To the Ham Bone Club. The Crosbies, von Ribbentrop without his smiling hausfrau, Wally without her husband or her Prince, and the Trillings. Gladys’s reentry into the world. Her waistline is still looking pretty slack.
Von R. danced with Wally all evening. He knew every detail of our trip to Vienna.
10th March 1935
The Crokers have arrived. They’ve taken Sunninghills again. Ethel said, “I hope Wally is going to let us have you for Ascot Week.”
14th March 1935
Lunch with Ethel and Pips. First thing Ethel said, “And? Has our Prince popped the question?”
Pips said, “That’d be a bit premature. There’s the little matter of Ernest.”
Anyway, that’s not at all the plan. HRH has to marry someone who can be Queen.
Ethel said, “Okay. So, what happens to Wally if he wakes up King tomorrow?”
I said, “But he’s not going to.”
“No,” she said, “but just say.”
I said, “Then he’d hurry off and marry one of those Biedermeyer-Bechsteins. Keep her confined to the palace with a brood of babies and slip away as often as possible to see Wally.”
“God!” she said. “Long live the King!”
Pips said, “Apart from anything else, Wally wouldn’t be any use as a brood mare. She’s too old and she has very irregular insides.”
20th March 1935
Penelope Blythe has it from Kitsie Brownlow that the King sent for HRH and asked him straight out whether he and Wally are lovers and HRH swore absolutely not. She says it spread like wildfire from the Palace to York House and the Fort, and the servants can talk of nothing else, because they’ve seen what they’ve seen and they know what they know. But the King was apparently satisfied with David’s answer, and as a show of cordiality, he’s agreed to turn a blind eye to the fact that both Wally and Ernest have been divorced and allow them to attend one of the Jubilee balls.
Just as well, because Wally’s in Paris having fittings, and they’re hardly the kind of gowns she’d have occasion to wear in Marylebone.
I said, “What’s going to happen when the King finds out the truth?”
Penelope said, “Oh, he already knows the truth. But having posed the question, it wouldn’t do for him to disbelieve Wales’s answer. And everyone now feels better for a slight clearing of the air. It’s all quite understood.”
Not by me.
24th March 1935
A call from Ernest. Would I share a simple supper with him tomorrow evening? He said, “Wally’s still in Paris, as you know. But I’d very much like to talk to you, just we two. I’d count it a very great favor, Maybell.”
I’m filled with dread. I do hope he doesn’t cry.
25th March 1935
To Bryanston Court, full of trepidation. A fire lit. Cold cuts and baked potatoes served on trays. I was hardly through the door before Ernest showed me the invitation: A Court Ball on May 14th. He said, “The greatest honor of my life. Something undreamed of.”
Small talk about Vienna while we ate, but then he grew wistful over coffee.
He said, “Well, Maybell, you see how things are. Thanks to Wally, the Prince of Wales has become a close personal friend. The next King of England. He gave me these very cigars. But to get to the point, he’s fallen in love with my wife. I have to face facts. I can’t keep her to myself.”
He was very calm.
I said, “I expect this year will be different. David has a very full appointment book, with the Jubilee. Hardly a day off.”
He said, “Yes. But, of course, there’ll be another long vacation after the celebrations. Another cruise, I dare say. I can’t be away from business for weeks on end, guarding my wife, and anyway, it’s rather gone beyond that. I’d be de trop. I suppose you know they’re lovers?”
I told him the truth when I said Wally has never admitted to any intimacy.
He said, “Still, there can be no doubt.”
I said, “What will you do?”
He said, “I’m not sure. Wait, I suppose. See what happens. Do you think she wants me to leave her?”
I said, “Not at all. I think she expects to be dropped as suddenly as she was taken up.”
“Yes,” he said, “that’s what she told me. She expects to be let go with a handsome pension. As though that makes it worthwhile. Are people laughing at me, Maybell?”
Again I spoke the truth when I said they were not. People hardly remember he exists. Ernest is one of those people who’s forgotten the moment he leaves the room.
