Vintage Love (43 page)

Lucinda rose from the bed. “In time,” she said. “Now I must go and dress. Please join us for the morning meal.”

“I will, but I must warn you that I brought only one dress with me, a rather plain one. My mind was in a state of havoc when I decided to come here.”

“Not to worry. You and I wear the same size, and I have many outfits I’ll be glad to let you borrow. I shall send in a maid with several you can choose from.”

Enid was delighted to find her friend so unchanged by marriage and the exalted social position she now held. After the maid had brought in half a dozen gowns, Enid dressed carefully in a sea-green linen morning dress and did her hair in the upsweep that was so popular in England. Then she made her way to the cheerful yellow breakfast room.

Lucinda and her husband, along with Count Armand Beaufaire, were already seated at the table. The men rose, and Duke Victor took her hand and kissed it, saying, “Welcome to our house.”

“Thank you,” she replied. She noticed that the duke walked with a slight limp and was quite overweight. He had a vast protruding stomach and heavy jowls. But his face was pleasant, and the wrinkles at the corners of his blue eyes were obviously the result of his long years of observing life with good humor.

“You have met Count Armand,” he said.

“Yes. He kindly assisted me last night.” She graced the stern-faced count with a smile.

His stern expression melted into one of pleasure as she joined them at the table. “Madam is a brave young woman. I know of few who would have ventured out on the highway at such an hour, and on a stormy night as well.”

“Put it down to stupidity, Count Beaufaire,” Enid laughed. “I have learned my lesson. When I travel next, it shall be by daylight.”

“That would be advisable,” Luanda’s husband agreed.

“I do so want to show Enid around,” Lucinda told him.

Victor beamed at her over his breakfast plate. “Then by all means, do so. I have to lock myself up with Armand for the morning. We have much to discuss. Why don’t you two take the pony cart and ride about for a while?”

“That is an excellent idea,” Lucinda declared happily. “I can handle the pony, but some of the horses scare me!”

After breakfast the men retreated to the duke’s study while Enid and Lucinda prepared to go for their ride. Enid wore a large green hat with a matching scarf tied over it and gathered under her chin to keep the bonnet in place. Lucinda, in a similar bonnet of blue, took her out to the front steps. The groom brought around the good-sized pony cart and they drove away.

Enid was impressed by the well-kept grounds. “What lovely trees and hedges! And the grass is so perfect. You must have excellent gardeners.”

“My husband takes an interest in the landscaping,” Lucinda said proudly. “But, as I recall, Henson House always had the best grounds in the country.”

“Not any longer,” Enid sighed. “Since my father’s loss of his fortune and his illness, little has been done to maintain the estate.”

“A pity! Perhaps you should interest yourself in it.”

“I may. At least it would keep me busy and would put to good use some of my husband’s money.”

After Lucinda had finished showing Enid her own estate, she took her farther abroad to see something of the town and the grounds of the palace.

As they drove along, Enid asked, “What story did you tell the duke about me?”

“I was most discreet,” Lucinda assured her. “I told him you were married, but I didn’t let him know you were a new bride. I gave him the impression you had been married for some time and that your husband was detained in Paris on business matters.”

“Thank you. Now I won’t feel so awkward.”

Lucinda glanced at her. “I think you ought to cultivate Armand’s friendship. I could tell at the breakfast table that he was quite interested in you.”

Enid blushed. “I’m sure you imagined it.”

“No, I think it’s the truth. You could do worse than to have a friend like Armand.”

“You are a matchmaker—or worse!” Enid protested. “You must remember I’m a married woman!”

“And such a marriage!” Lucinda said, rolling her dark eyes.

They next ventured close to the royal palace. Enid was enthralled by the sight of the great edifice extending over so much ground. The walls enclosing it, as well as the grilled entry gates, were guarded by soldiers. Lucinda pointed out various sections of the palace: the chapel, the Hall of Mirrors, the Hall of Battles, the Peace and War salons.

She indicated another area, at the far end of the north wing. “There is the Opera, a fine theater in miniature. I shall try to have us invited to one of the performances. That would be a special treat, I promise you!”

