Chapter 41: The Epilogue

Toby recalled Natasha’s words, from that March night back in 1970, as he was sitting quietly in the choir of the great cathedral, where he and Andrew had spent so much time during their education at King Henry’s College. It was the sixteenth of September, 1972 and he was waiting for his bride to arrive for their wedding. The reason why he particularly recalled what Natasha had said was because he had just glanced to his right, at his best man, who was actually none other than Ernie Danglers. Out at Northolt, surveying Natasha’s make-up before they left for the cathedral, was her chief bridesmaid. No, it wasn’t Emma Knight, but instead her Aunt Laura.

What had brought about this apparently seismic shift? Had there been some irreparable breakdown in the rock-solid relationship between the couples? No, not at all. It was just that Andrew and Emma happened to be busy that day. You see, Andrew was, in fact sitting on Toby’s left hand side, as he waited for his sister to arrive, along with Emma too, for the inseparable foursome were having a double wedding.

No one had actually been greatly surprised when Andrew and Emma had decided, somewhat out of the blue if truth be told, to join Toby and Natasha at the altar. There had never been any doubt that they too would tie the knot at some point, it had always been a question of when rather than if. The four of them had always loved doing everything together, so there had been general delight all round when they casually announced their decision, just a couple of months before the big day. Fortunately it was made before the invitations had gone to the printer, so no later amendment would need to be made.

All four of them were still very happy living together in the flat in Bristol. They were all now gainfully employed in the city, so that was actually where they decided to continue to live, even after the nuptials. They weren’t even going to take separate honeymoons. Sitting amongst the congregation was the Honourable Samantha West, along with her parents. Miraculously they were all in the country for the date, rather than abroad somewhere. It had not taken much persuasion by their daughter for Lord and Lady West to offer the couples the free use of their villa on Mallorca. Toby was particularly delighted and couldn’t wait to show his new bride and his best friends the lovely house and the little town of Porto Cristo.

Suddenly the organ, which had been playing quietly in the background, struck up William Walton’s Crown Imperial March, signalling that the bridal party had arrived and that the procession was under way.

Both young men turned and looking though the opening in the choir screen they could see the head verger, dressed in a black robe and carrying a silver wand, at the front of the procession. Behind him were the clergy and then the cathedral choir in their red cassocks, covered by white surplices. Behind them they could see their brides, on the arms of their fathers and finally the three bridesmaids and Emma’s sister Caroline’s little son, dressed as a pageboy.

‘Here we go,’ whispered Andrew, ‘Are you feeling nervous?’

‘No, of course not,’ replied Toby, ‘I feel as if I’ve been waiting for this day my entire life.’

‘Blimey,’ breathed Ernie, as they saw the procession moving slowly down the nave towards them, ‘I’ve never seen anything as posh as this before.’

Both Andrew and Toby, well used to the pomp and ceremony that usually accompanied events in the cathedral, chuckled at the expression of awe on his face.

Before long the procession arrived at the choir screen and passed through it. The three members of the clergy, dressed in magnificent robes, moved on towards the high altar. Originally Toby had asked just the school chaplain, the Very Reverend Plummer, to conduct the ceremony. He had been known well to both boys during their entire education, had taught them Divinity and given them confirmation classes. He had agreed most willingly, but had suggested that it might be polite to invite the vicar of Northolt to say some prayers. Then none other than the Archdeacon, who it turned out was known personally by Toby’s father, because they served on a charitable committee together, had heard about the event and declared that he would like to give the blessing at the end of the ceremony.

The choir took their places in the choir stalls next, leaving the brides and their fathers to finally arrive beside the two grooms, who looked at them with delight. Natasha had chosen a simple embroidered wedding dress with a high collar, while Emma’s was perhaps a little more striking as the ivory satin bodice had a ‘V’ neck and was padded slightly at the hips and narrowed at the waist.

The processional hymn was sung by all, followed then by the marriage ceremony. More complicated than usual, as there were two couples involved, it nonetheless went faultlessly and Toby silently thanked ‘Holy Ballcock’, as the chaplain was irreverently known by all the boys at the college, for making them have two rehearsals to ensure that it all went well on the day.

A psalm, sung beautifully by the choir, was followed by prayers and then another hymn. Unusually, the Very Reverend Plummer then gave an address, based on the text in the book of Ephesians, Chapter 4 Verse 26 - ‘Never Let the Sun Go Down on Your Wrath.’ Both couples were surprised and rather taken by the unexpected advice. Subsequently they all agreed that it would be something that they would all try to follow for the rest of their lives.

Another hymn was sung and then suddenly it was almost all over. The Archdeacon gave the blessing and the couples, their chaplain and all the parents moved into the South Transept to sign the registers, while the choir sang the anthem ‘Love One Another’ by Samuel Wesley.

