Afternoon Tea with Clemance

Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.

 

Today however, we have travelled a short distance west from Cavendish Mews, skirting Hyde Park, around Hyde Park Corner, through Knightsbridge past the Brompton Road and Harrods with its ornate terracotta façade, past the great round Roman amphitheatre inspired Royal Albert Hall that was built in honour of Queen Victoria’s late husband prince Albert in 1861, past Kensington Palace, to Holland Park. It is here, in a cream painted stucco three storey Nineteenth Century townhouse with a wrought and cast iron glazed canopy over the steps and front door, flanked by two storey canted bay windows to each side with Corinthian pilasters, that we find ourselves. Lettice and her mother, Lady Sadie, have come to the elegant and gracious home of her widowed future sister-in-law, Clementine (known preferably now by the more cosmopolitan Clemance) Pontefract.

 

Lettice is engaged to Clemance’s elder brother, Sir John Nettleford Hughes. Old enough to be her father, wealthy Sir John, according to London society gossip enjoys dalliances with a string of pretty chorus girls of Lettice’s age and younger. As an eligible man in a aftermath of the Great War when such men are a rare commodity, with a vast family estate in Bedfordshire, houses in Mayfair, Belgravia and Pimlico and Fontengil Park in Wiltshire, quite close to the Glynes estate belonging to her parents, Lettice’s mother, Lady Sadie, invited him as a potential suitor to her 1922 Hunt Ball, which she used as a marriage market for Lettice. Although she did not become engaged to him then, Lettice did reacquaint herself with Sir John at an amusing Friday to Monday long weekend party held by mutual friends Sir John and Lady Gladys Caxton at their Scottish country estate in 1924. To her surprise, Lettice found Sir John’s company rather enjoyable. She then ran into him again later that year at the Portland Gallery’s autumn show in Soho, where she found him yet again to be a pleasant and attentive companion for much of the evening. Sir John also made a proposition to her that night: he offered her his hand in marriage should she ever need it. More like a business arrangement than a marriage proposal, Sir John offered Lettice the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of his large fortune, be chatelain of all his estates and continue to have her interior design business, under the conditions that she agree to provide him with an heir, and that he be allowed to discreetly carry on his affairs in spite of their marriage vows. He even suggested that Lettice might be afforded the opportunity to have her own extra marital liaisons if she were discreet about them. When Lettice’s understanding with Selwyn Spencely, son of the Duke of Walmsford, fell apart, Lettice agreed to Sir John’s proposal.

 

Now, some seven months on, plans are starting to be laid for the wedding, albeit at a somewhat glacial pace. On an earlier visit to Clemance, when Lettice and Sir John were taking tea with his younger sister, Lettice suggested that Clemance might help her choose her trousseau*. Thinking that Lady Sadie’s ideas will doubtless be somewhat old fashioned and conservative when it comes to commissioning evening dresses and her wedding frock, Lettice wants to engage Clemance’s smart and fashion conscious eye and eager willingness to please Lettice as her future sister-in-law to help her pick the trousseau she really wants. Knowing that the subject would be difficult to discuss with her mother, with whom she has a somewhat fraught relationship, she decided to approach Lady Sadie face-to-face. Unsurprisingly, Lady Sadie did not take kindly to the suggestion, any more than she did the idea that Lord Bruton’s son, Gerald, Lettice’s oldest childhood chum and best friend, who designs gowns from a shop in Grosvenor Street, making Lettice’s wedding frock. In the end, Lady Sadie wouldn’t countenance the idea of Gerald making Lettice’s gown, since she felt it would be embarrassing for her youngest daughter to appear in a frock made by the son of her family friend and neighbours, Lord and Lady Bruton, as well as have Gerald as a guest at the wedding. Appealing to her father, Viscount Wrexham, to help her, being his favourite child, Lettice disclosed a secret shared with her by Sir John about his sister, indicating why she has taken such a keen interest in being involved in Lettice’s wedding plans. Clemance had a daughter born the same year as Lettice, that she and her husband lost to diphtheria when the child was twelve. Upon hearing this revelation, the Viscount agreed to talk to Lady Sadie and try and sway her to allow Clemance to be involved in the acquiring of Lettice’s trousseau, a task that is usually the preserve of the bride and her mother, but made no promises. In the end, Lady Sadie acquiesced, albeit begrudgingly, and only under the proviso that she should meet Clemance and vet her suitability for herself.

 

So Clemance has arranged a sumptuous afternoon tea for Lettice and Lady Sadie at her elegant Holland Park home. Clemance’s drawing room is elegantly appointed with the comfortable Edwardian clutter of her continual and conspicuous acquisition, not dissimilar to the décor of Lady Sadie’s preserve, the morning room at Glynes, the grand Georgian family seat of the Chetwynds in Wiltshire. Being of a similar age to Lady Sadie, Clemance’s conspicuous collecting is the hallmark of a lady of her age and social standing. Clusters of floral chintz chairs and sofas are placed around the room in small conversational clutches, whilst elegant French antiques, collected by her and her late husband Harrison during their years living in France, stand around the walls. The room is papered in pale pink Georgian style wallpaper and hung with Eighteenth Century pastoral scenes in gilded frames, whilst the floor is parquet. The room smells of freshly arranged hothouse flowers, and Josette, Clemance’s beloved canary twitters in her cage on the pillar table next to Clemance’s chair.

