CHAPTER 7

March 6

I wrote straight back to Charles, telling him how I had laughed at his chart of possibilities and then I told him of the offer made by his aunt, and how it could solve all our problems if we went along with it. I told him I really did not want to get married early. If we could disguise the pregnancy as she had suggested (I had already cut out my wedding dress with larger than necessary seams, so it seemed a likely case) then we at least would avoid the scandal of having to tell all our friends and family that we were bringing the wedding forward.  What would the rector say?  What would my friends who had hoped to be the bridesmaids say?  What would all of Charles' proper aunts say - and think.  So if he agreed, I said I thought we should pretend the baby didn't exist at all, and carry on as normal, and then when the time came, we could make our decision about whether to take his Aunt up on her offer or not.  There still was the possibility that I might lose the baby between now and May. If we had brought the wedding forward and I lost the baby, then we would have made the whole problem much worse than it need be.

March 8

I received a letter back from Charles, agreeing to my proposals.  I will go and talk to my parents tonight, and get them to understand that I want the wedding to go ahead as planned, as much for their sakes as for my own - and that we will let the future consequences sort themselves out with time.

March 9

My parents have reluctantly agreed to our plans. They feel we are foolhardy to expect fate to take a hand in solving our problems, but they were relieved that we didn't have to alter the date of the wedding, or make our dilemma public knowledge just yet. When and if the baby does come, we will be living in Worcester, and it will be our problem, not theirs. Mother has softened considerably towards me now, and has suggested that I move back home.  She had to use the excuse that I was learning about keeping house from Mrs. Mayfield to keep the other family members' curiosity at bay, but it seems better for me to be back at home if we are going to get succeed with the plan of everything being as normal.

March 15

Things have more or less settled down to our usual routine now.  My parents have stopped scowling at me, and our busy lives continue.  I have settled the dresses with Mary Ann, Sophia and Elizabeth.  They will each be making their own, but I will lend them my paper pattern, so they can all have a similar look about them. My dress will be pale blue.  Mary Ann's dress will be in lavender, Sophia's in pale pink and Elizabeth's in yellow. We will look like a garden of spring flowers.  I hope we can all get similar straw bonnets and use ribbons to match our dresses.

Mother and I have decided the breakfast meal for after the wedding. As Charles is a vegetarian, it is important that I support him in this.  So we will have no bacon or sausage at the meal.  I would like to make some marchpane fruit which will also be an attractive decoration on the tables along with preserved cherries and quinces. Then we can have Cheese Fingers, Pippen Twists, and Deviled Eggs mixed with chopped onion and parsley. Small tartlets - some savoury with broccoli and cheese filling and some sweet with thickened rhubarb would go well and can be made in advance. And everyone likes Macaroons. All these things can all be eaten without needing forks.

I have the receipts from The English Bread Book by Elizabeth Acton. It is such fun to know she is a poet as well as a cook.

We will have ale for the men and wine for the women but also champagne for the toasts. It is good to have Father in the profession he is for being able to provide us with the necessary.

Of course there will be cake. We will have a traditional rich fruit cake, with marchpane and icing for the main cake. We will put tiny pieces into boxes for the guests to take home. The bride's cake is to be white and will be a Victoria sponge. The groom's cake is to be dark and will be a ginger cake (Charles loves ginger.).  Inside the smaller cakes we will put a ring, a thimble, a penny, and a button. Then each of the bridesmaids, the best man and the ushers will each be offered a piece. If their piece contains one of the items mentioned this will be their fate.

The ring for marriage within a year
The penny for real money, my dear
The thimble for an old maid or bachelor born
The button for sweethearts all forlorn

I have stopped feeling ill in the morning and also am far less tired now.  In fact if I didn't have the knowledge of my slightly larger girth, I would suspect that our problem was all of my imagining.  I have followed Mrs. Mayfield's advice and tried to lose weight from my own body by eating less, and it seems to be working. I don't feel as if I have actually become any bigger over all - but just that my body is changing shape slightly. 

March 22nd

We read in the paper that the National Scottish Gallery has just opened in Edinburgh. That is a city that I would love to visit one day.  And another first was the Opera Faust by Charles Gounod which opened last week in Paris. Charles loves the Opera but I prefer more normal plays.

March 25

Easter

Charles has managed to come up for the long weekend. It seems so long since I have seen him in the flesh, and when we parted last time it was not on the most amicable of terms. He looked so surprised and pleased to see me the same shape as before.  I told him how well I was feeling, and how I could see no reason for our subterfuge not to work out as planned.

