Alissa Baxter

by The Dashing Debutante

  “With all these rules and regulations to remember, Grandmama, I am afraid I may forget one and unwittingly make a hopeless social blunder,” Alexandra said in an alarmed voice.

  “Nonsense, my love. You will manage perfectly,” Lady Beauchamp assured her. “Nevertheless, I have enough knowledge of the London scene to realise the futility of pitch-forking you into the ton, as it were, by having you make your first London appearance at an Almack’s Assembly. There can be nothing more intimidating than that, I’m sure!” She smiled at Alexandra. “I have decided, therefore, that you shall attend some of the more informal parties given at the beginning of the Season so that you can familiarise yourself with Society and make a few acquaintances. It will give you added confidence, Alexandra, if you are acquainted with some people before visiting Almack’s.”

  Alexandra nodded her head in agreement, before asking a question that had been on her mind for some time. “Grandmama, when is my coming-out ball to be held?”

  “I think in five or six weeks time, dearest,” Lady Beauchamp replied. “That will be just before the peak of the Season so that we can be assured of a full house. We must commission Madame Fanchon to design one of her particularly dazzling creations for your ball. I think a gown of ice blue satin would look enchanting on you, my dear. With your mother’s sapphires — sapphires are not too overwhelming for a young girl to wear — you will be captivating.”

  Alexandra smiled her thanks at the compliment, before turning her attention to the passing scenery which was visible through the carriage window. The unseasonably warm weather of the last few weeks had turned suddenly, giving place to cooler temperatures and a light drizzle now fell from a grey overcast sky. The countryside looked dismally bleak in the cold morning light. Yet, neither the inclement weather, nor the dreary scenery could lower Alexandra’s buoyant spirits. Since John had told her, a few days previously, that the meeting the Duke had called between the neighbouring landowners had been successful and that they had agreed to implement reforms, a burden had lifted from Alexandra’s shoulders and she was now looking forward to the future with eager expectation, keen to broaden her horizons and see something of the world.

  The only city Alexandra had visited previously was Bath. She had travelled to the spa town, a few years before, to pay a visit to an elderly aunt who resided there, and had been fascinated by the hustle and bustle of town life. Although she had been too young at the time to attend any of the Assemblies, Alexandra had enjoyed herself immensely visiting the libraries, attending the theatre and shopping in Milsom Street. The amusements of the Metropolis, Alexandra knew, promised to be even more entertaining. Yet she was determined, no matter how unfashionable it might be, to view something more of London than would the average débutante. Her thorough education made it inconceivable that she visit London without spending some time viewing the wonders in the British Museum. She was also interested in visiting Shakespeare’s memorial at Westminster Abbey, and seeing the famous Elgin Marbles at Burlington House, about which her father had told her so much. Alexandra’s thoughts revolved around and around in excited circles as she envisaged all the wonders in store for her. She was certain that her visit to London would prove to be not only greatly entertaining, but educative as well.

  Lady Beauchamp, who disliked travelling at a fast pace, had instructed Biddle, the coachman, not to spring the horses but to take the journey in easy stages. The party, which included her ladyship’s dresser, Jarvis, and Alexandra’s maid, Hobbes, travelled through Devizes that day, and carried on to Marlborough where they put up for the night at The Castle Inn. This was an excellent hostelry where one could be assured of an enjoyable dinner, and where there was no need, as Jarvis informed Hobbes, to check for damp sheets, or for dirt swept under the carpet by slothful chambermaids. Lady Beauchamp and Alexandra retired early for the night and Alexandra, unfamiliar with the rigours of travelling, slept like one dead — not even exciting thoughts about London could keep her heavy eyelids from closing the second her head touched the soft down pillows.

  The next morning the party set off early again, travelling past the Forest of Savernake, on to Hungerford, and then to Newbury, where they stopped to rest the horses and enjoy a leisurely nuncheon, before proceeding on to the final stage of their journey to London.

