Chapters An Artist's Masterpiece Book 1 Chapter 2
In the month before her wedding day, Emily had quite a few preparations to make. Mr. Battersby did not want a huge affair which, she had to admit, suited her, but he did want her appearance to reflect her new, heightened role in society. So it was that she went into Exeter with her mother to the finest dressmaker there and ordered a trousseau of outfits made from the finest fabrics. On her second visit there, a Lady of Leisure entered with her arms pinned behind her back in a monoglove. Whilst it did look rather elegant and refined, Emily pitied the poor girl - who was only in her teens - for being forced to wear such a restrictive device and thanked her lucky stars that, for all his faults, her fiance did not expect such ridiculous things of her.
What he did expect however, was for her to reduce her waist size to a staggering 20 inches for everyday outfits and 19 for the wedding dress. Since she’d found the 21 inch waist of the other day supremely uncomfortable, Emily did not welcome this but she acquiesced since she knew that ladies of standing did lace tighter and, she reasoned to herself, everything that she could do to please her new husband, would help convince him to let her study.
The day of the wedding came soon enough and Emily was led down the aisle by her father, her darling sister Anne looking divine in pink as her bridesmaid. The dress that she wore was a beautiful creation on white silk and lace with a thick veil that she struggled to see through and a crinoline some five feet in diameter. More difficult to cope with, however, were the pinching white leather boots that came with it that boasted heels of three inches which made her gait unsteady and the tight stays which she had managed - just - to get her waist down to the required 19 inches.
That tiny waist was also the reason behind her only picking at the beautiful wedding meal in her new home and feeling faint during the festivities after. These did not last too long however, and around nine o’clock her new husband led her up the stairs to their room. It really was a palatial chamber with a glorious four-poster bed in the centre. He then proceeded to undress her slowly and when she had only her stays left, guided her to the bed itself and there proceeded to introduce her to the world of lovemaking. Although she did not love him in any way, she found, to her surprise, that he was both gentle and compassionate in bed, and the activity that she had so feared, she actually began to enjoy. However, at the end, after he had deposited his load deep within her, he said something very strange which she did not (at the time) understand. “Thank you for that my darling, I do love to appreciate my ladies in their natural state before I go to work as an artist.” She wondered what he meant but since he fell asleep only moments after, she never asked him.
The following morning they made love again and then he rang for the automaid to bathe her and dress her for travelling. It was pure luxury being bathed by another even if it was a machine, and Emily began to wonder if she had not stumbled upon a very good life with Humphrey Battersby after all.
The happy couple then enjoyed a breakfast of toast and jam together before Humphrey announced that they would be travelling to London to begin her transformation into a lady fit for Thornfield Hall. She asked what he meant by that and he told her that she would discover all in due course, which made her realise that he intended to spoil his new bride by buying her some new clothes or jewelry and so she stayed silent, wondering what gifts he might shower her with.
But once their train pulled into Paddington, to her shock, instead of taking the Underground to the shops, Humphrey Battersby instead hailed a cab and ordered it to take them to Great Ormond Street Hospital and then, once they were there, she was shown into a room and ordered to divest herself of her clothes. “Whyever am I to undress?” she asked the nurse who was with her, but the nurse merely smiled and repeated her husband’s words from earlier: she would discover all in due course. Then, when she was clad only in her underwear, a robotic attendant came in bearing a cup of fragrant tea which she duly took and sipped and, within moments, Emily Battersby’s world went black.