LONDON ON HOLIDAY
"But I don't want to do it!" Nan was up in her room in the old castle,
packing, when she made this astonishing remark.
"Why, Nancy Sherwood, how you talk!" Bess just wouldn't believe that
anyone could be so foolish as to mean what her closest friend had just
said. "You don't want to be in Westminster Cathedral with all those
lords and ladies, ambassadors and ministers, kings and queens, when they
crown the English king and queen? Why, Nan, you don't mean that at all.
You know you don't."
"I do too mean it." Nan's chin was firm and her voice very positive as
she spoke. "I want to be with all of you, just as we had planned, when
we are in London."
"Don't be silly!" Bess paused in her packing to look at her friend.
"You'll have a better time than any of us can ever hope to have. If I
didn't like you so much, I'd just be green with envy. Think of it!
You'll see the whole royal family and talk to them.
"You'll have a long white court dress like those we have been seeing in
the papers. You'll be driven up to Westminster in a carriage behind the
royal coach and you'll go in there and see everything that we can only
read about. And if you don't remember every single detail of what
happens, I'll never speak to you again!
"You'll see all the court dresses, the ermine capes, the little coronets
of the peeresses, and the grand coronation robes of the king and queen.
You'll see the little prince and princess, the duchess and her handsome
husband, and that new Ambassador from the United States that everyone is
talking about.
"You'll see them all and talk to them. Why, it's all something to dream
about and here it's happened to you! Oh, Nan, I'm so excited I could
cry."
"There, there, Bess," Laura came into the room, "if you cry all over
that taffeta dress you are packing, you'll die of grief and never see
Nan in all her glory.
"Nan," she turned to her friend, "you run along downstairs. They want
you. I'll finish your packing and don't you dare let anyone at all
hear you say what I heard you say to Bess about not wanting to be a
lady-in-waiting to the queen! Forsooth! They hang people for less or
else they throw them into musty old dungeons and let them die. It would
be a shame to have you pining away in a prison, while we were sitting in
the pleasant May sunshine watching golden coaches full of fair ladies
drive by."
"Oh, I'll be good from now on," Nan promised as she disappeared down the
stairs.
There, everything was in a turmoil, and Nan was the center of it all. It
was, "Nan, darling, here's a cable from your mother," "Lass, a telegram
from Edinburgh," and "Miss Nan, a phone call from London," and a
thousand and one other exciting things until Nan didn't know which way
to turn next.
Then she was whisked off with her friends to a train. They had a private
coach this time, one provided by the village of Emberon from the funds
collected at the celebration on the night of Nan's arrival. The whole
town turned out to see them off. There was music and laughter and good
wishes all round and a promise exacted from Nan to come back again.
James Blake was the last to bid her good-by. He pushed her through the
crowd that swarmed about her on the station steps, took her into her
coach, and seated her.
"Now, lass," he said, "forget the unpleasant things that have happened
and remember that Emberon is your home, too."
Nan nodded her head, and swallowed the lump that was in her throat. She
couldn't speak. The excitement in leaving the castle and listening now
to all the nice things that were being said was almost too much.
The old man understood her feelings, so without waiting for her to
answer, he went on. "When you are down there in London, don't forget
that the Blakes are a proud lot and that on this occasion, you are their
representative. If you find that I can help you further, call me by
phone. I'd give the world to be there," he added longingly, "but other
matters that you know about keep me here. My brother must be taken care
of now.
"So, lass," he ended, "do your best and make us all proud of you." With
this, he kissed her lightly on the cheek and left her. The last thing
that she saw clearly on the station steps, as the great engine gathered
speed, was old James Blake waving goodby with a big white handkerchief.
The last thing that she heard was the refrain of "The Bonnie, Bonnie
Banks of Loch Lomond."
"Oh, I remember now," Nan exclaimed, when the last cottage in the
village had disappeared from view, "I remember what it was that poor old
Robert Blake was playing on his bagpipe! It was that song they were just
singing back there. And that was the song that I heard last night when I
dropped off to sleep.
