HRH’s name never cropped up.
I said, “I wonder when your wedding invitation will arrive?”
Wally said, “Plenty of time.”
Well, I know for a fact the Belchesters have already received theirs.
11th October 1934
Lightfoot says Prince George and Marina are taking a house in Belgrave Square, just around the corner from the Crosbies. Pips says she expects Marina will be on the doorstep all the time, asking to borrow a cup of sugar.
Lightfoot got his invitation, too. All this money Wally’s spending at Main Bocher. I hope she’s not in for a disappointment.
16th October 1934
To Covent Garden for Parsifal. Came: the Humphrey Butlers and the Otto Bismarcks. No Ernest, but he is coming to the Fort this weekend. HRH fell asleep during Act I, and Wally slapped his hand. Much horrified rolling of eyes by Poots Butler, but my sympathies are entirely with the Prince. I’d have nodded off myself if my foundation hadn’t become uncomfortably puckered. If someone thought to present an operatic show which dispensed with all the posturing and weeping and simply featured the best tunes, I believe they’d have a great success on their hands.
17th October 1934
Pips says she’s lost all sympathy for Ernest if he’s willing to crawl back under the Prince’s roof. She said, “To keep up the pretense in public is one thing. You have to give him something for maintaining his dignity. But agreeing to spend a weekend at the love nest! That speaks volumes about Ernest. Basically, he’s just a ridiculous little snob.”
Pips can be very judgmental.
19th October 1934, Fort Belvedere
The Fruity Metcalfes are here, and the Perry Brownlows. HRH overheard Kitsie Brownlow telling Wally that those who are getting wedding invitations have already received them. He said, “Wally and Ernest don’t need an invitation sent through the mails, because I put their names on a list and that’s all there is to it.”
Wally gave Kitsie such a triumphant smile.
HRH and Ernest pruned roses together this morning. I wonder what they talked about. Baba Metcalfe says Marina Greece is shy but adorable, and Prince George is deliriously happy, picking out rugs and drapes for their new house. Wally and Ernest are going to give them an inlaid cigarette box. It was a gift from the Benny Thaws and has hardly been used.
22nd October 1934, Wilton Place
Penelope Blythe says Prince George has a love child that was spirited out of the country and is being raised in obscurity. She says everyone knows about it. I’ll bet shy but adorable Marina doesn’t. Penelope says Billy Belchester is a surprisingly good lover.
25th October 1934
To Lady Strathnaver’s gala for the Not Forgottens. At George Lightfoot’s table, as were the Erlangers, the Crosbies, and the Belchesters, putting on a united front. Wally and Ernest were at the Metcalfe’s table. HRH is at Sandringham.
I took care to bump into Violet in the powder room. She was cool but polite, so obviously knows nothing of my rendezvous in the park with Flora and Doopie.
5th November 1934
A brusque call from Hart Casey at First Maryland. He wonders when he may expect a reply to his letter of September 3rd. He obviously has no idea how much mail a person returns to find after a two-month vacation. I said, “I don’t believe I’ve even seen your letter yet.”
He said, “Mrs. Brumby, if you had seen it, you would remember. Your checking accounts are seriously overextended. We really have to do something about it.”
Damned cheek. I reminded him that Danforth Brumby practically got him into that bank. He said, “He certainly did. And he always impressed on me the importance of knowing what you’ve got and where it is. I know he wouldn’t want First Maryland to allow your accounts to fall into bad shape.”
I said, “Well, why don’t you just transfer money from accounts that aren’t overextended? Do I have to teach you your job?”
He said, “That’s the problem, Mrs. Brumby. There isn’t really anything to transfer.”
There’s obviously been some kind of error.
I said, “I’ll look into it when I have a moment.”
He said, “And when do you estimate that might be?”
Landsakes, this is a very busy season in London, not to mention I have a friend going to a royal wedding. I’ll get Randolph Putnam onto it.
To the Grill Room with Pips.
7th November 1934
Randolph says this is not a good time to sell Brumby stock. Pips says she knows nothing about money. She leaves all that to her trustees.
9th November 1934
George Lightfoot says he’s the worst person to go to for advice. His family have been selling off castles for centuries and they still never make ends meet.
Hattie Erlanger said she has no trouble managing on her allowance. One would never know from the way she dresses.
10th November 1934
Ida Coote says wealth or poverty are of no importance. What matters is inner contentedness. How annoying friends can be in times of trouble.
13th November 1934
Saw Doopie and Flora in the park. Gave them an ounce of candy to share.
Flora says her flower maid’s dress is pretty but her wedding shoes pinch. That’s because she’s allowed to go barefoot so much.
I wonder how much there is in Doopie’s fund? She has absolutely no need of money.
14th November 1934
To Wally’s, to see her Paris gowns. They are stunning. And exactly the style for someone who has no natural figure. This regime of lemon juice and hot water she’s been following is doing nothing for her neck. After thirty-five, a woman needs a little avoirdupois beneath her skin.
