Chapter 7: The London Season

October 1818

They had eight days in total to prepare for the move to London, where they would stay with the Bennings. Of course, their servants would accompany them. Suzette would take Mirabel, Teresa and Catriona’s needs, but also be able to attend her half-sister’s wedding. Lisette, now married to Andrew Polk, would be able to see her family, and Broderick would look after Thomas’s needs. Of course, Maggie and Theo, with his wet nurse, had to come along, too. Between the Bennings’ coach and the regular stagecoach, they could barely fit everybody in, but they managed.

Daisy Leeds, accompanied by an Alice Harrison, who was wearing very proper widow’s garments, had left two days earlier, and they would lodge with the Leeds family. Thomas kept his fingers crossed that the two woman would avoid scandal.

The ride into London took them over seven hours, but the Bennings’ household was ready to receive them, and they quickly settled in. After supper, they all sat together in the living room and made plans for the coming days, meaning that Angela issued the necessary directives. Since Melissa Curry had been living with Angela and Elias for over two years, they and the Greys would constitute the bride’s side of the pews, together with the father of the bride and her two half-sisters. Angela took this as a warrant to coordinate everything, and Thomas and Mirabel accepted the fait accompli in good grace.

The next day would be devoted to the clothing needs of Catriona and Suzette, since neither Catriona’s blue dress, tailored hurriedly in Kilmarnock, nor Suzette’s sunday best were deemed good enough for a wedding in Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Mirabel, deemed to have good clothing sense, was to assist Angela in her quest. Only Teresa was spared after a viewing of the dress she’d worn in Kilmarnock.

This left Thomas and Elias to their own devices, giving Thomas a chance to call at the Admiralty, but also at his publisher, drawing his pay and the latest royalty payments.

After seeing their children to bed, Thomas and Mirabel turned in, both expecting a busy next day.

The next day came early. It was still dawn when a bell sounded six times from the ground floor.

“Must be six bells,” Thomas grumbled. “Elias must’ve pinched an old ship’s bell from the Navy Yard.”

“We better get ready. Angela won’t brook any dawdling,” Mirabel giggled beside him.

“A few more minutes won’t hurt,” Thomas smiled, his mood improving, before he rolled on top of her for a very thorough good morning kiss. When he lifted himself off her supine form, she gave him a mock push.

“You shouldn’t start something you cannot finish properly,” she complained, but then she laughed. “I’ll not chance Angela’s ire.”

Ten minutes later they made their appearance downstairs where they sat to table for breakfast. Catriona showed next, looking dishevelled.

“Where’s the bluidy fire?” she asked crossly, in a broad Scots they had not heard from her before. Realising her faux-pas, she turned crimson. “I’m sorry. I thought it was an alarm.”

By contrast, Teresa was an old hand at staying with the Bennings and appeared well groomed and dressed.

“Good morning!” she greeted them cheerfully.

Chuckling, Elias joined them. “I acted on explicit orders from higher authority,” he excused himself, making the others grin knowingly.

A very shy Suzette appeared next, trying to be invisible.

“Missus Benning made me,” she explained, looking at the table, sitting down at the very end of it.

“You may as well sit closer, girl!” Elias told her. “None of us, except perhaps Missus Douglas, will bite you.”

“You could have warned me. I thought there was a fire, and rushed from the bed.” She blushed crimson. “I’m sorry; I stepped into the chamber pot in my rush, and I had to help the poor maid with the clean-up.”

Everybody fought valiantly against the laughter that bubbled up, but only Teresa lost that battle of wills, giggling helplessly.

“Teresa, that’s not nice!” Mirabel admonished their eldest, herself barely keeping her face in check.

“I’m s-so s-sorry, Cat,” Teresa gasped, only to double over again. That did it for the young Scotswoman, and she exploded into laughter too.

“I’ll never hear the end of this, shall I?” she got out between bouts of the giggles

“I am sorry about your mishap, Missus Douglas. I thought it was easiest to use the bell. You recognised the sound, Thomas?”

“Where’d you pinch it? Some Cruizer class sloop?”

“Not some. Wolverine will be broken up. Those sloops were never built too stoutly, and she would need a major rebuild. There’s too many of them anyway.”

“I tried to get Dido’s bell, when she was sent to the breakers, but a certain, enterprising Victualling Yard commissioner beat me to it,” Thomas laughed. “Unicorn is still in ordinary, and Sir Anthony has older rights to Clyde’s bell. Tim Bartleby won’t part with Tempest’s either.”

