Chapter 42 – A Dog's Life:

"E, equiv, equivocally, no equilaterally, no, no, equal, equal," Archimedes squinted his eyes as he tried to read an article in a scientific journal. As he moved the paper to and away from his face, his eyes still struggled to read the blurry letters on the page.

"Blast and double blast!" he huffed, tossing the journal back onto his desk with some frustration. Throughout his whole life, Archimedes Quintinus Porter knew that he was not the strongest nor the tallest man but his fierce intelligence made up for his lack of physical prowess. He had to admit that he was no spring chicken, but at seventy-two years old Archimedes still prided himself on having perfect vision. But now he had to face the disheartening fact that he was getting old, not just his body but also his eyes.

"Just as well as I am in London," he thought as he spun a wooden globe on its axis, "I can at least be able to go and see an ophthalmologist." At that moment his stomach rumbled and he got up from his desk, abandoning his studies. There was no point in studying now and he had lost all chance of concentrating anyway. It was gone 4 o'clock and he was getting peckish. Archimedes wondered if Mrs Griggs had baked a batch of her delicious, buttery shortbread biscuits. Rather than ringing the bell for Carson, he decided to make the trip to the kitchen himself.

As he entered the warm kitchen, he found that it was filled with not only delicious smells but also with hardworking staff. Mrs Griggs was at the range, lifting out a ham joint that she was boiling on the stovetop whilst Daisy was busy peeling potatoes at the kitchen sink. Thomas was chatting animatedly to Martha as he polished shoes whilst she was repairing one of William's gowns.

"Oh Professor Porter!" Thomas noticed the master of house entering their domain and immediately went to bow but Archimedes smiled as he shook his head.

"Oh no need for pomp and ceremony here Thomas. Please, continue as you were, don't mind me."

"Would you like anything Professor?" the young valet asked politely as Archimedes walked towards the pantry.

"Oh I was just wondering… if there was… any shortbread at all?" Archimedes replied and Mrs Griggs made a knowing smile. It was her master's favourite treat and when Mrs Porter was still alive she had politely asked Mrs Griggs to make shortbread less frequently to stop her husband from gaining too much weight! But she would still secretly make a little batch to appease his rather sweet tooth!

"Yes Professor, the biscuit tin is in the pantry. You know where it is. Would you like a cup of tea with it too?"

"Why not!" Archimedes beamed as he went into the pantry and Mrs Griggs proceeded to make him a small pot of tea.

"So what are you young'uns gassing about?" Archimedes asked the young servants as he sat down at the kitchen table. They looked nervous at first but Martha plucked up some courage and smiled politely.

"Tommy was just telling me that his Uncle Silas is a dog breeder for Lord Home and how he has assisted his lordship in developing a new breed of retriever gun dog… what was it is called again Tommy?"

"Labrador," Tommy replied, his face forming a proud and cheeky grin. "They are raight beautiful dogs sir. They love swimming and hunting, me uncle has just sent me a letter telling me that another litter of puppies has been born."

"Really?" Archimedes was intrigued, it was coming up to Christmas and he had been wondering on what to get his granddaughter as a gift. She had always liked the idea having of a dog but it didn't seem possible, until now. As a little girl, Jane had always wanted a dog, in particular a King Charles spaniel but wasn't allowed as they made her mother's eyes water and sneeze violently.

"Thomas, do you have a picture of one of these Labradors?"

"Aye sir, it's in my room. I'll go and grab it for thou." A few minutes later after going up to his attic room, Thomas was back with a letter and photograph of his Uncle Silas with a couple of the dogs.

"That's Rex and Dash," Thomas said as he gave Archimedes the photograph, "me Uncle Silas was telling me t'sorry story that there's one runt and t'mother has rejected it so he is raising t'pup himself."

Archimedes looked at the dogs and thought them to be friendly looking and very handsome. Yes, they did look like a great dog for his granddaughter to have. He had heard at how well Annabelle took to Simpkin and had thought for a while that it would be a neat idea for her to have a pet of her own. After all, a dog is a man and woman's best friend.

"Thomas, would your uncle be willing to sell the puppy? I am prepared to pay a fair price."

"Oh sir, how come?"

"I would like to get Annabelle a puppy as her Christmas gift from me and I think that your abandoned puppy will be just the thing."

"Aye t'lass will love a puppy! I think me Uncle Silas will be willing to sell t'pup. I will write to him tonight sir."

"Good!" Archimedes beamed, delighted at the thought of his granddaughter opening her present on Christmas and the sheer joy on her face when she found a puppy in the box! "But please keep this between us. I don't want Anna to get a whiff of it and thus spoil the surprise!"