He said, “I have to go to Germany next week. That’s one thing about being in business. It keeps one occupied.”
He was still sucking on his royal cigar, but it had quite gone out.
4th April 1935
George and Marina Kent are back from their honeymoon. She’s expecting. Doopie will be thrilled. I’ll bet you can’t hear yourself think at Carlton Gardens for the clacking of knitting pins.
10th April 1935
To the Shim Sham with Boss and Ethel, Judson and Hattie, Wally and HRH. Ernest is in Hamburg. Judson now calls him “The Invisible Man.”
12th April 1935
A little ladies’ luncheon. Soufflé omelettes, Florida salad.
HRH has gone to Leicestershire for the weekend, but didn’t dare take Wally, because Their Majesties are staying nearby. Hattie said, “I wonder if he’ll bump into Thelma,” and Wally snapped, “Not if he knows what’s good for him.”
As Ethel said, one might almost have thought that was a flash of jealousy. She said, “You don’t think she’s fallen in love or anything, do you?”
Pips said, “Not Wally. She’s just guarding her nest egg.”
15th April 1935
Wally is timing her final gown fittings to coincide with Jubilee Day. She says she can’t bear to be in London with everyone talking about processions and who wore what. She said, “All those carriages full of homely princesses, all that waving and nodding. It’s nothing to do with the David I know.”
I said, “Wally Warfield! Are you in love?”
She said, “No. Well. Maybe it’s a kind of love. It’s nice to be needed. I suppose that’s why some people have babies. I don’t think anyone would believe how much David needs me. That’s why it’s so awful to feel invisible when he’s out there prince-ing.”
For a moment, she looked quite forlorn.
18th April 1935
Ambassador von Hoesch has invited me to join Violet and the children at the German Legation to view the procession on Jubilee Day, so my reinstatement as a worthy aunt seems complete. What wonders time and an Austrian tray cloth can work! Melhuish will be in the procession, riding with the Prince Nicholases of Greece.
Violet says we may expect another royal wedding this year. Prince Harry is engaged to Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott. Her father is the Duke of Buccleuch and an old friend of the King.
With Rory to Oxford Street to see the Jubilee decorations, and then to Selfridges for Welsh rarebit. He’s becoming such a young gentleman, always takes my arm when we cross a street and walks on the outside.
He’s been learning magic tricks from a boy in his House and wants magician’s accessories for his birthday. I said, “I’ll bet there’s never been a magician in the Melhuish family.”
He said, “Well, one can’t do it for a living obviously, but it’s rather good fun when there are guests. Uncle Prince George greatly enjoyed my rope trick, except Flora told him how it was done. Ulick says conjuring’s for the lower classes.”
Pips and Freddie have declined an invitation to the Fort for Easter.
I said, “You always reckoned it wasn’t done to decline.”
Freddie said, “I’ve also always thought it’s completely not done to call a chap your friend while you’re stealing his wife.”
Wally says the Crosbies are no loss to them. The Perry Brownlows are coming, Boss and Ethel, Judson and Hattie.
21st April 1935, Fort Belvedere
HRH went up to the Castle for Easter church and came bouncing back. “Duty done!” he said. “Now I can relax with my kind of people.”
He’s looking into chartering a yacht for the summer. We’ll cruise to Italy and Greece. I can’t wait. I shall try out the new sun-kissed look and study the Ancients.
26th April 1934, Wilton Place
Wally believes she’s being slandered at the Palace. Nellie Hardinge has been heard to say that she must have been very busy in China for so many people to have known her.
Wally said, “Someone’s been poking around, looking into my past. Well, let them. If I’m still around when David’s King, I’ll make sure the lot of them are fired.”
4th May 1935
Dinner at the Belchesters. Came: the Westminsters, the Crosbies, the Prosper Friths. Daphne Frith asked rather slyly after Wally. She said, “I must say, the Prince of Wales has never looked more handsome.”