“You will not wake us and our guests with a ship’s bell!” Mirabel decreed sternly. “Will this be a daily ritual, Elias?”

“Only when I’m ordered,” Elias smiled, looking at the connecting door where Angela now appeared. “Dearest, not all our guests appreciated the bell signal.”

“Thank God you’re not an Army officer. You’d wake us with a bugle,” Angela said dryly. “My apologies, my dears. I wanted to send out the maids with coffee to wake you gently, but Elias has a new toy and insisted on using it.”

Nobody had much appetite at this rather ungodly hour, and soon the women repaired to the upstairs to dress for going out.

Thomas and Elias took their time to ready themselves, and it was past 10 am. when they left the house on foot. Thomas took quick care of his business at the Admiralty. Jeremiah Anson was not in office as chief of staff anymore, and Thomas resolved to send a billet to the Ansons for a possible get-together. The publisher quickly reported about the still lively sales of the Comparative History and gave Thomas a check over £78.5s .5d for the last quarter’s sales. He also reported that the French translation was selling briskly, too, and that a third printing run was imminent, to meet the demand.

With this business out of the way, Thomas and Elias visited the St. Croix club, where they enjoyed a small repast and the convenience of the reading room. Thomas saw no acquaintances amongst the members present, and the two friends soon left the club and headed back to Stanhope Gate, spending a few quiet hours. Thomas told his friend about the Ellington affair and its outcome, and at first, Elias was speechless.

“To think that a gentleman might lower himself to such baseness,” he said in the end. “Yet, I must say that I am proud of the way you handled the affair. Painting the other gentlemen of the sugar faction with the same brush would have been unfair, and to give them a chance to repair the problem without public exposure, was the right thing to do.”

“I was not keen on adding those men to my enemies. Jeremiah’s brother-in-law would have been tainted, too, and Jeremiah was very helpful in resolving the matter.”

“Yes, a good man. Replacing him was not Moore’s¹ best move, but I suppose they grew a bit tired of each other. Anson can enjoy the leisure now. I hear they offered him a ship, but he declined. With a wife such as Lady Anson, he can now enjoy the fruits of his hard work until they find something land-based for him.”

“Quite so. That reminds me: I should write him a billet.”

“Why don’t you do that? There’ll be no time for that once the hens come home to roost.”

“Fie, Elias! To liken our dear wives to hens!” Thomas laughed, but there was wisdom in his friend’s words, and he sat down at a small writing desk in the study and composed a short message to their friends. He barely had the time to finish, seal and send it off with one of the footmen, before the Bennings’ coach arrived, and with it, four women who were thoroughly fatigued by a day spent in fashion houses. Catriona, as the main target of Angela’s well-meant direction, was particularly dazed.

Fortunately, the topic of proper dressing was not exhausted yet, and whilst the ladies had tea, biscuits and fashion details for their sustenance, Thomas and Elias were able to retreat to the study in good order, there to enjoy old brandy and comparative silence.

They had a late dinner that evening, and by that point, Angela was back to being the gracious and caring hostess as which Thomas and Mirabel knew her.

“We neglected you today,” she addressed Elias and Thomas. “How was your day?”

They admitted to spending a leisurely and even lazy day, and were properly chided for it. When Thomas, for once not attuned to the women’s mindsets, argued that spending a day getting fitted for dresses was not hard work either, he was instantaneously inundated in a barrage of indignant remonstrations. He was obstinate, however, challenging them to deny that they’d had fun together.

“He knows us too well,” Mirabel admitted in a resigned tone. “Yes, we had fun, but yes, it was exhausting, too.”

“Well, we walked all over London. That was pleasurable, but tiring, too. Yet, we are accused of being lazy?”

“Yes, but we spent the day in the noble pursuit of looking pretty for you,” Mirabel maintained.

“Since when do you need clothes for that?” Elias threw in naughtily.

A threefold cry of indignation answered him, and he grinned smugly.

“They are barbarians, both of them,” Angela stated, albeit with a blush on her face. “Never marry a sailor, my dear Catriona. They are crude and have only one thing on their minds.”

“I stand warned,” Catriona laughed.