“Such magnificence!” Enid marveled. “I am overwhelmed!”

“Do not be deceived,” her friend warned. “We have come upon a time of poverty. The king is weak, though pleasant, and is overshadowed by his pleasure-seeking Hapsburg wife. The court is beset with financial problems. My husband calls it a gilded slum!”

“A gilded slum!” Enid echoed as she gazed at the glory before her.

“Victor means that money is almost always short there. The king’s grandfather spent so much on his mistresses, it is said the salaries of servants, including the present king’s tutors, remained unpaid for years. Victor says that when Louis was five, he saw the royal plate melted down for coinage.”

“That is hard to believe!”

“Much of what goes on now
is
hard to believe.” Lucinda jiggled the reins of the pony, and the cart moved forward. “An American, Benjamin Franklin, wrote a report on Versailles, claiming that its waterworks were out of repair and that a great part of the front of the building had shabby brick walls and broken windows. It caused a scandal.”

“Was it true?”

“I fear so. This Franklin came here to gain support for the American Revolution. He was a sensation among the court people. The king unbalanced his finances even more to help Franklin’s cause. Mobs have come, crying out their hunger at the palace gates, and it is said that when Marie Antoinette was told they were behaving in this fashion because they had no bread, she suggested, ‘Let them eat cake.’ Whether that is true or not, it has now made her the most hated woman in all of France.”

As they drove back onto the grounds of the d’Orsay estate, the gardeners and the women bearing baskets of produce stopped and bowed to them. It was hard for Enid to believe there could be so much unrest in this land. Then she remembered that Lucinda had explained that the duke had been especially considerate of his people, even though he was surely a Royalist.

Enid also began to understand that this was a country of excesses. That would account in part for what had gone on at the vicomte’s chateau on her wedding night. And Andrew fitted in with this atmosphere of degeneration. He was at home in a nation on the brink of moral and financial disaster. She prayed that such conditions would never reach England.

She and Lucinda rested after luncheon. They dressed for dinner and went down to the drawing room to join the men for a glass of wine before proceeding to the dining salon. Both Victor and Armand were attired in elegant velvet, Victor in dark blue and Armand in white. Enid was grateful to Lucinda for her rich purple silk gown. She thought she noted a slight expression of surprise on the duke’s face when he first saw her, and she assumed he had recognized his wife’s dress.

Lucinda, with her usual poise, set the situation aright by telling her husband, “Would you believe it, sir? Lady Enid has a gown exactly like mine!”

“So I see, and charming also,” he said gallantly.

Lucinda gave Enid a knowing smile. “I promise you I will not wear mine during all the time you are here. We will not be seen dressed alike!”

The large drawing room was paneled in walnut and adorned with ornately framed portraits. Heavy crimson drapes flanked the broad windows overlooking the garden. The furniture was the best, and so were the dark red carpets. Enid thought she had never seen a more tasteful or richly decorated chamber.

Armand offered her a glass of wine from his hand. “I prefer to serve you rather than to call on a servant,” he said.

“And I prefer receiving my wine from you directly,” she responded with a smile.

“Were you impressed with Versailles?” he asked.

“Extremely so, though I am alarmed to learn there is so much unrest in the country.”

The stern look returned to Armand’s handsome face. “There are grave problems, a major one being wheat. Bread is a staple of our people. Actually, we don’t have a shortage of grain, but a surplus of fear. So we have bread riots! Everyone is convinced there will be shortages or the price will rise too high. The situation is not dangerous at the moment, since the price of bread has fallen by a sou.”

Enid sipped her wine. “We do not live in an easy age. I know from my own experience in England that poachers of deer are sent to the gallows.”

“It is the same here,” Armand said with a scowl. “People are arrested, and some are given the death sentence for relatively small thefts.”

“What can be done?” she asked.

“The people must be taxed less and treated more kindly,” he replied. “The American Revolution has shown the way.”

“Do you believe such a revolution will take place here?”

“I pray not, but those of us at the top must learn to be temperate. Otherwise we may be overwhelmed.”

