A Secret Ambition

XVIII

"You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you." John Bunyan

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XVIII.

"A ... a whole book of harp music ... Grandmamma, you shouldn't have." Lily lifted the collection of sheet music out of the gift box carefully and looked up at the eyes of her family members as they watched her open her birthday presents.

"I thought your father might have purchased you an instrument for the house, but he has neglected you thus," Cecily mused, eyeing Adam with an arched brow. "Think of the gentlemen Lily could have impressed had she had an instrument in the drawing room." She tsked and shook her head.

Lily was silently very thankful for her parents' gift of a dainty gold timepiece engraved with her initials.

"A harp would have been a little challenging to gift wrap, Mother," Adam retorted playfully. "I must admit I am also devastated that Lily's talents cannot be shopped to idiotic fortune hunters. Alas, there is always Christmas." Adam winked at Lily.

Cecily rolled her eyes before she returned her attention back to Lily and clapped her hands twice. "Now, for the pièce de resistance." She produced another two beautifully wrapped gift boxes. "Only one of these is for you, Lily. The other is for Jackie."

Lily's cousin had been sitting with her family on one of the sofas watching Lily unwrap her gifts and was quite surprised when her grandmother had named her. Jackie, as well as Jack, had forgone work that day, and she had donned a simple, white day dress for the occasion. Cecily had been pleased and had audibly said so.

"For me, Grandmamma? But it is not my birthday for another few weeks." Jackie straightened her posture.

"Yes, I know, but you are both to debut just before your birthday, and I wanted you both to have these." Lily could see the pride in her grandmother's eyes as she held the two gift boxes out in her hands.

Both Lily and Jackie rose to go and collect their boxes. Lily's name was handwritten in her grandmother's elegant hand atop one. Lily spied her given name: Cecily. Jackie, likewise, received a box inscribed: Jacqueline.

Lily and Jackie exchanged a glance, before Cecily urged them to sit together on a long footstool so that they might open their gifts beside each other. They simultaneously removed the ribbons and lifted the lids, before being greeted by a glittering, diamond tiara nestled in a silk bed.

Lily was suitable awestruck as she stared at the headpiece. It was a perfect halo of looping silver, adorned with diamonds of all sizes, the centrepiece a magnificent stone the size of a silver coin. Lily glanced beside her to see that Jackie had unboxed a tiara as well. Jackie's tiara was just as grand and as stunning as Lily's, the only difference being that Jackie's centre stone was a magnificent green emerald.

Cecily had never appeared prouder in her life than she had in that moment, and she was quick to lift each of the tiaras out of their boxes so that she could place them on the heads of her granddaughters. She gently placed Lily's first, before delicately placing Jackie's. Cecily stepped backwards to admire her work, and Lily could have sworn that she saw tears in her grandmother's eyes.

Cecily was prepared for the occasion though and revealed that she had brought down a silver hand mirror from her dressing table. She held it up to both of the girls so that they could see their appearance.

"Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful, the pair of you," Cecily declared. "Jackie, your tiara is the one I wore on my wedding day," she uttered tenderly. "I thought that the emeralds would compliment your eyes, and I am pleased to see that I am right." Cecily gently caressed Jackie's cheekbone with the back of her knuckle. "And Lily," Cecily brought the mirror in front of Lily's face, "your tiara was the one I wore when I made my debut all those years ago."