An hour and a bit later, Izzy was dashing out of the door to met Danni at the tube station, for the short ride to the auction house at Camden.
“Izzy!! Over here! Quick, we’ll miss the train!” Danni yelled in her usual exuberant way.
“Hi Danni, how are you? I’m fine, thanks for asking!” Izzy laughed and ran to catch up with her friend.
“Sorry, but I really don’t want to miss this auction, it looks dead good. I’ve read the catalogue”
They barged onto the train panting with all the effort and sank onto the dull orange sponge seats raising two small clouds of dust. In the company of her best friend, Izzy felt relaxed and reasonably calm. Izzy and Danni had been friends since year 7, when they had been put in the same form and soon became inseparable. After sixth form they went to the same university to study art and design. Though they had similar personalities, they couldn’t look more different in appearance. Izzy’s long hair looked strikingly red in contrast to Danni’s shiny blonde curls and blue eyes. Izzy’s eyes were intensely green, and twinkled when she laughed. Her clear skin was the colour of vanilla ice cream and her small rosebud mouth was a delicate shade of pink. Her usual blank expression lit up animatedly when she smiled and her eyes danced with delight when something triggered her bizarre sense of humour. She was quite small, only 5”4 and had a slim figure, due to her student diet of pot noodles, coffee and alcohol!
Soon, the train reached Camden station and the girls jumped onto the platform and started running towards the auction house, a big old building with stunning gothic architecture. Normally, they would have liked to have looked at such a building, even make some sketches, but they were in such a hurry they didn’t even notice it. They dashed into the auction room so fast they didn’t notice it had already started, earning themselves some very disapproving looks from the older ladies complete with twin-sets and pearls entrenched at the very front.
Catching her breath, Izzy looked at the items for sale. There was the usual array of old furniture and chipped ornament. Right at the back, draped over a wooden chest was an amazing white lace dress that caught Izzy’s eye. When the wooden chest came up, Danni was the first to bid.
“It’s just what I need for my project on 18th century furniture!” She whispered to Izzy. When the bidding had finished, Danni had got the chest and the girls were contemplating how to transport it back to Danni’s flat in Greenwich. They decided to get a taxi to Danni's then the tube back to Izzy’s as Danni was having dinner with her that night. Just as they had hailed a cab, one of the traditional black London types, a man came rushing out of the auction house.
“Oi! You two girls, wait!!” he shouted at their retreating backs. Izzy spun round and looked at the man.
“Yes? Is there a problem sir? Only, we were about to go home,” she said icily. She looked and saw he was holding the ancient white lace dress in his hands.
“No no! There is no problem, only the dress and chest are a job lot” Danni, who looked quite amazed, turned to Izzy in disbelief
“What am I supposed to do with that rag? Wear it to the next formal hall, I don’t think so!”
“We would be glad to take the dress sir, thank you very much” Izzy said with such force she even surprised herself. She hadn’t realised how much she had wanted that dress until she had left the building. And with that she took the dress off the man and started to climb into the cab. With a surprised look in her direction, Danni signalled to the man that she thought her friend had lost it the man nodded in agreement and smiled wryly.
Once they were installed in the cab, the chest safely in the boot Danni turned to Izzy and asked
“Why did you take that dress, you’re not going to wear it are you?”
“I liked it”
“You’re odd Iz”
“So?”
“But we didn’t need it”
“Maybe I did”
“But you didn’t”
“How do you know?”
“Well, I, umm, did you?”
“Yes”
“What for?”
“A textiles project, Restore or customize an item of clothing”
“Cool! So that’s why you took it”
“Gosh your quick”
The girls laughed and in no time at all the taxi had battled through the London traffic and they were at Danni’s flat. They climbed out and Danni said,
“If you don’t mind, can I take a rain check on dinner tonight, I’ll be exhausted once I’ve dragged this thing up the stairs” nodding her head towards the chest on the pavement. “And then I have to start my sketches”.
“No problem, see you tomorrow then?”
“Sure, 9 o’clock outside the library?”
“You bet! Bye!
“See ya!”
Izzy put her hand in her pocket to find some cash to pay for the taxi, then decided that she might as well take it all the way to her flat.
“Ladbroke Grove please” she said to the bored looking taxi driver at the wheel, and sat back in her seat.
When they had reached her flat, Izzy paid the driver and wandered up the stairs to her front door. The stupid lock stuck again, but she managed to get it open eventually, adding ‘get new lock’ to her mental list of things to do. She chucked the dress onto her futon and went to see her rats. After playing with them for a while she put them away and looked at the dress again. She picked it up, fingering the roughness of the lace on the neckline, in contrast with the smoothness of the satin bodice. Without even really registering what she was doing, she took off her jeans and hoodie and tried on the dress. It fitted perfectly, almost spookily so, but she didn’t want to look into the mirror, she hated seeing herself look all girly. She fiddled with the ring in her lip, and the one in her nose and took them both out. She removed all her earrings too, and pulled the black scrunchie that was holding back her shock of red hair. She brushed her hair through, and rubbed off her black lipstick and eye make up with a tissue. Izzy took a deep breath, and walked into her bedroom; not nearly prepared enough for what she was about too see in the mirror.
