, you were holding the fort in the bar and then that coach party arrived at exactly the same time as the woman from the wedding dress shop …. ’ He paused and shook his head. ‘It was only supposed to be for a short while ….’ Then looking at Sybs and Dr Ben as if to explain, he added, ‘There’s a smaller room off the main beer cellar and the dresses were all in protective covers zipped up safely so we knew they wouldn’t end up smelling of beer, not in such a short time. We unloaded the dresses from the woman’s car right outside the cellar door and were going to move the dresses upstairs to the spare bedroom as soon as the lunchtime rush was over, but must have got distracted and … ,’ he paused to look down at his hands clasped together on the table before going to stand up to comfort Cher, but it was too late as she turned on her heel and ran from the café.
A few days later and Cher’s best friend, Sybs, was in the haberdashery shop with a team of her regular sewing bee members, knitters and crafters all gathered around on the big squishy sofas and armchairs.
‘So what do you reckon?’ Sybs asked, inwardly hoping they would be up for such a mammoth task. To make a wedding dress and seven bridesmaids dresses in less than a week! Plus, create lengths of bunting and hopefully some flower arrangements tied up with string in jam jars. Since the pub fire, when her best friend’s wedding dreams had literally vanished overnight in a big puff of smoke, Sybs had been thinking about the best way to help her out and had come up with a plan.
Silence followed as the group all looked at each other and then at Sybs as if she had lost her mind.
‘Piece of cake!’ It was Ruby, the owner of the vintage dress shop in the High Street, who spoke first, clapping her hands together and standing up. ‘Come on, ladies,’ she enthused, then paused and after smiling at Leo, added, ‘and gents,’ before nodding. ‘You can do this. Remember that great Christmas knit off when you knitted a trillion wacky festive jumpers in record time for that theme park in Tokyo?’
‘Yes, bu-.’ Taylor, the youngest member of the group went to protest but Ruby was having none of it.
‘Well then …’ Ruby was on a roll now with her hands on her hips, ‘we can’t let Cher, or indeed Sonny down, not when they’ve helped all of us out with something or another … how many times have you sat at the bar in The Duck & Puddle and poured your heart out while Cher has patiently listened and then shared some sage advice alongside a drink on the house? Or how about Sonny’s lock-ins that you’ve all enjoyed? Not to mention his big Christmas party every year for the regulars with the free buffet and DJ? And his delicious pub lunches … his Sunday roasts are legendary.’
‘I’m in!’ Molly lifted her hand in the air and leaned forward. ‘Cooper and I are partial to a lock-in, and a Sunday roast, and besides, we all love a good knees-up. Sonny and Cher’s wedding party was set to be the highlight of the summer, so come on everyone, lets get cracking. What do you need us to do, Sybs?’
‘That’s the spirit,’ Hettie, the elderly owner of the haberdashery shop appeared with a plate piled high with scones smothered in cream and jam. ‘We’ll get the tea urn out and the biscuit tin too to keep us all going and it will be just like during the war with everyone rallying around doing their bit. And just like our great Christmas knit off, we’ll have a great summer sewing bee!’
‘And I have an idea of how we could save some time on the making of the actual wedding dress, because less than a week to design and stitch a gorgeous gown really is pushing it a bit,’ Ruby said as she helped herself to a scone, took a bite and then declared, ‘mmm, this is absolutely delicious, thanks Hettie’.
‘Go on,’ Sybs prompted, keen to hear Ruby’s plan because even with her experienced sewing skills it was a tall order to make a wedding dress beautiful enough to replace the one Cher had her heart set on in such little time.
‘Well, I have the most exquisite wedding gown in my shop. It’s a vintage 1920’s fitted dress with a beautiful lace train and beading all over the bodice. I thought you might be able to alter it to fit Cher as it’s probably a size up from what she’d wear. But I might be wrong, I’d have to measure her properly to be sure,’ she said knowledgably. ‘And maybe you could make a lovely veil to match?’
‘It sounds amazing, and it certainly would save loads of time as we wouldn’t be starting from scratch. And I’m sure we can make a veil, no problem,’ Sybs grinned, feeling relieved. She knew that Cher would like a vintage gown as the one that got ruined in the beer cellar had been inspired by one she saw in an old copy of Vogue she had found online. But then Sybs quickly realised, ‘Cher is on such a tight budget though! I know she won’t mind me telling you that all the money she and Sonny had saved to pay for the wedding has now got to be spent on replenishing the ruined beer barrels and making good the smoke damage in the cellar and the bar area above it. It’s essential if they are not to miss out on trade during the summer months, it’s their busiest time of year so they can’t afford to wait around for the insurance company to decide if they are going to pay out.’ She shook her head remembering how devastated Cher had been yesterday after talking to the loss adjuster at the insurance company. It turns out there was an electric fault in the beer cellar, it was just one of those things. But there was also an old paraffin camping stove at the bottom of one of the boxes that Barry had brought around – he had completely forgotten it
