SPOILERS!!!
Saffron is an angel for these two women. Gemma experiences a total change in her life. Everything starts when her unbearable client, Bunty, inveigles Gemma into giving her the address where Saffron is staying by tell her she is her sister. Bunty turns up, and after a tremendous upbraiding from Saffron, she apologises and seems to turn a new leaf. That night Saffron and Bunty goes to the pub for dinner, and Gemma is working there that night. When she serves them, Saffron starts going on and on about what a talented clothes designer and how she designed a dress for Nigella Lawson, but everything is hush-hush. Bunty is instantly eager and tells Gemma to make a dress for the awards ceremony she is going to attend.
The lies that Saffron told Bunty about her career makes Gemma excited and nervous. As Bunty has promised to call her for her measurements, Gemma wonders how she is going to do it when she told Bunty that she had her own studio. This time Caitlin comes to the rescue, and they use Caitlin’s house, which she has cleaned and left spick and span. So Gemma brings her sewing things to Caitlin’s drawing room, and it is there where they receive Bunty, and to Gemma’s surprise the woman commissions her two dresses.
Caitlin helps her to set up her own website and signature. While Caitlin works on the website, Gemma keeps sewing. These hours together favours talking. Caitlin tells her about her crush on Harry and her disappointed, and she also shares her fears and suspicions that her mother might not have been her birth mother. A few days later Caitlin confirms her fears when she finds her birth certificate in which it is stated that her name is not Caitlin but Josephine, and her mother’s name is Alison Wendell. Caitlin also finds her adoption papers. This discovery makes her feel wretched and she starts thinking that her life is a lie. Thankfully, Gemma becomes the voice of reason, and she makes her see that Jane loved her very much, and she must have been scared to tell her the truth. Gemma asks her if she is going to find her birth mother, but even though Caitlin is curious and eager to know, she is not sure she is brave enough.
The dresses Gemma has made for Bunty are a success, and Bunty’s beautiful figure is splashed in all the tabloids. Since there is no mention to Gemma as the designer, Saffron decides to write a press note and send it to the newspaper. Soon Gemma is bombarded with offers and commissions to make dresses for celebrities, and she feels she can’t be happier.
Her happiness is not shared at home. When she announces that she is going to quit working in the pub because the workload she is getting thanks to Saffron, her family’s reaction is lukewarm to say the least. Darcey is happy because Gemma will be home every evening; Will reacts like the typical teenager; and Spencer is still angry and bitter, so what he says is sarcastic and mean-spirited. I can’t understand this. I know that for a man as active as Spencer, his lack of activity must be a terrible ordeal, and he feels emasculated by his wife’s success. But aren’t they a team and shouldn’t he feel happy that thanks to Gemma, they can meet their mortgage payments? How can he be so horrible?
Then things come to a head when days pass, and as Gemma’s workload increases, nobody helps her at home. The day her dad and Judy come visiting, she asks Will to chop some vegetables and Spencer to mow the lawn. Spencer is horrible to her and doesn’t even say anything when Will disrespects her, and then on top of it all, he calls her a fat old hag, and when Gemma confronts him about it, he doesn’t backpedal but reiterates his words. Angry and pained, Gemma tells him that if he thinks she is so fat and old, she should find himself another place to live and another person who sees to his needs. The next thing she knows Spencer has upped and gone, and he doesn’t return home that night. Gemma calls all his friends and the hospitals, but she doesn’t find him, so naturally she is very worried. I don’t understand why he is so horrible to Gemma, who is a lovely woman who wants the best for their family. Why is he so blind? Why can’t he big enough to recognise his wife’s value? It seems that while Gemma was simply a mum and wife, he was happy as if Gemma’s position made him more powerful and manly. Is this man so insecure that money is such a issue now? Does he really love his wife because poor Gemma is even doubting his love?
Saffron returns to London, and in her apartment she has a very weird visit from her sister Eloise, who didn’t take the news of her pregnancy well. Eloise has been trying for years to get pregnant, and she has even had IVF treatment, but her attempts have all failed. Now when Eloise visits Saffron, she brings up the topic of the baby, and she virtually asks her to give her baby to her. Saffron is horrified, shocked, and angry, and like with Bunty, she tells her sister just what is in her mind. Eloise feels remorseful and apologetic at once, and Saffron, who is not one to hold a grudge, is sympathetic. Saffron tells her about her worries about the baby and the amniocentesis test, and Eloise volunteers to go with her to the hospital. One nice gesture, because what we have seen so far shows that Eloise only thinks of herself and her needs. I can understand it is painful not to be able to have a baby you long for so much, but sometimes our obsessions for what we want and can’t have can lead us to selfishness and feeling sorry for oneself, and life is more than our wishes.
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