The Wedding Dress Maker

Also by Leah Fleming

Also by Leah Fleming

The Olive Garden Choir

The Wedding Dress Maker

The Daughter of the Tide

The Wedding Dress Maker

LEAH FLEMING

Copyright Page

First published in the UK in 1999 by Judy Piatkus (Publishers) Ltd

This paperback edition published in the UK in 2019 by Head of Zeus Ltd

Copyright © Leah Fleming, 2019

The moral right of Leah Fleming to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN (PBO): 9781789543254

ISBN (E): 9781789543360

Author photograph © MKI Photo

Cover images: Shutterstock

Head of Zeus Ltd

First Floor East

5–8 Hardwick Street

London ec1r 4rg

Dedication

In memory of my sister, Audrey

1935–1977

‘Life is a rainbow which also includes black’

—yevgeny yevtushenko

‘My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So it was when my life began

So it is now I am a man:

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

The child is father of the man’

—william wordsworth, ‘My Heart Leaps Up’

Contents

Also by Leah Fleming

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

1 Freya’s Necklace

A Wednesday Afternoon in May 1949

Early on Friday Morning

September 1937

May 1949, Friday

September 1939

May 1949, Friday

Dressing Miss Forsyth, June 1942

May 1949, Friday

2 Stepping Stones Garnet

Rae, 1944

Summer 1944

May 1949, Friday

August 1944

May 1949, Friday

Ten Days in March 1945

On The Tenth Day, 1945

May 1949, Friday at Noon

Park Royal, Spring 1945

May 1949, Saturday Morning

3 Amber

Snapshots from The Royal, 1945

May 1949, Saturday Morning

Hogmanay, 1945

A Secret Outing

Saturday, Midday on Shap Fell, 1949

4 Jet

February 1946

Nothing To Write Home About, March 1946

Homeward Bound, July 1946

Saturday Afternoon in Kendal, 1949

5 Citrine

In the Winter of 1947

The Texas Rangers, Autumn 1947

Spring 1948

Saturday Teatime in Kendal, 1949

6 Jade

Dancing on the Green, Summer 1948

Showdown

Christmas 1948

Window Shopping in Kendal, May 1949

7 Turquoise

Into 1949

Forks in the Path, March 1949

Late Afternoon in Kendal, May 1949

8 Lapis Lazuli

The Same Saturday Afternoon at Brigg Farm

Staying On, June 1949

9 Amethyst

Back to Griseley, June 1949

On Carrick Sands, September 1949

Acknowledgements

About the author

An Invitation from the Publisher

1

Freya’s Necklace

‘A golden yoke
Forged with pride
Worn with sorrow.

Circlet of chains
And stones polished
Like glass tears.’

A Wednesday Afternoon in May 1949