He has found a house for us to rent, and as I hoped it would be, it is on Rainbow Hill. It is only a small cottage, but adequate for us.  He has described it for me, but I long to see it myself and change it around to make it my own. It will be let furnished, so we need not have that expense to start off.  The accommodation consists of the sitting room which opens directly off the road and must be used for dining as well. Charles says it is reasonably large and has a big fireplace. In it there is a round table which has leaves to make it bigger with four chairs, a davenport for writing letters, a few padded chairs with a matching settee and a sideboard where we can store our china.   In the corner there is a door, which when opened reveals a winding staircase up to the bedrooms. One bedroom is large with a canopied bed, a chest of drawers, and a dresser which contains a wash basin and it will suit us admirably. The other is smaller and will do as a nursery if and when we should be needing one. There is attic space behind this second bedroom which could be converted into sleeping space for a servant if we get one. There is very little furniture in the smaller room, as it has been used for storage by the previous occupants.  The small kitchen is behind the sitting room, with a sink, an adequate stove and cupboards. There is a copper for dealing with the wash.  We are very lucky that we will be living in the better off part of Worcester. Our house has a piped water supply.  There is a small water closet with a soil bucket which will be emptied by men who come around  each night.  There are few houses as yet on Rainbow Hill - but there is a terrace of larger houses not far away - and Charles says that when we are better established we might be able to move into one of those.  The storage tank for the town's water supply was newly built on Rainbow Hill just last year, so that is partly why we are amongst the first to benefit.

April 5

We have had our first thunderstorm of season. Then it came on dull and cold in the evening. We had heavy showers of hail and sleet. This is very unseasonable mixture of weather. I do hope the weather will be fine for our wedding next month.

Mother and I have conferred about the wedding guest list.  We will send out the invitations soon, as our wedding guidebook reckons that six weeks in advance of the ceremony is the proper notice.  It will take most of Sunday for me to write out the addresses and then I can post them on Monday.

I will list them here, and then I can tick them off the list as I have finished addressing them.

First the local relatives:

Grandmother Eagle with Robert and Lil from Pocklington
Grandfather John Walker from Eskrick
Mr. George Walker, Charles' father
Miss Mary Ann Wilson, his cousin who is acting as his father's housekeeper 
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Thackery and Ned (who will be an usher along with my brothers)
Mrs. Mayfield and children 
Mr. and Mrs. Bacon and William 
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Walker and CG (who will be best man)

Other relatives from far away who might not come:

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cox from Liverpool and Charles
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Wilson from Worcester and family
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Walker from Worcester and family
Mr. and Mrs William Clepham from Stockton and family
Mrs and Mrs. Richard Mayfield from Worcester
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Russell from Bromsgrove - they are Inn Keepers too and have the Golden Lion at Bromsgrove
Mr. Bejamin Walker, and his mother, Mrs. Eliza Walker from Hanley Castle in Worcestershire

Charles' special friends:

Mr. and Mrs. E.H. Needham and 2 sons from Worcester (Charles' employer)
Mr. and Mrs. William Barnseley and family from Manchester
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred H. Jones from Worcester
Miss Josephine Smith from Allerton
Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Griffin from Worcester (Charles' current landlord and lady)
Mr. and Mrs. Miles (we won't invite Mary Ann, who Charles wanted to marry at one time, but now she is happily married and doesn't live nearby.)

And our neighbours and colleagues:
Mr. and Mrs. William Bellerby - who will be doing the daguerreotype of the wedding party
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Barrand - who run the green grocers
Mr. and Mrs. John Hanson - the painter
Mrs. Ann Foster - the local shopkeeper
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Spense - the brewer
Mr. and Mrs. George Will - who have offered places for our extra guests at their Inn

That makes 52 adults, plus my family of 5, plus Charles and me is 59 if everyone comes. And there will be at least 20 children of various ages.

We've decided to have Mendelsohn's Wedding March coming out of church. It was what Queen Victoria's oldest daughter Princess Vicky had at her wedding. She officially is Victoria Adelaide Mary Louise and two years ago when she was 17 (as was I) she married Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia. So having the same march for our wedding should put us in the realm of the quality.  For the entrance hymn, Charles likes Handal's Firework Music which is rousing, but I prefer Pachibel's Canon in D which is slow and stately. I expect he will win, as I am getting my way about so many things. We will have two hymns during the service as well which will be My God How Great Thou Art, and Breathe on me Breath of God.  The church's organist will play and the congregation will sing. We have decided against having a soloist.

April 16th

Charles is very excited because he has managed to secure a copy of Charles Dicken's latest book, The Tale of Two Cities, which was published on the 14th. Charles is well known to the book sellers, so they make sure he gets his choice of new books available. I look forward to reading it when he has finished.

But he also writes that Leigh Hunt has died. Charles collected Leigh Hunt's works and bound them back in 1851, and he does feel he is a worthy writer. However, Charles was led to believe that it is possible that Charles Dickens used Leigh Hunt when he was writing the character of Harold Skinpole in Bleak House. I had to reread it when he told me that, to see what sort of man he was and it wasn't really a flattering caricature.