She gave him a searching glance. “You sound extremely concerned.”

“I am.”

“But you are one of those at the top!”

“And true to my group,” the count said proudly. “But I see the wrongs even while I fight to subdue those who would start a revolution.”

“Is that why you are here?”

“Yes. It can do no harm to tell you, since you are English.”

“And my French is so lamentable as to be of little use to me in communicating anything!’

He smiled. “Basically, you speak fairly well. Some added time and practice, and you should have no problems.”

“Thank you.”

“I came here to warn the duke that soon there will be an assault on the royal palace. And that great care must be taken to defeat the uprising. Should the king and queen be captured by these revolutionists, it could set the whole nation aflame.”

“I can understand that your burden of duty is great,” Enid said softly. “I admire you for being true to your class while accepting its weaknesses. Your struggle to prevent your country from being torn by dissent is an honorable one.”

Victor and Lucinda had been standing a little distance away. Now they drew nearer. The duke pointed an accusing finger at Armand. “You were looking far too serious, my friend. I fear you bore our English guest with our problems.”

Enid protested. “No, Duke. I’m most interested in all that the count has told me.”

“Ah!” Victor’s blue eyes twinkled. “So you have made another conquest, Armand!”

“If I have done that by quoting dull political facts, I’m surely worthy of being assigned to the royal court.” Armand offered one of his warmest smiles with this remark.

Lucinda said, “I have told Victor of your interest in the theater, Enid, and he thinks he can arrange for us to attend a performance at the palace.”

“That would be exciting beyond anything I could imagine!” Enid cried.

The duke tapped the side of his nose. “I have certain friends at court who are usually willing to do me a favor.”

Armand’s gaze was fixed on Enid as he remarked, “You have such a rare English beauty, my lady, that I wonder you have not been taken for an actress.”

“Thank you.” Enid smiled and blushed.

“In our section of England a daughter of the gentry would be considered disgraced if she set foot on the stage,” Lucinda explained. “That is suitable only for women of a certain type.”

“My favorite kind of women, my dear,” her husband laughed, and they all joined in.

The group moved on to the dining room, elegant with its crystal chandelier, mahogany appointments, and sparkling tableware; yet the feeling was one of warmth. The conversation was pleasant and the food excellent. Enid could not help comparing this dinner with the sorry orgy of her wedding night. A shadow crept over her as she realized that this was only an interim period, that eventually she would have to return to Andrew.

Count Armand had noticed her change of mood. Later, in the drawing room again, he said to her, “I watched you at dinner, Lady Enid. There was a moment when you were suddenly sad.”

They were seated on a gold brocade loveseat. Lucinda had gone off to tend to some household affair, and Victor had left to seek several sketches of himself and Lucinda that a visiting artist had drawn during the previous summer.

Enid stared at the nobleman. “You are most perceptive.”

“So you did feel sad?”

“Yes.”

“May I ask why?”

She hesitated. “I may as well be truthful. My marriage has turned out to be something very ugly.”

“I’m sorry.”

“So am I.”

“Have you left your husband?”

“Only temporarily. There are important reasons why I must remain with him.”

“I see,” he said quietly.

She turned away from his intent gaze. “Perhaps one day I shall be able to be free.”

“If freedom is what you wish, I most fervently hope the time will come soon.”

Enid faced him again. “You are a most considerate man.”

“I do not think so. Not more than the average.”

“I disagree,” she said. “Perhaps that is your secret.”

His dark eyebrows lifted. “My secret?”

“Yes. I have heard that you are a man of many conquests among my sex.”

His smile was thin. “Someone has been grossly exaggerating.”

“I wonder.”

“It is true I have a natural fondness for women,” he was ready to admit, “so I count quite a few among my friends.”

“That is good.”

He gave her another searching glance. “I trust that you may be one of them,” he said earnestly.

“I would be honored by your friendship,” she replied simply.

Their exchange ended as the duke appeared with the artist’s sketches. He offered them to Enid for her inspection. “I think they are excellent. Most lifelike. Don’t you agree?”