Chapter 12 #2
Afterwards, as they all streamed out from the church and into the courtyard that looked out onto Piccadilly, she shook her little box of confetti and threw it all over the newlyweds as they emerged.
Tiny tissue horse-shoes fluttered through the air as crowds of people clustered on the pavement and clapped, some of them wiping away a surreptitious tear.
For a moment, Elizabeth was taken back to her own wedding day.
No one said their vows imagining that one day they would break them.
She still couldn’t believe she had. On the outside, she and Michael didn’t look so unlike the young people they had been, over thirty years ago.
A little greyer, a little thinner in the face and thicker in the middle, perhaps.
But inside, oh, how they had changed. She felt a squirm of shame.
There was just the lunch to get through.
She held her cheek to Jasper’s in the receiving line at the Savoy.
She tried not to jump at the touch of his skin on hers, smiling and moving on to the next guest. She had done her best not to interfere with any of the arrangements and had prayed to the god of seating plans that they were nowhere near each other, and they weren’t: Jasper was flanked by Camilla and Diana at the bottom of the table, while Elizabeth was at the top in between Clementine’s father and Alfie.
She raised her glass to her lips and took the tiniest sip of champagne, for she knew that if she had too much, she would have the urge to get him on his own and slide her hand inside his shirt. Would there be anything more unseemly?
‘Clem, you are so clever!’ Henrietta was fanning herself with the lunch menu that had been put on each plate.
‘I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. A wedding lunch at the Savoy.
So elegant.’ She stopped fanning to read the menu.
‘Crab beignet with a mousseline sauce. Rack of lamb with new potatoes and green beans. Galettes aux fraises. Divine!’
They were in the Pinafore Room, with its Art Deco panelling and large window overlooking the Embankment and the Thames beyond.
There was just one large table, seating ten down each side, with a pristine tablecloth, huge silver vases spilling out white hydrangeas and ice buckets filled with champagne.
A glittering chandelier hovered over the proceedings.
‘Your wedding was lovely too,’ Clementine reassured her friend.
‘I know, but this is so intimate. And you get to enjoy your guests. I spent all day running from person to person and I don’t remember a single conversation.’ Henrietta sighed. ‘This is perfect.’
‘It just seemed right. It’s where we met.’
‘At our engagement party. I know.’ Henrietta’s eyes slid around the table. ‘Here, your sister-in-law is a bit of a sour puss. And what is she wearing? Did she come straight from the stables?’
‘Ssh. Clothes aren’t Diana’s thing.’ Clementine tried not to laugh. ‘I feel a bit sorry for her, actually.’
‘Hmm. She could have made a bit of an effort. Is she jealous of you, do you think? For stealing her baby brother?’
‘I don’t think so.’
Henrietta’s gaze settled on Jasper, with his perfectly cut suit and immaculately knotted tie. He was flirting openly with Clementine’s mother Ruth, making her laugh, waving his glass of champagne to accentuate whatever tall tale he was telling her.
‘And the best man. What’s his story? Why doesn’t he have anyone with him? He must be quite a catch.’
‘Oh, Jasper’s a bit of an enigma.’
‘He’s not …’ Henrietta gave one of her eyebrow waggles. ‘The other way? I mean, he’s very well dressed.’
‘Not that I know of,’ said Clementine. ‘But who knows?’
‘I wouldn’t be surprised.’ Henrietta moved along to Elizabeth, who was talking to Freddie and Camilla. ‘Honestly, your ma-in-law is so glamorous. I’d hate to have to compete with her. How do you cope?’
‘I don’t. Compete, I mean. We’re very different.’
Henrietta sighed. ‘I wish I had an ounce of your confidence.’
Clementine gave her friend a squeeze. For all her opinions and endless chatter, Henrietta was quite insecure.
‘Are you happy sitting in between Freddie and Ben?’ she asked her. ‘It took us hours to do the seating plan.’
‘Oh, I’ll talk to anyone. You know me.’
Poor Ben, stuck between Henrietta and Diana, neither of whom were his type at all.
But he would rise to the occasion and everyone could move around after the speeches, when it would all be a bit more relaxed.
Clementine moved along the table to check the place names, just as a team of black-clad waiters appeared, bearing the crab beignet on gleaming white plates.