The next days were quieter for the Bennings and their guests. This changed on the Thursday before the wedding, when the new dresses were ready for the final fitting. Apparently, according to Angela and Mirabel, nothing had been right, and therefore, Thomas was nonplussed when, after a few alterations, all the dresses were ready and perfect by Friday. Of course, the men were not asked and did not even see them before Saturday morning, when five females glided down the Bennings’ stairs. Mirabel and Teresa’s dresses, Thomas already knew from Robert’s wedding, and Angela’s was a slightly modified older dress he supposedly had seen before. Catriona, with her flaxen hair, had again opted for a blue dress, but even Thomas saw the difference between it and the dress she had worn at her brother’s wedding. The tailors and seamstresses at Wilson’s Fashion had created something that elevated a pretty, rosy-cheeked woman into a dazzling vision of beauty.

Even more astounding, if flustered and nervous, was Suzette Curry in an ivory dress that highlighted her trim form and tan complexion. Looking at her, Thomas expected his wife to be looking for a new personal maidservant soon, if there were any single and sensible men at the wedding, which of course, was not a given. He said that much, making poor Suzette blush even more and Mirabel nod sagely.

Mirabel briefly looked in on their children, but then they all boarded the coaches and were driven to Saint Paul’s Cathedral, where they alighted. Catriona stood then for a moment and stared in open-mouthed wonder at the huge baroque church.

“‘Tis grand, isn’t it?” she sighed then, causing smiles all around.

“Yes, my dear, it’s imposing,” Angela admitted. “Wait until you’re inside, though.”

At the entrance, Thomas and Elias announced their party, and an usher consulted a long list, finding their names rather near the top.

“You and your party have seating in the second pew on the left, Sir Thomas,” he informed then.

They walked along the aisle at a dignified pace until they reached the second pew. Before they could be seated, the father of the bride, Captain Curry, rushed to meet them. He was polite enough to the Greys and the Bennings, but his eyes were on Suzette and fairly wide. She smiled back at him.

“Would you mind if my ... damn it, my daughter will sit with me, Sir Thomas?”

“Of course not, Captain. We all care for her and appreciate your acknowledgement.”

“Suzette, dear, will you sit up front with me?”

“Yes, F-father?” Suzette offered hesitantly.

“D ... quite right, my dear daughter. You look splendid.” He looked at the Greys. “Thank you for taking such good care of her.”

“I quite depend on her, Captain Curry. It was the least we could do,” Mirabel smiled.

Now the Leeds family entered and moved along the aisle, acknowledging guests on both sides. When they reached the second pew, Mister Leeds greeted them with a beaming smile. Thomas’s eyes went wide when he saw the rest of the Leeds family. Missus Leeds looked splendid of course, but Daisy Leeds caught his eye. She was more than pretty on this day, wearing an emerald green dress.

“Alice cannot attend,” she whispered with a shrug. “She’s in mourning, after all.”

Captain Curry now had to wait outside for the coach with Melinda to arrive. A few minutes later, Owen Leeds, wearing the epaulettes of a Royal Navy commander, entered the nave and slowly walked along the aisle, greeting and acknowledging guests on both sides. Seeing Thomas, he stood at attention.

“Thank you for coming, Sir Thomas, Lady Grey. If it hadn’t been for you, I would have never met my bride. Captain Benning, Missus Benning, my eternal thanks to you for taking Melinda in and looking after her!”

“That is quite all right, my dear Captain Leeds,” Elias answered for them. “Miss Curry brought much joy to our home. You are a lucky man.”

Owen Leeds nodded emphatically and then took up his position in front on the altar. Not too soon, for Captain Curry was now leading his daughter forward. Instantly, the church became a brighter place, with Melinda Curry beaming left and right as she walked along the pews. She looked radiant, and when she espied her half-sister Suzette, she pulled her father to the left and hugged her with deep feeling. Then it was her father’s turn to place Melinda’s hand into Owen Leeds’s, and the priest came forward to conduct the ceremony.

Everything was far more elaborate than the weddings Thomas had witnessed before, in the Garrison chapel at Gibraltar or the church in Kilmarnock.It just took more time, but then young Commander Leeds and the new Missus Leeds were married much the same as he and Mirabel were. The happy couple, followed by family and friends then stepped outside, where the well wishers waited, and for the next half hour, they accepted the felicitations from Mister Leeds’s vast circle of friends, partners and associates, but also from a small detachment of HMS Wolf, 14, a Crocus class brig-sloop which Owen Leeds had commanded until two weeks before.