"Why, that must be the lake he was telling me about this morning in the
gatehouse when he told me something of his boyhood. He said he couldn't
remember the name of the place where he used to go so many times alone
when he was a lad, to read and write and dream, but that he was sure
that it was beautiful.
"He said that there was a mountain by a lake that had clear green water
in it. He said that once when he was there, he came upon a camp of
gypsies and that the old queen told his fortune."
"What did she say?" Bess asked when it seemed that Nan wasn't going to
go on.
"She told him all about his youth," Nan continued rather sadly, "and
then about the war. After that she stopped. She said that she couldn't
be sure whether he was going to live through it or not."
"Oh, dear," Nan looked away from the girls and out the windows at the
landscape skimming by, as she finished, "I feel so sorry for him!"
"So do I," Grace agreed. "But, tell us, Nan, why was it he insisted on
searching through your baggage the way he did?"
"Oh, Grace, he wanted to get that letter I told Mr. Blake about," Bess
answered the question. "What I want to know is, what became of it?"
"Yes, and what in the world was in it?" Laura contributed.
"I had it with me when you were hunting for it," Nan explained, "and as
for what was in it--it was a warning that if I came to Scotland and to
Emberon that I'd never live to see the coronation!"
"Nan! And you didn't say a word to anyone about it!" Bess felt like
scolding her friend. "You might have been killed!"
"I know I was foolish," Nan admitted. "And I hereby promise never to do
anything like that again," she ended solemnly.
So, all the way to London, the girls talked of things that had happened
and things that were going to happen. Their one big regret was the fact
that they weren't going to see Edinburgh on this trip. Messrs. Kellam
and Blake, attorneys for the Emberon estate, had insisted that Nan go
directly to London to present her claims to assist at the coronation.
The next morning found them rolling into Euston Station where Walter,
Mr. and Mrs. Mason, and Professor Krenner were all waiting for them. How
good it seemed to see familiar faces!
"My, this is the very nicest part of the trip!" Nan exclaimed and then
blushed when she saw that Walter's eyes were upon her.
The others were bundled into a taxi, but Walter insisted that Nan go in
his car to her hotel. So her first sight of London and the River Thames
was with Walter, a fact that she was never to forget in her whole long
happy life.
In the days that followed, Nan Sherwood and her friends were in a
constant whirl. There were a million things to be done and a million
places to go, and they wanted to do everything and go every place.
With banners flying from all the buildings, bunting draped across
streets, and wreathes bearing portraits of the king and queen hanging
every place, London was in a festive mood. The streets were thronged
with people of all nationalities. Troops from all over the British
Empire, to the number of 50,000, added color and gaiety to the crowd.
Every hotel in the great city was filled to capacity. Big ships lay at
anchor in the port, floating hotels for visitors from Australia, South
Africa, the American continents, the West Indies, from the remotest
corners of the globe.
During the day, all these people poured out into the streets. With bands
playing, troops marching, parades wherever you looked, it was all very
gay and exciting.
"Did you ever see anything like this in your whole life?" Nan looked
about and laughed. Walter was at her side, making way for her, as she
pushed her way through the crowds outside the royal offices where the
court of claims had just met.
"No, Princess," Walter grinned down at her.
"Oh, don't call me that," Nan protested. "Really, I sometimes feel
awfully silly about this whole business. Imagine me acting as
lady-in-waiting to a queen. Did you see all those people stare at me in
there?"
"They weren't staring. They were admiring you." Walter could be gallant
at times. Now he was secretly a little awed at the turn of events,
impressed by Nan's new importance, for her claim had been presented to
the solemn be-wigged court and accepted.
She was to assist at the coronation and, according to an ancient ruling,
receive in payment eight seats inside Westminster to be distributed as
she willed! Their promised seats in Piccadilly, obtained by Mr. Mason,
had been of the best, but these, these were priceless! It was impossible
to buy them. They could be obtained only through a special grant from
the king, even as Nan had received hers.
Now, she could hardly wait as Walter drove slowly along with the left
hand traffic that is peculiar to London. She had seats, she thought to
herself, for Bess, Laura, Amelia, Rhoda, Grace and Walter--how nice he
was being to her!--Dr. Prescott, and Professor Krenner, and she wanted
to tell them all right away!