Jewels (22 page)

They dined at the captain’s table on the last night, and attended the Gala. They’d actually gone to the Fancy Dress Ball the night before, dressed as a maharaja and maharani, in costumes loaned to them by the purser, and jewels Sarah had brought along herself. The roles suited them well. William looked very handsome and Sarah looked extremely exotic. But her expertise with her makeup and naked belly had only won her an early return to their stateroom. The stewards were making bets now as to how long they could stay out of bed. And so far, four hours seemed to have been their limit.

“Maybe we should just stay on the ship,” Sarah suggested as she lay in bed, on their last night, dozing sporadically after they’d made love after the captain’s dinner. “I’m not at all sure I want to go to Paris at all.” William had reserved an apartment for them at the Ritz, and they were going to stay there for a month, while taking driving tours around the châteaux outside Paris. They wanted to go to Bordeaux, and the Loire, and Tours … and the Faubourg-St Honoré, she had said with a grin … to Chanel and Dior and Mainbocher … and Balenciaga.

“You’re a wicked girl.” William accused her, as he got back into bed beside her, suddenly wondering if after all this lovemaking for the past week, they might have made a baby. He wanted to ask her about it, but he still felt a little awkward, and finally, later that night, he got up his courage. “You … uh … you never got pregnant, did you, when you were married before, I mean?” He was just curious, and he had never asked her. But her answer surprised him.

“Yes, I did, as a matter of fact.” She said it very softly, and she didn’t look at him as she said it.

“What happened?” It was obvious she didn’t have a child, and he couldn’t help but wonder why. He hoped she hadn’t had an abortion, it would have been so traumatic for her, and might have left her unable to have more children. He had never asked her about that before their marriage.

“I lost it,” she said quietly, the memory of that loss still pained her, even though she knew it was for the best now.

“Do you know why? Did something happen?” And then he realized what a stupid question he had asked her. With a marriage like hers, anything might have happened. “Never mind. It won’t happen again.” He kissed her gently and she drifted off to sleep a little while later, dreaming of babies and William.

The next morning, they left the ship at Le Havre, and took the boat train into Paris, and they laughed and chatted all the while, and as soon as they arrived they went straight to the hotel, and back out again to go shopping.

“Aha! I’ve found something you enjoy doing as much as making love. Sarah, I’m bitterly disappointed.” But they had a wonderful time going to Hermès, and Chanel, and Boucheron, and a handful of small jewelers. He bought her a wonderful wide sapphire bracelet, set with a diamond clasp, and a ruby necklace and earrings that were really stunning. And a huge ruby brooch at Van Cleef in the shape of a rose.

“My God, William… I feel so guilty” She knew he had spent an absolute fortune, but he didn’t seem to mind it And the jewelry he had bought her was fabulous and she loved it.

“Don’t be silly!” He brushed it off as an ordinary event. “Just promise me we won’t leave the room again for two days. That is the tax I will demand of you each time we go shopping.”

“Don’t you like to shop?” She looked briefly disappointed, he had seemed such a good sport about it the summer before.

“I love it. But I’d rather make love to my wife.”

“Oh that…” She laughed, and addressed his needs the moment they went back to their room at the Ritz. They went shopping repeatedly after that. He bought her beautiful clothes at Jean Patou, and a fabulous leopard coat at Dior, and an enormous string of pearls at Mouboussin, which she wore every hour of every day after that. They even managed to go to the Louvre, and on their second week there, they went to tea with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. And Sarah had to admit that William was right. Although she’d been predisposed to dislike her, she actually found the duchess extremely charming. And he was a lovely man. Shy, cautious, reserved, but extremely kind when you got to know him. And very witty when he relaxed with people he knew well. It had been an awkward meeting with them at first, and much to Sarah’s chagrin, Wallis had tried to draw an unfortunate comparison between them. But William was quick to discourage any such comparison, and Sarah was faintly embarrassed by how cool he was to the duchess. There was no question about how he felt about her, and yet he had the utmost affection and respect for his cousin.

“Damn shame he ever married her,” he said on their way back to the hotel. “It’s incredible to think that, if it weren’t for her, he could still be the King of England.”