Lunch was served.
After the last of the strawberry tart was devoured, Clementine’s father stood to give his speech, tinging his fork on the edge of his glass to call attention. Elizabeth braced herself, for she always found the speeches the most emotional part of a wedding.
Jeff Bell was a quiet, unassuming and studious man, but his role as a bursar meant he was good at communicating, and soon everyone was under his spell.
‘It is a disconcerting time in a man’s life, when he has to relinquish care of his daughter to another man.
But as soon as I met Alfie, I knew I didn’t have to worry, that she would be in safe hands.
In fact, it was Alfie I was more concerned for.
Clementine will bring sunshine into any household, but woe betide you if you don’t fit into her idea of how things should be.
I warn you, Alfie, that ten-year-old Clementine spent much of the war baking special little cakes for Hitler containing deadly seeds gathered from the garden.
Her plan was to put on her best dress and proffer them to him should he have the temerity to turn up in Salisbury.
She does, I believe, still have the recipe … ’
Everyone collapsed with laughter, and Clementine shook her head in fond disbelief at her father’s revelation.
Then it was Alfie’s turn.
‘I can’t believe that it was only in April that I turned up here on a Tuesday night to celebrate Nigel and Henrietta’s engagement with them.
’ He raised his glass to his friends in acknowledgement.
‘And there I clapped eyes on a girl in a velvet beret with a diamond spider brooch, and I thought to myself: she must be spoken for. But she wasn’t, and here we are, with our life mapped out in front of us.
I am so proud to call Clementine my wife today, and to know that I am going to join my father next year at the factory with her by my side. My heart could not be fuller …’
There was a minor commotion as Diana somehow managed to spill her glass of red wine over the table, but Ben leapt to his feet and mopped it all up with his napkin as Alfie went on to thank Clementine’s parents.
‘Thank you, Jeff, in particular, for the warning. I shall be wary of baked goods going forwards.’
And then it was Jasper’s turn, as best man.
He stood, then took a while to gather himself, looking down at his notes before looking up again and starting to speak.
Elizabeth remembered the last time she’d seen him give a speech.
She forgot her resolution not to drink too much and took a gulp of Chablis, reminding herself this was a happy occasion.
‘I thought long and hard about whether to mention Edwin today,’ Jasper began.
‘By rights, it should be him regaling us with indiscreet tales of Alfie’s escapades over the years.
But I dreamt about him last night, and he said, You’d better bloody mention me, Jasp.
If I can’t actually be there, I want to be there in spirit.
I’ve tried, over the past few years since Edwin has gone, to step into his shoes and be something of a big brother to Alfie.
I tried to instil in him a sense of honour and loyalty, though I’m not sure I’m the best qualified person to do that.
’ At this, he gave a self-deprecating grin, and Elizabeth tried hard not to raise an eyebrow, despite her own complicity.
‘But I did introduce him to the best nightclubs and the best wines and his first Joaquin Cuesta cigar. If it’s good enough for Winston Churchill …
’ Everybody laughed. ‘Anyway, Alfie is very much his own person, but there is so much of Edwin’s spirit in him that will hold him in good stead … ’
His voice broke, and he paused for a moment, his head bowed. When he looked up, his eyes were bright with unshed tears. He held up his glass.
‘This is a toast from Edwin, wherever he is. Please join him, and me, in wishing the bride and groom the happiest of lives together.’
Elizabeth couldn’t find her voice to join in the toast. She was overwhelmed by how perfectly he had woven Edwin in without making it awkward or self-indulgent.
She shut her eyes and raised her glass and, next to her, Michael put an arm around her and murmured: ‘I know. I’m here and I know.
’ She leaned against him, and she felt his love and his strength.
In that moment, they were united, in both their grief and their joy, such a curious mix.
She realised that this was a turning point.
She didn’t just owe it to Michael. She owed it to Clementine and Alfie.
The stakes were far too high now for her to risk everything.
Their obvious happiness helped to lift her heart and calm her mind, giving her confidence that her own marriage could survive, flourish even.
And the courage to tell Jasper it was over, once and for all.
After the speeches, the guests clustered around the cake stand. Daisy had done them proud, and had even piped the Arbutus family crest on the top.