  Alexandra looked around her in wonder later that afternoon as the wheels of the carriage eventually struck the cobbled streets of the Metropolis. Unused to city life, she found the clamour of the vendors shrieking out their various wares, and the noise of the traffic quite overwhelming. However, as Biddle steered the horses expertly through the complicated network of streets, she was relieved to discover that the din abated somewhat as they left the city centre and entered the more fashionable part of town.

  Notwithstanding her interest in her new surroundings, Alexandra was more than pleased when Biddle eventually drew up before Lady Beauchamp’s imposing townhouse in Berkeley Square, and she was free to leave the constricting confines of the carriage and stretch her cramped limbs. Being of an active nature she had found it difficult to endure sitting still for hours in a carriage and was happy that the seemingly interminable journey had finally come to an end.

  Leighton, Lady Beauchamp’s stately butler, formally welcomed his mistress and her young protegée, before relieving them of their cloaks and instructing one of the footmen to conduct Miss Grantham to her bedchamber. Alexandra discovered to her delight that this was a charming room decorated in shades of green and rendered warm and welcoming by a large fire roaring in the grate, and fresh flowers artistically arranged on the mantelpiece. The bed looked most welcoming, and Alexandra lay thankfully down, leaving Hobbes to unpack her trunks. She drifted off to sleep and awoke only a short while before dinner. Startled that she had slept for so long, Alexandra hurriedly changed her crumpled gown and left her bedchamber to make her way to the drawing room where her grandmother was awaiting her.

  Lady Beauchamp had informed Alexandra, on arriving in London, that they were to dine early that evening, and spend a quiet evening à deux before retiring early to bed in preparation for the busy days ahead. “Because, indeed my dear, you will need to be totally refreshed to enjoy the upcoming social whirl to the full; and travelling, as I well know, is an exhausting business which can sap the strength of even the most hardy person,” she had sensibly said. Consequently Alexandra, after sampling the culinary delights served by Lady Beauchamp’s French chef, Philippe, retired to bed at the unfashionably early hour of nine o’clock. She slept soundly, her slumber undisturbed by her new surroundings. She was somewhat annoyed, however, when she awoke in the morning and remembered how a pair of glinting green eyes had persistently invaded her dreams.

  True to her word, the morning after Alexandra’s arrival in town, Lady Beauchamp whisked her granddaughter off to Madame Fanchon’s elegant establishment in Bruton Street. The two ladies were ushered into a showroom that was carpeted with an Aubusson and furnished with the gilt spindly chairs that were all the fashion in London. A slim, elegant woman of indeterminate age, whom Alexandra assumed to be Madame Fanchon, moved forward to greet them, curtseying respectfully. When she heard Lady Beauchamp’s commission that she design an entire wardrobe for her granddaughter, a worried look crossed the modiste’s face, and she said in regretful tones, “Madame, usually I would welcome such an order, but I fear that with the Season almost upon us...” Madame Fanchon turned to look apologetically at Alexandra as she said this, but her expression changed as her sharp eyes looked over Alexandra’s person. Looking back at Lady Beauchamp, Madame Fanchon said abruptly, “But, Madame, you bring me a goddess to clothe! A Titian beauty, no less! I shall, of a certainty, undertake to fashion Mademoiselle’s wardrobe. The limited time we have — it will be difficult, bien sûr, but I shall contrive! Indeed I shall.” She looked thoughtfully at Alexandra once again, and said, “Your colouring, Mademoiselle — it demands that you do not dress in the pastel colours — non and again non! They will not do you justice
. We must look elsewhere pour l’inspiration!”

  Madame Fanchon hurried off and returned with jewel-bright silks and satins, and endless rolls of muslin, cambric and crape. She and Lady Beauchamp immediately fell into a discussion about styles and fabrics, while Alexandra stood mutely by, listening to the excited interchange between them. Privately, she was somewhat shocked at the number of dresses that her grandmother seemed intent on ordering for her. She gathered, from what her grandmother was saying, that she would in all probability end up changing her clothes at least three or four times a day! Alexandra only hoped that she did not get confused and wear morning dress in the afternoon! Such a faux pas would not be overlooked by the fastidious members of beau monde, with their set rules and regulations for every occasion.

