The Whalebone Theatre

March 1928

Cristabel and Flossie visit the beach with their new governess, Mademoiselle Aubert. Cristabel is furious to see naked children climbing on the whale, which is now decaying. A dark, bearded man emerges from the sea, also naked. The man is Russian and introduces himself as Taras Kovalsky. His female companions, Hilly and Philly, look identical, and it emerges that Philly knows Rosalind from the latter’s debutante days. Struck by Cristabel’s strong features, Taras declares that he wants to paint a portrait of her.

When he speaks to Mademoiselle Aubert in French, she reveals that her first name is Ernestine; she is from a wealthy family that has fallen on hard times. Her mother now lives above a shop in Paris and survives by working on sewing projects. Taras confirms that his family suffered a similar fate in Russia; he does not know if his parents are alive. When Cristabel tells Taras that the whale belongs to her, he asks permission to paint it. Cristabel agrees, providing that he orders the children to climb down from the creature.

April 1928

The Seagrave children are heavily influenced by the books that they acquired from Jasper’s library after his death. They love engaging in roleplay, and they stage sock puppet theatre productions based on Tales from Shakespeare. One day, Taras visits Chilcombe with Hilly and Philly. The women explain that they are Taras’s models. They lead a bohemian existence, traveling with him. Taras is dismissive of the art displayed at Chilcombe. He asks to see the attic where Cristabel and the servants sleep. In the attic’s cluttered storage area, Rosalind explains that her father-in-law, Robert Seagrave, “collected” the objects during his travels. Taras suggests that the items were stolen from their original owners. He guesses that Cristabel is drawn to a statue which he identifies as Sekhmet—the Egyptian goddess “of fire and war” (133).

Taras insists that Cristabel has the soul of an artist. He also asks about her parents, pointing out the fact that she resembles neither Rosalind nor Willoughby. Cristabel reveals that her parents are dead and that there are no portraits of her mother in the house. Taras observes that Cristabel has been left with nothing, but Cristabel insists that Chilcombe is her family estate. When the adults return downstairs, Flossie claims a discarded baby elephant on wheels while Cristabel takes Sekhmet.

The Seagrave children creep out of bed and hide in the cloakroom, listening to the adults’ conversation. They learn that the adults’ voices become louder as the evening progresses, and glasses frequently break. When the servants are asked to fetch a succession of items, they quietly swear. The children also overhear Willoughby admonishing Rosalind for announcing that she would happily send Cristabel to live elsewhere.

The children are discovered in the cloakroom and sent to bed. If they had stayed longer, they would have learned that dinners can last until breakfast time and servants can sleep standing up. They would also have heard Rosalind invite Taras and his companions to stay in the cottage on the grounds. After the dinner party, the adults claim to go to bed, but there is still whispering, and doors open and close.

May 1928

The Seagrave children visit Taras at the estate cottage. He is in the barn, painting Philly wrapped in a sheet. The naked children from the beach (whom Cristabel thinks of as “the savages”) are there. A Belgian woman is cleaning the cottage and occasionally shouts at the children. Taras agrees to create scenery for Cristabel’s next show, and they decide to stage The Iliad.

Meanwhile, Rosalind confesses to the American poet, Myrtle, that she was with Willoughby on the night when her first husband died. Willoughby fled Chilcombe after his brother’s death but returned when Rosalind revealed that she was already pregnant with Digby. At the cottage, the motley team begins creating scenery and costumes for the play. Rosalind is cast as Helen of Troy, Digby as Paris, Cristabel as Zeus, Flossie as Hector, and Taras as Achilles. Rosalind is disgruntled to learn that Taras is currently painting Mademoiselle Aubert. So far, he has ignored her hints that she would like a portrait.

May 1928

Cristabel slips outside at night and sees Maudie creeping around in the dark. Cristabel goes to the cottage’s barn, where “the savages” sleep. Cristabel approaches the eldest boy, Leon, and tells him that she needs actors for the play. However, Leon is hostile, ordering her to go home and laughing at her offer of sword-fighting lessons. Cristabel is confused when Leon refers to Taras as his father and calls Hilly and Philly “the blonde whores” (156). He reveals that his mother is the Belgian woman whom Cristabel has seen cleaning. Leon explains that Hilly and Philly are not Taras’s first lovers. Although some of the children have different mothers, Taras’s wife takes care of them all.

