The American Heiress (46 page)

‘So, Mr Van Der Leyden, Cora tells me you have known each other since childhood.’ Her voice was low and she turned to look at him as if her entire future depended on his answer.

‘New York is a great city but it can be quite small all the same. Cora and I have attended the same parties, picnics and dancing lessons since we were very young. I taught Cora how to ride a bicycle, she stopped me embarrassing myself at the Governor’s Cotillion. We were partners in crime.’

‘Indeed? Then I am surprised that you let her go so easily. It can be hard to give up your first accomplice.’ She half lowered her eyelids and Teddy felt for a moment the intensity of the woman he had seen saying goodbye to her lover.

‘Oh, Cora was always destined for greater things,’ he said as lightly as he could. ‘We always knew that her time with us mere mortals would be limited.’ He let his eyes flicker towards the gauzy profile of Mrs Cash.

Charlotte understood him at once and leant over to murmur, ‘She is quite regal, isn’t she? I think the poor Prince feels quite upstaged.’

‘Believe me, in New York Mrs Cash is considered a lightweight.’ Charlotte laughed at this and the moment of intensity was gone.

Teddy had no doubt about the intimacy that had existed between this woman and the Duke. The question in his mind now was whether it still continued. He was used to interpreting people through their body and the mass they displaced around them; there was a certain deliberateness to Charlotte’s movements, from the way she picked up her wine glass to the graceful swerve of her shoulder that brought her round to face him, that made him think that she was not a woman who wavered in her feelings.

‘I hope you are not tantalising my wife with an ocean-going steam yacht, Mr Van Der Leyden.’ Teddy looked across the table at Odo Beauchamp whose shining rosy cheeks were at odds with the set of his narrow lips. ‘You Americans with your extravagant toys make it very difficult for humdrum Englishmen like myself.’ He lifted his glass and drained it, and Teddy noticed that his hand shook slightly as he put it down.

Teddy laughed. ‘I am sorry to disappoint you, sir, but I have no steam yacht, railway line or even a motor car. I have nothing to tantalise your wife with beyond my limited powers of conversation.’

Odo subsided into his seat and Charlotte said, ‘Besides, Odo, no one could describe you as humdrum.’

This remark evidently pleased her husband who shook his yellow curls as if to acknowledge the truth of her remark. But Teddy had seen the flash of jealousy and again he wondered about the woman sitting next to him. He could make out a scorpion embroidered on the red puff of her sleeve. He could not decide whether it was a warning or a mark of how often she herself had been stung.

Exactly one hour and fifteen minutes after they had sat down to dinner, Cora was preparing herself to catch her mother’s good eye and give the signal that it was time for the ladies to withdraw, when she saw the Double Duchess rising in her seat, her eyes sweeping the room. Cora clenched her teeth; she could hardly believe that even her mother-in-law would make such a brazen play for power. But she knew that she must not let herself be provoked, so she said as sweetly as she could, ‘Oh, Duchess Fanny, thank you so much for taking the lead. I was enjoying my conversation with His Royal Highness so much that I declare I would have sat here all night.’ She stood up and was grateful for the good two inches she had over her mother-in-law. ‘Ladies, shall we?’

The footmen stepped forward and the women got to their feet in a murmur of silk. The men stood. It fell to the Prince to escort Cora to the door as he was sitting on her right hand. As she went past he murmured, ‘Are you waging another Amerrrican war of independence, Duchess?’

Cora looked at the fat old man whose eyes were lit up with malice.

‘That depends, sir, on whether I have royal approval.’

The Prince swept his eyes over Cora and nodded imperceptibly. ‘I have always thought that the New World would one day prevail.’

The men did not linger in the dining room but soon joined the ladies in the long gallery. Ivo came in last and Cora could tell from the stiff set of his shoulders and the lines around his mouth that her husband was not happy. She wondered what had happened when the ladies had retired.

After she had settled the Prince with a game of baccarat, she sought him out.

‘I thought you might like to play the piano, Ivo,’ and then lowering her voice she said, ‘that way you won’t have to talk to anyone.’

He nodded. ‘Is it that obvious? I’m not sure I can stand Odo Beauchamp a moment longer. I don’t care for him when he’s sober, but when he’s drunk, he’s unspeakable. You’re right, I shall play for a while until I can bring myself to look at him again.’ He walked through the door into the music room.

Cora surveyed the room like a scout on a reconnaissance patrol, looking for signs of trouble. The Prince was happily playing baccarat with Mr Cash, his equerry Ferrers and the Double Duchess. Cora hoped that her father would realise that the point of the game was to put up a gallant fight before losing to the Prince. Teddy was looking at a portrait of the Fourth Duke with Father Oliver; her mother was sitting in another group with Charlotte, Odo and Lady Tavistock, and Reggie and Sybil were sitting in a corner pretending to play chess.

Cora went over to where her mother was sitting. Odo was talking about a play he had seen in London. With his bright red cheeks and round blue eyes, Cora thought that he looked rather like a doll she had once been fond of. He paused for a second and at that moment the piano started in the music room – a Chopin nocturne, Cora thought.