 

Clemance fusses of Josette and takes some seeds from a small silver container and deposits some into the bottom of Josette’s cage, tutting at her, whilst Lettice, sitting on the long and low chaise lounge, leans forward and tops up her mother’s teacup with some fresh tea.

 

“Thank you, Lettice my dear.” Lady Sadie says a little stiffly.

 

Mother and daughter have had an uncomfortable morning visiting Reville and Rossiter, the Court dressmaker in Hanover Square where once again they have differed over Lettice’s flair and love of the new and exciting modern styles from Paris, which is at odds with Lady Sadie’s more conservative and old-fashioned sensibilities, which are more pre-war in style.

 

Lady Sadie tuts quietly, shaking her head as she watches Clemance fussing over Josette, drawing the hostess’ attention to Lady Sadie’s quiet admonishment.

 

“You don’t approve of birds in cages then, I take it, Lady Chetwynd.” Clemance asks, turning her attention away from her beloved bird and back to her guests. “Thank you, dear.” she says as she accepts her filled cup of tea from Lettice, who smiles politely as she does.

 

“I’m afraid I don’t, Mrs. Pontefract.” Lady Sadie admits. “I’m a country girl at heart, and I believe all birds should be out in nature, flitting across the fields and making nests in the hedgerows.”

 

“I doubt you will find any fields, or hedgerows, within a mile of here, Lady Chetwynd.” Clemance opines.

 

“No, but there are large parks not far from here at all.” Lady Sadie replies. “Please pardon me for saying this and being so frank, Mrs. Pontefract, but I think having birds in cages is cruel.”

 

“Mamma!” Lettice gasps, pausing mid pour into her own teacup. “Josette is very precious to Clemance. And once Josette is a bit more settled here in Holland Park, she intends to let Josette out of her cage and fly around freely about the room, like she did with her in her apartment in Paris. Aren’t you, Clemance?”

 

“I am.” Clemance confirms. “However your mother is entitled to opinion, Lettice my dear, just as I am entitled to mine and you to yours. I can see your point of view, Lady Chetwynd.”

 

“Thank you, Mrs. Pontefract.” Lady Sadie replies gratefully. Turning to her daughter she adds, staring at her sharply, “You see Lettice. I’m not always wrong.”

 

Lettice doesn’t reply, but resumes pouring herself some fresh tea and then takes a slice of chocolate sponge lavished with cream and fresh strawberries from the platter on the central low coffee table.

 

“You don’t live in Belgravia, with your brother, Mrs. Pontefract?” lady Sadie goes on, steering the conversation to a more neutral and safer topic.

 

“You know, since we are to be family soon, you must call me Clemance.” Clemance says kindly, looking over at Lady Sadie and smiling broadly.

 

“Well,” Lady Sadie’s face crumples up with discomfort at the familiarity.

 

“And may I call you Sadie?” Clemance seeks permission. “You calling me Mrs. Pontefract and me calling you Lady Chetwynd, well, it really is too formal for family, don’t you think?”

 

Lady Sadie swallows the lump in her throat somewhat awkwardly. “Very well, Mrs. Pon… Clemance.” she manages in a strangulated tone.

 

“Good.” Clemance says, nodding her approval, making her pearl drop earrings dangling from her lobes jiggle about. “ Well now that that’s settled, going back to your question, Sadie, I’ve lived abroad, apart from my brother for too many years now to live under the same room as him, even in his spacious Belgravia townhouse. I’m too independent. Besides, he has his own life, and will forge one with Lettice soon,” She nods in Lettice’s direction and smiles at the girl warmly, so she doesn’t notice Lady Sadie shudder at the mention of the forthcoming nuptials*** between Sir John and Lettice. “I would only get under foot.”

 

“Nonsense, Clemance!” Lettice insists. “How could you ever get under anyone’s feet.”

 

“Oh that’s kind of you dear.” She reaches out her older, wrinkled hand and squeezes Lettice’s dainty youthful one in it comfortingly. “But you know it’s true. There is no place for an old widow like me in a newlywed’s nest.” Returni g her attentions to Lady Sadie, Clemance goes on, “Besides, I prefer Holland Park, even if it is not so salubrious a neighbourhood as Belgravia. I find as I grow older, I want less to do with the London social round. It’s much more for the young, like Lettice here: all those balls, Cowes, the Henly Regatta and the like.”

 

“I feel the same Mrs. err… Clemance.” Lady Sadie replies. “I find I rarely come up to London anymore.”

 

“But you have a townhouse in Fitzroy Square****, do you not, Sadie?”

 

“Yes, a few doors down from my cousin Gwendolyn, the Duchess of Whitby.” Clemance nods in acknowledgement of Lady Sadie’s well-known and social cousin. “But I seldom use it. It requires opening it up, and then there is the question of finding good help in London. I can bring my lady’s maid, Ward, from Glynes, as I have done for this trip, but I can’t deplete the house completely of servants, so I get by with the basic assistance of the caretaker and his wife. If the Viscount and I have to come up for a longer period, I bring up a small coterie of staff from Wiltshire and then use a domestic agency to plug any gaps, but that requires so much time and effort. When my husband and I were younger, oh!” She chortles as she remembers her early married life with Cosmo. “We used to use Fitzroy Square all the time. It was a house bedazzled by gay parties and balls as we participated in the London social round. However, the lustre of the place has gone now. I much prefer the country. There is a sense of permanence and peace I get at Glynes that I don’t here. London is always changing now, and at such a rapid pace! One day a house I remember as always being there is gone, and the next it has been replaced by one of those blocks of mansion flats***** such as Lettice and her fashionable friends live in nowadays. The old traditions are gone here, but may still be found in the country. No, we haven’t really used it very much since the war, except for Lettice’s coming out in that first Season after the war and the Spanish Influenza in 1920 when things really recommenced, of course.”

