was on loan from the king.
“He loves to make sure I have everything just so!”
Eleven people assembled in the charming room and stood leaning over the backs of the white leather chairs, allocated their place in turn by Wallis as she consulted a handwritten seating plan of the table.
“Now you are here, Vangey, though don’t forget your wrap. Those poor shoulders look as if they could do with a little protection.”
Comforting herself that she could catch up on news with Julian at another time, Evangeline took the chair that Wallis indicated, between Ernest Simpson and George Hunter.
“‘Of course, you know Ernest already I think? And we have been friends with Kitty and George since our earliest days in London,” Wallis explained as she moved away to seat her other guests. Evangeline had indeed met Ernest on a couple of occasions, finding him the most congenial of companions. She greeted him with a kiss before extending a hand to George Hunter.
“I have not yet had the pleasure, Mr. Hunter. Are you in the shipping line of business with Ernest?”
“Oh no, Miss Nettlefold, I confess I have never been bothered by the nuisance of having to go to an office.”
As the guests spoke among themselves, Wallis slipped out of the dining room, returning moments later with a small fair-haired man, evidently so familiar with the Simpson apartment that he straightaway took his place next to Wallis at the top of the table with Lady Joan on his right. For as much as half a minute the new guest’s arrival was so unobtrusive that it went almost unnoticed among the energetically chattering guests. But gradually a feeling grew that the quality of oxygen in the room had been enhanced, and deference and respect settled on the assembled company as attention was concentrated on the twelfth amongst them. The women dropped a middling low curtsey just where they stood at their chairs and the men bowed in the manner appropriate for a private party, using the dignified nod of a neck bow as opposed to the dramatic bend from the waist they had been trained as schoolboys to reserve for state occasions.
“So sorry I am late,” the king said, all cheery informality and smiling at each guest in turn as, exercising his prerogative, he was the first to sit down, indicating with a hand that they should all join him.
General conversation resumed. The king leant across the table to speak to Sir Philip, his voice audible to all, with its hard-to-place accent that combined a touch of American with an unlikely dash of London’s East End. As the individual spinach soufflés were placed in front of each guest, the deep green of the aerated surface contrasting deliciously with the lighter colour of the accompanying watercress sauce, Wallis encouraged them all with a firm “Do start!” and directed a meaningful look towards Evangeline.
Soon the conversation turned from talk of the tiresome length of the dark winter months to the political news of the week. The empty soufflé dishes were cleared and the king lit a cigarette. Wallis put her hand so briefly on his that Evangeline only just caught the gesture. The king immediately stubbed out the lighted end, a film of ash floating onto the black waistcoat he wore beneath his dinner jacket. Hitler’s soldiers had reoccupied the Rhineland in violation of the rules laid down by the Treaty of Versailles six months after the end of the Great War. Some people felt that Hitler was only reentering his “own back garden.” But others took it to be a worrying indication of things to come. Had not the Italians allied themselves with Germany against the rest of Europe after their invasion of Abyssinia the preceding October? And this latest development in the Rhineland came on top of the recent reintroduction of conscription in Germany.
The king was the first to reassure the assembled company. War is a dreadful thing of course, as he could himself testify, having spent many months in the army, often equipped with little more than his dependable bicycle during a spell right up there with the finest of men at the front line.
“But may I remind you,” he said firmly, “that not only was the Rhineland formerly part of legitimate German territory, but Adolf Hitler himself has seen a war at firsthand. He too suffered the appalling effects of gas, lost friends and family.”
The king stressed that he was certain the führer would not want his experience to be repeated in