Selected guests then followed the couple to the wedding reception in the Leeds’ opulent house. The Greys and Bennings sat rather close to the immediate family on the bridal side, next to a pair of cousins of the bride, and there was not much common interest with them, whilst they regarded Thomas and Elias, in their Navy dress uniforms, with distaste. One of them also seemed miffed over Suzette’s seating at the table, and the looks he cast at Mirabel were not of the approving sort, either. Suzette was rather timid and uncomfortable, repeatedly looking at Mirabel for guidance, who could only give her encouraging smiles.

After dinner, the guests moved to a side room where Port and Sherry wines were offered, whilst servants cleared the dining hall, to open a dance floor. Soon, a musical quartet began to play, and the young couple led the opening dance. Thomas and Mirabel also whirled around the room to the fashionable waltz melody played, whilst the Bennings stayed at the sides with Suzette, until a Navy lieutenant, a friend of the groom, formally asked her to the dance floor. The few hurried dance lessons combined with her lithe body enable Suzette to acquit herself honourably on the dance floor, and the officer even led her to the side and procured wine for her and himself. Seeing them, Thomas could not help but think that he knew that man.

During a pause in the music, the young couple found their way to where the Greys and Bennings stood, and thanked them for attending. Melissa Leeds thanked Mirabel and Angela for taking care of Suzette, and Owen Leeds related that the lieutenant had been his first lieutenant and a decent chap, but of a rather humble background, in fact, an orphan who, like Thomas, had attended the Royal Naval Academy. Suddenly, Thomas recognised him. It was the former Academy scholar Peter Henley, a year ahead of him at the Academy. They’d had a difficult time with each other, but found some understanding later. Now he had to be a senior lieutenant.

When Mister Henley returned Suzette to their party, he recognised Thomas, too.

“Sir Thomas, my felicitations for your resounding successes,” he offered formally.

“Thank you, Mister Henley. I can see that you made your way in the Navy, too. Are you still with the Wolf sloop?”

“Yes, Sir Thomas. She is under repairs, but I was informed that a new commanding officer will be appointed shortly.”

“She’s a Crocus-class sloop, isn’t she? My first posting was in the Wolverine, a Cruizer-class sloop. A wet ship. This is Captain Benning. He was my captain in the Wolverine.”

“Your servant, Sir! The Crocus sloops are not better, Sir Thomas. It’s the missing fo’c’sle, and we had no scuppers, either. The dockyard is cutting them into the bulwarks now, but we had the deck flooded until we almost capsized at times.”

“Those sloops are fast and cheap to sail, and that’s all that’s good about them,” Elias commented. “I sailed the Wolverine for three years, and I thank my creator for never putting an enemy in front of me. At a distance, the enemy would shoot you to pieces, up close, they’d board you with a half again bigger crew. There’s a reason why only two thirds of the brig-sloops made it through the war.”

Elias was correct, of course. The brig-sloops were terribly overmatched against ship-sloops, having only short-range carronades and smaller crews, and they had fared poorly against American sloops and privateers. Henley could only nod.

“I’ve sailed brig-sloops since graduation, Sir. My first ship, the Wild Boar struck the Runnel Stone in the Scillies in 1810 and was lost. They cashiered the master and sent me to the Redpole. I passed the lieutenant’s exam in mid-1811 and shifted to Merope. When she was sent to the breakers in ‘15, I was lucky to snag the Nº1 spot in Wolf. I have yet to sail in a post ship.”

Thomas nodded sagely. There were many officers like Henley, men who never did anything wrong, but were stuck in meaningless postings and unlucky ships. Once again, he realised the luck he’d encountered.

“Better than half-pay, at least,” he consoled Henley.

“There is that, Sir. Sir Thomas, is it true that Suzette Curry is Captain Curry’s natural daughter?”

Thomas made himself shrug. “We have no knowledge of that. However, when he emancipated her, she kept the last name Curry.”

“My uncle cut me loose when I got my midshipman’s warrant. Miss Suzette is right pretty and educated. I cannot be picky, Sir, and I never held with bigotry anyway.”

Thomas remembered that Henley had been supported by an uncle who had been a rather unsympathetic taskmaster. Captain Curry might indeed put up a dowry for his natural daughter, mixed blood or not. For Henley, a man wholly dependent on his pay, the girl might be the ticket to modest prosperity.