 

“Of course.” Clemance acknowledges, sipping her tea.

 

“I also happen to think that something has changed in me, with the war. I never felt comfortable in London again. Perhaps it was those zeppelin raids******, which upset my nerves terribly. Even to this day, I still can’t help but look up at the sky when I’m here in London and I hear an aeroplane.” She holds out one of her hands to show it quivering slightly even at the thought. “And London is a young people’s city. What is it the papers call the young people now?”

 

“The Bright Young People or Bright Young Things, I think Sadie.”

 

“That’s it! The Bright Young Things, of course!” Lady Sadie claps her hands. “How clever of you… Clemance. Well, London is theirs now, not ours, or perhaps I should say mine, since you seem quite at home here. For me, London is busier, more frenetic, faster paced: not like the London of hansom cabs and strolls through parks like Cosmo and I enjoyed in our youth. There’s no room for an old woman like me.” She laughs. “Do you know, on the way here today in a taxi, Lettice and I saw a double decker London red motorbus with an enclosed top*******? I remember when such conveyances were single storey and drawn by horses!”

 

“As do I, Sadie.” Clemence confirms with a nod. “As do I.”

 

“But of course you have been living abroad for some years now, Clemance, so London would be very different for you anyway. You were Paris I believe? That’s what Lettice told me.”

 

“Yes for the most part of the last two decades, except during the war years, when my husband and I lived in Switzerland.”

 

“And I believe your husband died, not all that long ago, Clemance. My condolences.”

 

“Thank you, Sadie. That’s why I returned to London after all this time, so I could be closer to my brother, although,” Clemance adds as an afterthought. “Not living out of his pocket as it were.”

 

Clemance glances down at her coffee table. “Lettice,” she asks her future sister-in-law.

 

“Hhhmmm?” Lettice replies.

 

“Would you run upstairs to my dressing room. I think I left some magazines of the latest wedding fashions from Paris that I wanted to show you and your mother whilst you are here. You should find a few of copies of ********Le Petit Écho de la Mode. My dressing room is the first door on the left.”

 

“Of course, Clemance.” Lettice says, picking herself up out of the comfortable corner of Clemance’s pillow and bolster covered floral chaise. She turns and walks from the room.

 

“Good!” Clemance says with a relieved sigh as she listens to Lettice’s footfalls fading on the staircase in the hallway outside the door. “Now that we’re alone, Sadie, I really think that I should explain.”

 

“Explain… Clemance?” Lady Sadie queries with a slight twist of her head and an arched eyebrow.

 

“Yes, explain why I’ve come blundering into the middle of your wedding plans like an elephant with a broken toe. I know that the bride’s trousseau and various other tasks are the preserve, the duty, of the bride’s mother.” Clemance looks across at Lady Sadie with some embarrassment. “I didn’t want to do it. I think they were just being kind.”

 

“They?”

 

“My brother and your daughter. You see it was Lettice who approached me about being involved in the picking out of her trousseau, not the other way around. I expressed my reservations of course, from the very beginning. I thought it might cause ructions if I participated. I was thinking of your feelings.”

 

“Oh, not at all, Clemance.” Lady Sadie replies with a dismissive wave of her bejewelled hand. “That’s very kind of you. Please, don’t mention it. I’ll be glad of your assistance, since I don’t much enjoy coming up to London these days. Besides, if you have copies of the latest editions of Le Petit Écho de la Mode, you must have your pulse on the current trends, unlike tweedy old county me.”

 

“It’s very kind of you to lie, Sadie, but I know that my presence must have come as something of a shock.”

 

“Well, I won’t deny that.” Lady Sadie admits.

 

“I did try to dissuade Lettice of the idea initially,” Clemance says in an embarrassed fashion, turning her head away from Lady Sadie and fussing and cooing over Josette. “But Nettie…”

 

“Nettie?”

 

“Oh sorry!” Clemance replies, turning back, growing red in the face as she becomes flustered. “Nettie is my pet name for my brother. John… John was rather insistent that I should have a certain level of involvement in Lettice’s side of the wedding plans, so that I wouldn’t miss out, you see.”

 

“Miss out, Mrs… err… Clemance? No, sorry. I don’t see.”

 

“As I intimated before, after my husband died suddenly, I decided to return here to London so I could be closer to John. He’s the only family I have left now. However, without a husband, and with no real friends here, I’ve been at rather a loose end ever since I arrived, and I’m too apt to brood.”

 

“Brood? About what?”

 

Clemance doesn’t answer straight away, but looks down into her lap where she twists her diamond ring decorated hands in a rather distracted way.

