Page 60 of The Gathering Storm

CHAPTER TEN

The cruise was not an unalloyed pleasure, and Emma and Kit were glad they had only promised two weeks to Wally and the King, using the excuse of their children. ‘We have to take them away for a holiday before school starts again.’ They left the Nahlin on Monday the 24th of August at Piraeus, having witnessed yet another piece of unpleasantness. As they came into port, the King, wearing nothing but khaki shorts and two little crosses on chains round his neck, was standing on the foredeck, and Jack Aird, who was equerrying, suggested he might like to put on a shirt before they came within range of the press cameras. The King gave him a filthy look and stalked off in a temper, while Wally rounded on Aird and snapped, ‘If His Majesty wants your advice, he’ll ask for it. Otherwise, you should hold your tongue.’

The stresses between the King and Aird had been much on display during the past fortnight. The King was travelling under the incognito of the Duke of Lancaster, but it had been used so often, no-one was under any illusion as to who was on board, and every landfall had been met by shoals of press and throngs of locals. But the King refused to make any concessions.

Kit and Emma settled into their compartment on the train from Athens with a sigh of relief. The staterooms on the Nahlin had been small and airless, and there’d been little to do on board. The King had insisted on sailing past the major sights at night-time, to save Wally from getting too much sun, so they had missed them all. Neither HM nor Wally cared for sight-seeing – it was golf for him and shopping for her, and their guests were expected to fall in with the programme.

‘Jack Aird was quite right,’ Kit said, as the train rattled across the arid spaces of Greece. ‘HM just doesn’t see that it won’t do for the King of England to be seen paddling in rockpools in nothing but bathing drawers. Or to go on shore bare-chested in espadrilles and a pair of shorts. It’s undignified. It hurts our reputation.’

‘And Wally doesn’t help,’ Emma agreed. ‘She just keeps saying that a king can do anything he likes. But if one photograph of her holidaying with another man gets back to England, that will be the end of the divorce.’

‘It won’t, though,’ Kit said. ‘HM’s got an agreement with Harmsworth and Beaverbrook never to mention Wally’s name. That’s why the ordinary man in the street has no idea who she is. I don’t think she realises the lengths that are being gone to to protect her.’

‘Oh, well, let’s just forget all about it for now,’ Emma said. ‘I can’t wait to see the girls! And the doggies.’

‘I can’t wait to see their faces when they see the presents we’ve bought them.’

‘You bought presents for the doggies?’

‘Very amusing. I say, why don’t we stop off in Paris and buy the girls a dress each? I bet it would tickle them to have a Paris mode.’

‘They’re six and four, they’re too young to care about that sort of thing. Buy them a doll, if you want to buy them anything. Oh, I’m so looking forward to Walcote and a bit of peace and quiet!’

‘Not too much quiet,’ Kit said. ‘I was planning quite a few parties. And I’ve invited Raymond to stay.’

Emma sighed. But she had been engaged three times before Kit, during the war, and all three of her fiancés had died. Kit was a good husband and a dear creature and they loved each other, so she’d had to accept that he was attracted to other men. Otherwise she would lose him, too. He had promised her he would never be unfaithful to her. And they had a good life together. It seemed a small price to pay.

‘You don’t mind, do you?’ Kit asked. ‘You like Raymond?’

‘No, I don’t mind,’ Emma said. ‘Perhaps we ought to invite some more people, make a house party of it.’

‘Excellent idea,’ Kit said, and began to speculate aloud on who would be good company. Emma silently bade goodbye to the peace and quiet. But Kit was happy, and if he was happy, she was happy.

Despite being Earl of Overton and Chelmsford, Oliver had no country estate, and if they wanted to get out of London in August, they had to rent somewhere, or rely on friends. This year they had planned to rent a cottage on the Isle of Wight; but Oliver urged his wife to accept Kit and Emma’s last-minute invitation.

‘They’re always good fun,’ he said. ‘And the children will like playing with their girls. And I want to hear how things went on the Nahlin.’

‘You have an unhealthy interest in that ménage,’ Verena said.

Oliver gave a rueful grin. ‘You know how I love the movies. And the King and Wally are pure Hollywood.’

‘I object to the word “pure”,’ Verena said. ‘But I suppose I can’t change you.’

‘You are saintly in your patience, my love. But, honestly, don’t you yearn to know how it’s all going to come out? Do admit.’

‘I know how it’s going to come out,’ said Verena. ‘Badly.’

‘It’s ironic,’ Oliver said at dinner the first night, when it was just the four of them, ‘that the Matrimonial Causes Bill should be going through Parliament at this particular juncture.’

The cloth had been drawn and the dessert put on, and Emma had dismissed the servants, or he would not have raised the subject. It wouldn’t be proper to talk about it in front of them.

‘The Divorce Bill, you mean?’ said Kit, cracking a walnut, ‘Well, the law is a bit of a mess. That old girl-in-a-hotel-bedroom ploy – the judges must know it’s fake. And the idea that the wife has to be entirely innocent. If the husband and wife have both committed adultery, neither can have a divorce. Where’s the sense in that?’

‘Is there any great appetite for easier divorce?’ Verena asked. ‘There aren’t many of them, are there?’

‘About five thousand a year,’ said Oliver, drawing the cheese board towards him. ‘But there must be many more thousands of people struggling along in unhappy marriages, who would like to be free.’

Emma objected. ‘It’s a dreadful idea that if you see someone you like better you can simply ditch your current spouse and help yourself to a new one. And it will be the women who suffer. They have no money or any way to earn a living if they’re abandoned.’