Page 64 of The Gathering Storm

‘You don’t,’ Emma said encouragingly. ‘You’re going through a hard time, but you’ll come about. Aren’t Baltimore girls famous for their grit?’

There was a pause. Then, in a watery voice, ‘I don’t mind telling you I’m at a low ebb. One thing,’ she added, ‘Goddard tells me there are so many divorce petitions piled up in London for the fall session, my case will never get called. He said I might have to wait a year for a hearing date. That might solve the problem.’

‘Because David wants to marry you before the Coronation?’

‘When he knows he can’t, he may let the whole marriage thing drop.’

The words were hopeful, but Emma heard the doubt underneath, and shared it. The King’s principal characteristic was the sort of dogged stubbornness that got hold of a bone and would never let it go. He would wear Wally down, as he had before, with a mixture of threats, endearments and jewels. And with Ernest determined on a new life, she had nowhere else to turn.

So it proved. She heard nothing more from Wally for ten days, then bumped into her at Ciro’s, looking better, though still tense, and wearing a pair of sapphire and diamond ear clips in the shape of arrows. She told Emma that Goddard had got her petition into the Ipswich Assizes, where there was much less competition. It was to be heard on the 27th of October. ‘Which would mean a decree absolute at the end of April, just in time for the Coronation on the twelfth of May. Where is Ipswich, anyway?’

‘Suffolk. In the bit of England on the right-hand side that bulges out,’ Emma said.

‘Oh. It sounds rustic. I have to go and stay there, apparently. I have to be in residence for three weeks before the hearing. David’s got them looking for a house for me in the area. I hope it’s not too far from London – you’ll come and visit me there, won’t you?’

‘There are trains to Ipswich from Liverpool Street,’ Emma told her, skating over the invitation. ‘I believe it takes about an hour and a half.’

‘And I’m looking for a house in London,’ she went on. ‘Bryanston Court was all right for the Prince of Wales, but you can’t expect the King to visit me there. Oh, and I’m going to Balmoral on the twenty-third.’

‘I know,’ Kit said, when Emma told him that later. ‘Winnie Churchill told me – he was horrified. It’s an official palace, with long traditions of who ought to be asked and how they should conduct themselves. Imagine our Wally barging into the kitchen and pushing the dour Scottish cooks aside to make club sandwiches! And moving the furniture about, and giving orders. Oh dear.’ He shook his head, laughing. ‘They are a dreadful pair, but they do make life entertaining!’

There was a bigger scandal in store, which they found out about later. Wally and the Rogerses went down by train, but to save Wallis from having to change trains, the King drove himself the sixty miles to Aberdeen to meet them and drive them back to Balmoral. That was bad enough, but he had been supposed to visit Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on that day, and had called off, pleading illness, and made the Duke of York go in his place. He thought that wearing motoring goggles would disguise him, but everyone recognised him, and his actions made it into the Aberdeen Evening Argus, which speculated sourly on what guest could possibly have been so important as to require the cancellation of an official engagement.

‘The Bertie Yorks are furious,’ Kit heard from Oliver, who had it from Eddie, who was staying with them at Birkhall. ‘Doing the hospital instead of the King made it look as though Bertie was complicit in the shockingly bad behaviour. HM asked Wally to act as hostess at a dinner at Balmoral the Yorks were invited to, and when Wally stepped forward to greet them, the Duchess ignored her and walked straight past. So now the Yorks will never forgive David and Wally, and they will never forgive the Yorks.’

Kit told Emma all this that evening, and she said, ‘You’re not laughing. You said they made life entertaining.’

‘I know, but suddenly I don’t find them so funny. It’s all getting rather … shoddy.’ He paused, then said, ‘I heard a joke at the club at lunchtime: Mrs Simpson got into a cab and said, “King’s Cross,” and the cabby said, “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”’

‘You’re not laughing at that, either.’

‘I didn’t say it was a good joke,’ said Kit.

The King rented a house in Cumberland Terrace for Wally – one of the fine Nash houses on the outer ring of Regent’s Park.

‘I’m having it redecorated,’ Wally told Emma at lunch at the Café Royal one day, ‘so it won’t be ready before I leave for Ipswich. David will have my things moved in while I’m away. I’m staying at Claridge’s for a few days.’

‘Where are you staying in Ipswich?’ Emma asked.

‘Some place nearby – Felixstowe, it’s called. Goddard’s found a house there for me. By the sea.’ She looked out at the dark day, where rain was sheeting down on Regent Street, and the few people hurrying by were sprouting umbrellas like mushrooms. ‘I’m stocking up on things to take with me. One never knows if they’ll have one’s favourite brand of gin. You will come and stay, won’t you? David is absolutely forbidden to visit me down there, and it will be a long three weeks.’

‘You could do with the rest,’ Emma said.

‘But will I get it?’ she said, raising bleak eyes to Emma’s.

Those with friends in America were having American newspapers sent to them. They were full of Wally and the divorce.

King’s Moll to Reno in Wolsey’s Home Town

Baltimore Cutie Cuts Out British Belles

King to Wed Wally Before Christmas

Still the British press kept its silence, and the ordinary man in the street was in the dark, but everyone in London Society knew, and was rapidly dividing into two camps: those who believed the King should be allowed to marry his One True Love, and those who deplored the whole thing and believed nothing should be allowed to upset Queen Mary.

‘You wouldn’t think of stopping the divorce?’ Emma asked.

‘Everything’s gone too far now,’ Wally said. ‘Better to have it over and done with.’ She mused for a moment. ‘We weren’t unhappy, you know – Ernest and I. We jogged along perfectly well together. If David hadn’t come along …’