 

“You see, I… I had a daughter too, once.” she finally admits. “Oh and please don’t tell Lettice!” She looks at Lady Sadie imploringly. “I don’t want to upset her before the wedding, but being family she will find out at some stage anyway, whether it be from me of Nettie.”

 

“Very well. I won’t.” Lady Sadie assures her, lying and keeping a straight face so as not to betray the fact that Lettice is well aware of Clemance’s dead daughter from a confidence placed in her by Sir John, and has confided this secret with both the Viscount and Lady Sadie herself. “Please, go on, Clemance.”

 

Clemance’s breathing becomes more laboured as she tries to maintain her composure. “Elise was Harrison’s and my only child. Sadly, although we had been trying for some years before she was born, and again after, we were never blessed with more children. In truth, I think at my age, by the time Harrison and I finally married, I was probably moving beyond my real childbearing years, so we were lucky to have Elise at all. You may have noticed a portrait of me with a little girl in the hallway when you first arrived.”

 

“Yes,” Lady Sadie admits. “It’s very lovely.”

 

“Well that is… or rather was… Elise.” Clemance gulps. “She… she died you see, of diphtheria, when she was ten. There was nothing we could do, even with the very best medical care we could provide. She just couldn’t breathe, and in the end,” Tears well in Clemance’s eyes and she withdraws a lace handkerchief from the pocket of her pale pink silk cardigan, bringing it up to her nose daintily. “Her little heart just gave out.”

 

“Oh please, Clemance,” Lady Sadie says kindly, her own voice strangulated with emotion. “Don’t go on.” She holds up her hand. “Recalling it must be so painful for you.”

 

“I have to, Sadie. It’s a part of me, and…” Clemance sobs. “And I have to tell you now… whilst I have the strength to do so.”

 

Lady Sadie nods shallowly as she withdraws her own lace handkerchief from her beaded and crocheted reticule and dabs her eyes which well with her own tears for Clemance and for herself, having lost two of her own children to stillbirths.

 

“You see, Elise would have been around Lettice’s age,” Clemance releases a shuddering sigh. “And I think that… out of a sense of loyalty to me, and in an attempt to be kind, John pressured Lettice into asking me to be involved, so that I wouldn’t miss out on having a chance to help a young lady choose the wardrobe for her married life.” She sobs again and dabs her eyes quickly with her handkerchief.

 

“I understand.” Lady Sadie replies softly. “I lost two of my own children, one after my eldest son was born, and one before my youngest son was born: a boy and a girl.”

 

“So you know what it is like to lose a child.” Clemance breathes in relief.

 

“I do, but I was blessed with four healthy children who survived and grew into adulthood, which goes some way to assuaging the loss of my two lost babbies.”

 

Clemance sniffs. “In some ways, I rather wish John hadn’t been the sweet and kind brother that he is to me, forcing me blundering into your plans. It’s unfair for me to be foisted upon you.”

 

“You aren’t being foisted upon me, Mrs… Clemance.”

 

“It’s alright. I understand. I know am an imposition. Yet…” She shudders with heartache. “Yet… it’s the most wonderful opportunity for me to experience something… well never thought I would after Elise… died.”

 

“However?” Lady Sadie asks the unspoken question to get Clemance to finish her thought.

 

“However, I know it’s all smoke and mirrors.” Clemance blinks through tears that run in silent rivulets down her cheeks. “Lettice is not my daughter. She’s my future sister-in-law.” Clemance sniffs, dabs at her eyes again and sits up more stiffly in her armchair. “Anyway, I just thought I should explain myself to you, whilst Lettice is not here.” She sniffs and breathes deeply. “You… you don’t have to involve me in your shopping expeditions with your daughter, Sadie. I know it’s a special time for the two of you. I would never want to intrude.”

 

Lady Sadie does not answer immediately, and takes a moment to compose herself. She looks at Clemance and considers her. “You aren’t intruding, Clemance. Of course you must be involved.”

 

“Really, Sadie?”

 

Lady Sadie nods shallowly. “You’ve been living in the fashion capital of the world up until recently. I’d welcome your opinion on the latest fashions, so we must organise some shopping expeditions down Motcomb Street********* for the three of us.”

 

“Oh thank you, Sadie.” Clemance exclaims, clasping her hands together in delight, smiling brightly through her tears. “I’m so grateful. Of course I will demur to any final decisions you make.”

 

“Naturally.” Lady Sadie agrees with a curt nod.

 

“Although I do have one suggestion, if you will be so good as to indulge me, Sadie.”

 

Lady Sadie looks warily at Clemance, unsure if she wants to hear what is coming next.

 

“I know you are rather wedded… err… no pun intended,” Clemance begins awkwardly. “To Madame Handley-Seymour********** and a few other of the more… traditional Court dressmakers for Lettice’s wedding frock.”

 

“No final decisions have been made… yet.” Lady Sadie replies guardedly. “Lettice and I are still… exploring.”

 

“Oh that’s a relief, Sadie.” Clemance sighs. “You see, I really do think you should let Lettice have her way with it, and allow Gerald Bruton to design it. He really is quite brilliant you know.”

 

“Are you suggesting that my choice in Madame Handley-Seymour, the dressmaker chosen by the Duchess of York*********** for her wedding dress, a couturier approved by Queen Mary herself, is unsuitable to make my daughter’s wedding dress?”