Cristabel cajoles Leon to join the play, bribing him with the offer of cigarettes and chocolate and even going so far as to burn her hand with a lighter’s flame to prove that her word can be trusted. Leon agrees to the terms, provided that she can arrange driving lessons for him. The narrative relates that the wife and son of Bill Brewer, the land agent for Chilcombe, are out of town at the moment. Maudie leaves Bill’s bedroom and creeps back to the main house. She is the one to have instigated these late-night visits, telling Bill that she is “practicing.”

June 1928

A rehearsal for The Iliad is presented in the form of a script. Rosalind requires much guidance.

Cristabel and Digby climb onto the roof at night while Flossie serves as a lookout. Digby expresses curiosity about Taras and his companions’ lifestyles, remarking on the fact that Hilly and Philly wear both men’s and women’s clothing. He also observes that Taras sleeps in the same room as Hilly and Philly instead of with his wife. Cristabel admits that she once saw Taras in bed with both women.

The evening of the outdoor theatre performance arrives. Rosalind has invited influential local people to the event and excels at charming the guests.

In the cottage, Hilly assures Taras that he was the star of the show, while Myrtle says the same thing to Perry in a guest bedroom at Chilcombe. In the main bedroom, Rosalind declares that Digby outshone the rest of the cast. Willoughby gives Rosalind the excuse that he has left his cigarettes downstairs and goes outside to meet Philly in a field. Philly declares that their London friends took bets on with whom Willoughby would have an affair. Most people favored Hilly to win. Willoughby admits that Philly is not his type, but adultery has become a habit.

July 1928

Perry persuades Rosalind to take the children to the ballet in London. The children travel on a train for the first time and are enthralled by the Ballets Russes’ performance. Afterward, Perry takes the children to The Ritz, entertaining them with stories about his adventures in India. Perry predicts that Taras will marry Hilly once he divorces his current wife. He also reveals that Leon’s mother was a successful artist until she married Taras and had children. During tea, Flossie declares that she wants everyone to stop calling her the Veg.

Before they return to Waterloo Station, Perry asks if the children can remember the name and number of the train on which they arrived. Cristabel correctly recalls that the train was green and gold. He suggests that remembering such details is a valuable skill.

In a diary entry, Maudie admits to stealing condoms from Willoughby’s pocket. She states that her employers often forget that she sees the most intimate aspects of their lives. The narrative shifts to Rosalind and Willoughby. When Rosalind wakes up, she pulls the bedclothes to her neck, but Willoughby lies exposed and naked.

Taras encourages the children to imagine other objects in the shape of the whale’s bones, which are now visible. When painting Rosalind’s portrait, he represents her face as “a void.”

August 1928

Willoughby guiltily recalls his brother’s death. On the night that Jasper died, he was “engaged in ‘bachelor activity’” (204) with Rosalind. Afterward, he tried to disentangle himself from his involvement with her, but when she became pregnant with Digby, they married quickly and claimed that Digby was premature.

The narrative returns to the present moment. Willoughby returns to Chilcombe to rehearse his part as Antonio in The Tempest. When Digby plays Ariel, Willoughby disapproves of his son’s long hair and feminine costume. He suggests that Digby will be bullied when he goes to boarding school. Willoughby is astonished to see that the rib bones of the dead whale have been transported to Chilcombe to frame the stage.

The Seagrave children now spend most of their time with Leon and Taras’s other children. One day, Leon creates a rope swing at the cliff edge, and Cristabel accepts his challenge to try it first.

A scrapbook contains reviews of the children’s Shakespearean productions from 1928 to 1938. Later articles focus on the Seagrave children’s social status, including Cristabel’s attendance at a Swiss finishing school and a debutante’s ball and Digby’s plans to attend Cambridge University. A 1932 Tatler article mentions Taras Kovalsky’s return from his honeymoon with his new wife, Hilly.