Brave Faces

by Mary Arden

  After dinner, my mother suggested that I take Duncan to look at all our wedding presents, which were being displayed in the ‘big room’. When we got there, I was just about to switch on the light when Duncan pulled me close to his body and began to kiss me passionately. The next minute he was kissing me down my neck and I felt a hand slip inside the front of my dress to feel my bosom. I was unable to resist and for the first time in my life didn’t want to. In fact to my surprise I found myself pressing my body closer and closer to his and it was actually Duncan that pulled away first saying, ‘I think we had better stop, before I can’t.’

  It was a good thing that we did, as just at that moment I heard Jane and William’s voices in the corridor coming towards us. I quickly did the button up on the front of my dress, while we pretended to be looking at the wedding presents, which were all displayed on our old ping-pong table, which had been elegantly covered with my mother’s biggest damask tablecloth.

  Jane looked at all our presents with envy and asked where we would put them all, so I explained that my parents had offered to store them in the attic until we had our own home after the war. Among the gifts was a beautiful white china horse, which Charles’s parents had sent us, which had made me feel a little sad, but also glad to know that they were happy for me.

  When William spotted a new toaster amongst the gifts, he suggested that we make use of it the following morning, as there were too many of us for our old pre-war toaster to cope with on its own. When we agreed that it was a good idea, William picked it up and said that he was going to test it out right now.

  ‘Of course I may have to use more than one slice, just to check that the toast is the right shade of brown, and then taste them to make sure!’ he said before disappearing into the kitchen.

  ‘I don’t know where he puts it all,’ I said. ‘We have only just had dinner for goodness sake.’

  ‘I was just the same at his age,’ Duncan smiled, about to lean in for another kiss.

  Jane cleared her throat, ‘Excuse me. Do you mind? I am still here you know!’ We all laughed and went back to say goodnight to my parents before going to bed.

  As I showed Duncan to the spare bedroom, he whispered, ‘Not long now my darling and we will be able to share a bed at last.’

  When I got to my room Jane was getting ready for bed and wanted to know all the details of what Duncan and I had been up to just before she had come into the big room, so I said we were just looking at our presents. ‘No you weren’t!’ she giggled, ‘I know exactly what you were up to because I saw that your buttons were still undone on your dress. I think Duncan was about to show you his wedding present!’

  ‘Jane!’ I gasped pretending to be shocked, ‘don’t be so vulgar!’ We both giggled helplessly as we finished getting undressed and finally went to bed.

  While we ate our breakfast, Duncan was called to the phone. When he returned to the dining room he told my father that his cousin and best man, Ian, was on the train from Waterloo and would be arriving in Woking within the hour, a day earlier than expected. My father burst out laughing and said, ‘What is it with you Ogilvies, do you always arrive early?’

  My father suggested that we take my mother’s car to collect Ian, and as we drove to the station Duncan told me that he had chosen Ian to be his best man, because his two best friends, George, who was a six-foot Canadian, and Alastair, an Irishman, who had both shared digs with him, when they were all studying for their BSc in Forestry at Edinburgh University together in 1939, were both away fighting, and he had no idea where they were.

  When we drew in at the station car park half an hour later, I saw a man dressed in army uniform waiting by the telephone box. For a split second I thought it was my brother Peter, but soon realised that it wasn’t and must be Ian. ‘There he is,’ Duncan announced leaping out of the car to greet his cousin. I got out of the passenger side to join them. Duncan put his arm around my shoulder and said proudly, ‘Ian, this is my Mary. Darling this is my cousin Ian.’

  Ian didn’t say anything for a moment and just stared at me, which was a little unsettling and then he suddenly flung back his head and started laughing, ‘Ah Duncan, I can now see why you couldn’t wait until after the war to get married.’ He slapped his thighs and tossed his hat in the air and the next minute he was hugging me like a bear, ‘Mary my dear welcome to the Clan!’ There was something about Ian that I liked straight away. It was like having an instant new brother.

