The Golden Prince (41 page)

“… so, because of Henri’s friendship with Guy, you are going to have the
extraordinary
privilege of meeting him in circumstances of the utmost informality.”

Lily struggled to bring her thoughts back from the urgent question of how she and David were to achieve the reunion they had dreamed of for so long.

“But surely even in France people don’t take themselves so seriously,” she said, assuming the person being spoken of was a friend of her stepfather’s and not caring about the circumstances in which they were to meet—or even if they met at all.

Her mother blew a thin plume of blue smoke into the air and said with exasperation, “I don’t believe you are listening to me
at all
, Lily! Henri’s friend, the Marquis de Valmy, has been asked to
act as host to the Prince of Wales. Prince Edward is going to be staying with the de Valmy family in order to perfect his French and study French history and French politics, and … 
your coffee, Lily!
”

The cry of warning came too late.

Lily’s reaction was so extreme that she spilled coffee down her dress and onto the Aubusson carpet.

Instantly a footman was on hand to blot the carpet. Lily, uncaring of her ruined dress, said urgently, “Did you say we would be visiting the de Valmys? Will we be doing so soon? Will we be doing so this week?”

Satisfied that the carpet was receiving proper attention, Louise said, “We shall be dining
en famille
with the de Valmys in three days’ time. It is the most
amazing
opportunity for us to become informally acquainted with the prince. Guy says he is shy, but has a most attractive manner. He is staying with the de Valmys incognito, as the Earl of Chester, but royal protocol will still have to be followed and so please don’t initiate a conversation with him, Lily. Allow him to speak to you first.”

She stubbed her Sobranie out in an onyx ashtray. “Also, because he is shy, it doesn’t mean he will be approachable. His mother is the most unapproachable woman in the world. My friends in the Royal Circle tell me every time they meet with Queen Mary the ice has to be rebroken afresh. Familiarity, even with her ladies-in-waiting, is simply not in her nature. She is stiffness and formality incarnate. Since King George is similarly rigid in manner, I don’t expect Prince Edward to be much different.”

The thought of David being even the teeniest little bit unapproachable was so funny it took all of Lily’s self-control not to giggle. Even harder was not telling her mother how different from his parents David was, how he was the most approachable, wonderful person in the whole wide world.

As the footman finished blotting the carpet and her mother surveyed his handiwork Lily fought hard not to tell her all about David knocking Rose from her bicycle. About his visits to Snowberry. About how much they loved each other.

It was a battle she won, for she knew it was a secret her mother would be unable to keep. But until David received King George’s permission for them to marry, it was a secret that simply
had
to be kept.

“
Il
doit être pulverise maintenant avec un mélange une part glycérine et de deux parts d’eau chaude,
” the footman said to her mother.

“
Oui. Immédiatement,
” her mother responded, and then she said to Lily, “When Jacques has sprayed the carpet with his magic mix of glycerine and warm water, no one will be any the wiser about this little mishap. But not a word to Henri, Lily.
Tu comprends
?”

Lily understood very well.

She also understood that David could have no idea his host and her stepfather were on such close terms. If he had, it would have been the first thing he would have told her when they had spoken on the phone. She now had to telephone him with the news that though their reunion wouldn’t be a private one, they would at least be seeing each other in three days’ time.

She took her opportunity two hours later when her mother, aware that she would soon be reciprocating the de Valmys’ hospitality and playing hostess to her future king, was in deep discussion with her chef.

To the de Valmys’ butler who answered the telephone Lily said she was a cousin of the Earl of Chester and wished to speak with him.

Seconds later David was on the line, saying tautly, “Lily? Is everything all right, sweetheart? Are you able to escape on your own for a little while?”

“Not at the moment, but I do have news. In three days’ time I am to be a dinner guest of the de Valmys’! My stepfather and the Marquis de Valmy are close friends. Isn’t it wonderful? It means that it’s going to be far easier to see each other than we ever dreamed!”

She spoke fast, not wanting to be caught on the telephone by her mother, who would assume she was speaking with Rory and might very well ask to have a few words with him.

David, aware of the danger, was equally fast and abrupt in his response. “But that’s smashing news, darling! Absolutely brilliant! Except it means we won’t be able to rush into each other’s arms and we will have to be fearfully formal with each other! We
have
to meet alone beforehand. Try to think of a way, Lily. It will kill me if after all this time of being apart I have to treat you as a stranger when we meet, and instead of kissing you as I long to do more than you can ever imagine, I can only shake hands with you!”

At the thought of how hard it would be for her, Lily’s heart tightened.

“David …” She heard the sound of her mother’s footsteps approaching, and what she was about to say remained unsaid. Instead she said swiftly, “I have to go, David. But I’ll do my best to think of a way we can meet. I promise!”

Hurriedly she replaced the receiver, turning to her mother with a quick bright smile. “Just another call from Rory. He wanted to know if I’d been cycling or horse riding yet in the Bois de Boulogne.”

It was a lie she hated telling, but it was one for which she would hopefully be able to make amends in the not too distant future.

“As you know, Mama, I haven’t, but I’d love to be able to. Perhaps in the morning I could borrow Marguerite’s bicycle, or Camille’s, and go for a ride in the park?”

