Emily's Dream by Jacqueline Pearce

hand-painted cup. She relished his look of distaste as he was forced to drink out of the cup. To complain about the dishes in front of Dede, his host, would have been too rude, even for him.
    Emily confided her suspicions to Dick. He was outraged and sympathetic, and he chuckled when she told him about the teacup revenge.
    â€œDon’t worry,” he told her. “I heard the Piddingtons say they were planning to leave for San Francisco after the Queen’s birthday.”
    â€œAt last!” Emily exclaimed.
    â€œI’m glad they’ll be gone before I leave,” Dick added.
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Emily asked. “You know I’m starting school back East in September,” Dick said.
    Emily went cold. She’d forgotten the family plan to send Dick to a private school in Ontario. Mr. Lawson, the lawyer who was the children’s legal guardian, was arranging it in keeping with their father’s wishes. Now, it seemed, it was really going to happen.
    â€œThis house is going to be dull without you,” Emily said.
    â€œI don’t leave for months yet,” Dick reminded her. “Besides,” he added. “We’ve got the regatta to think about now!”
    Queen Victoria’s birthday was on May twenty-fourth, and every year the city that was named after her celebrated with a wonderful regatta. When Emily was small, the family usually had a picnic in Medina Grove on the Queen’s birthday, but once she and Dick were old enough to sit balanced in a boat, they went to the regatta at the Gorge.
    The Gorge was an arm of the sea that ran from Victoria’s inner harbor inland for three miles. The banks of the Gorge were stillforested, but here and there, stately houses perched with gardens running down to the water. The water of the Gorge was warmer than the waters of the beaches around Victoria. Emily had sometimes been allowed to bathe in the ocean near Beacon Hill Park, but the nightdress she wore floated to the top of the water, leaving her legs bare and icy. It was difficult to swim in a dress, so she hadn’t done much more than get wet, and she’d never learned to swim properly. At the regatta, people sat in boats, picnicked on the shore and watched the boat races.
    On the morning of the Queen’s birthday, Emily looked out her bedroom window. Rain had spattered the ground yesterday, but today the sun was out, and the air was sweet with the smell of hawthorn and other blossoms. There would be good weather for the regatta and for the first day of summer frocks.
    Emily, Dick, Alice and Lizzie walked into town, while Dede and the Piddingtons followed in the phaeton. They joined with friends, Mr. and Mrs. Bales and theirchildren, at the shipyard near the Point Ellice Bridge. The rosy-faced Mr. Bales helped everyone into rowboats, storing the picnic supplies in the boat with him and his wife. They pushed off and rowed under the Point Ellice Bridge that crossed the start of the Gorge waterway. Overhead, the bridge rumbled with the sound of traffic crossing on the way to the regatta. All along the arm, buggies and wagons stopped, horses were tied to bushes, and people made their way, laden with picnic baskets, down through the woods to the shore. Great strings of colorful pennants stretched out across the water from one side to the other, and the sound of band music grew louder as the boats made their way down the Gorge.
    Emily clutched the side of the boat as it rocked in the water, feeling her stomach lurch. She was relieved when the small flotilla of rowboats nosed up against the shore. The men and boys jumped out first to help the ladies and deliver the picnic supplies safely to shore. The roar of the big navalguns fired at Esquimalt Harbor signaled the start of the regatta, and a bugle blown from the Gorge Bridge called the boats to assemble for the first race.
    Both sides of the Gorge waterway were lined with people cheering and waving as the first naval