  Two hours later, Lady Beauchamp and Alexandra left Madame Fanchon’s rooms and proceeded on to Miss Starke’s expensive milliner’s shop in Conduit Street. Miss Starke was all attention and urged Alexandra to try on an elegant Satin Straw hat, exclaiming in a rapturous voice, “It frames your face exquisitely, Miss Grantham!” Lady Beauchamp agreed that it suited Alexandra very well, and Miss Starke smilingly placed it in a bandbox to be delivered to Beauchamp House later that day.

  Alexandra then tried on one of the Waterloo hats on display, but decided that she preferred the more understated look of a charming fur hat decorated with a curled plume. “At least my ears will be warm, Grandmama!” she said dryly, as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Alexandra had been amazed to discover that, in the name of fashion, modish ladies had to be prepared to venture outdoors in freezing weather in the thinnest of muslin dresses. When she had queried Madame Fanchon’s decision to make her up four muslin dresses, saying sensibly that it was surely too cold in London at present to wear them, Madame had looked at her in a shocked fashion, and said reprovingly that if a lady desired to be modish, she was obliged to make “zee sacrifices that are necessary!”

  Lady Beauchamp purchased four more stylish bonnets for Alexandra from a delighted Miss Starke. The two ladies then left the milliner’s exclusive establishment and climbed into Lady Beauchamp’s barouche which awaited them outside. Biddle then drove them to Bond Street where, Lady Beauchamp explained to Alexandra, they would be able to purchase the various items of fashion without which a lady’s wardrobe was incomplete. Shoes, half-boots, lace handkerchiefs, silk stockings, gloves, colourful ribbons... to Alexandra the list of essential items seemed endless. Eventually, however, Lady Beauchamp declared that they could return home. Settling back against the squabs of the barouche as it moved forward again, she sighed in satisfaction. “My dear, we have done very well today. Very well, indeed! There are a few trifling purchases that we have yet to make — but they can wait for another day. The important thing, however, is that you are well on the way to being one of the most fashionable débutantes in London!”

  “I hope that I shall not disappoint you, Grandmama,” Alexandra said pensively. “I have been so much in the habit of leading a tomboyish existence, that I fear very much that it will take more than an elegant wardrobe to make a modish lady of me!”

  “My dear, you have natural grace and style,” Lady Beauchamp reassured her. “Indeed, you will be surprised at how quickly you will adjust to being a young lady of fashion.”

  Monsieur Dupont, an acclaimed Society hairdresser, descended on Berkeley Square the next day to style Alexandra’s copper tresses. Setting eyes on her Titian hair, the dapper little Frenchman’s eyes sparkled in gleeful anticipation. “Mademoiselle, vos cheveux sont très magnifiques!” he expounded in reverent accents. “You are worthy of my genius, Mademoiselle. You, a single English girl amongst the rest, are worthy of the efforts of the great Monsieur Dupont. The others — they are seulement pour l’argent, vous savez. But you — you inspire the artist within me! Compared to you, these others! Bah, they are nothing!”

  Alexandra smiled, amused by the little man’s gesticulations and his excitable air, and wondered, rather sceptically, whether his genius was quite as great as he made it out to be. At the end of the morning, however, she had to admit that the Frenchman had not exaggerated his talents. He had styled her hair in the elegant Sappho style which emphasised her high cheekbones and expressive eyes, and complemented her beauty to the extent that when Lady Beauchamp set eyes on her granddaughter she said in an awed voice, “My child — you look exquisite!”

  Alexandra, being far from vain, laughingly brushed the compliment aside, but even she noticed, and was delighted with, the difference the new hairstyle made to her appearance. It lent her an air of sophisticated elegance, which was quite at odds with the way in which she had always viewed herself. But, although filled with hopeful expectation for the future, a feeling of melancholy, hard to shake off, suddenly settled on her as she realised sadly that the time had finally come to bid farewell to her carefree, tomboyish days.