"Aye," Thomas grinned cheekily and tapped the side of his nose with his finger, "don't fret sir! T'lass won't know nowt til Christmas Day!"

"Alright, alright keep your hair on!" Carson muttered under his breath, as a rather loud and imperious knock sounded on the front door. He adjusted his waistcoat before opening the door to see to his surprise not a postman but a liveried messenger.

"For Professor Porter and Mr and Mrs Porter," the messenger quickly handed the message to the slightly bewildered butler and dashed back into the waiting horse and coach. Carson closed the front door and looked at the rather expensive looking cream envelope for a moment before climbing the stairs to the upstairs parlour and politely knocked on the door.

"Come in!" called out Tarzan's friendly voice and Carson entered to find his master playing with his baby son on the floor, whist Jane was doing some embroidery with Annabelle.

"Sir… a message has been delivered to the house."

Tarzan automatically turned to his wife, his face puzzled. They were in hiding, why would they be receiving messages?

"Maybe it's from Dr Willis-Turner?" Jane put down her embroidery hoop and walked over to Carson. "Maybe he has changed his mind about William's surgery?"

As Jane opened the envelope, her eyes scanned the contents and her eyes widened.

"What is it Jane?" Tarzan asked as Jane stuffed the message back into the envelope.

"Ummm, I need to do something. I'll explain in a minute dear. Carson!" Jane hastily went up to her bedroom, Carson dutifully following her. Jane went straight to her writing desk and quickly wrote something on a piece of paper.

"Carson, I need this message delivered to Viscountess Lennox-Foxton right away, it is imperative!"

"Of course Madam," Carson nodded as Jane handed over the folded message, her face all pale with anxiety. He headed down to kitchen where Thomas was still polishing shoes. "Thomas, a word please." Thomas wiped his hands on a cloth and followed Carson into the laundry room where clothes and bed sheets were hanging up to dry.

"Sir?" Thomas, normally a confident, chatty Yorkshire lad was a little nervous. This was his first job in London and he didn't think that he was doing a bad job. His mother would be so disappointed if he lost this job.

"I need you to deliver this," Carson handed the message and Thomas felt his heart relax. "The mistress wants it delivered to Viscountess Lennox-Foxton. She resides at 12 Belgrave Square Garden."

"That beautiful woman who came 'ere t'other day? Wonder why t'mistress wants to send 'er a message?"

"That's none of our business!" Carson snapped before recollecting himself, "It is urgent so you'd better get going!"

"Aye sir," Thomas took the message and went over to his bicycle, which was resting against the far wall of the laundry room. He put on his wool coat, flat cap and wrapped a scarf around his neck, putting the message in his coat pocket before putting on some thickly knitted gloves. He cycled as quickly as he could over to Belgrave Square Garden, expertly dodging pedestrians, horse drawn coaches and motorcars, the winter wind stinging his face.

When he arrived, he leant his bicycle against the black iron railings and hurried over to the front door, the grand balcony above it held up by grand cream columns, providing shelter from wind and rain. He took off his cap and smoothed down his hair before venturing to sound the grand fox headed doorknocker.

"Yes? May I help you?" the Lennox-Foxton's butler looked at Thomas somewhat snootily and that annoyed Thomas and felt his temper rise a little.

"I have an urgent message for t'Viscountess," he said but his boosted confidence was short lived as he handed over the somewhat crumpled message to the butler.

"You had better wait in the hallway then," the butler replied, pointedly smoothing the message before letting Thomas in. Thomas stood dead still in the hallway, not daring to touch any of the grand objets d'art. A very pretty housemaid walked past, carrying a tray with the discards of afternoon tea. She smiled at Thomas who gave her a cheeky wink! The maid blushed but hurried off as the butler came back down the stairs.

"You can inform Mrs Porter that the Viscountess will be over shortly," the butler said haughtily before escorting Thomas out of the house like an unwelcome stray dog.

Thomas cycled back, equally as fast as his journey to Belgrave Square Garden and told Carson to tell the mistress that the Viscountess would come over shortly. However it was over an hour before Cecilia arrived at the house.

"You took your time!" Jane jumped up from her desk as Carson escorted Cecilia into the bedroom. She was again dressed exquisitely, this time in an afternoon dress made out of tomato red chiffon with ivory lace sleeves and collar, the pigeon breast silhouette of the bodice clearly following the latest fashion trends.

"A lady of quality should always be dressed impeccably, even when on a secret mission," Cecilia replied calmly as she unpinned her hat from her hair. "You were lucky that I wasn't at court today. Now what is all the fuss about?"