16th November 1934
A voice I wished never to hear again. Junior. He said, “Greetings, Step-ma! I hear you’re in difficulties. Now why don’t I take Sweet Air off your hands? Free you up some walking-around money.”
Over my dead body. It’s thanks to his mismanagement that my dividends are down. Brumby must be spinning in his grave.
20th November 1934
I have decided to sell Sweet Air to Randolph Putnam. He always admired the place, and I’ve no use for it anymore. He was so thrilled. He said, “I’ll give you a fair price, Maybell. And some day, when you come back where you belong, it can be yours again. My offer of a wedding band still stands.”
I said, “Don’t cloud the issue. If you want the house, buy it. And find a nice girl, because I won’t be coming back.”
He said, “Okay, Maybell. I hear you.”
A good move all around. I’ve thwarted Junior and I’ll be able to get Hart Casey and the First Maryland off my back without ending up as Randoph Putnam’s sex slave.
21st November 1934
London is filling with minor royalties. The Yugoslavias, the Greeces, the Bulgarias, the Denmarks. I asked Wally if she wasn’t the tiniest bit nervous about arriving at Buckingham Palace without a board invitation. “Not a bit,” she said. “David is taking care of everything.” He certainly seems to have pulled strings at Cartier. They’ve poked around in their vaults and found an old tiara for her to borrow.
22nd November 1934
To the German Legation. A little reception for the Hohenzollerns. Von Ribbentrop beaming and glad-handing everyone. He said, “Maybell! Where is our splendid Wally this evening?”
I said, “I believe she’s engaged elsewhere.”
“Ach!” he said. “I understand! Mummy is the word.”
He was really behaving as though we were guests in his house, but Ambassador von Hoesch was far too polite to put him in his place. Violet pecked me on the cheek. Melhuish said, “I’m glad to see you don’t have Wales’s peg doll in tow.”
Pips says she’s suffering from Royal Wedding Fatigue. She’s getting up a lunch for people who want to discuss other subjects.
26th November 1934
To the Ivy with Pips, Hattie, and Zita Cavett. Hattie couldn’t wait to tell us what she’d heard
from Poots Butler. Humphrey is equerrying for Prince George this month. Apparently, HM King noticed Wally and Ernest’s names had been added to the list for the wedding ball and demanded to know who was responsible. Prince George said it was HRH’s doing, and the King ordered them to be removed immediately. Then HRH was sent for and hauled over the coals about it in front of Humphrey.
27th November 1934
Pips called first thing. She said, “Freddie saw Ernest at the Guards’ Club last night. He says he looked like the cat that’d been promised a lifetime supply of cream, so what are we to think? Will the Simpsons go to the ball or not? The world holds its breath.”
Wally unreachable, of course. First she was resting, not to be disturbed. Then she was with her hairdresser and taking no more calls till tomorrow. I guess that means they’re going.
28th November 1934
Wally and Ernest did go to the wedding ball. She called me at ten and said, “Come over, Maybell. I’ll make us French toast and tell you all about it.”
She was in her kimono, sipping milk and very happy to hear everyone is talking about her. Poots Butler was right about their names being removed from the guest list, but only temporarily. She said, “It was a mistake. David had it fixed as soon as he realized, and he came down personally to greet us, to make sure we didn’t have trouble with any more mix-ups. It was such a scream. He whisked us through the vestibule, straight past Violet and her gang. You should have seen their faces. And I outshone the lot of them, Maybell. Especially the Royalties, all lined up in their prissy pastels, dressed like a herd of milkmaids.”
I said, “And did you meet the King and Queen?”
“No,” she said. “The stumbling block there is that Ernest and I have both been divorced. But we may be able to do something about that. I may be able to get Win Spencer annulled. In Ernest’s case, it might be harder, because there was a child, but an annulment isn’t out of the question. You just have to know the right people.”
She wanted to hear all the gossip. Who’s for her, who’s against her, but I told no tales. I said, “All you need to know is I have always been for you.”
She said, “I know, Maybell. You’ve been a treasure and I’ll never forget it.”
29th November 1934
Prince George is now styled the Duke of Kent, which sounds to me like a demotion. Better surely to be a prince than a duke.
The other disappointing news is that Wally and Ernest didn’t go to the wedding, after all. Hattie says the King probably had Gurkhas posted everywhere to keep them out, but Wally says it was just that Ernest had an emergency at his office and she didn’t feel she could face the cold of the Abbey.
Such a shame, after Main Bocher did such beautiful work on her gown.
She said, “Well, it was only a wedding. When you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.”
To the Whitlow Trillings for Thanksgiving turkey and fixings. The new child was handed around, very red and howling. They have named it Loelia, after the Duchess of Westminster. I hope they got a good gift.
30th November 1934
Carlton Gardens is still swarming with wedding guests. Trotman showed me into the morning room. The Melhuish sisters were there with Paul Yugoslavia’s wife, and Violet looking at me through narrowed eyes, bracing herself for what she knew must come.
She said, “Were we expecting you?”
I said, “No, but I happened to be passing and I wanted to hear how you enjoyed the wedding ball.”
She said, “It was charming.”
