The Land of Summer by Charlotte Bingham Page B

little did they seem to register each other’s presence at the foot of the altar, so much did they appear as two people going through a ceremony of which they were barely aware.
    There were no more than half a dozen witnesses in the congregation, the only faces familiar to Emmaline being those of their housekeeper and Mrs Shannon, the kindly landlady from her lodging house. No arrangements for the wedding had been discussed by Julius with his bride-to-be, his only announcement being the date, upon which it seemed he had decided without consultation. As soon as Emmaline touched on the matter of guests, hoping for at least a small celebration afterwards, Julius had made his excuses and left the room. Emmaline was not even invited to choose her own wedding gown. Instead, once the date had been fixed, Agnes had simply arrived in Emmaline’s lodgings with a large cardboard box containing a bridal dress which was pretty enough, but since the box bore no sign of a shop name, both Emmaline and Agnes suspected was not new.
    ‘Do you think as I do, Agnes, that this gown has belonged to someone else?’
    Agnes had turned away, looking embarrassed. ‘I dunno, Miss Emmaline. I was just told by Mrs Graham to come round to your lodgings and bring this with me, that’s all I know.’
    ‘I think I will have to speak to Mr Aubrey in person about this,’ Emmaline told her. ‘I am not going to wear a dress of his choosing, and he must know that. He
will
know that.’
    Emmaline confronted Julius that evening when he called round to her lodgings, determined that if she were asked to wear a second-hand dress there would not only be no wearing of the dress, there would be no wedding.
    Julius shook his head, turning away. ‘I just thought – I just thought …’
    ‘No, Julius, this is not something with which you should concern yourself, just as you told me that I should not concern myself with your work. You may not know it, but I do know it. It is the custom for a bride …’ She took a deep breath and began again. ‘It is the custom not only for the bride to choose her own wedding gown, but also for the bridegroom not to see it until their wedding day.’
    ‘How quaint,’ Julius returned. ‘Almost medieval, I would say.’
    ‘You must be aware of such traditions, even you,’ Emmaline had replied, doing her best to control her temper. ‘And it is not
medieval
, as you call it. It is the way with weddings and wedding days, that most special of days for a young woman, the only day when she can guarantee that all eyes will be on her.’
    ‘Perhaps so, Miss Nesbitt—’
    ‘And
please
do not start your mock formality again, Julius. I really would rather not get married not only in a dress of someone else’s choosing, but in a dress in which someone else has perhaps already been married.’
    ‘Do you not like the dress, I wonder?’
    ‘Now who is sounding quaint,
I wonder
? It is neither here nor there whether or not I like the dress. I wish to get married in a dress that I have chosen myself.’
    ‘And that I have not seen?’ Julius had looked at her, frowning. ‘I must apologise. I see there are things which are definitely not the subject for men.’
    ‘I shall see what can be done at such short notice. Mrs Shannon has already indicated that she will help me. Might we now discuss the day itself – and perhaps whom we may invite?’
    ‘There is nothing to discuss,’ Julius had replied, turning hurriedly to the door. ‘As far as I am concerned, the ceremony is a pure necessity to legalise our union. It is not a reason for an inordinate amount of money to be frittered away on a lot of people one hardly knows, if at all, most of whom one will never see again.’
    ‘It will not be your money being frittered away, as you so cruelly call it, Julius,’ Emmaline had argued, following Julius out into the hallway. ‘If you recall, it is the obligation of the bride’s parents to pay for the wedding, so perhaps you, or indeed