Abdication A Novel - By Juliet Nicolson Page 0,102
I am convinced of one unshakeable truth. David and I as a married pair would create disaster together!”
She reached over to the small table beside the bed and picked up a sealed blue airmail envelope. Her voice was much calmer now.
“I am going to tell you a secret, Vangey. I want you to know that I have broken the whole thing off. Matter of fact, I have written to David to tell him that this is the end of it.” Wallis waved the blue envelope at Evangeline. “I have told him that we would never make each other happy. The money and the jewels, well, most of the jewels, perhaps not the sapphires, will be sent back to him. And when I get back to England I am going to return to Ernest and then we will all go back to America and you will come with me and we will find you another Wiggle as a reward for being the most stalwart of all friends. Perhaps the king would still let you have Slipper’s puppy. What do you say, darling Vangey?”
The tears had dried and the old familiar confidence had returned as unexpectedly as the appearance of stars on a cloudy night. Evangeline was so taken aback by this dramatic turn of events that she could only stare at Wallis openmouthed. Of course she had not been the only cruise member to notice the signs that all was not right between Wallis and the king, but this momentous decision was a volte-face that even Evangeline had not anticipated. The idea of giving up the unconditional adoration of a man was inconceivable to Evangeline, in any circumstances. But to give up the love of a king was something that only a lunatic would consider.
And yet Evangeline found herself moved by Wallis’s confession and by the trust Wallis had placed in her by making it. The two of them would be proper friends again. They could make plans together. Their lives would be set in some kind of direction. Rapidly Evangeline thought through some of the consequences of Wallis’s decision. Evangeline was certain that the king would put up a pretty fierce fight to keep Wallis. She had seen too often the way he looked at her. Despite (or was it because of?) the firm way in which Wallis treated him there was no question that he was deeply in love with her. Nevertheless, Wallis was stubborn. Whatever obstacles the king might put in her way, Wallis would triumph. Of that Evangeline was certain.
Evangeline felt an unfamiliar rush of relief. It had been a difficult year but one which she would look back on with much affection especially for the time spent with the Blunts before Joan’s terrible illness. She wondered how she could have doubted the loyalty of her old school friend. In an unprecedented gesture, Evangeline found herself stretching out her own plump hand and giving Wallis’s naked knuckles a reassuring squeeze. It felt like gripping a leftover Sunday joint after poor Wiggle had chewed all remaining flesh from it.
“I admire you, Wallis,” she said, overcoming the impulse to withdraw her hand. “Most women would not have the courage that you have just demonstrated. And I want you to know you can count on my friendship. Your trust in confiding in me will never be forgotten.”
After returning to England, Evangeline heard nothing from Wallis for more than two weeks. She was not concerned. She knew that patching up things with Ernest and the unravelling of all the legal procedures previously set in motion for the divorce would take a while. And then there would be the business of moving back into number 5 Bryanston Court from the house in Regent’s Park that Wallis had taken after the temporary rupture with her husband. She expected that Wallis had already booked the passage for the three of them to New York. Wallis had promised they would all sail on the new Queen Mary as a treat.
One evening Evangeline was dining alone in St. John’s Wood with Philip. She had stopped reading all the newspapers, even the clippings sent by her brother from America. She was tired of all the false rumours that swirled through the European and American press and the British papers were so self-censorious about what they could and could not print that she saw no point in reading them either. The wireless had become her favourite means of staying in touch.