It wasn’t an unreasonable request. The Bois de Boulogne, a park bigger than London’s Hyde Park, was so near to the de Villoutrey mansion it could be seen from all the west-facing windows.

Louise’s thoughts were still on the menu she had arranged with her chef. Would lemon ice cream be more suitable than lemon sorbet? Still pondering the problem, she said, giving Lily only half her attention, “But who would go with you?”

“I don’t need anyone with me. At home, I cycle all over the place on my own.” Deciding that the prince would probably prefer ice cream to sorbet, Louise said, still distracted, “Perhaps if Jacques were to accompany you …”

Lily hugged her mother’s arm and, careful not to agree to the
Jacques suggestion, said, “Thank you, Mama,” as if her mother had given permission with no strings attached.

Before her mother took it into her head to speak to Jacques then and there, Lily changed the subject to one she knew would divert her mother’s attention from him. “Will you be reciprocating the de Valmys’ invitation, Mama? Will Prince Edward soon be dining here, at Neuilly?”

Later that day, when her mother was taking an afternoon rest, Lily telephoned David with the news that she would be in the Bois the following morning.

“Meet me at the north end, by the entrance to the Jardin d’Acclimatation,” David said. His voice was unsteady with emotion. “Oh, darling Lily! I can’t believe that after all this time we are actually going to be together again!”

She didn’t spoil things for him by telling him about Jacques. Jacques was a problem she still had to deal with.

To her great relief it was a subject not raised at dinner that evening. Instead, Louise’s conversation revolved solely around their good fortune at being able to meet Prince Edward in such an informal manner. Even her stepfather was impressed by it.

“Though if I had given it any thought, I would have realized it was always in the cards that Guy would some day be asked to act as his host,” he said, wearing a swallow-tailed coat and white waistcoat even though they were dining
en famille
. “King Edward VII was a great lover of everything French,
Lilli
. We Parisians loved him, for he was as Parisian in tastes and manners as if he had been born here. Your present King is very different. If a country is not part of the British Empire, King George has no interest in it. In France we have great hopes that when Prince Edward is King, things will be very different.”

It was strange hearing David being discussed in such a way. She had never before thought of him as being cast in the same mold as his grandfather, but that was because all her memories of King Edward VII were of an overweight, elderly man. He had
been genial, though, and had made friends with people who had been born far from the royal circle. People like the German-born financier Sir Ernest Cassel, who came from a Jewish middle-class family, and his yachting friend, Sir Thomas Lipton, a self-made man who had been born in one of the poorest parts of Glasgow and whose father had been a greengrocer.

His charm, too, had always been blazingly apparent. David had inherited it in full, just as he had inherited King Edward’s lack of class consciousness. In the nine and a half years he had been on the throne, King Edward had established himself as a great international statesman. The Entente Cordiale, the formal alliance that bound England firmly to France, was due almost entirely to his personal efforts at fostering goodwill between England and France. It was the kind of statesmanship she was sure David would, one day, emulate.

The problem of Jacques was solved the next morning when Louise announced she had a raging toothache and was going immediately to her dentist. She did so chauffeur-driven and, in case she should feel faint and need a strong arm, accompanied by Jacques. No mention was made of the permission she had given Lily to cycle to the Bois. No mention was made of the original plan that Jacques should accompany her. Toothache had put all such considerations clean out of Louise’s mind.

As sympathetic as Lily was where her mother’s pain was concerned, she couldn’t help feeling vast relief. She had permission for what she was about to do—and hours and hours ahead of her in which to spend time alone with David.

With a gray coat buttoned up to her throat, her coal-black curls crammed under a red beret, and a matching wool scarf wound around her neck, she wheeled Camille’s bicycle out of the
hangar de bicyclette
and adjusted her coat so that she had enough legroom in which to pedal.

The sky was steel-colored, promising snow. With her heart beating fast, her anticipation white-hot, she cycled down the drive and onto the wide boulevard beyond, the crisp air whipping roses into her cheeks.

David’s anticipation was just as feverish. He, too, had had more than a little difficulty in leaving for their rendezvous unaccompanied, but Luc, who until now had gone with him everywhere, had been understanding. Like David, he, too, hated being nannied and he didn’t see why Edward shouldn’t have a little freedom if he wanted it. Though Edward hadn’t said so, he suspected Edward wanted to see a girl. Luc was eighteen, French—and entirely sympathetic.

David’s sense of freedom as he cycled at top speed toward Neuilly was euphoric. The only other times he had experienced anything like a similar freedom had been on his clandestine drives to Snowberry from Windsor, but those drives hadn’t had the edge of danger he was now experiencing as he skimmed past horse-drawn carriages, narrowly missing motor cars and crowded motor buses.

He had chosen the Jardin d’Acclimatation as a meeting point because it was the easiest place in the park for Lily to reach from the de Villoutrey mansion. Originally it had been only a zoo, but now there were some children’s amusements and, in good weather, pony rides.

As he stopped and waited for a bus to pass, David stamped his feet to keep warm. Lily would use a side entrance to the Bois leading from the Boulevard Maillot, and he could easily meet her there without any risk of their missing each other. He mounted Luc’s bicycle again and as the first snowflakes began to fall, he pedaled like a maniac to meet the only person in the world who made his royal life bearable.