Page 41 of The Gathering Storm (Morland Dynasty #36)

CHAPTER TEN

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.’

Oliver cut a sliver of Wensleydale. ‘I can only say that there is a feeling abroad, these days, that the pursuit of individual satisfaction is the primary purpose of life.’

‘I blame the cinema,’ Verena said.

‘My dear,’ Oliver protested, amused, ‘are you starting a moral crusade against Hollywood?’

‘I would if I could. It does nobody any good – you wouldn’t claim otherwise, I hope?’

‘It seems to me films have become intensely moral. The baddies always suffer and the goodies prevail. But let’s not argue about that. We were talking about the Matrimonial Causes Bill.’

‘What will the new grounds for divorce be?’ Kit asked.

‘Adultery, desertion for three years or more, cruelty, incurable insanity, incest and sodomy. From what my fellow peers are saying, it will have no difficulty in getting through the Upper House. I only mention it in the context of the King disporting himself publicly with a mistress who will soon have been divorced twice. It might be acceptable to the spirit of the age to pursue happiness at all costs, but the King is supposed to represent an ideal, especially to the lower classes. They won’t like it. ’

Kit, tired at last of talking about the fabled couple, cracked another nut.

‘Since we’ve dragged your children away from the sea, and we’re about as far away from the coast as you can be in England, I thought I’d arrange for us all to go over to the Endberbys at Kilworth tomorrow.

They have a splendid lake, for boating and swimming. What do you think?’

David O. Selznick had offered $50,000 for the film rights of Gone With the Wind , and Al Feinstein was disinclined to outbid him.

In typical fashion he immediately lost interest in the whole thing.

‘He wants Clark Gable for Rhett Butler,’ he said to Lennie, with a shrug.

‘Good luck to him. MGM will never release him.’

‘I heard that Warner’s offered him Errol Flynn in return for the distribution rights,’ Lennie said.

‘That movie will never be made,’ said Al. ‘Anyway, I’ve got an idea for your girl. Listen, you’ll love this. William – Shakespeare!’ he pronounced, with a dramatic pause between the two halves.

Lennie was surprised, but pleased.

‘Shakespeare’s hot,’ Al went on. ‘Warner did The Midsummer Dream last year. MGM’s just released Romeo and Juliet. ’

‘I’ve seen it,’ Lennie said. ‘Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard. A bit middle-aged for the star-crossed lovers, I thought. But it’s a pretty good production.

They certainly made an effort to be faithful to the play.

They sent the set designer to Verona to make sketches.

’ He knew that because the designer had been Eric Chapel, any news of whom always caught his eye.

He had a morbid fascination with the man, wondering whether there had been anything between him and Polly in New York back in May.

‘The buzz is that it’s gonna get Oscars.

And we’d better get in on the act before all the good Shakespeares are snapped up.

Reznik’s suggested The Merchant of Venice.

Gondolas I like, but it reads like a slow day on Wall Street.

Loans and interest and bonds? Where’s the action?

George Cukor got a great fight scene into Romeo .

Now, Reznik’s other suggestion is Twelfth Night .

Whaddaya think about that? I’ve not read the outline yet. ’

‘That could work,’ Lennie said. ‘It’s all about mistaken identity. The heroine dresses up as a boy—’

‘Rosie’s got a great pair of pins!’

‘She goes to work as a page to a duke, and falls in love with him. But he’s in love with a rich countess and sends this page to woo her on his behalf. The countess falls in love with the page—’

‘Who’s a girl, right?’

‘Right. Then our heroine’s twin brother, whom she thinks is dead, arrives. Everyone thinks he’s her, the countess marries him, and the page reveals she’s a girl and marries the duke.’

‘It’s farce, right?’ Al said, frowning.

‘Romantic comedy. But the heroine falling for a man who doesn’t know she’s a girl so he can’t fall in love with her – that’s poignant. A tear-jerker.’

Feinstein’s face cleared. ‘And no need to splash fifty grand on the film rights, because Shakespeare’s dead!’ He swivelled his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other. ‘Forget the Wall Street doohickey! We’ll go with Twelfth Night . Have to change that title, though. It’s not sexy.’

‘If you change it, no-one will know it’s Shakespeare,’ Lennie pointed out.