 

“No… no of course not, Sadie!” Clemance quickly defends herself. “It’s just that Lettice has her heart so set on it, and she is quite right, he’s been making her beautiful frocks for the last few years now, and he does know her figure intimately.” As soon as she utters the word, Clemance knows she has miss-stepped. “That is to say… err… I mean…”

 

“Yes, well!” quips Lady Sadie curtly, cutting Clemance off abruptly, her eyebrows arching over her sapphire chip sparkling eyes. “I already have my concerns about that. It seems most inappropriate that Gerald should be so familiar with Lettice’s figure.”

 

“Gerald?” Clemance chuckles deeply. “Surely you jest, Sadie!”

 

“They aren’t three years old any more, sharing a tub in front of the nursery fire. With Nanny” retorts Lady Sadie crisply, her mouth crumpling in disapproval.

 

“But Gerald’s harmless! It’s just business to him: fact and figures on a page. Surely you know that, Sadie?”

 

“Harrumph!” Lady Sadie snorts haughtily. “It’s the figure I worry about: Lettice’s I mean, not to mention her reputation. Being seen by him in her undergarments! It’s shameful! There is such a thing as propriety,” She pauses. “Even though I know with social mores being what they are in this modern age, it is out of style with these Bright Young People who lack any morals.”

 

“Dear Gerald is really quite harmless, dear Sadie!” Clemance assures her with a gentle smile. “Besides, Lettice tells me that your own wedding dress was made by Charles Frederick Worth************.”

 

“Mr. Worth was far older than Gerald is when I was fitted for my wedding day, Clemance, and he was married with a family, unlike Gerald who is still conspicuously single in this day and age when marriageable young men are few and far between.”

 

“You’ve never suspected that there is a reason for that, Sadie?” Clemance says, her voice heavy with implication.

 

“Oh, don’t you worry, Clemance. It’s never escaped my attention how much of a torch Gerald Bruton holds************* for my youngest daughter. Don’t think it hasn’t gone unnoticed that he and Lettice are within one another’s pockets up here in London whilst I and my husband Gerald’s parents are nicely tucked out of the way in quiet old Wiltshire. I have eyes! I can see! I see them together, smiling, in the social pages, as I read about the latest shenanigans that they have gotten up to with their young friends over my breakfast tray**************.”

 

“Oh dear!” Clemance gasps.

 

“Oh dear, what?”

 

“You really have no idea about Gerald, do you, Sadie?”

 

“Gerald Bruton is a churlish young man who is bitter, and he is a bad influence on my youngest daughter. He said the most unspeakable things to me when he was tight*************** on my husband’s best French champagne at the Hunt Ball I threw for Lettice in 1922.”

 

“What on earth could dear Gerald say that would upset you so, Sadie? He’s sun an inoffensive and gentlemanly young man.”

 

“You may think so, Clemance, but I know otherwise!” Lady Sadie beats her chest. “He told me that I was a silly old woman, meddling in my own daughter’s affairs of the heart. All I did was guide Selwyn Spencely and Lettice together. Is it wrong that I should want the best for my daughter?”

 

Clemance suddenly feels a visceral need to leap to her brother’s defence, the emotion overriding her feeling of self pity over the loss of Elise, pushing it momentarily from her mind as she sees red. “And so she is, Sadie!” Clemance spits angrily. “My brother is far superior to Selwyn Spencely, whom, from what I can gather, is completely under his harridan of mother’s thumb, has no backbone and no moral conscience. In short, he is a cad! John is superior to him in every way. And the Nettleford-Hughes fortune far exceeds that of the Dukes of Walmsford.”

 

“Oh!” Lady Sadie gasps. “Oh, I’m sorry, Clemance. I didn’t mean to sound like I was disparaging your brother. Honestly, I’m not!” For once she speaks the truth about her immediate attitude to Sir John as she vents her frustrations over the correct prediction Gerald made that Lettice and Selwyn’s romantic interlude would come to naught because Lady Zinnia had other plans for her son’s marriage. “I apologise for any offence I may have caused you.”

 

“I accept your apology, Sadie.” Clemance says, albeit a little icily.

 

“I’m merely trying to point out why I don’t approve of Gerald.”

 

“Well, if you don’t mind me saying so, Sadie – even if you do – I’ve never heard such a lot of poppycock. Throw me into Gerald’s camp for being so forthright and speaking my mind, but you have nothing to be concerned about when it comes to your daughter’s reputation as far as Gerald is concerned, and I think it is most unfair that you refuse to consider such a brilliant young designer whom Lettice wants, to design her wedding dress because you have a petty grudge towards something he said to you under the influence three years ago.”

 

“It was very hurtful to me.” Sadie mewls rather lamely.

 

Clemance doesn’t answer, but simply gives Lady Sadie a withering look.

 

“Besides, Gerald is the youngest son of our Wiltshire neighbours, Lord and Lady Bruton, so he shall naturally be in attendance as a guest at the wedding. How do you think that will look socially when we tell people that he designed Lettice’s wedding frock?”

 

“I think that is a poor excuse, Sadie.” Clemance says frankly. “In fact, I don’t think it is an excuse at all. This is Lettice’s wedding dress we are speaking of. Surely, she should be able to choose who makes it.”

 

“I was never consulted about my wedding dress. My father was determined that no cost should be spared for my wedding gown. He wanted the best of the best for me, so he and my mother commissioned Worth to make one for me.”