Jane tossed the envelope onto the bed and Cecilia opened it and read the message out aloud. "The Lord Chamberlain is commanded by His Majesty the King to invite Professor Archimedes Q. Porter, Mr and Mrs Tarzan Porter to a Royal Ball at Buckingham Palace on Friday 9th December 1904 at 7 o'clock p.m!" Cecilia was absolutely gobsmacked; no wonder Jane had sent an urgent message to her!

"How the hell does the King know that we are here?!" Jane exclaimed as she paced the bedroom like a caged bear. "We are in hiding! We have told no one that we are here… except you, you are the only one that knows we are back in London!" Jane spun round to face her friend, her eyes hardening in anger.

"Jane! I swear I haven't told anyone! I swear!"

"Well then who has! You are a lady in waiting to the Queen for God's sake! I should never have trusted you, you and your love of gossip! I should have known that you couldn't keep your big mouth shut!"

"Jane, I didn't tell anyone, I didn't tell anyone at court that you were back. I swear!" Cecilia got off the bed and tried to approach her friend but Jane pushed away her open arms.

"Anyone at court? Did you tell anyone else outside of the royal court?"

There was a pause and then Cecilia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "I only told Charlie over dinner," she admitted reluctantly, "he is my husband Jane, I don't keep any secrets from him. He must have got drunk in the House of Parliament bar or at one of his gentleman's clubs and blabbed to someone! I could kill Charlie, I could absolutely kill him! I'm sorry Jane, I am so sorry."

"What we are doing to do?" Jane lamented helplessly, throwing herself face down onto the bed as Cecilia read and reread the invitation.

"You have to go," she replied simply. "You have no choice, you have been summoned, commanded. There is no possibility of getting out of this. It's the King and Queen of England for goodness sake!"

"Can't we say that we're ill? Tell them that we are sick? You could say that we caught a horrific, deforming tropical disease of some sort? Smallpox? Diphtheria? The Plague!"

"I'm afraid not," Cecilia shrugged and Jane groaned. "Besides I thought you would have wanted this. You and I always dreamed ever since we were little of going to court. Maybe the Queen will like you and make you into a lady-in-waiting and your husband could be made into a gentleman usher?"

"But I don't want to be lady-in-waiting!" Jane snapped and got off the bed and plonked herself down at her dressing table. Cecilia put the invitation down and calmly walked over. She unpinned Jane's chignon and started to gently brush it through in a bid to calm her friend down. Jane felt herself relax as Cecilia softly brushed through her tresses. It reminded her of the many times they played 'Queen and Lady in Waiting'. Funnily enough Cecilia played the role of lady in waiting more often than her, as she was the best at styling hair out of the two of them.

"It's not such a bad thing," Cecilia put the brush down and started to style Jane's hair into a soft 'Gibson Girl' updo. "Think about it, the court is so different now that King Edward is on the throne. It's so much more fun than when the dull 'Widow of Windsor' was alive! There's countless banquets, balls, parties, picnics, hunting and shooting parties oh I cannot tell you!"

"We're supposed to be in hiding," Jane pointed out as she passed Cecilia a bobby pin. "Being in hiding is the exact opposite to gallivanting around with the royal family! We were only supposed to come here to get William his operation and go straight back… now that's gone down the pan."

"Why's that?"

"The doctor said that he will not operate until he is a year old so we will be stuck here until July at least!"

"Oh I'm so sorry Jane… so if you are here until the summer and people know that you are back then you and Tarzan should become part of the royal court. Oh, the Christmas balls are just the bee's knees!"

"Cecilia, we're not going to the ball!" Jane exasperated, "it's the 25th November, 3 weeks until the ball. We have no suitable clothes, my father and Tarzan do not have dinner suits, I certainly don't have a ball gown and there is no time to have things made!"

"Charlie has an amazing tailor that can make the suits and you can borrow one of my dresses, I have so many that I have never even worn."

"It's not just the dress and the clothes -" Jane's voice trailed off. Cecilia paused and watched Jane's despaired face for a moment.

"You're worried about Tarzan," she commented, "you're worried about him embarrassing you."

"No!" Jane immediately rebutted, "I'm not embarrassed by him but I cannot teach him all the names of the nobility, how to address the King and Queen, which knife and fork to eat with, all the new dances, etiquette, manners, the million ways you can insult someone! There's no time, it simply cannot be done!"

"I'll hire you a dance master, an etiquette master. Anything you need, I will organise it."

"I don't need your charity Cecilia."

"It's not charity. It's a gift from your best friend."

"I cannot let you spend frivolous amounts of money on me and my family."