It was her, but not the usually image she presented to the world, a timeless reflection stared back at her, motionless, frozen in time. Suddenly the reflection swirled and morphed, and slowly refocused. A different image appeared, the face hauntingly similar to her own. The girl’s hair was hidden in the Tudor headdress and the bodice of the dress was partially hidden by heavy jewellery, strings of pearls and a large cross. In the girl’s gloved hand was a single white rose its long stem thorn-less and bare. Abruptly, voices began to fill the room, and though Izzy was almost passing out from shock, she heard the word Isabella, repeated several times over. She looked at the mirror again and saw the reflection turn round and answer the voice.
“Yes mother? I am sorry; I was just looking at the dress. It’s beautiful isn’t it?”
The woman that Izzy couldn’t see spoke again, but she didn’t register what it said, she had eyes only for the girl in the dress. The girl spoke again. But this time much quieter, and Izzy had a feeling that she didn’t want anyone to hear what she was saying.
“If only I could wear it some other time, not in these circumstances”, and the girl turned away from the mirror and moved slowly away.
Izzy looked away from the mirror and tried to replay the last five minutes in her head. From what she understood, there was a girl called Isabella, who didn’t look much older than 15, wearing the same dress that she had on now, except it looked brand new. Isabella was not very happy, but she obviously didn’t want anyone else to know it. Also, it seemed that Isabella lived in the 16th century. Izzy looked back at the mirror and gave a cry of surprise, the mirror now looked into a very extravagant but old-fashioned bedroom. A girl was sat on the bed, crying, and Izzy recognised her as Isabella. Without realising, Izzy made a sympathetic noise, and the girl looked up.
“Hello? Is anybody there? Who made that noise?” Isabella looked scared.
Izzy debated whether to say anything, and after about a minute replied with,
“Hello? Isabella? My name is Izzy. If you look into your mirror you might be able to see me.”
Isabella looked startled, and looked like she was about to call for help, but she remained silent. She moved toward the mirror warily, and peered into it.
“All I see is my reflection…wait! The mirror is…oh! Hello there! Who are you?”
Isabella looked at Izzy with a mixture between interest and fear.
“I’m Izzy, and I take it you’re Isabella?”
“Yes, Isabella Victoria Pattern, but my friends call me Bella.”
“This is weird, this is very weird, my name is Isabella Victoria Pattern too, but my friends call me Izzy.”
“So what is going on? How am I speaking to you? And why are you wearing my dress?”
“Well, I bought this at an auction earlier today, and I just tried it on to see what it looked like, I'm going to restore it for an art project at university. That’s all! Why were you crying?”
“I'm supposed to be getting married on Friday, but I have never even met the man. I am only 15 and he is 25, he is the Spanish ambassador to Scotland, my father wants me to marry him to improve the international ties between England, France and Scotland. His name Juan Cadis. I have seen a portrait of him and I must admit he looks very handsome but I'm just scared. What if he doesn’t like me? What if we do not get along? I always knew that I would not be able to marry for love, but Juan is 10 years older than me. He wrote me a letter about a week ago but that is the only correspondence we have ever had. There is no way I can get out of it; this marriage could stop a war between England and Spain. I'm so scared.”
Izzy was silent for a minute as she took in this information, and she felt such a strong surge of emotions towards this girl that she almost cried. This girl was only four years younger than her, and Izzy couldn’t even begin to think about being married. How could Bella’s parents even consider marrying her off at such a young age? It was unimaginable.
“Well, I suppose if there is no way out of it you must marry him. Maybe it will be ok. You said he is good looking. Maybe it will all turn out ok”
“I suppose I must be optimistic. I have no other choice.”
“I have just had the best idea, but…I don’t know if it will work, it might just, Bella, do you have a brother?”
“Yes, he is 23, he has got married already and lives in Norwich, he will be Earl of Norfolk when the current Earl dies.”
“Just as I thought. Bella, just recently I did a lot of research into my family history and my great great great great uncle was the earl of Norfolk. He was called Philip Pattern. Is that your brother?”
“Yes! How did you know?”
“I like history, and researching! So this means you are my great great great great auntie! I have an idea, what I am going to do is research into your life; I will look into all the books and see if you had a happy marriage! Then you will know!”
“That’s a great idea, so if we were happy then I will be ok and if we were not then we can work out a plan for me to escape!”
“That’s right, so you meet me back here tomorrow at 5 o’clock and I will tell you what I find out”
“Ok, and thanks Izzy, I really appreciate this.”
“No problem, any time! See you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow” Bella confirmed, and she walked away from the mirror.
Izzy sat down on her bed, trying hard to take in what had just happened. Then, still in the white dress, she lay back and fell asleep.
The next morning Izzy was up earlier
