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Authors: Victoria Connelly
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Indeed, every Janeite in the room picked up on this immediately and started quoting ‘flowers are very much worn and fruit is still more the thing’.
There was a bit of a scrum for the prettiest pieces of ribbon with the sky-blue, rose-pink and purple being the most popular. There was also some very pretty pieces of lace and, once everybody had gathered everything they needed, the serious task of bonnet trimming began.
It had to be said that there were some members of the group who seemed born to trim a bonnet and others who struggled. Doris Norris was a natural with a needle and thread and her little bonnet was blooming with a pretty cluster of flowers in next to no time whereas Mrs Soames was definitely struggling, her large fingers causing her to curse. At one point, she turned as red as the strawberry she was trying to sew onto her bonnet and the tutor had to step in before she did irreparable damage.
Sarah’s bonnet was an elegant, understated masterpiece of green ribbon and red and gold flowers whereas Mia had crammed as much as possible onto hers.
‘Your head can’t possibly support all that fruit,’ Sarah warned her.
‘But I can’t bear to choose between any of it. It’s all so gorgeous!’
And Warwick was doing very well indeed until he came to do a ruffled ribbon trim and then he became all fingers and thumbs. Even Jackson Moore was having a go but he wasn’t as calm-headed as Warwick and kept cursing under his breath and twitching his moustache as he dropped all of his strawberries and then several cherries on the floor.
Finally, after everyone had finished, a central aisle was cleared and a mini fashion show was held with everyone modelling their bonnets to great applause. Dame Pamela then declared Mia the winner.
‘For her wit and ambition in using every possible ingredient on her bonnet!’ Her prize was a book about Regency costume full of exquisite illustrations. Mia was delighted and couldn’t resist teasing Sarah who was still of the opinion that her sister’s bonnet had more fruit than any head had a right to.
After lunch, there was meant to be a talk on music in Jane Austen’s time but the speaker hadn’t been able to attend because of the snow so it was decided that there’d be a showing of the 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice instead and nobody complained. Well, nobody except Mrs Soames.
‘I don’t know what anybody sees in that version. That Mr Darcy is still wet behind the ears!’ But she watched it all the same, harrumphing every time Matthew Macfadyen strode onto the screen only to be shushed by everybody else in the room.
Dame Pamela was too nervous to sit down and watch the film with everybody. She was pacing in her study, fretting over what Higgins had said to her. He’d planted a nasty little seed of doubt in her mind and now she was wringing her hands like a bad actress.
‘But what does Higgins know?’ she said to the empty study. He was one of the most cautious people she’d ever met and was one of the few people she’d ever been able to count on in her life for good, solid advice but what did she really know about him? He’d been in her employment for so long that she didn’t know of any life outside of Purley Hall for Higgins. His parents had died a long time ago and he had a sister in a care home in Devon. He’d never married, never talked about relationships and only took two weeks holiday a year which was always spent in the same holiday cottage on the north Norfolk coast.
But, whatever Higgins’s background, he had no business telling her what to do. Who was running this conference – him or her? He should stick to his own job, she told herself with an emphatic nod of the head. And, with her mind made up, she reached across her desk and picked up the item that had been causing so much trouble between them and placed it in her handbag.
Chapter 10
The great fireplace in the dining room had been lit and the orange flames licked
There was a bit of a scrum for the prettiest pieces of ribbon with the sky-blue, rose-pink and purple being the most popular. There was also some very pretty pieces of lace and, once everybody had gathered everything they needed, the serious task of bonnet trimming began.
It had to be said that there were some members of the group who seemed born to trim a bonnet and others who struggled. Doris Norris was a natural with a needle and thread and her little bonnet was blooming with a pretty cluster of flowers in next to no time whereas Mrs Soames was definitely struggling, her large fingers causing her to curse. At one point, she turned as red as the strawberry she was trying to sew onto her bonnet and the tutor had to step in before she did irreparable damage.
Sarah’s bonnet was an elegant, understated masterpiece of green ribbon and red and gold flowers whereas Mia had crammed as much as possible onto hers.
‘Your head can’t possibly support all that fruit,’ Sarah warned her.
‘But I can’t bear to choose between any of it. It’s all so gorgeous!’
And Warwick was doing very well indeed until he came to do a ruffled ribbon trim and then he became all fingers and thumbs. Even Jackson Moore was having a go but he wasn’t as calm-headed as Warwick and kept cursing under his breath and twitching his moustache as he dropped all of his strawberries and then several cherries on the floor.
Finally, after everyone had finished, a central aisle was cleared and a mini fashion show was held with everyone modelling their bonnets to great applause. Dame Pamela then declared Mia the winner.
‘For her wit and ambition in using every possible ingredient on her bonnet!’ Her prize was a book about Regency costume full of exquisite illustrations. Mia was delighted and couldn’t resist teasing Sarah who was still of the opinion that her sister’s bonnet had more fruit than any head had a right to.
After lunch, there was meant to be a talk on music in Jane Austen’s time but the speaker hadn’t been able to attend because of the snow so it was decided that there’d be a showing of the 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice instead and nobody complained. Well, nobody except Mrs Soames.
‘I don’t know what anybody sees in that version. That Mr Darcy is still wet behind the ears!’ But she watched it all the same, harrumphing every time Matthew Macfadyen strode onto the screen only to be shushed by everybody else in the room.
Dame Pamela was too nervous to sit down and watch the film with everybody. She was pacing in her study, fretting over what Higgins had said to her. He’d planted a nasty little seed of doubt in her mind and now she was wringing her hands like a bad actress.
‘But what does Higgins know?’ she said to the empty study. He was one of the most cautious people she’d ever met and was one of the few people she’d ever been able to count on in her life for good, solid advice but what did she really know about him? He’d been in her employment for so long that she didn’t know of any life outside of Purley Hall for Higgins. His parents had died a long time ago and he had a sister in a care home in Devon. He’d never married, never talked about relationships and only took two weeks holiday a year which was always spent in the same holiday cottage on the north Norfolk coast.
But, whatever Higgins’s background, he had no business telling her what to do. Who was running this conference – him or her? He should stick to his own job, she told herself with an emphatic nod of the head. And, with her mind made up, she reached across her desk and picked up the item that had been causing so much trouble between them and placed it in her handbag.
Chapter 10
The great fireplace in the dining room had been lit and the orange flames licked
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