Heather
September 2, 2016
Heather would never forget her afternoon at Buckingham Palace with Miriam and Daniel. They passed through something like twenty state rooms on their tour, each one bigger and richer and grander than the last. They took their time because Miriam, though steady on her feet, didn’t walk very fast. She was also full of interesting anecdotes about the times she and Walter had been invited to dinners there, and of course the occasion twenty-five years earlier when she had been made a dame.
“Do you remember what the queen said to you?” Heather asked excitedly.
“Would you believe I do not? I was terribly nervous, so it all went by in a blur. I do remember how very blue her eyes were, and also how very enormous the diamonds were in her brooch. One of them was as big as an egg yolk.”
They were in the White Drawing Room when Miriam turned to her with a mischievous smile.
“So? What do you think?”
“Is it wrong to think it’s a bit much? I mean, everything is really beautiful, but it’s all so overwhelming.”
“I do not disagree. But this is not meant to be a home. At least, not this part of the palace. This is the queen’s place of business, I suppose you could say. I imagine their private homes—Balmoral, for instance—are much less formal.”
“The sort of places where a corgi wouldn’t get in trouble for jumping on the furniture?”
“Precisely.”
Before long they had arrived at the beginning of the Fashioning a Reign exhibition, and though Heather was keen to go straight to the queen’s wedding gown, she didn’t feel comfortable in rushing Miriam along. By the time they reached the ballroom, where the wedding and coronation gowns were on display, as well as the most spectacular of the queen’s many formal gowns, Heather’s heart was racing in anticipation.
Of course there were a ton of people just planted in front of the glass case that held the wedding gown and train, and despite the barrage of death glares Heather aimed at their backs, they took their sweet time in moving on. When a space finally did open up, Daniel caught Heather’s eye. Together they moved forward and installed themselves directly in front of the display case, leaving ample room between them for Miriam.
Heather was surprised, now that she was able to see the gown, to find that it had been arranged on a slanted backdrop, the folds of its skirts propped up by invisible supports. The train, too, had been laid flat, with the nearest part of it only inches away from the edge of the case.
“Did you and Nan do all of that?” she asked.
“Oh, no. We were responsible for the bodice and sleeves, but for the embroidery of the skirt panels there were four of us, and the train itself had six or eight embroiderers. Perhaps more—my memory is not as clear as it ought to be. What do you think of it all?”
“I think it’s amazing. I’m a little overwhelmed, to be honest.” The gown was so close that she could make out even the smallest details, many of them already familiar from her careful study of Nan’s embroidered samples. “Which is your favorite part?” she asked Miriam.
“That is a very good question, and one I have not been asked before. I suppose it would be the heather.”
“Like Scottish heather?”
“Yes. It was Ann’s idea. Two small sprigs of white heather, and no one apart from us, Mr. Hartnell, and Miss Duley knew about them. If you count up from the bottom center of the train, they are just between the fourth and fifth of the central roses. Can you see them? Yes? She added them at the very last, and I doubt that anyone else in the world knows of their significance. I am not sure if even the queen herself knows they are there.”
They remained in the ballroom for close to another hour, spending long minutes in front of nearly every other gown, and by the time they came to the exit Heather was ready to fall over. Daniel seemed to feel the same way, for he directed them to the refreshment tent, found them a table with a terrific view of the lawn and gardens, and promised to return with something delicious. “I can’t promise they’ll have decent coffee, Mimi, but they might run to a glass of champagne.”
At this Miriam brightened visibly. “Wouldn’t that be a treat?”
Unfortunately, there was no champagne to be had, but Daniel did buy coffee for himself and Miriam, a tea for Heather, and plates of éclairs and scones for them to share.
“I can’t believe I’m sitting in the private gardens at Buckingham Palace having a cup of tea. And with you, Miriam. I’m not sure if Nan believed in heaven, but if she could see us now I bet she’d be happy.”