When mother and I arrive home we discover that Catherine has been hard
at work preparing the house and that she has finished the dancing hall, the
lounge room, the library and the men’s smoking room. Mother walks around to
check that everything looks perfect and to make slight changes. Before setting
off to do this, though, she excuses Catherine and I so that we may work out my
hair and Catherine may see my dress.
While walking up to my room I discover that Catherine has also decorated
the stairs leading up to the third level with all our bedrooms and, to my
complete shock, my bedroom. The hall on the third floor has also had the
slightest decoration added to it. I ask her why and her only answer is a coy
smile and subtle wink. This leaves me wondering how innocent my maid really is.
We take out my dress and Catherine helps me to put it on.
“Oh… Why Miss, I don’t fink I have ever seen anyfin’ so beautiful in my
entire life! You look like somefin’ from a dream, comin’ down from heaven to
save me. I have no doubt maam, that you will turn all heads tonight. You are
bound to make even the most opposed and respectable men fall in love with you.”
We giggle at the prospect and then we put the dress into my wardrobe. I
head back downstairs to help mother to decorate the study, leaving Catherine to
think of how we will fashion my hair, to make it match my dress.
An hour later Catherine has come up with a hairstyle that we all agree
looks wonderful, mother and I have finished all the decorating and Catherine
has cooked us some lunch. Mother’s maid and the cook have been away for three
days as Jonathan, the cook, was sick and needed surgery. The doctor, however,
called us yesterday and assured us that he will be all better my midday today
and that he should be home by three in the evening.
This has meant that Catherine has been working harder than ever to
complete separate pieces of three jobs. Jonathan and Linda, mother’s maid, are
due to arrive any minute. The party is to start at six so mother instructs
Catherine to run me a bath and wash my hair. Mother clearly wants me to look my
best tonight and I can’t help but wonder what the special occasion is.
I take my bath and wash my hair. The next half hour is spent with
Catherine trying to dry it. Jonathan and Linda arrive back in this time and
mother starts organising the dinner menu for tonight. By the time my hair is
dry there is only an hour and a half until the party starts. Father is home and
working on some documents, Jonathan is slow roasting the lamb that we are going
to have tonight, and Linda is helping mother to get ready.
Catherine gets me into my dress and starts on my hair. It takes her
around half an hour to get it to perfection and it looks lovely. Pins that have
delicate, silver butterflies on the end, hold most of my hair together, flowing
up in a large bun and the remainder is out. My hair is very long and reaches
down to the small of my back. Catherine has arranged it so that most is at the
back but a small amount hangs over my right shoulder.
Catherine claims that I could not look more beautiful if God himself had
dressed me. I smile and tell her that she is being far too kind.
I walk to my jewellery box and take out the earrings that Lewis gave me
for my birthday. They look absolutely marvellous with my dress. Now all that is
needed is a necklace. I find a simple silver chain with a sapphire surrounded
by gold. My father gave this to me on my sixteenth birthday and it matches both
my earrings and my dress.
By the time I am completely ready there is only half an hour remaining
until the guests start to arrive and mother is impatiently waiting at my door
for me to come out. I tell her to get father and wait below the second storey
stairs. She is very unhappy about being made to wait but knows enough to do as
I ask. When she comes back to tell me they are ready I wait a minute for mother
to get back into position and then make my way down the flight of stairs.
My heart skips when I see their faces. My father has always loved me and
told me I was beautiful, being the closest and kindest of my parents. Mother
has always seemed distant, saddened that she did not have a boy. Usually it is
the other way around. But now… now my mother really looks like nothing, not
even a son, could match this moment.
“Darling, You look beautiful! You are an angel! How is it possible that
all this time I have seen my young little daughter, and only now I can see that
she has grown into a beautiful woman? Come here my child! Let your father get a
good look at you.” I am so grateful for my father. He always knows when to be
supportive and what to say. I do not know what I would do without him.
Mother looks at me for a moment, saying nothing but looking. Then she
says, “Elizabeth, I have never been so proud of you. I don’t care if you do not
get an offer of marriage tonight, or for the next month, or even the next year.
You are the most beautiful young woman I have ever seen and if young men cannot
see through the fog that blinds them, and ask you to dance at least, then they
are not worthy of such beauty,”
I walk swiftly to my mother and fold into her arms. I have never felt
like a piece to be treasured in my mother’s collection. Not until now. And the
way my father looks at me, as though if he were to touch me the spell will be
broken and I will turn back into his young, innocent daughter, is worth all the
trouble that Amanda put into making this dress. I will have to make sure that I
give her something special.
***
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