Odo turned towards the music, listening with his head to one side. ‘Really, I had no idea that Maltravers was such a romantic, did you, Charlotte?’ As he turned to his wife, Cora saw that he was swaying slightly and she realised that he was as drunk as her husband had said.

‘He plays with expression, certainly.’ Charlotte’s tone was neutral.

‘Oh, it’s more than just expression, Charlotte. To hear him you would think he was a soul in torment.’

There was something in Odo’s tone that Cora found unsettling.

‘Oh, I hope not, Sir Odo,’ she said. ‘What kind of wife would that make me?’ She laughed and turned to Charlotte. ‘Charlotte, I am trying to get a bicycling party together for tomorrow. If it’s fine I thought we might have lunch by the folly and those who were so minded could cycle there. What do you think?’

Charlotte shook her head. ‘I must be the only woman in England who hasn’t yet learnt how to ride a bicycle. Besides, I don’t have suitable clothes.’

Cora was about to offer to lend her something when Odo said, ‘But what about that charming costume you had as Joan of Arc? Just the thing for cycling. Such a shame that it was never revealed at Lady Salisbury’s pageant. Everyone was so disappointed. Remind me again, Charlotte, why you didn’t appear that day. What was it now – a headache? It was so bad you wouldn’t even let me see you. And yet look at you now, radiant with health.’ He took his wife’s hand and raised it to his lips. ‘There must be something in the Lulworth air that agrees with you.’

Cora saw Charlotte pull her hand away and brush it on her skirt to remove the imprint of his lips. She turned to Cora as if her husband had not spoken.

‘If you can lend me something to wear, I will certainly try to conquer the bicycle. What about you, Lady Tavistock, Mrs Cash? Will you join me in my humiliation?’

Mrs Cash said, ‘Oh, I learnt to ride a few years ago, but I think I shall leave it to you young people. There are too many hills around here for my liking.’ Lady Tavistock nodded in agreement.

Odo leant forward. ‘If you are riding, my dear, then I shall certainly be of the party.’ Cora felt a damp spray of spittle on her cheek. ‘I don’t want you to disappear again. It’s really quite a struggle,’ he leant back to address the assembled company, ‘to keep up with my wife.’

He had raised his voice and the challenge in it rang out across the room. Cora saw Teddy turn round and the card players look up. She knew that she must do something to contain the situation – her mother was glaring at her as if to say that it was her duty to take this in hand. Odo was swaying more obviously now, and he was clearly working up to another outburst. She glanced over at Charlotte but she was looking at the floor. This was a test of her mettle as a hostess, she was being watched to see how she would handle this.

She stepped forward and put her hand on Odo’s arm, and said with all the charm she could muster, ‘Well, there I have to agree with you, we all struggle to keep up with your wife. She is the standard we aspire to. Why, I am sure that in a matter of weeks we will all be wearing dresses that are crawling with insects, because where Charlotte Beauchamp leads, we can but follow. But now I want you to come with me, Sir Odo. We have a new statue in the summer house that I would love your opinion of, and yours too, Teddy. I would very much like to know what you two connoisseurs think of the Canova by moonlight.’

Odo looked reluctant but allowed himself to be led out of the room, Teddy following behind. Charlotte’s eyes had not moved from the floor during this exchange. Now she raised her head and looked at Mrs Cash.

‘Your daughter has so many accomplishments, Mrs Cash.’

Mrs Cash gave a regal nod. ‘I like to think that I raised her so that she could handle any situation.’

The evening air was still warm, Cora could smell roses and the slight whiff of salt coming in from the sea. The moon was a day or two away from being full and lit up the white stone of the summer house. Cora waved away the footman holding a lantern.

‘No, I think we should see this by moonlight.’

They walked down the gravel path, the stones scraping beneath their feet, loud in the still garden. Odo had subsided, he was silent until they stopped in front of the pavilion, which had a bell-shaped roof supported on six columns. Behind the dull stone of the pillars, Pysche was being revived by Eros’s kiss, her naked torso stretching upwards to meet his lips. Cora had bought the statue from Duveen’s sight unseen (after checking its provenance, of course). She had once heard Ivo admire a Canova statue in Venice and she thought it might please him. When it had emerged from the packing case, she had been surprised and faintly disturbed by Eros’s muscular arms and the ecstatic arch of Psyche’s back as she sought her lover’s mouth. By day the statue was arresting but now in the silvery half-light it was unbearably intimate. The flickers of light on the sinuous marble curves made Cora feel as if she was trespassing on a moment of private rapture.

Odo stepped forward and ran his hand down Psyche’s naked flank.

‘Such a glorious finish, don’t you agree, Mr Van Der Leyden? Almost as good as the real thing.’

‘The technique, certainly, is faultless,’ said Teddy carefully. He felt almost nervous standing in front of the statue with Cora. He knew that she had brought him down here as ballast against Odo but it was hard not to think of that other moonlit night in Newport when she had twisted her face up to his, Psyche to his Eros.

‘I’m glad you approve, Sir Odo. I feel it works quite well here in the summer house,’ Cora said, wishing that Odo would stop caressing the statue.