 

“When was that, Sadie?”

 

“April 1882.”

 

“Well, it’s 1925 now. Times have changed, Sadie, and whilst I agree with you, I am tired of all the tumult and change of the Twentieth Century as you are, we must move with the times. Lettice must be allowed to have some say in her wedding dress.”

 

“Well… I…” Lady Sadie blusters.

 

“And,” Clemance interrupts. “Was your wedding dress beautiful, Sadie?”

 

“Oh, it was like a dream come true!” Lady Sadie gushes, her tone wistful and her eyes taking on a dreamy softness as she remembers walking up the aisle to join Cosmo at the altar of the Glynes village Church of England chapel.

 

“Well then, that much hasn’t changed. Lettice wants to get married in the wedding frock of her dreams too. She just happens to have more of an idea about what she wants than you did when you got married. So let her choose it, Sadie. Please! I implore you. It would make her happy. It would make me happy. It would make John happy, and even though you don’t believe it now, it will make you happy too.”

 

Sadie looks up at Clemance, who gazes earnestly across the low coffee table at her. She is torn. On one hand, she wants to put as many impediments in Lettice’s way as she plans her wedding to Sir John, so that Lettice has time to reconsider her rushed engagement. She can already see the shine wearing off the engagement the longer it goes on. Using every pretext to avoid giving in to Lettice’s wishes about a designer for her wedding frock just yet gives more of that time needed to show Lettice the folly of it all. On the other hand, she does not wish for Lettice to walk down the aisle in a frock she does not want to wear, no matter who she marries. Then again, she wants Lettice to marry a man as well suited to her, as good to her, as the Viscount has been. Lady Sadie doesn’t feel that Sir John will be that for Lettice. He's far older than her, is pragmatic rather than loving, and worst of all, he is a known philanderer, although she doubts that Clemance knows the latter of him judging by the way she defends him so quickly and earnestly. Lady Sadie knows that Lettice is aware of the fact that Sir John has liaisons, but that she hasn’t really considered what the consequences of marriage to such a man would be like. All she can see is heartache and pain for her daughter. Her throat suddenly feels dry, and her breathing becomes a little laboured. She reaches out with a shaking hand and picks up her teacup and nearly drains it of tea.

 

“I never said I wouldn’t consider it, Clemance.” she manages to say at length. “I just want Lettice to see a breadth of designers and not be so stubbornly affixed to Gerald making her frock.”

 

“Well do, Sadie.” Clemance says with a smile. “Please do give it serious consideration.”

 

“Clemance!”

 

Lettice’s calls alert both woman to Lettice’s imminent return to the drawing room and both quickly shuffle their lace handkerchiefs out of sight, straighten and smooth down their frocks and pat their hair self-consciously as they hurriedly compose themselves.

 

“Clemance, I couldn’t find them.” Lettice says as she walks back into the room and weaves her way back to Clemance and Lady Sadie around the clusters of occasional tables and salon chairs. “I even found your lady’s maid, but she said she hadn’t seen any magazines in your dressing room either.”

 

“Oh really?” Clemance asks, putting her hand to her temple a little melodramatically. “Well, well perhaps I was mistaken then. Maybe it was the ones I have already given you that I was thinking of. I must have muddled myself up. What a silly old fool I am!”

 

“Oh nonsense, Clemance!” Lettice assures her as she resumes her seat on the low floral chaise opposite her mother and adjunct to Clemance.

 

Lettice glances between the two older women as both of them focus unusually intently on the bottoms of their gilt teacups in their hands. Josette chirps away prettily in her cage oblivious to the atmosphere Lettice senses.

 

“So, what have I missed whilst I’ve been away?” She reaches forward and picks up the teapot and pours fresh tea into her cup. “Have you two been talking about me?”

 

Her mother gives her a withering look. “Contrary to popular belief, mostly of your own making Lettice my dear, the world does not always revolve around you.”

 

“We’ve just been getting to know one another a little better, dear.” Clemance adds, replacing her cup and saucer back onto the table next to Josette’s cage.

 

“And I’ve discovered that Clemance is a very wise woman, and she knows a great deal about fashion, so I have asked her to join us on a few of our little upcoming expeditions as we shop for your trousseau in the months ahead.”

 

“Oh hoorah!” Lettice claps her hands in delight. “Oh Mamma! I’m so pleased! I knew you would get along with Clemance!” She turns her attentions to Clemance and looks at her with hopeful eyes. “Maybe you can convince Mamma that I don’t think Madame Handley-Seymour or Redfern**************** should make my wedding frock.”

 

“We haven’t necessarily ruled anything in, or out, just yet, Lettice.” Lady Sadie says noncommittally.

 

“We shall just have to see, Lettice my dear.” Clemance adds. “Besides, you and Nettie haven’t even set a date yet. Between his schedule and your own, you really should look seriously as to when the big day will be.”

 

Lady Sadie gulps down the last of her tea awkwardly, and silently hopes that Lettice does not look seriously into the matter.

 

*A trousseau refers to the wardrobe and belongings of a bride, including her wedding dress or similar clothing such as day and evening dresses.

