After enjoying a hearty breakfast, Perry went off to shoot pheasants with his pals, carrying his favourite Purdey shotgun under his arm, and a flask of whisky in his hip pocket. He was on top form that morning and bagged twenty-one birds before returning to the castle, exhausted.
His spirits were lifted by the sight of guinea fowl, sausages, onions, fried potatoes and a jug of thick gravy. Could a man ask for more, he demanded of his chums. They agreed wholeheartedly, and continually raised their glasses to toast his health. The last of them didn’t depart until dusk, by which time he had fallen asleep.
‘You take such good care of me, old gal,’ he said when Virginia woke him in time to change for dinner. ‘I’m a remarkably lucky man.’
‘Well, it is a special occasion, my darling,’ said Virginia, presenting him with her birthday present. His eyes lit up when he tore off the wrapping paper to discover a box of Romeo y Julieta cigars.
‘Churchill’s favourites,’ he declared.
‘And he lived to over ninety,’ Virginia reminded him.
During dinner, the duke looked a little tired. However, he managed to finish his blancmange before enjoying a glass of brandy and the first of the Churchill cigars. When they finally climbed the stairs just after midnight, he had to cling on to the bannister as he struggled to mount each step, his other arm firmly around Virginia’s shoulders.
When they finally reached the bedroom, he only managed a few more paces before collapsing on to the bed. Virginia began to slowly undress him, but he’d fallen asleep before she’d taken off his shoes.
By the time she had undressed and joined him in bed, he was snoring peacefully. Virginia had never seen him looking so contented. She switched off the light.
When Virginia woke the following morning, she turned over to find the duke still had a smile on his face. She pulled back the curtains, returned to the bedside and took a closer look. She thought he looked a little pale. She checked his pulse, but couldn’t find it. She sat on the end of the bed and thought carefully about what she should do next.
First, she removed any signs of the cigar and the brandy, replacing them with a bowl of nuts and a carafe of water with a slice of lemon. She opened the window to allow in some fresh air, and once she had checked the room a second time, she sat down at her dressing table, checked her make-up and composed herself.
Virginia allowed a few moments to go by before she took a deep breath and let out a piercing scream. She then rushed to the door and, for the first time since she’d married Perry, left the bedroom wearing a dressing gown. She ran down the wide staircase and the moment she saw Lomax, her voice breaking, she said, ‘Call an ambulance. The duke has had another heart attack.’
The butler immediately picked up the phone in the hall.
Dr Ainsley arrived thirty minutes later, by which time Virginia had dressed and was waiting for him in the hall. She accompanied him to the bedroom. It didn’t take a long examination before he told the dowager duchess something she already knew.
Virginia broke down in tears and no one was able to console her. However, she did manage to send telegrams to Clarence, Alice and Camilla, after ordering the butler to move the two blue and white vases from the servants’ corridor and place them in the duke’s bedroom. Lomax was puzzled by the request, and later that evening he said to the housekeeper, ‘She’s not herself, poor thing.’
The chauffeur was even more puzzled when he was instructed to take the vases down to London and drop them off at Sotheby’s before going on to Heathrow to pick up Clarence and bring him back to Castle Hertford.
The dowager duchess wore black, a colour that suited her, and over a light breakfast she read the duke’s obituary in The Times, which was long on compliments, while being short on accomplishments. However, there was one sentence that brought a smile to her face: The thirteenth Duke of Hertford died peacefully in his sleep.
34
VIRGINIA HAD GIVEN considerable thought to how she should conduct herself during the next few days. Once the family had gone their separate ways after the funeral, she intended to make some fairly radical changes at Castle Hertford.
The fourteenth duke was the first member of the family to arrive, and Virginia was standing on the top step waiting to greet him. As he walked up the steps, she gave a slight curtsey, to acknowledge the new order.
‘Virginia, what a sad occasion for all of us,’ said Clarence. ‘But it’s at least a comfort for me to know that you were by his side to the last.’
‘It’s so kind of you to say so, Clarence. What a blessed relief it is that my dear Perry suffered no pain when he passed away.’
‘Yes, I was relieved to hear that Papa died peacefully in his sleep. Let’s be thankful for small mercies.’