“I don’t get the feeling he ever really enjoyed it. But I could be mistaken.”

“You’re not. He didn’t. It didn’t suit him. But it was his duty anyway. I must say though, Bertie is doing a bang-up job of it. He’s an awfully good sport. And he absolutely hates that woman.”

“I can see why people are so taken with her though. She has a way of winding you around her little finger.”

“She is one of the truly great connivers. Did you see the jewelry he’s given her? That diamond-and-sapphire bracelet must have cost him an absolute fortune. Van Cleef made it for him when they got married.” And she had an entire parure to go with it by then, necklace, earrings, brooch, and two rings.

“I like the bracelet she was wearing on her other hand better,” Sarah said softly. “The little diamond chain with the little crosses.” It was far more discreet, and William made a mental note of it for a present for her later on. She’d also shown them a wonderful bracelet from Cartier that she’d just gotten, all made up of flowers and leaves in sapphires, rubies, and emeralds. And she’d called it her “fruit salad.”

“Anyway, we’ve done our duty, my dear. It would have been rude if we hadn’t called them. And now I can tell Mother we did. She was always so fond of David, I thought it would kill her when he gave up the throne.”

“And yet she said she didn’t mind when you did,” Sarah said sadly, still feeling guilty for what she’d cost him. She knew it would bother her for a lifetime, but it never seemed to bother William at all.

“That’s hardly the same thing,” William said gently. “He had the throne, darling. I never would have. Mother feels very strongly about these things. But she’s not ridiculous, she didn’t expect me to be king.”

“I suppose not.”

They got out of the car a few blocks before the hotel, and walked slowly back, talking again about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. They had invited them to come back again, but William had explained that they were going to begin their driving trip the following morning.

They had already planned to visit the Loire, and he wanted to stop and see Chartres on the way. He had never been there.

And when they left the next morning, in a small hired Renault, which he drove, they were both in high spirits. They had taken a picnic lunch with them, in case they couldn’t find a restaurant along the way, and an hour outside Paris, everything was wonderfully rural and still green here and there. There were horses and cows and farms, and after another hour, sheep wandering across the road, and a goat stopped to stare at them as they ate their lunch in a field by the roadside. They had brought blankets and warm coats, but it wasn’t cold, and the weather was surprisingly sunny. They had expected rain, but so far, the weather had been perfect.

They had reservations at small hotels along the way, and they were planning to be away from Paris for eight or ten days. But on the third day, they were still only a hundred miles from Paris, in Montbazon, and loving the inn where they were staying too much to leave it.

The owner of the inn had told them several places to go, and they had gone to tiny churches, and a wonderful old farm, and two terrific antiques shops. And the local restaurant was the best they’d ever been to.

“I love this place,” Sarah said happily, devouring everything on her plate. She had been eating a lot better since they’d been in Paris, and she wasn’t quite as thin, which suited her very well. Sometimes William worried that being quite that thin wasn’t healthy.

“We really ought to move on tomorrow.”

They were both sorry to go when they left, and an hour later, much to William’s annoyance, their car stalled on the road. A local peasant helped them to get it started again, and gave them some more gas to get on their way, and half an hour later, they stopped for lunch near an ancient stone gate, with an elaborate iron grille that stood open, leading to an overgrown old road.

“It looks like the gate to heaven,” she teased.

“Or hell. Depending on what we deserve.” He smiled back. But he already knew his fate. He had been in heaven ever since he married Sarah.

“Want to go exploring?” She was always adventuresome and young and he enjoyed that about her.

“I suppose we could. But what if we get shot by some angry landlord?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you. Besides, it looks like the place has been deserted for years,” she encouraged him.

“The whole country looks like that, you goose. This isn’t England.”

“Oh, you snob!” she hooted at him, and they began to walk down the lane that drifted away from the gates. They decided to leave their car near the road, so as not to draw more attention to their adventure.

And for a long time, it appeared to be nothing more than an old country road, until at last there was a long
allée
, bordered by huge trees, and overgrown with bushes. Had it been tidier, it might even have looked a little like the entrance to Whitfield, or the Southampton estate.

“It’s pretty here.” They could hear birds singing in the trees, and she hummed as they wandered through the tall grass and the bushes.