 

**Reville and Rossiter were a prestigious British court dressmaking and millinery firm, well-known during the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. The company catered to high society and royalty, making them highly respected in their field. Their work was primarily centred around creating elegant and formal attire for aristocracy, the upper class, and members of the royal family, particularly for events like court appearances, balls, and other ceremonial occasions. Reville and Rossiter were established in London around the late 1800s. The firm specialised in creating bespoke dresses, gowns, and accessories, with a focus on high-quality craftsmanship and luxurious materials. Their expertise was in making highly decorative and stylish outfits, often for women of the British Royal Family or for other prominent individuals of the period.

 

***Nuptials is an alternative word for marriage. The term “nuptials” emphasizes the ceremonial and legal aspects of a marriage, lending a more formal tone to wedding communications and documentation.

 

****Fitzroy Square is a Georgian square in London, England. It is the only one in the central London area known as Fitzrovia. The square is one of the area's main features, this once led to the surrounding district to be known as Fitzroy Square or Fitzroy Town and latterly as Fitzrovia, though the nearby Fitzroy Tavern is thought to have had as much influence on the name as Fitzroy Square.

 

*****A ‘mansion flat’ refers to a luxurious apartment, often found in a large, grand building, particularly in Britain. These flats are characterised by their spaciousness, high ceilings, and often feature ornate design elements, resembling the grand scale of a mansion. As the daughter of a Viscount, it stands to reason that whilst Lettice lives in a flat, rather than a grand house, her flat is spacious and luxurious, implying it is a ‘mansion flat’.

 

******Zeppelin raids on London occurred during the First World War. These raids were part of Germany's strategy to conduct bombing campaigns against Britain. Zeppelins, which were large rigid airships, were used by the German military to carry out long-range bombing missions, primarily targeting civilian areas and infrastructure. The raids began in 1915, and while they didn't cause huge numbers of casualties compared to other forms of warfare, they created widespread panic and disrupted life in London and other parts of Britain. The first Zeppelin raid on London took place on May the 31st, 1915. Over the course of the war, the German airships dropped bombs on various cities, including London, causing deaths, injuries, and significant damage. Whilst the Zeppelins were initially successful in carrying out these attacks, they also had significant vulnerabilities. They were slow, large, and relatively easy targets for British aircraft and anti-aircraft artillery. By 1917, as more advanced aircraft and tactics were developed, the Zeppelins became less effective, and the German military shifted to using other types of bombers, including Gotha biplanes, which were faster and harder to target. Despite their limited military impact, the Zeppelin raids contributed to the sense of vulnerability and fear that civilians in Britain felt during the war, as they were one of the first large-scale aerial bombing campaigns in history.

 

*******The Bright Young Things, or Bright Young People, was a nickname given by the tabloid press to a group of Bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London.

 

*******London first introduced enclosed-top double-decker buses in 1923. These buses were a significant advancement in public transportation compared to the previous open-top double-deckers, which had been in service since the late Nineteenth Century. The new enclosed buses provided better protection from the weather, making travel more comfortable for passengers, especially during the colder months. The AEC (Associated Equipment Company) open-top double-decker buses had been the norm for Londoners prior to the 1920s. However, with the growth of the city's population and increased demand for more reliable, year-round transportation, there was a shift towards enclosed buses, which could be operated more easily in all seasons. The first enclosed double-deckers were typically known as "motor buses" and came with a fully enclosed upper deck. This was also a response to changing design standards and the improvement of motorized vehicles, which by the 1920s were starting to replace horse-drawn buses entirely. This change marked the beginning of the modern London bus network, with these enclosed buses becoming a hallmark of London's public transport system for much of the Twentieth Century.

 

********“Le Petit Écho de la Mode” was launched as a weekly magazine in 1880, with a free model pattern introduced in 1883, by which time it was selling 210,000 copies across France per week. By 1900, when “Le Petit Écho de la Mode” first introduced a colour front page, it had a circulation of over 300,000 per week. Surviving the Second World War, the zenith of the magazine came in 1950, when it had a record circulation of one and half million. After being taken over by their competitor “Femmes d’Aujourd’hui” in 1977, “Le Petit Écho de la Mode” finally ceased publication 104 years after it was first released, in 1984.

 

*********Motcomb Street is a street in the City of Westminster's Belgravia district in London. It is known for its luxury fashion shops, such as Christian Louboutin shoes, Stewart Parvin gowns, and the jeweller Carolina Bucci, and was the location of the original Pantechnicon department store. In 1925 when this story is set, it was home to dozens of Count dressmakers and well known couturiers. The street runs south-west to north-east from Lowndes Street to a junction with Wilton Terrace, Wilton Crescent, and Belgrave Mews North. Kinnerton Street joins it on the north side and Halkin Mews is on the south side.

 

**********Elizabeth Handley-Seymour (1867–1948) was a London-based fashion designer and court-dressmaker operating as Madame Handley-Seymour between 1910 and 1940. She is best known for creating the wedding dress worn by Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the future Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, for her marriage to the Duke of York, the future King George VI, in 1923; and later, Queen Elizabeth's coronation gown in 1937.

 

***********Elizabeth Bowes Lyon went on to become Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions from 1936 to 1952 as the wife of King George VI. Whilst still Duke of York, Prince Albert initially proposed to Elizabeth in 1921, but she turned him down, being "afraid never, never again to be free to think, speak and act as I feel I really ought to" In 1925, when this story was set, she and the Prince were known as the Duke and Duchess of York.