  As Duncan lifted his cousin’s luggage into the car, I went to pick up Ian’s two carrier bags but he warned me that they were very heavy, as they were full of bottles of scotch and wine, which were gifts from his family to ours. I peeped into one of the bags and noticed that it was not only full of bottles but also had some Edinburgh Rock and several packets of shortbread.

  When we got back to the house my mother met us at the door and Ian immediately charmed her with his beautiful manners and it didn’t take long for the rest of the family to warm to him as well. Ian then produced a ration card and said that he hoped it would help towards feeding him. My mother accepted it gratefully and exclaimed, ‘I can now get the extra sugar and butter I need without resorting to the black market.’ She then went on to say that as Ian had come a day early she had rung the vicar who had told her that we could come for the wedding rehearsal that afternoon rather than the following day.

  When we arrived at the church, Ian, who by now was taking his best man duties very seriously, went straight up to the vicar and shook his hand. This must have made the vicar think that Ian was the groom rather than Duncan and so he patted him on the shoulder and told him not to be nervous. Duncan then explained to the poor man that he was the groom, so it was he who needed the reassurance, not his cousin.

  As the vicar went through the wedding service with us, he tried to explain where we should all stand but it was difficult to concentrate as Aunt Beth and the florist kept moving up and down the aisle getting in our way and whispering loudly about where the various flower arrangements should be placed. At one point she even interrupted the proceedings to ask the vicar if there were any autumn leaves in the vicarage garden that she could use, which made us all laugh as it was so typical of my Aunt, as once her creative juices were flowing there was no stopping her.

  The vicar remained calm and suggested that we begin all over again, and it was all going smoothly right up to the moment when my father was about to hand me over to Duncan when there was suddenly a strange noise coming from the direction of the church organ. The young organist had obviously just arrived and was warming the organ up before practising the music we had asked him to play at the wedding.

  ‘That sounds a bit like an elephant’s bellow,’ I could hear Jane whisper behind me.

  ‘More like an elephant’s fart!’ William sniggered.

  ‘Shh!’ my mother reprimanded. ‘Remember where you are.’

  We all tried to take the rest of the rehearsal a bit more seriously but I was glad when it was over and hoped that it would be a lot more romantic on the day.

  As we left the church Duncan took the opportunity to thank everyone for working so hard to make our wedding day special. ‘I just hope that my father remembers to bring the rings with him!’ he chortled.

  I had been worried that Duncan’s parents might not get on with mine, as they were so different and had very little in common, but shortly after they arrived our two mothers started comparing notes about the problems of food rationing. When Bumble told my mother about having to queue for nearly an hour just to buy one sausage my mother laughed and told her about having to queue for just as long to buy a piece of unrecognisable fish that had whiskers like a cat. Bumble said that in Scotland it would have been a cat, which made my mother laugh out loud, and then I knew all would be well.

  A little later I watched my father show Father John around the garden and was amazed when I saw Duncan’s father removed his jacket and start helping old Bullen prune the fruit trees in the orchard with a pair of l
ong-handled clippers that my father had bought recently.

  When Celia arrived the following morning, she hardly had time to unpack before Aunt Beth whisked her away in the car to help organise the flowers in the church. As they left, Duncan and Ian returned from Woking where they had been doing some last minute shopping, which included buying a tie for William, as a thank you for taking on the role as head usher. My little brother was thrilled and couldn’t wait to try it on, proudly announcing that it was his first ‘grown up’ tie and wasn’t one of his ‘boring school ties’.

  Duncan beckoned me to follow him into the big room, which was now full of trestle tables covered in white linen cloths and the caterer’s china and glasses. He told me to shut my eyes. Thinking he was going to show me a surprise wedding present, I was quite unprepared for what he did next. I felt him gently pull the opal engagement ring off my finger and then slip on another ring. ‘All right you can look now,’ he said.

