Chapter Sixteen
Kate was due some time off and when she told Archie, he insisted that she should come to tea and meet his mother.
‘I’ve told her all about you,’ he said. ‘She’d like to meet you. Will you come?’
Kate was taken aback by this sudden invitation. She had thought that they might go somewhere else together, explore a different part of the city. Perhaps even take an omnibus ride if it wasn’t too expensive.
‘Of course, if you think it’s too soon. You know, if you think I’m being too forward, expecting too much,’ he began.
‘No, no, it’s just that . . .’
‘What then?’
She didn’t know how he would take it, but she would say it anyway.
‘Well, I’d hoped we might go somewhere. I’ve not seen anything of London except the inside of Vanburgh House, the shops hereabouts and these gardens,’ Kate replied.
‘All right, but can I tell my mother that you’ll come and meet her soon?’
‘Yes,’ replied Kate, ‘tell her, soon.’
That Sunday, at one o’clock, Archie arrived to escort her for their afternoon out.
She appeared dressed in her best white-starched blouse and dark-grey skirt.
Around her shoulders, she wore a warm shawl in case it got cold later on, hand-crocheted by her mother, and she had polished her one good pair of lace-up shoes.
Mrs Bowden had said that she really couldn’t step out without a hat and had lent Kate her own ‘Sunday best’, with a wide brim and two large blue flowers attached to a blue and green hat band.
Kate felt like a real lady as she approached Archie, who was waiting on the pavement a suitable distance away.
Kate thought he looked quite the gentleman in his clean white shirt, waistcoat and jacket.
‘My but don’t you look a picture.’ He beamed. ‘Now, I hope you’ve worn comfy shoes because we’ve got a bit of a walk ahead of us.’
Kate nodded and smiled to herself. So, they were going on an adventure.
‘We’re about to see one of the—’
‘No, don’t tell me,’ Kate interrupted. ‘I like surprises, the good sort anyway.’
They walked on through the familiar route of Horniman’s Gardens and right by the museum itself. So that wasn’t it! She would like to see inside one day but she wasn’t disappointed, for to be going somewhere entirely new was much more exciting.
On a Sunday afternoon there were many people in the park, families out spending time together, children playing happily, bowling hoops and skipping.
When they passed through the gates at the far end Kate felt a tingling in her fingertips and a buzzing in her head.
Where were they going? Archie took hold of her arm and tucked it through his.
‘Just in case anyone should bump into you or you should step off the pavement in front of one of those motor cars. We couldn’t have that, could we? It would spoil our day,’ he said, winking.
After walking along the edge of another park they reached a high point and an elegant mansion.
‘That’s Westwood House,’ Archie explained. ‘Wouldn’t it be grand to be Head Gardener there? Not long now and we’ll be on the downward slope,’ he said as Kate paused for a rest.
It was just a few minutes later when they entered another parkland and in the distance Kate could see what looked like a glasshouse.
She held her breath for a moment, stood still and stared.
It was so vast that she couldn’t believe a structure of such size could be made almost totally of glass.
All that she could manage to say was, ‘Oh, oh my.’
‘Isn’t it something? I knew you’d like it,’ Archie said squeezing her hand.
‘Oh Archie, I’ve never seen anything quite like it,’ she whispered.’ It’s like a glass church rising up to the sky. To the glory of . . . of . . .’
‘Of God?’
‘No, it’s not like a church at all. I feel as if it was made for worship but not of God. It’s like a monument to the achievements of man, as if whoever made it was seeking to do something that had never been done before.’
‘Well, there’s certainly nothing else like it that I’ve ever seen,’ Archie said. ‘It was Prince Albert’s idea, so I’m told. Though I don’t think he even lifted a pencil to draw it, let alone a shovel to dig the footings.’
They laughed a good deal about the sight of the prince in work boots and an ermine cloak.
There was no doubt about it, Kate enjoyed Archie’s company and for a while, when she was with him, she forgot about Philip.
Archie was a good man, but meeting his mother, well that might give him ideas.
She didn’t feel ready. Kate asked if they could sit for a while, and Archie found them a bench where they could rest and admire the building.
He explained that it was called the Crystal Palace and it was built for the Great Exhibition.
‘Did you go?’ Kate asked.
‘I wasn’t even born, Kate, and neither were you. It was 1851. Even if we had been alive then, that wasn’t for the likes of you and me. Only the richest could afford the entry fee.’
She had so much to learn. There was so much out there in the world to discover.
They strolled around the park for some time until the evening air began to cool and Kate wrapped her shawl more tightly around herself.
They agreed that it was time to leave as the walk back would see the best of the daylight out.
When they reached Westwood Hill again the evening was getting cooler.
Kate was shivering despite the climb and Archie removed his jacket to put around her shoulders.
As he lifted it over her head, he drew her to him and kissed her briefly but sweetly on the lips.
Apart from pecks on the cheek in the playground as a girl, Kate had never been kissed.
She raised her hand and touched her own lips with her fingertips as if to hold the feeling there a little longer.
‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have,’ began Archie. ‘It’s just you’re so lovely,’
Kate did for a moment wish it was Philip who had given her that kiss, but she brushed the thought away, placed one finger over his lips and then returned the kiss.
She could feel a turning in the pit of her stomach like the falling sensation on a swing.
Sometimes just one day could change many things.
Today had been full of surprises, of the good sort, she decided.
She would wait and see what the following days would bring.