Anne Belchester said, “The whole family is on the crest of a wave. A Silver Jubilee for Their Majesties, the Kents radiant, the Yorks so greatly loved, and now even Harry has found a bride.”
Daphne said, “Yes, all we need to make it a perfect year is for Wales to name his princess. Maybell, you’re on the inside. Anyone in prospect?”
I said, “No. I don’t think he’s in any hurry.”
She said, “Well, he shouldn’t delay much longer. He’s at that time of life when he’ll suddenly lose his looks.”
Pips said, “Of course, there’s always Wally Simpson.”
Billy Belchester said, “With the current mood of the country, Wales could get away with a great deal. Marry a Hottentot, almost. But not the dreadful Mrs. S. Never that.”
6th May 1935
Jubilee Day. I’ve seen enough processing dignitaries to last me a lifetime. Prime ministers from distant lands, courtiers in wigs and silk stockings, minor foreign royalties, obscure British royalties unidentifiable to everyone except Violet and Ulick, who’d suddenly cry out, “There’s Athlone!” or “Is that Tommy Lascelles?”
Dear Louis Ferdinand watched with us. His mother was in a carriage with the Denmarks.
There were marching bands, troopers on horseback, drums, bugles. Finally, we got to the meat of the matter. Prince Harry and the Princess Royal, then the Bertie Yorks, she in eau de nil. She looks quite pretty in a procession, whatever Wally may say.
Violet was calling, “Flora, come and wave to Lilibet and Margaret Rose,” but to no avail. She was conducting her own imaginary procession at the back of the room. She’s to be tried at a different style of school in September, in a remote backwater of Suffolkshire, but it’s not to be mentioned until the day dawns.
After the Yorks came the Kents, she in cream-and-tan. Then HRH in a landau with two aunts, Toria and Maud Norway. It felt very strange indeed to see him riding in state when I’m accustomed to seeing him on his exercise bicycle. Wally did right not to be there to watch. She would have found it unbearable listening to people who consider themselves insiders. After all, no one knows HRH as Wally does, and next to the Majesties, he’s the most important person in the land.
More bands, and then the King and Queen, both with very tight little smiles, she in silver-and-white brocade, with her vast bosom covered in pearls. Hattie Erlanger says if you see the King close up, his beard is stained with tobacco.
Went back to Carlton Gardens afterwards for a late luncheon. Poached salmon, inevitably, and sherry trifle, and endless cups of tea as people drifted back from the service of thanksgiving. Melhuish reported that the King had been moved to tears by the warmth and gaiety of the crowds. Rory performed a card trick and made a penny appear and disappear, but it began to feel like a wedding breakfast after the bride and groom have left. We were only saved from complete anticlimax by Lightfoot who had the idea of taking Rory and Flora on an omnibus to see the fireworks and the bonfires burning in Hyde Park. Such an adventure. One has to climb a steep stairway to reach the top deck of the bus. Doopie pushing me from behind, shouting, “Ub ya go, Bayba! Ub ya go!”
I had the impression she’d done it before.
Goodness knows what she and Flora get up to, filling their empty days.
The park was entrancing. Shooting stars tumbling down over the bonfires, little children writing their names on the sky with magnesium sparklers, bands playing show tunes, booths selling delicious saveloys with fried onions. It was easily the best part of the day. And when Kettle drove me home, well after eleven, Piccadilly was as crowded as if it were the middle of the day. I don’t think London is going to sleep tonight.
8th May 1935
Wally is back from Paris. She’s decided to wear the gold gown to Buckingham Palace on the basis that everyone else, lacking imagination, will go to a Silver Jubilee Ball dressed in silver. I’m sworn to secrecy about her jewels. HRH has given her a parure of black sapphires. Ernest doesn’t know about them yet.
She says the last thing she needs is for him to get worked up and develop another carbuncle on the eve of a State Ball.
