When the clock chimes fifty past five my mother tells me to hurry up to
my room and to stay there until she sends Catherine to get me.
I ask her why and her answer both shocks and delights me. “Elizabeth,
you are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen and I want everyone to know
how precious you are. I want you to enter the room by descending down the
stairs, just as you did for your father, and I want it to happen when everyone
is here.”
And so I wait in my room, playing with paper. Almost every five minutes
I find myself glancing at the clock, wondering how long it will take mother to
come and collect me. The clock reaches six thirty and I start to wonder if this
was all a cruel joke and that mother just did not want the shame of having me
at the party.
Finally, at quarter to seven Catherine comes up to find me. “Why has it
taken so long? What is happening downstairs? Did something go wrong? Has mother
decided that she does not want me to attend the party at all?”
“Maam, nofin’ like that has happened. Your mother has been waitin’ until
every guest arrived. She made me write down all the names of the people who
were going to attend and then check them off once they arrived. Mr Winchester
seemed awful keen to see you. He arrived five minutes early and immediately
asked where you were. Everyone has been waitin’. I don’t fink we should make
them wait any longer.”
We share a smile and Catherine giggles. “I guess I was being a little melodramatic.”
Catherine laughs again.
***
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