After lunch Alice spoke with Hieronymous about having a ceremony while they were here, and he had no objection. This was how Alice ended up modeling her grandmother's wedding dress while Liza made adjustments, and her grandfather got on the phone to give the local reverend a heads up. Hieronymous remembered that his father had sent a ring for him as well, and called Potsdam to retrieve it from his rooms and dispatch a courier to transport it. Standing in her room in the middle of satin and lace of yet another wedding gown seemed a little odd, but Liza seemed to be enjoying herself happily humming as she made adjustments and repairs to the gown. Sometimes, Alice wondered if the maid thought of her as a doll she enjoyed dressing up. At the moment, she certainly felt like one.
Their grandfather advised them to be ready for a traditional English Christmas. She and Clark smiled, but her brother privately groaned to her that there was a very good reason that there were rather few English restaurants in the States.
Her first clue that Christmas was different in England was when Liza asked her if she wished to hang her stocking at the end of her bed. The maid seemed surprised that she was use to hanging it by the fireplace, if a stocking was to be hung, but up on the end of the bed it went.
Sure enough, when she woke the next morning she found her sock stuffed with wrapped candies and various other small trinkets. After breakfast, they started on the pile of presents under the tree. Alice teased her grandfather that he was spoiling them. Her favorite gift, however, was from Hieronymous.
"It's lovely," she said, running a finger down the smooth surface of the intricate carvings of her new wand.
"Hazelnut," her husband informed her. "And much more powerful than those sparkly things they sell at the mall. You will begin using it in earnest next year, but you may start with the primary wand skills after we return."
He appeared to like the gift she had found for him, smiling before squeezing her hand.
"I don't know what kind of pictures you might have of us," Alice explained as her grandfather opened his gift, "so we got some from all years, and there are pictures of the others too."
He appeared unable to speak for a minute. When he regained his voice, it was to ask them to recount some of the tales that led up to the snapshots for his own context. She and Clark eagerly agreed to the request, and Hieronymous appeared interested as well. Alice breathed a sigh of relief that she had had the foresight to keep her naked baby pictures out of the album. There was at least one of Clark in there though, but that served him right for not helping out more with the project.
Christmas dinner was soon laid out in the dining room. Some things were different from what she had had at home. The potatoes were roasted instead of mashed, small sausages wrapped in bacon garnished the goose, and she had never had mince pies before.
"Are those just for decoration?" Clark asked, pointing to the small wrapped cylindrical packages that were scattered around the table.
"Those are crackers," Hieronymous answered.
"They look a little small to have many in them," Alice noted.
Her husband shook his head, and held one of them up by the wrapping on the end. "Not that kind of cracker. Now, pull on the other end."
As she did so, she was startled to hear a popping noise. A wrapped chocolate and something made of flimsy paper popped out. She unfolded the object. "A crown?"
"Yes, now put it on," her grandfather said, grinning.
Before long, they each wore a crown and had a collection of chocolates and a few papers with jokes someone the age of Nancy might tell. Then the plumb pudding, which did not have any plumbs, and the trifle came out. She tried both dishes, which had the strong taste of liquor.
It was unusual fare, but it did not taste bad. She decided, however, that the culinary skill of the English was not their greatest contribution to the rest of the world.
After dinner was cleared away, as promised, they went over the album and spent the rest of the afternoon telling Hieronymous and their grandfather about the birthdays, holidays, and other occurrences the pictures represented.
"And this is Ethan in this picture," she was saying.
"It looks like an artificial bush," her grandfather said, squinting at the picture.
Clark shrugged. "It was his first attempt at a ghillie suit. That's why it looks artificial."
"Oh I see," Grandfather replied. "And why does he appear to be missing an eyebrow in this picture over here?"
"He had wanted to know what would happen if he mixed gunpowder with some of the chemicals from Clark's chemistry set, so he found the key to the box dad kept his reloading stuff in," Alice said. "Fortunately, Emma wacked his face with a jacket to smother the fire. He didn't get more than slightly singed, but Emma did give him black eye in the process…I think there may have been something heavy in one of the pockets. It took a while for that eyebrow to grow back."
"I remember that too," Clark noted. "He wasn't sitting down after Mom got a hold of him…not for a while anyway." It had been during one of their father's tours.
Their grandfather shook his head wordlessly. "I am beginning to see what I may have to look forward to once they come to Iris," her husband deadpanned. "Is Emma as troublesome as her twin?"
Alice shrugged. "She usually acts as the sidekick, and comes up with the last minute safety measures that keep anyone from getting seriously injured. I think she was the ringleader in that homemade catapult incident though…."
"I am not sure that I want to know," Hieronymous said.
"Let's just say that our neighbor thought that he had been narrowly missed by a small meteorite," Alice said with a grin.
"You have about three years of peace left before they show up," Clark noted.
They turned on the radio at three for the Queen's message, and then returned to the album until it was time for Christmas tea at six. Immediately afterward, they changed into normal but fine clothing and headed off to church.
The chapel was made of grey stone from the outside, and once inside, Alice stared at the marble floors and pillars. Everything was lit by candlelight. After taking their seats, her grandfather leaned over to whisper to her. "The reverend here is an old friend of mine. You and your 'fiancé' can meet him after the service to make arrangements."
"Thank you," Alice said, and leaned over to Hieronymous to relay the message.
After the service was done and most of the parishioners had gone, her grandfather strolled up to the reverend and the two men shook hands. They were then led back into his office. The chairs in the office looked like they had been hastily cleared, but books and papers covered most of the exposed surfaces. Alice was heavily reminded of the first time she had ventured into her husband's room.
Reverend Bakersfield seemed quite pleased to finally be meeting two of his friend's elusive grandchildren, but was curious why the wedding was so hasty…not that he would be relating the reason behind the hasty marriage to anyone else. As agreed, she and Hieronymous explained that they had been planning to have a wedding in the spring…after she had officially turned eighteen. They neglected to say which year the wedding they had planned was to be in. However, they had found out after they had gotten here that her grandfather had previous political engagements that would not allow him to come on the day that they had already made arrangements for. So, they merely wanted a simple ceremony here that he could attend, and then would continue as scheduled with the planned ceremony in the States.
The good reverend smiled and accepted their story. They could have the church on evening of the 28th. "I assume he thought it was a 'shotgun wedding?'" she asked her grandfather after they had all gotten into the car.
Her grandfather shrugged. "It's possible. As it was the day they were getting ready for the big candlelight service, we did not have much time to chat when I called him to explain what we needed. I believe you were able to sooth his concerns there."
Alice sighed, wondering if she would ever have a wedding where someone did not at least suspect a scandal. She did not let that thought stop her from enjoying the rest of her Christmas though, and she and Hieronymous beat her grandfather and Clark three times in a row at Whist after they got back home.
"Tristan und Isolde is playing currently," her grandfather stated, looking over a fresh hand of cards. "You did express interest in seeing a show, Clark."
"A cautionary tale of the danger of mixing up your potions if there ever was one," Hieronymous said as he finished dealing.
"That's in German, isn't it?" Alice asked, already done sorting her cards.
Their grandfather nodded. "A simple spell can be applied so you can understand other languages. I had to use it often as a young lad when I worked in diplomacy when my father was still alive."
Clark nodded. "If it has a good musical score, I'm in."
"Then I'll make sure they know to expect us," their grandfather said. "The next showing is on the 27th."
...