at school. All my little friends fancied being mine.’ She pulled a face. ‘So I’ve got some theories. Wanna hear them?’
‘Very grateful,’ said Bella, touched.
‘You need your best friend. Plus a sister or cousin or whoever. And a sister or cousin from the bridegroom’s family. One small attendant. One to mind the small attendant. But the important thing is that they’re your bridesmaids. Not your husband’s. Not your mother’s. Not your mother-in-law’s. Yours. These women have to get you through the day, so you need to like them. Don’t be blackmailed into asking anyone you don’t want. If there’s someone you absolutely have to include but can’t face on the day itself, you can always ask her to your Hen Night.’
‘Hen Night,’ murmured Bella, committing it to memory. Something else she had forgotten.
However, when Lady Pansy produced her big file labelled Bridesmaids, and started to run through the daughters of the country’s senior aristocrats, along with their family’s service to the Crown over the last two hundred years, Bella was able to say that she had already decided who she was going to ask to be her bridesmaids, thank you.
Lady Pansy stiffened. But Bella had run her choice past Richard who had not only approved but said, when he stopped laughing, ‘And you called me Machiavelli!’ So she knew she was on firm ground.
‘Princess Eleanor. She’s already said yes. My second cousin Joanne. So has she. Tilly Lenane, because she’s Richard’s goddaughter and I think she’s a sweetie. Chloe, because I know how big a part she’s always been of the Royal Family’s life, as you are yourself.’
Lady Pansy inclined her head graciously. She seemed taken aback but pleased, definitely pleased.
So while she was preening, Bella slipped in the news that would make Lady P as sick as a parrot when she started to think about it. ‘And my best friend Charlotte Hendred will be my Chief Bridesmaid, of course. So if you would just find out from Tilly Lenane’s parents and your niece whether they’re happy to trot down the aisle after me, we’re sorted I think, Lady Pansy.’
‘Of course,’ said Lady Pansy. She looked sandbagged. Yes! Result.
With that, the arrangements went swimmingly. After consultation with the King, the Press Office organised a bunch of interviews and think pieces.
‘I told them to leave you alone to get on with it, my dear,’ the King told Bella, when she and Richard joined the rest of the Royal Family for supper, one cool spring evening. ‘I said to Julian Madoc, “I like her style. She’s got a good head on her shoulders and she’s very well behaved.” Unlike some,’ he added with a dark look at Nell, who pretended not to see.
‘We’ll send a minder along, of course. And you must ask for any advice you want. But basically be yourself. Ver’ charming. Ver’ charming.’
With the Royal seal of approval, it seemed Bella could not go wrong. Even Lady Pansy stopped arguing. Though the High Level Talks on the wedding dress nearly changed that.
It was Lady Pansy, of course, who arranged the conference room and the coffee in the Palace. So she decided to take the initiative and invite four of her favourite designers to come too, in the afternoon, to present their ideas.
‘You did what?’ said Bella aghast, arriving before her support group.
Lady Pansy was affronted. ‘Time is ticking away. You need to assign the contract today. Having the top four here will save time. Not all together, of course. You can talk to them in turn,’ she said kindly.
Bella was tight-lipped. ‘You knew quite well that this was to be a planning meeting only. This is not helpful. Get rid of them.’
But even her grandmother, when she arrived, said that it would be bad form to uninvite them at such short notice. So Bella gave in. She was still seething, though.
However, the discussion itself was very useful. Everyone had a different perspective. Bella realised she wouldn’t have thought of half the points on her own.
Janet said the most important thing Bella needed to think about was being comfortable. She would be standing a long time, she would have to move a fair amount, step backwards, go round corners, up steps, kneel and stand up again.
‘You have to feel that you can move in the dress without having to brace yourself every time, pet,’ her mother said earnestly. ‘There’s so much to do at a wedding. You want to be able to put your dress on and forget about it.’
Lottie