Abdication A Novel - By Juliet Nicolson Page 0,103
listened to Philip mentioning stories that Wallis had been in Scotland with the king, the Mountbattens and those old friends of hers, the Hunters. The rumours had been confirmed in yesterday’s Times Court Circular, he said. There had been some critical muttering in the House that the king had begged off an official “kinging” engagement while up in Scotland, only to be seen by a press photographer driving himself to Aberdeen railway station to meet “a special guest.” Philip had also heard that the tartan halls of Balmoral, still decorated with the original plaids chosen by Queen Victoria, had witnessed quite unprecedented levels of gaiety over the past two weeks. With a knowing smile, Evangeline assured Philip that the rumours were definitely unfounded. The Times Court Circular must have included Wallis’s name by mistake. Tapping the side of her nose Evangeline apologised that she could not fill him in any further on Wallis’s plans as she was sworn to secrecy.
When the telephone eventually rang a week later on Joan’s long-unused desk in St. John’s Wood, Evangeline picked up the receiver and on hearing Wallis’s steady voice at the other end was pleased to know that her recovery from the momentous Paris decision had been speedy. Wallis was certainly a woman of considerable resilience.
“Vangey, darling. How are you?”
“Never better, Wallis my dear, and looking forward to seeing you.”
“Ah yes, well there is a slight difficulty about making any plans for the week or so I’m afraid,” Wallis replied, sounding apologetic. “I expect you have seen from the Court Circular that I have been away up in Scotland? Well, without going into matters that I feel are best left unspoken now,” and at this point Wallis’s voice assumed a conspiratorial tone, “I am going to lie low for a while. I have been staying at Claridge’s but as a matter of fact I am just off to spend a few days in a little house in Felixstowe in Suffolk. Kitty and George Hunter are coming with me so I won’t be on my own, just in case you were worrying. That legal matter, you understand, for which I want only my closest married friends near me. But there is nothing to worry about. Sorry that I can’t stop to talk just now. There are so many people making demands on my time. On my return from Suffolk I think we have dinner engagements every night for three weeks! But I will be back on the horn just as soon as I can.”
And then, just before hanging up she added something.
“Oh, and Vangey, be a dear and agree to walk Slipper’s puppy while I am away? I have asked Osborne to have him brought up from the Fort and delivered to Hamilton Terrace. We have taken up your suggestion and called him Loafer, just to keep the shoe theme going, and to remind him he belongs to an American! I know you will be pleased to take care of the precious animal for me.”
The voice was extinguished with a click so sudden that Evangeline had no time to respond. Clearly the conversation in Paris had meant nothing. Talk about basking in the sunny company of kings! Surely Wallis must realise her mistake in prolonging her relationship with the king instead of returning at once to Ernest? Was she entirely lacking in common decency by not ending her dalliance now? What was in her head by going through with the divorce from her husband? Had Wallis not learned her lesson with her first marriage that decent men like Ernest were hard to come by? The business with Mary Raffray had surely only come about because Wallis had inadvertently pushed Ernest into it. After all, if one’s wife were conducting a steamy relationship with a king, most men would run for the arms of another woman. Fickle, that’s what Wallis was, Evangeline concluded, the sort of female who is seduced by position, sycophancy, power and gemstones. As well as the betrayal she had made to the hapless Ernest, Wallis’s behaviour amounted just as much to a betrayal of Evangeline herself. And the assumption of the woman, lumbering Evangeline with the dog without so much as an “if you please” was the final straw.
Evangeline remained sitting at Joan’s desk considering the nature of treachery. She was angry and tried to calm herself down by analysing the reasons for her anger, even forcing herself to admit that she had drawn pleasure from the gradual collapse of Wallis’s