  However, even if she had wished to, Alexandra had very little time to dwell on her old way of life during the next few days. They were busy, filled with dancing lessons every morning, shopping expeditions, and frequent outings to the park where she attracted no little notice. Nattily attired dandies and daring bucks alike ogled her, and she received even more attention from turbaned matrons driving along with their débutante daughters. Many of the stares of these ladies however were more hostile than admiring, to the extent that Alexandra began to wonder whether she had unwittingly offended them by making some sort of social blunder. Lady Beauchamp set her mind at rest on this score by snorting derisively and saying, “My dear girl, the only “social blunder” you have made is to cast the rest of Society’s damsels into the shade — something not easily forgiven, I’m afraid!”

  Alexandra was startled at this piece of information, but Lady Beauchamp was far from surprised at the stir her granddaughter was making. Elegantly attired in Madame Fanchon’s creations, Alexandra looked breathtakingly lovely, and Lady Beauchamp knew that the Society mamas were gnashing their teeth in collective frustration and annoyance.

  Indeed, furious mothers were complaining bitterly and at length to one other, most of them saying that Madame Fanchon had not deigned to clothe their daughters in the same refined style that Alexandra Grantham had been dressed in. One irate lady even went so far as to declare that she would withdraw her patronage from the French modiste. Upon hearing this, Madame Fanchon shrugged her elegant shoulders, and remarked in a languid tone to her underlings, “Me, I only exercise my real talents on those ladies truly worthy of them. Miss Grantham will be the success of the Season, which means that it will reflect well on me. So, far from repining that I have lost the custom of Lady Butterworth and her so plain daughter, I rejoice! Seeing my designs on that girl with the face of a horse surely hurt my soul. I am delighted to no longer have the dressing of her!”

  Ironically enough, the creations which the Society ladies were exclaiming over were in fact only quickly made up gowns that Madame Fanchon had fashioned to tide Alexandra over until the end of the week when the rest of her wardrobe would be completed. The talented modiste had set her whole staff to work on Alexandra’s clothes, charging exorbitant fees for the extra effort being expended on her new client’s behalf; but Lady Beauchamp was of the opinion that it was worth the expense to see her granddaughter looking so well turned out in such chic looking outfits.

  Driving along with Lady Beauchamp at the hour of the Grand Strut in Hyde Park a few days after her arrival in London, Alexandra was viewing with interest the fashionable throng parading on the paths when she set eyes on a young exquisite, dressed in canary yellow pantaloons and a striped waistcoat, with shirt points that were so highly starched that he could only move his head half an inch to either the left or right. She was wondering with some amusement what would occur if he should happen to sneeze, when Lady Beauchamp instructed Biddle to stop the barouche alongside a smart landau drawn up on the carriageway. In response to Alexandra’s inquiring look she whispered, “Lady Jersey, and with her Maria Sefton, my love,�
� before turning to greet the two Patronesses of Almack’s.

  Alexandra viewed the two ladies about whom she had heard so much with some interest. Lady Jersey, a tall and angular woman dressed in the height of fashion, had rather a sharp look about her and Alexandra surmised that she did not suffer fools gladly. Lady Sefton, on the other hand, seemed of a placid and kind disposition, as was apparent in the warm welcome she accorded her friend’s granddaughter. “Welcome to the Capital, my dear,” she said, smiling benignly. “Your grandmother told me that you were lovely, and I can see that she did not exaggerate. You are certain to take the town by storm. Do you not agree, Sally?” she said, looking at Lady Jersey.

  “Yes, indeed. Your granddaughter will liven up the London scene considerably, Anne,” Lady Jersey said to Lady Beauchamp. “I shall look forward to seeing you at Almack’s, my dear. Your vouchers will be forthcoming, of course,” she continued with a brief smile and nod in Alexandra’s direction, before turning back to Lady Beauchamp to give that interested lady an update on the latest London gossip.

  Alexandra rapidly lost interest in the ensuing conversation, as the people of whom the older ladies were speaking, were as yet mostly unknown to her. Rather bored, she turned her attention instead to a group of fashionably dressed ladies and gentlemen standing nearby. She was admiring a particularly fetching bonnet worn by one of the ladies, when her attention was quickly reclaimed and held by something Lady Jersey was saying to her grandmother.