Nanny Diaries 3 - Pride and Prejudice

Coming Around

"Stop making faces, Daphne...a corset improves your posture considerably, as well as your shape...and sets a lady apart from those less fortunate. Helen clearly needs to be stricter with your waist training dear...when I was your age, sixteen inches was seen as average." Edwina Deacon said, sitting in her favourite chair, watching the dressmaker torture me. "Of course, the art of waist training is seen as old-fashioned by some...but fashion is cyclical and thinner waists are in this year."

"I am so sorry, Mrs Deacon." I gasped, as I tried to catch my breath, before the burly woman pulled again, in an attempt to cut me in two. But I had not made a noise. That in itself was real progress, because the sacrifices demanded in the name of high fashion, Meadvale-style, were profound and debilitating. Not to mention painful. "It is just a little..."

"My father used to say that a real lady never complains...or shows displeasure...Mrs Dacra knows what she is doing...don't you, Mrs Dacra?"

"Girls should sleep in night stays...but she is slim enough, Ma'am...these young girls really are far too mollycoddled, if you ask me." Mrs Dacra, who had a strong French accent, grunted as she tried to squeeze the life out of me. "But she will look magnificent in her dress...and the bride looks stunning...no?"

"She does...she can't actually speak yet, but she looks beautiful." Bella's mother, Mrs Honor Deacon, sighed, as she circled my friend, picking at the skirts of her ivory satin gown, which was quite stunning, I had to admit. It was embroidered with pearls, thousands of them, and it was so heavy the dressmaker had needed help to lift it over her head.

"She only needs to say two words during the ceremony...I am sure she will be able to manage that," Edwina sighed, rather unsympathetically, even for her. Bella had been laced and dressed first, because she was the priority, and she had suffered at least as much as me. But the finished appearance was incredibly beautiful. Her waist was simply tiny, which enhanced her chest, and the voluminous skirts seemed to cascade from her hips. "And as the main bridesmaid, Daphne must look almost but not quite as wonderful...so heave ho, Mrs Dacra!"

"Your grandmother actually would make an excellent torturer!" I giggled, hours later, when Bella and I finally got a chance to talk in private. In bed, of course. In sleepsuits, so that nothing untoward could happen, before ten o'clock, and Bella's mother had told us that we would not be allowed to talk for long, but I had learned to be grateful for small mercies.

"She is treating it like a royal wedding...our dresses are DiMarco designs...I have a dozen bridesmaids, and four pageboys...and we are having two hundred and eighty odd people to the main reception...it must be costing a fortune!" She sighed, our heads close together on the soft pillows, cuddled up together under her duvet. I did not like wearing tight corsets, but I did like looking good, and the cream silk gown decorated with pale pink flowers that I had been almost sewn into was absolutely gorgeous. And Bella had looked better, a real fairytale princess.

"You looked incredible though...you must be so excited?"

"It is what I was born for...what I expected...and I might be able to do something useful as a Pastor's wife, I suppose." She sighed, and I held her a little bit tighter. "Sunday school...bible classes...endless charitable committees...but I am also going to be a real part of the traditional resurgence...that was not what I expected out of life."

"As long as you can help with the children...that is what we both want...and you might be able to teach one day...Mrs Blackstone keeps dropping hints that I can be useful at Deepdene soon," I gushed, still feeling positive about my future. I had been treated really harshly but then again, I had been really arrogant, and in a Christian community like Meadvale, that was clearly unacceptable. Meadvale was its own microworld, with its own rules, and that was what I liked about it, deep down, because I could see the boundaries around me, both of the physical and social kind, and understand my place within the community. But it was one thing understanding the boundaries, and quite another accepting that they fully applied to me.