  I opened my eyes and looked down at the lovely sapphire and diamond ring that we had left to be cleaned and resized with the jewellers in Perth on my finger. It was quite magnificent and sparkled as I moved my hand. ‘Oh Duncan, it’s beautiful,’ and then I started crying.

  ‘Does Mary always cry when she’s happy?’ Duncan asked as Aunt Beth and Celia came into the room but he couldn’t get a sensible answer from either of them because as soon I held up my hand to show off the ring they both started crying too.

  My father then came into the room to say that it was time to take Duncan and Ian to the Derwent’s house, where they would sleep that night in order not to see the bride until the wedding. It was then that it suddenly hit me: I was getting married in the morning! I had talked about it so much over the past few weeks that I hadn’t really taken in the reality of what that meant. This was my last night as a single woman and more importantly as a virgin!

  When I woke up the following morning, Jane was fiddling noisily with something on her bedside chair. When I asked her what she was doing she said, ‘I am checking the elastic in my knickers in case they fall down when I walk down the aisle!’

  After breakfast, Jane and I went back upstairs and shared a bath. We filled it to the brim with bubble foam and half an hour later we both smelled so much of violets that I wondered whether we would make the vicar sneeze. As the hairdressers were due to arrive any minute, my mother told us to put on our petticoats, so that we were ‘decent’ and then wait for them in her bedroom. We didn’t have to wait long as the hairdressers soon arrived and after they had gone we then put on our makeup. Aunt Beth popped her head around the door and said, ‘You both look lovely. I just wanted to see how your hair was set, so that I can make a few last minute changes to the headdresses. I will be back later.’

  Agnes then appeared with a tray of coffee and told us that my old governess Kay had arrived but that she was worried about her, as she looked rather upset. The reason we soon discovered was because my goddaughter, Julie, had refused to put on her dress. However, Kay had brought it with her just in case she could get her to change her mind later.

  Aunt Beth came back into the room to tell me it was time for me to get dressed. She told Jane to go to her room to get ready but asked Kay if she would stay and help her. I put on the wedding dress and then Aunt Beth told me to close my eyes while she put on the veil. I did as she said and then after several minutes of her re-arranging my veil, I heard her whisper, ‘it’s perfect, you can open your eyes now.’

  When I opened my eyes and looked in the mirror, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Aunt Beth had sewed hundreds of tiny flowers and leaves all over the veil and similar ones onto a tiara-shaped headdress. It completely transformed the whole wedding outfit and I now looked like a maiden in a Pre-Raphaelite painting. The veil was truly magical and I felt so happy that I started to cry but Aunt Beth said, ‘Don’t you dare, you’ll ruin your makeup!’

  Just then my mother came in to see if I was nearly ready. When she saw me she burst into tears, ‘Oh darling, you look so lovely. I have longed for this day and now it’s really happening. I am so happy for you.’ She then had to sit down at her dressing table to remove the smudged mascara under her eyes. As she did so she reminded me to be very careful coming down the stairs and told me that she would send Agnes and Pansy to help me, as she didn’t want me tripping over the short train at the back of my dress. I then caught my mother’s eye in the mirror and noticed that she was staring at my face.

  ‘You look very pale darling. Are you a bit nervous?’ she asked gently. I nodded silently. She then came over to me and rubbed a little of her rouge on my cheeks. ‘That’s better’, she said calmly, ‘now darling, we are all leaving for the church in a minute but Daddy is waiting for you downstairs, so just try to relax until Agnes comes up to fetch you.’

  When everyone had left the room, I took another look at myself in the full-length mirror. I then heard a sigh behind me and as I turned around I saw Jane standing in the doorway looking very pretty in her cream and coffee-coloured long dress with a wide pale-green sash around her waist and slippers that Aunt Beth had dyed to match.

  ‘You look very pretty’, I told her.

  ‘I feel sick,’ Jane replied.

  ‘I’m the one that supposed to be nervous, Jane, not you!’ I joked.