“I don’t think there’s much here,” William finally said, when they were almost at the end of the double border of tall trees, and just as he said it, he saw an enormous stone building in the distance. “Good Lord, what is that?” It looked like Versailles, sitting there, except as they approached they could see that it was in desperate need of repair. The entire place was ramshackle and deserted, and some of the outbuildings seemed almost ready to collapse. There was a small cottage at the foot of the hill that must have been a caretaker’s cottage years before, but now it was barely still a building.

There were stables off to the right, and huge barns for carriages as well. William was fascinated and glanced inside as they walked past them. There were two ancient carriages still sitting there, with the crest of the family carefully gilded on the panels.

“What an amazing place.” He smiled at her, glad that she had urged him to explore it.

“What do you suppose it is?” Sarah looked around her, at the carriages, the halters, the old blacksmith tools, with fascination.

“It’s an old château, and those were the stables. The whole place looks as though it’s been deserted for two hundred years.”

“Maybe it has been.” She smiled excitedly. “Maybe there’s a ghost!” He began to make ghostly noises then, and pretended to lunge at her as they went back to the road, and headed up the hill to what looked like a castle in a fairy story, or a dream. It was clearly not as old as Whitfield was, or as Belinda and George’s castle where they had met, but William estimated that this one was easily two hundred and fifty or three hundred years old, and as they approached it, they saw that the architecture was very fine. There had obviously been a park, and gardens, and perhaps even a maze, most of which was overgrown now, and the entrance to the house was truly regal as they stood before it. William tried the windows and the doors, but they were all locked. But a look into the shuttered rooms, through rotting slats, showed lovely floors, delicately carved moldings, and high ceilings. It was hard to see more, but it was clearly an incredible place. Being there was like taking a huge step back in time, and reaching out to the time of Louis XIV or XV or XVI. One expected a carriage full of men in wigs with satin breeches to come around the corner at full tilt at any moment, and to ask them why they were there.

“Whose do you suppose it was?” she asked, greatly intrigued by the surroundings.

“The locals ought to know. It can’t be much of a secret. It’s an enormous place.”

“Do you suppose anyone still owns it?” It looked as though it had been abandoned years ago, but someone had to own it.

“Someone must But obviously not anyone who wants it, or can afford to keep it up.” It was in a terrible state, even the marble front steps were badly broken. It all looked as though it had been deserted for decades.

But Sarah’s eyes had lit up as she looked around her. “Wouldn’t you love to take a place like this, tear it apart, and put it back together again, the way it once was … you know, restore it perfectly to everything it used to be.” Her eyes danced just thinking of it, and he rolled his eyes in feigned horror and exhaustion.

“Do you have any idea how much work that would be? Can you even imagine it … not to mention the cost. It would take an army of workers just to bring this place around, and the entire Bank of England.”

“But think of how beautiful it would be in the end. It really would be worth it.”

“To whom?” He laughed, looking at her in amusement. He had never seen her so excited about anything since they’d met. “How can you get so worked up over a place like this? It’s an absolute disaster.” But the truth was, it excited him too. But the enormity of the work that needed to be done was more than a little daunting. “Well ask about it when we get back to the road again. I’m sure they’ll tell us ten people were murdered here, and it’s a terrible place.” He teased her about it all the way back to the car, but she didn’t want to hear it. She thought it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, and if she could have, she would have bought it then and there, she said, and William readily believed she would have.

As it turned out, they met an old farmer just near the main road, and William asked him in French about the crumbling château they had just seen, and he had a great deal to tell them. Sarah struggled to understand as much as she could, and she got most of it. But afterwards, William filled her in on the rest of the details. The place they had seen was called Le Château de la Meuze, and it had been deserted for some eighty years, since the late 1850s. It had been inhabited before that by the same family for more than two hundred years, but the last of them had died out, having no children. It was passed on through generations of cousins and distant relatives after that, and the old man was no longer sure who owned it. He said there had still been people there when he was a boy, an old woman who couldn’t take care of the place, La Comtesse de la Meuze, who was a cousin of the French kings. But she died when he was a child, and the place had been shuttered up ever since then.