‘Great choice of music, Andrew,’ said Charles Adamson as the music began, for Andrew, always the most musically inclined of the four, had been responsible for most of the choices.

‘Thanks so much, Charles. It sounded even better than I hoped it would. Hasn’t the whole thing just been absolutely fabulous.’

‘I’m so glad that we decided to join you two,’ said Emma, ‘This has all been quite wonderful.’

She and Natasha hugged each other happily.

The registers were duly produced and signed and then the foursome and their parents looked for guidance as to what was exactly going to happen next.

‘I will lead you back into the choir now,’ explained the chaplain, ‘They will be looking out for us and the organ will strike up. As soon as it does you can all process back down to the West door.’

‘Is Fritzy going to play the Widor?’ asked Toby of Andrew.

‘I do hope so,’ was the reply, ‘He’s been practicing like anything and when I talked to him on Thursday he said he thought he was ready. We’ll be honoured if he does, because it’ll be the first time that he’s ever played it in public.’

The party moved slowly back into the choir and as soon as they did so the organist began to play the first bars of Widor’s Toccata from his Symphony Number 5.

‘Oh, listen to that,’ exclaimed Andrew jubilantly. Looking up at the organ he gave a thumbs-up sign. It was acknowledged at once by one of his old friends from the Music Department, who he knew would be there in the loft with the organist.

‘Who’s going first?’ asked Emma.

‘Do you think we can go all four abreast,’ suggested Natasha and that was exactly what they did.

They walked slowly down the aisle in the nave, savouring every moment. The cathedral hadn’t been closed to the public, so there were quite a few people milling about in the nave. They all stood still and watched as the bridal party made their stately progress down to the West door.

‘Ooh, I feel like royalty,’ giggled Emma, ‘I wish it was twice as far.’

When they arrived at their destination they found that the door had already been opened wide. Rather than go outside into the sunshine immediately, the foursome looked back into the nave and stood listening until the music ended.

‘Now that,’ declared Natasha, ‘I am going to remember for as long as I live.’

‘Me, too,’ chorused the other three and they all laughed in delight.

The photographer was waiting for them outside and very efficiently formed the various groups that he wanted and took his photographs quickly. In no time at all the couples and their families were able to get into the small fleet of waiting cars to take them to the wedding reception.

The venue for the reception had initially caused much worry to both the Stevenson and the Knight families. The guest list was for some 250 people and as a consequence their options turned out to be quite limited, unless they were prepared to travel quite a distance from home. The solution was suggested quite by chance by a friend of John Knight’s, who had recently been to what he described as a marvellous wedding reception. It was held in a marquee in the back garden of the family involved. Investigations of the local marquee companies showed that it was an excellent solution and that the tennis court at the Stevenson house in Northolt would be the perfect place to use. As 50% of the brides and grooms were Stevensons that also seemed very appropriate.

A pretty awning led from the main courtyard of the house, through the door and over to the marquee on the tennis court. Thus the arriving guests were all greeted right by the house as they were on their way out to the marquee. Everybody seemed very impressed by what they found, for the big tent was very prettily lined from top to bottom, looked most elegant and the perfect place to hold the event.

To the relief of all concerned the reception went perfectly. Food and seemingly endless glasses of champagne ensured that all had a wonderful time. The speeches were all very good and not too long. The hit of the afternoon was undoubtedly Ernie Danglers, who turned out to be a natural and extremely funny speaker. As Toby was otherwise engaged, Andrew decided that Ernie should serve as best man for both of them. Toby had told him a number of funny stories about Andrew and Natasha in their youth. No one was more surprised than Ernie himself by how well his speech was received. He was quite overwhelmed by the laughter and rapturous applause that followed the tales that he had to tell.

It was late in the afternoon when the new Stevenson and Adamson couples decided that it was time for them to depart. There was a big party planned in the marquee for the evening, mostly for the younger set, so they knew that the catering staff would have a lot of clearing up to do, before they could even start thinking about preparing for the next wave of guests. The newly-weds had initially wondered quite what to do about leaving the celebrations, as is conventional, because they were in fact going to spend the night at Northolt before flying off to Mallorca the following day. Charles Adamson came up with the solution when he booked a couple of rooms for them at a rather nice hotel on the outskirts of Melvesham. He also booked a table for them to have dinner in the highly regarded restaurant there, before they returned to Northolt to join in the evening’s festivities. One of the wedding cars had remained to run the couples to the hotel, for not one of them was, in truth, really fit to drive. Rather than change first, all four of them departed still wearing their wedding finery. Suitcases containing more suitable evening wear and cosmetics, etc, had already been left at the hotel for them, so everything was well organised.