A setback to our summer plans. The King has forbidden HRH to go take his vacation on a yacht, because of a grave situation in Abyssinia. It’s so ridiculous. All we need to do is steer clear of the place. I’ve never heard of anyone putting in there anyway. Nothing worth buying, I’m sure.
15th May 1935
Last night to the Embassy Club with the Crokers and the Erlangers to wait for Wally and Ernest to come on from the ball and give us their report. They arrived just after midnight, Wally followed by HRH followed by Ernest, very self-conscious in knee breeches and silk stockings. Boss actually bowed to Wally. Hattie screamed, “Boss, what are you doing?”
He said, “I couldn’t help myself. Those are some rocks you’re wearing, Wally.”
She was radiant. She told me in the powder room that the King studied her very closely each time she danced past him. She thinks the next thing will be an informal meeting, rather than the problematical business of being presented. She thinks it’ll happen next time she’s at the Fort and the Majesties are at Windsor.
16th May 1935
Violet says HRH caused great offense by dancing the second dance of the ball with Wally. She says after he’d danced with Her Majesty, he should have danced with his sister and his sisters-in-law, and only then with Wally, if at all.
She said, “And she gave Their Majesties such a cheeky look as they danced by. I was embarrassed ever to have known her. And as for the husband. What a buffoon. I suppose he’d never worn court dress before. It was really rather comical to see him sweating and concentrating so. He treated his sword like a third leg!”
Flora waltzing around the upper stairhall in a car rug and Christmas-tree tinsel. What a rude awakening the child has coming to her in September.
Doopie has had her hair bobbed.
18th May 1935, Belton House
At the Perry Brownlows with Wally and Ernest. The sunshine continues, but not from Wally. HRH is prince-ing in the West Country, and must have telephoned her five times at least. She grew quite exasperated with him. Kitsie B. remarked that the “sapphire dividend” seems to have worn off rather quickly.
25th May 1935, Wilton Place
There’s a story going around that Ralph Habberley has been sighted in Bolivia. I saw Jane H. in Derry and Toms only yesterday. We didn’t speak.
With Pips and Freddie to a Jubilee garden fete in the constituency. Torrential rain, but I won a bottle of egg flip in the prize draw. Bought glass necklaces for Flora and Doopie and marmalade for Violet.
27th May 1935
Wally invited herself to lunch. She said she couldn’t face going to the Dorch and wanted only bread and soup, because of her ulcers. She does look haggard.
She says things have grown very tense between herself and Ernest since the Jubilee Ball, and she’s afraid he may make some kind of scene next time he sees HRH. I said, “Is it the jewels?”
She said, “No. He thinks he’s being talked about at his club.”
I don’t ever remember seeing her so anxious.
She said, “Things are going so well. It’d be just too awful if he went and ruined everything now. He refuses to come on vacation and he’s practically forbidding me to go without him. What am I supposed to do? Sit in London all summer? Trail after him to New York? I need a break, Maybell. And anyway, David’s depending on me.”
I said, “What will you do? If Ernest asks you to choose?”
She was quiet for the longest time.
She said, “Well, there’s nothing to be gained by dramas and divorce, if that’s what you mean. Ernest wants to be married to me. David can’t be married to me. So it’s idiotic even to talk of choosing. Everyone just needs to keep their head.”
I said, “But you have taken a lover. Some husbands don’t like that. They fear they’re being made a laughingstock. And Ernest may be finding it bad for business.”
She said, “I’d hardly call David ‘a lover.’ And Ernest didn’t mind at the beginning. He can’t expect me to turn these things on and off like a tap.”
She says she’s helping HRH to write an important speech he has to make to British war veterans next month. No wonder she needs a vacation. I thought he had a little man who did all that.
28th May 1935
Pips says Ernest is being talked about at his club. I said, “Well, she told me David isn’t really her lover.”
She said, “It doesn’t matter if they play checkers all night. She sleeps over, and Ernest’s a laughingstock.”
Gone With the Windsors Page 23