"Jane," Cecilia put her hand on her friend's shoulder and smiled at her in the mirror, "I am a woman of great means with a dear husband but is always working. I'm bored senseless in a grand house and need something to do when my boys go back to boarding school. Let me do something a bit more exciting than bloody embroidery!"

"Thank you for the offer Cecilia, but we are still not going to the ball. Tell the Lord Chamberlain that we politely decline their Majesties' invitation."

"You cannot snub the King and Queen!" Cecilia looked completely horrified! "You have to go Jane, it's would be like treason not to, it's practically law!"

"Well we are already locked up in this house anyway so I suppose the Tower of London would make a change of scene!" Jane shot back sarcastically.

"You're worried that he is going to be there," Cecilia added and Jane felt her heart begin to pound. "You're worried that Rob-"

"I do not want his name said in this house!" Jane hissed, her eyes darting to the door, fearful of her husband coming in at any minute.

"Well he's not here, he hasn't been in Britain for years. He's in India."

"India?!"

"Yes, he is the Governor of Assam and has been there for donkey's years. He was sent there by a commission of Queen Victoria to work in the British Raj, for Queen and country! He is rumoured to be the next Viceroy after Lord Curzon is given the old heave-ho!"

"Viceroy…" Jane's voice trailed off as her mind wondered at the strange potential life that she could have had if events had turned out differently.

The bedroom door opened and in came Annabelle, holding her doll Pollyanna in her hand. She stopped dead as she saw the beautiful Cecilia in her exquisite red dress and her eyes widened in disbelief.

"Oh my and who is this little beauty?" Cecilia asked and smiled gracefully at Annabelle who continued to stare at the beautiful stranger wide eyed.

"This is my 12 year old daughter Annabelle," Jane replied, "Anna, this is my best friend Cecilia Lennox-Foxton. We have been best friends since we were little."

"Are, are you… the Queen?" Annabelle eventually piped up. After all, this woman was so beautiful she just had to be royalty or maybe a fairy queen?

"My, my! What a delightful child!" Cecilia laughed merrily, "Queen indeed! Come here child, let me look at you." Annabelle came over and she could smell the wonderful heady scent of orange blossom of her mother's friend's perfume. Cecilia stroked the girl's hair before holding her hand and twirling her around.

"How I would love to have a girl!" she smiled as Annabelle giggled, slightly dizzy from the twirling, "How I would love to dress a girl!"

"I love your dress Mrs Foxton, it's so pretty!" Annabelle held out her hand and Cecilia let her stroke the soft red chiffon fabric.

"Why thank you Annabelle, it's a Jacques Doucet, all the way from Paris. He's one of my favourite designers you know. I must say that your dress is very pretty too, may I ask who made it?"

"My mother," Annabelle replied and Cecilia beamed.

"Your mother was always the better sewer out of the two of us! You look just like her when she was your age. Tell you what, you can call me Aunt Cecilia if you like, that's if your mother approves of course."

Jane nodded and Annabelle smiled, amazed at meeting such a glamorous woman. She really hoped that she would have as beautiful dresses as her when she was older.

"Thank you Aunt Cecilia. It's a pleasure to finally meet you," Annabelle made a sweet smile and dipped a little curtsey, much to Cecilia's utter delight. Although she loved her sons, being around a lovely young girl was just an absolute joy to her.

"Oh Jane, can I please steal her? Your daughter is adorable!" Cecilia joked and Jane couldn't help but laugh. She could see that Cecilia would be rather lonely in a big house with her sons away at boarding school and so she counted her blessings at having a child of each gender.

"So will you come?" Cecilia asked as she and Annabelle finished styling her mother's hair, gently arranging soft tendrils by her ears.

"Come where?" Annabelle asked, confused as to what Aunt Cecilia was referring to.

"To a party," Jane said as she sat her daughter down at the dressing table and the two women started to style the young girl's hair into a 'flapper', a single, thick plait with a big ribbon bow at the end.

"At Buckingham Palace!" Cecilia added and Annabelle's eyes and mouth widened in disbelief!

"Will you see the King and Queen Mama?" she asked as her mother finished tying the bow.

"She will, that's if she agrees to come," Cecilia added, mischievously winking at Annabelle.

"Oh you have to go Mama!" Annabelle agreed and lightly grabbed her mother's skirts. "Oh please go Mama! Oh please, oh please!"

"I see that I have no choice!" Jane laughed and looked up at Cecilia, "You've twisted my arm Cecilia, I see that you are just as persuasive as your politician husband!" As long as a certain person was not going to be there then she was more inclined to go. After all, who could turn down an opportunity to meet the King and Queen!

Cecilia laughed and stroked her best friend's back with her hand. "I knew that you would come around eventually. So Cinderella, you shall go to the ball!"