Page 48 of The Gathering Storm (Morland Dynasty #36)

He believed, Oliver realised then, that he could ‘get away with it’ – could marry Wally on his own terms and make her Queen, no matter what the government, the Royal Family, or anyone else thought about it. He was infatuated, in every sense of the word.

His good humour continued throughout the evening, amounting almost to a state of euphoria.

Oliver noted that, whoever he was talking to, he would turn every few moments to gaze at Wally, seated next to Victor Cazalet, the MP for Chippenham, and his face would fill with a radiance of adoration.

If it hadn’t been so mad, it would have been touching.

Oliver looked at Wally in sheer wonder. How could this thin, plain, harsh-voiced woman be elevated in HM’s mind to archangel status?

Kit and Emma were summoned to the Fort again for the weekend.

‘It’s such a relief to get away from London,’ Wally said, when they arrived. ‘I don’t feel safe in Cumberland Terrace. I’m supposed to have armed protection, but all they give me is two detectives who sit in a car outside all night. Probably asleep most of the time.’

‘You don’t really think you’re in danger, do you?’ Emma asked.

‘There are elements,’ she said darkly. ‘I’ve heard there are those who wouldn’t mind if I was assassinated.’

‘I’m sure that’s not true.’

‘You’re such an innocent, Emma! You don’t realise there are all sorts of secret agencies operating in the shadows.

MI this and Special that. Secret dossiers and hidden cameras.

You Brits are not the folksy innocents you pretend to be.

But come on in and have a drink. There’s a new idea I want to tell you about. ’

The Metcalfes were already there, and after greetings had been exchanged, they sat down and Wally told her news. It seemed that Esmond Harmsworth, the chairman of Associated Newspapers, had suggested, over lunch at Claridge’s, a morganatic marriage.

‘Apparently it’s popular on the Continent,’ Wally said.

‘It would mean I wasn’t called Queen – well, I don’t mind being Duchess of Lancaster – and any children of the marriage wouldn’t be able to succeed.

’ She glanced round to see that the King was out of earshot, across the room mixing cocktails, and lowered her voice.

‘Well, there aren’t going to be any children, so that doesn’t matter.

So it looks like a good solution to the whole muddle. ’

Kit said, ‘Morganatic marriage is not in our constitution, Wally.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Again with the constitution! Just because a thing hasn’t been done that way before, is it any reason not to do it that way now?’

‘Um – well – yes,’ Kit said helplessly.

Fruity Metcalfe helped him out. ‘There would have to be a special Act of Parliament, you see. Otherwise the marriage wouldn’t be legal.’

The King arrived at that moment with a tray of glasses.

‘Are you talking about Harmsworth’s idea?

I must say, I don’t like it. Left-handed marriage!

’ He handed out the cocktails. ‘I’m not going to stand for you being short-changed, darling,’ he said, putting her glass tenderly into her hand.

‘You are to be Queen, not the Duchess of Lancaster.’

‘But if it means we can marry without all this trouble,’ Wally urged.

‘Baldwin and the whole bally lot of them would still have to approve it. Why should they have the final say? I don’t see why we should make all these concessions. It smacks of grovelling, to me.’

‘Well, let’s just think about it,’ Wally urged. ‘There’s no harm in Esmond putting it to Baldwin, and seeing how we get on. Put some music on – something lively to cheer us up.’

Later, on the way up to change, Fruity stopped Kit on the landing and said, ‘She doesn’t realise it would have to go before Parliament, and Parliament would almost certainly reject it.’

Kit agreed. ‘Not only that, the Dominions would never wear it. Australia and New Zealand have Catholic prime ministers. And the Irish Free State would have a fit.’

Fruity sighed. ‘I have a feeling that Harmsworth only put up the idea to put Baldwin in a spot. He must know it’s a non-starter. He wants Baldwin to bungle the whole Wally business and have to resign.’

‘That’s very profound of you, Fruity,’ Kit said. ‘I haven’t heard you make so much sense since 1919.’

‘I do have the occasional idea,’ Fruity said modestly.

Emma was dressing when Wally sent her maid to summon her.

Emma put on a dressing-gown, her hair still loose, and found Wally dressed, but without make-up or jewellery, her Indian-black hair hanging on her shoulders.

Her eyes were red. She waved Emma to a chair, from which she had to eject the dog, Mr Loo, first. He lifted a resentful lip at her, then disappeared under the dressing-table’s skirt.