I said, “Yes, Wally thought so, too. She had quite a triumph, by all accounts.”
She said, “Is that what you call ‘a triumph’? Crashing in uninvited, in fact, quite expressly disinvited. Dancing past Their Majesties dressed like a Christmas tree. A vulgar error is what I’d call it. A grotesque exhibition of bad manners.”
That’s Violet all over. She’ll never back down.
Flora was on the stairs when I left, in her flower maid’s dress and Wellington boots. She was soaping her Spanish doll, which she has named “Damned Wales.” She said, “Hello, Aunt Bayba. Are you still banquished?”
4th December 1934
Two full days helping Wally pick out Christmas gifts for HRH’s households. Penknives, neck ties, almanacs, figurines, all very bargain-basement and so fatiguing. I’m starting to agree with Lady Cunard. The whole business of Christmas is too boring for words and can only have been invented to entertain the lower classes.
Bernie and Zita Cavett have taken a house near Teddington and want me for the holidays. I don’t know. The Crosbies are going to South Africa. Wally and Ernest are going to Devonshire with Ernest’s newsagent friends.
Lunch with Lightfoot. He said, “Maybell, I think you’re being treated somewhat shabbily by Violet. Your only crime seems to be loyalty to a friend, and I intend bringing it up with Melhuish. If moves aren’t made to welcome you back into the bosom of your family, there’ll be no pantomime for Flora and Rory this Christmas, gobfather or no. Doopie feels the same way. She’s absolutely solid with me on this.”
He is a dear.
10th December 1934
A visit from Violet. Lightfoot obviously issued his ultimatum.
She said, “Maybell, don’t let’s quarrel.”
I said, “I haven’t quarreled.”
She said, “No, well. It’s upsetting Doopie dreadfully. Say you’ll come to us for Christmas.”
I said, “I’m afraid I can’t. I already promised the Cavetts.”
She said, “Who are they? I don’t know them.”
I said, “Bernie and Zita. They’re friends of the Prince. Americans. They’ve taken a house in Middlesex.”
She said, “Will you-know-who be there?”
I said, “If you mean Wally, she’ll be in the West Country with her husband.”
“Oh good,” she said. “That’s as it should be. Even better if she were to go back to the States. Well, let’s hope.”
We embraced when she left. She said, “You know I only do things for your own good, Maybell. When all’s said and done, you’re still my little sister.”
15th December 1934, Fort Belvedere
Our last weekend before HRH leaves for Sandringham. The Erlangers are here, also Bernie and Zita, Oliver Templemore, and Fruity Metcalfe. No Baba. She spends a great deal of time with her brother-in-law since her sister Cimmie died. There are young children to be consoled.
Wally had had a tree brought into the Octagon Room and lit with tiny electric candles. The men all received cigars from HRH and the ladies engraved cigarette lighters, but I know Wally also got a pin with square-cut emeralds. I saw HRH claimed his thank-you kiss while Ernest was playing billiards with Templemore.
16th December 1934
HRH wants us all to go with him to Kitzbuhel in January. The Erlangers and the Cavetts are up for it, but Ernest doesn’t think he can get away.
Wally said, “Never mind. Maybell’s going. She’ll keep me company.”
Ernest said, “Or you could make your excuses and decline.”
She said, “Ernest, don’t be such a fool. No one refuses Sir when his heart’s set on something.”
Fruity says it will fall to Oxer Bettenbrooke to equerry.
I think Fruity and I were the only ones to witness HRH’s tears as Wally and Ernest drove away after tea.
“A whole month,” he said. “A whole beastly month without her.”
Fruity shook his head.
He said, “You’ll be so occupied with the festivities, sir, a month will pass in no time.”
HRH said, “No it won’t. It’ll drag, and it’ll be bloody, and I’m going to hate every damned minute of it.”
21st December 1934, Wilton Place
With Hattie to buy skiwear. Wally refuses. She says she’s never skied in her life and she doesn’t intend starting now. She says she’ll just wear furs and take along lots of books.
Hattie said, “Wally had jolly well better learn to ski. And
hunt. And play golf. David’s going to get pretty bored with her if all she does is shop.”
It’s hard to imagine HRH ever growing bored with Wally. He seems enthralled by everything she says and does. He doesn’t even mind watching her try on hats.
23rd December 1934
To the compound for hot cider and Christmas carols. Benny Thaw acknowledged me, but Connie turned her back. A card from Randolph Putnam. The Sweet Air papers will be ready for signing by the end of January.
28th December 1934
Zita Cavett thinks Wally should go to Reno, divorce Ernest, and snap up HRH while he’s still a free man. I told her, it’s a bit more complicated than that. He’s the next King.
She said, “So? If they went off quietly to a little wedding chapel, what could anyone do about it?”
Maybe she’s right.
30th December 1934
Wally says she’s not interested in marrying HRH. She said, “Everything’s just fine the way it is.”
I said, “Even for Ernest?”
She said, “Especially for Ernest. He knows which side his bread’s buttered.”
Gone With the Windsors Page 21