  ‘I’ve forgotten what I am supposed to do,’ June spluttered.

  ‘Don’t worry it will be all right on the night, as they say in the theatre!’ I said, trying to make her laugh.

  ‘We have to get through the day first,’ June giggled, ‘Oh, by the way, I completely forgot to tell you that Celia has managed to get your goddaughter to agree to wear her dress.’

  ‘Really, well that’s a miracle,’ I said genuinely surprised.

  ‘Nothing miraculous about it,’ Jane said, ‘she bribed her with sweeties!’ And then just as she was leaving the room she said, ‘See you in Church you beautiful silly cow!’

  I was still giggling when there was a knock at the door. Agnes and Pansy had come to take me down to my father. The three of us then slowly descended the stairs. My father was waiting at the bottom, smiling. He took my hand as I reached the last step, and whispered, ‘Oh Blossom, What a pretty picture you make.’

  It was difficult getting into the back of the wedding car without crushing the flowers on my veil but with my father’s and the chauffer’s help we managed. Once I had settled in the back seat I could see through the windscreen that the chauffer had decorated the bonnet with white ribbons. He had also placed a single white rose in a small silver vase at the back of the car, which I thought was a lovely gesture. My father got in the back seat beside me and took my hand in his. I was no longer feeling nervous, but he obviously was, as his hand trembled all the way to Old Woking church.

  We drove down the back lanes quite slowly as we had time in hand, and my mother had said it was good luck to arrive a few minutes late. William was waiting outside the church entrance and I could see that he was relishing giving all the ushers, who were nearly twice his age, their orders. One of the ushers then turned around and I was delighted to see that it was my cousin, Marcus, who had stitched up my wound when Charles and I had got caught in the Blitz. My thoughts immediately went to Charles and how I nearly married him. I would never forget him and just hoped that if he was looking down on us today that he would be happy for me.

  After the chauffer had opened the door for me, I had to be very careful as I climbed out of the back of the car, so as not to tear my veil. Aunt Beth then did some last minute adjustments to it and said, ‘It looks even better in the sunlight.’ She then led me to a small anteroom just inside the church where Jane, my Maid of Honour, Julie, my flower girl, and Richard, my pageboy were waiting for me. My father waited patiently in the porch, while Aunt Beth did her final check to ensure that we all looked perfect and then she gave us a thumbs up, just as the organist started playing Elgar’s Enigma variations. My father took my arm in his and smiling at me whispered under his breath, ‘Onward Chr
istian Soldiers!’

  As my father and I began to walk slowly down the aisle, Duncan turned around to look at me but instead of waiting for me to join him at the altar, as he should have done, he slowly started to walk towards me with one hand stretched out in front of him, as if he was in a trance. A collective gasp was heard, but Duncan seemed oblivious to everyone else but his bride. I was so moved by his very public show of love for me that I stopped in my tracks and waited for him to come to me. My poor father decided that he might as well stand there too and just pretended that giving his daughter away to his future son-in-law half-way up the aisle, instead of at the altar, was quite normal. When the best man took a step towards the groom to bring him back, the vicar put a hand on his shoulder to stop him and simply smiled.

  When Duncan reached us, my father ceremoniously took my hand and placed it in Duncan’s and gave me a reassuring smile, before joining my mother in the front pew. Taking her cue from my father’s actions, Jane now moved beside me, took my bouquet and handed it to Julie, my flower girl to hold. Jane then whispered to Richard to pick up the train of my wedding dress, which he had dropped, and we continued up the aisle. From that moment on the service went without a hitch, and the best man, having recovered his composure, handed over my wedding ring without any mishaps.

  As Duncan and I made our vows, I felt such overwhelming happiness that I had to fight back the tears. The wedding was everything that I had hoped it would be and it was all very romantic, right up until it was time to sign the register. That’s when my nerves got the better of me and I nearly wrote Leading Wren Arden instead of Mary Arden.