 

************Charles Frederick Worth was an English fashion designer who founded the House of Worth, one of the foremost fashion houses of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. He is considered by many fashion historians to be the father of haute couture. Worth is also credited with revolutionising the business of fashion. Established in Paris in 1858, his fashion salon soon attracted European royalty, and where they led monied society followed. An innovative designer, he adapted 19th-century dress to make it more suited to everyday life, with some changes said to be at the request of his most prestigious client Empress Eugénie. He was the first to replace the fashion dolls with live models in order to promote his garments to clients, and to sew branded labels into his clothing; almost all clients visited his salon for a consultation and fitting – thereby turning the House of Worth into a society meeting point. By the end of his career, his fashion house employed over one thousand two hundred people and its impact on fashion taste was far-reaching.

 

*************The idiom “to carry a torch (for someone)” means to love or to be romantically infatuated with someone, especially when such feelings are not reciprocated. It is often used to characterise a situation in which a romantic relationship has ended, but where one partner still loves the other.

 

**************Before the Second World War, if you were a married Lady, it was customary for you to have your breakfast in bed, because you supposedly don't have to socialise to find a husband. Unmarried women were expected to dine with the men at the breakfast table, especially on the occasion where an unmarried lady was a guest at a house party, as it gave her exposure to the unmarried men in a more relaxed atmosphere and without the need for a chaperone.

 

***************To get tight is an old fashioned term used to describe getting drunk.

 

****************Redfern was a renowned fashion house that operated in both London and Paris during the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. Founded in 1855 on the Isle of Wight by John Redfern, the Redfern company began as a tailor specializing in women’s clothing, particularly yachting attire for upper-class women. It gained prominence for its sporty, elegant tailoring, especially during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Redfern opened branches in London on Bond Street, in Paris, and New York, becoming one of the earliest international haute couture houses. By the 1880s, Redfern was officially designated as Court Dressmaker to Queen Victoria and later to Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary. The brand's prominence faded by the 1930s. While the Paris house closed around 1932, the legacy of Redfern's contributions to modern women's fashion endured in tailoring traditions.

 

This upper-class drawing room may appear real to you, but it is in fact made up of 1:12 miniature pieces from my extensive collection, including items from my old childhood.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableau include:

 

The gilt Art Nouveau tea set on Clemance’s low coffee table, featuring a copy of a Royal Doulton leaves pattern, comes from a larger tea set which has been hand decorated by beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. The very realistic looking chocolate sponge cake topped with creamy icing and strawberries has been made from polymer clay and was made by Karen Ladybug Miniatures in the United Kingdom. The Silver filagree bowl of roses I acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House Shop in the United Kingdom

 

1:12 size miniature hats made to exacting standards of quality and realism such as those seen in this photograph are often far more expensive than real hats are. When you think that each would sit comfortably on the tip of your index finger, yet they could cost in excess of $150.00 or £100.00, they are an extravagance. American artists seem to have the monopoly on this skill and some of the hats that I have seen or acquired over the years are remarkable. The maker of Lady Sadie’s feather plumed and pink rose covered cloche and Lettice’s pink straw flower decorated hat are unknown, but they are part of a larger collection I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel. The two parasols with their lacy furls and beautiful handles are also part of Marilyn Bickel’s former collection.

 

Lettice’s snakeskin handbag lying on the chaise, with its gold clasp and chain comes from Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders Miniature Shop in the United Kingdom.

 

The wicker cage with the bird on its perch I acquired through an online stockist on E-Bay. The wooden pedestal table it stands on is made from beautiful golden walnut and is an unsigned artisan piece that I acquired from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House Shop. The embroidered footstools you can see also came from there.

 

Clemance’s floral chintz sofa and chair are made by J.B.M. miniatures who specialise in well made pieces of miniature furniture made to exacting standards. The floral cushions on it,with their lacy edges and the floral chaise in the foreground came from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House Shop

 

In the background you can see Clemance’s grand piano which I have had since I was about ten years of age. It is made from walnut. The footstool has several sheets of music on it which were made by Ken Blythe. The sofa in the background to the left of the photo is part of a Marie Antionette suite with pretty floral upholstery which has been made by the high-end miniatures manufacturer, Creal. The coffee table in the midground is from the same set, as is the chair to the right of the photo.

 

The gilt swan pedestals in the background are made by the high-end miniature furniture maker, Bespaq. The vases of flowers on them are beautifully made by hand by the Doll House Emporium.

 

Standing on the hand painted set of drawers to the right of the photo stand are two miniature diecast lead Meissen figurines: the Lady with the Canary and the Gentleman with the Butterfly, made by Warwick Miniatures in Ireland, who are well known for the quality and detail applied to their pieces, The pair have been hand painted and gilded by me. The two vases flanking them come from Kathleen Knight’s Dolls’ House Shop, whilst in front of them stand three floral pieces made by miniature ceramicist and artisan, Anne Dalton.

 

All the paintings around Clemance’s drawing room in their gilded frames are 1:12 artisan pieces made by V.H. Miniatures in the United Kingdom, and the wallpaper is an authentic copy of late Victorian paper from the 1880s.

 

The Persian rugs on the floor has been woven by Mackay and Gerrish in Sydney, Australia.

Done