Gunpowder and Tea Cakes: My Journey with Felicity

The six of us follow the servant down the hall. Through open doors I glimpse a dining table set with silver and crystal and a ballroom with huge portraits hanging on the wall. I can’t do much sightseeing, for I’m too busy trying to copy everything Felicity does. I can tell she’s trying to copy Elizabeth’s mother.

We go up a flight of stairs to Lady Dunmore’s sitting room. The ladies curtsy, and Felicity and Elizabeth do too, with straight backs and heads bowed and tilted to one side. I curtsy, too. For a moment I’m afraid I’m going to fall on my butt, but I manage to straighten up again.

Mrs. Hutchinson explains we came to assure her that despite the antics of the hotheads this morning, there are many in Williamsburg who continue to hold the Dunmore family in great esteem. She continues to babble on, and I tune her out. There’s so much to look at. Almost everything in the room is a deep, ruby red, from the floor to the carpet to the furniture. Most of the furniture is pushed against the walls, which seems strange. The wallpaper looks like velvet, and I want to touch it, but I figure that’d be a bad idea.

A fancy baby bed stands out against the red because it has white ruffles and little white curtains. The baby inside makes cooing noises and waves her hands as though she’s trying to greet us. Lady Dunmore is wearing a fern-colored gown covered with ruffles and embroidery and satin ribbon roses. She’s a beautiful woman, but what I like best about her is her smile.

She thanks us for coming, and said the hostility this morning was unpleasant. She asks us if we’d like to stay for tea. She looks past the grown-ups to us. She says her seven-year-old daughter, Susan, was alarmed by the confrontation earlier. She’s outside playing in the fresh air. Perhaps we’d like to play with her.

I’m grateful for the option to go outside. I’ve loved seeing the inside of the Palace, but I think it’d be nearly impossible for me to get through a fancy tea party without breaking some etiquette rule.

The servant takes us three girls back downstairs and out another door. There are fancy gardens out here behind the Palace. The servant leads us to a gated grassy lawn surrounded by flower beds and a hedge. An African American man with gray hair is trimming one of the garden beds. A little boy, maybe five or six years old, is helping him.

A woman who must be the governess sits on a bench, watching a little girl roll a wooden hoop across the grass. She lets it fall when she sees us and greets us. I can tell she’s been trained to act formal, although she seems curious.

Felicity introduces us and explains why we’re here. Susan says she’s glad for the company. All of her brothers and sisters are occupied. She asks us whether we’d like to explore the maze or play quoits or other games. Elizabeth doesn’t answer. Felicity says both sound fun and turns to me. Which would I prefer?