‘Has something happened?’ Emma asked.

‘We’ve had such a row,’ Wally said. ‘Beaverbrook rang him, and David told him about the morganatic idea. Beaverbrook said he should withdraw it at once. It gives Baldwin too strong a hand. He said the best thing would be for me to go away until after the Coronation. Let that take place, he said, then let the country and the Commonwealth get to know me gradually through charitable works and public appearances, until they realise what a good thing I am for David and for the throne. I told David I was quite happy with that, and he absolutely exploded.’

‘Oh dear!’

‘He said it was all part of a plot started by the Hardinges, that they’d been angling to get rid of me from the beginning.

He said he absolutely would not allow me to leave the country.

He said nothing would stop him marrying me.

I begged him to think about it – I said we had time, the divorce won’t be final until April – but there was no reasoning with him.

He started raving about everyone being against him.

He said, let them find out how they’d get on without him.

I said, “What are you talking about?” and he said if the government would not approve the marriage, he would be ready to leave the throne. ’

It was not the first time, of course, that Emma had heard of the threat, but it seemed to be the first time Wally had.

‘I started crying – I begged him not to talk like that. I said it was the last thing I wanted, to come between him and the Crown. But he wouldn’t listen. He said if I didn’t agree to stay, he would summon the Prime Minister right away, that very minute, and tell him he was abdicating.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ Emma said. ‘How did you leave it with him?’

‘I said I’d stay, of course.’ She sighed heavily.

‘I feel so ill. My nerves are in shreds. My ulcers are killing me. And now my heart is playing up – palpitations.’ She looked up.

‘I’d give anything for this to be over. You know I’ve had poison-pen letters?

Threats to my life. I’ve had stones thrown at my windows.

I hardly dare leave the house. Every time a flashbulb goes off I think it’s someone trying to shoot me. ’

‘What will you do?’

She was silent a long moment. ‘I’m going to go away.

Promise me you won’t say anything to David?

I can’t tell him because I know what would happen.

I’ll make up some excuse about being fitted for gowns in Paris, and go abroad until after the Coronation.

Or perhaps for ever,’ she added, in a low voice.

Another pause. Then she said, ‘I think everyone would like that – apart from him , of course. After a while my name will be forgotten.’ She brooded, staring at her hands in her lap.

‘It’s all Ernest’s fault. I never wanted the divorce.

And Mary – she was always jealous of me.

This last month … You don’t know what it’s like, Emma.

Used by politicians, hated by jealous women, accused of everything.

I’ll never forgive the American press for what they’ve done, stirring up people against me. I’m flattened out.’

‘You’ll come about,’ Emma said.

Wally looked up sharply. ‘Of course I will. I’ll get out from under this load some time. But just now … My God, Emma, I’m so darn tired.’

The British press had kept quiet, and only a thin little trickle had leaked out to those with access to the American press.

But on the 1st of December, the Bishop of Bradford, addressing the annual diocesan conference, criticised the King for his non-attendance at church.

The criticism had necessarily to be indirect, so he couched it in oblique terms – so oblique that the press barons believed he was referring to the situation with Mrs Simpson.

When the speech was reported in a northern newspaper, they thought the paper had broken ranks, and they were afraid of being left behind.

The flood-gates burst: on the 2nd, there were photographs of the King and Mrs Simpson everywhere, articles and critical editorials in the leading papers.

The King and Wally were at the Fort, and it came as a terrible shock.

Accompanied by Eddie, who was equerrying, the King drove up to London and summoned Baldwin to a meeting at Buckingham Palace.

As the car passed an underground station, the King said, ‘Look at that!’ The paper-seller at the station entrance had his placard on display, and the words stood out, heavy black on white, like a bellow: ‘THE KING AND MRS SIMPSON’.

‘How dare they?’ he cried, his face darkening.

It was in an ill mood that he received Baldwin, furious about the bishop’s impertinence and the treachery of the press.

Baldwin tried to calm him, but he had no good news to impart: he’d had the replies from the Dominions.

The prime ministers were strongly opposed to a morganatic marriage; so were the Cabinet, the leader of the Opposition and the leader of the Liberals.

Indeed, in Canada, Australia and New Zealand they would not countenance any kind of marriage between the monarch and a twice-divorced woman.