‘Elizabeth! This is the most important dress you’ll ever wear in your life. Think about the photographs!’ Then her expression went from horrified to delighted in a blink. ‘Oh, Patsy put us in touch with the photographer she used and he can fit us in. He had a cancellation and Patsy kindly put in a good word. You’ve probably seen his work. He quite often does the portraits of debutantes inCountry Life.’
‘Lovely,’ said Vanessa.
‘But before that, we must arrange a day to go up to choose your dress material. I have something in mind I think will be very suitable. You want something along the lines of what Princess Grace was married in – you know, with the little stand-up collar. Although of course’ – there was disappointment in her voice now – ‘you won’t be able to have that tight waist band which is so attractive, because of your … condition.’
Alexandra sent Lizzie a look of sympathy. ‘Gosh, this has been fun,’ she said, ‘but I’m afraid I think we should go back now. David will worry if we’re late. But we’ll come again. It’s really not that far from London,’ she added. ‘Now that David lets me borrow the car.’
‘You borrow the car from David?’ asked Lizzie’s mother, very confused. ‘I thought he was the butler!’
‘He’s also the chauffeur,’ said Alexandra, not missing a beat. ‘He’s very possessive about the car.’
It seemed to take ages before Hugo and Lizzie had a moment on their own. Lizzie’s mother was full of the visit from the girls, gushing over their loveliness and how surely they would be the perfect bridesmaids if Elizabeth would only hurry up and ask them. But just before dinner, when Tim was bringing her a glass of her favourite sherry, Hugo took Lizzie aside.
‘I’ve arranged to pick you up tomorrow night and take you to meet Harold and see the workshop. Iknow it doesn’t sound terribly exciting but Harold’s longing to meet you,’ he said.
‘I’d love to go! An evening without having to talk too much about the wedding would be perfect.’ said Lizzie. ‘My mother means well, I know she does, but this wedding – my dress in particular – is making me anxious.’
‘Lizzie, just say the word and I’ll whisk you off to Gretna Green. The age of consent is only sixteen up there, I think.’
Lizzie laughed. ‘I might well take you up on that!’
Early evening the following day, she sank into Hugo’s car. ‘I thought Mummy would go on thinking of things she needed me to think about forever. It was clever of you to say that Harold wanted to meet me. She feels it’s very important for a wife to support a husband in his work.’
‘That’s easy as it’s true. I didn’t just make it up.’
‘I’m so delighted to get away, even for a few hours. It’s not that I don’t love being with Patsy and Tim, it’s the wedding. My mother is doing all the work but if I’m not careful, she’ll put me in a wedding dress so I look like Princess Grace of Monaco, and decide what pattern I want on the dinner service. I think I have to do those things myself but I don’t want my mother with me at the time. I can’t see how to escape!’ She laughed, to give theimpression she wasn’t serious about these doubts. Although she was.
‘Poor you. I’m escaping it all by working.’
‘You’re enjoying it?’
‘I think it was what I should have been doing since before I left school,’ he said. ‘My parents will take a long time to get used to it, I’m afraid. The generations of lawyers and judges disapproving from beyond the grave.’
‘But you have to follow your heart.’
‘You do. And I have.’
They travelled in silence for a little bit until Lizzie said, ‘I’m really excited now. How long will it take us to get there?’ She felt giddy with a sense of freedom, being away from her mother and the endless wedding preparations. Particularly the endless, ‘When are you going to London to buy material for your wedding dress?’
‘Not very long. The reason we’re living here is because it’s near to the workshop.’
Lizzie laughed. ‘Of course! But it’s a shame – I’d like to drive off into the sunset – with you at the wheel, of course.’
He laughed but shot her a thoughtful look.
Hugo drove into a lane which led to a pretty double-fronted house. A little way from the house was a barn. He pulled the car up in front of it. ‘Harold said he’d meet us here. Ah, here he is.’
Lizzie hadn’t formed a clear picture of the man who was imparting his craft to Hugo but had she done so, it would have been an old man with rosy cheeks and a brown overall. She wouldn’t quite have added string round his knees but a cloth cap would definitely have featured. She wasn’t expecting a man in a very well-made three-piece suit, highly polished shoes and an elegant silk tie. He had a full head of white hair and bright blue eyes. He was smiling.
‘Harold,’ said Hugo, ‘let me introduce you to Lizzie.’
‘Lizzie,’ he said, taking her hand. ‘Now tell me, do your parents insist on your being called Elizabeth?’ His voice made it clear he came from the same social stratum as Hugo did.
‘They do! How did you guess?’ Lizzie felt instantly at home with this man.
He released her hand. ‘There’s something about you. Now come along in. Let me show you what Hugo and I get up to all day.’ Lizzie happily followed him into the barn.
‘What can I offer you to drink? Too late for sherry? Too early for whisky? What do you think?’
