But certainly when I told the captain to shut up I had forgotten I was merely a bit of human flotsam, cut off from my resources, and with my fare unpaid …
“Oh, Miss Valentine, don’t fret! One betrothal at your age is acceptable. It’s true you have a ways to go, more’s the pity, but it’s a valiant start!”
Win’s eyebrows lifted straight off his face.
“Well, now,” he said. “I’ve ragged her a bit, joked that I’d include her in my book. But it’s beginning to seem like a better idea by the minute.”
“That snoozer?” Mrs. Spencer said and affected a yawn. “Miss Valentine is a pretty thing but her life story wouldn’t fill a cocktail napkin.”
“You two are much too kind,” Pru grumbled. “Really.”
“Fine then,” Win said, an eye still on Pru, who tried to bury herself beneath the bearskin throw. “Let’s leave Miss Valentine be and discuss the Crown Prince of Prussia. It’s one of my favorite Blenheim stories, told often, as it’s where the two of you met. I couldn’t walk past the tennis courts without picturing you on them.”
“Never played a set in my life.”
“Prince William of Prussia,” Win continued. “Little Willy they called him. You beat him. In tennis, at a minimum.”
Mrs. Spencer snorted.
“Oh, Little Willy,” she said. “Little indeed.”
“He was tall,” Win said, wiggling his mouth to chase away a smirk. “And fair from head to toe. Rumor was Little Willy’s ears would turn red in your presence. I feel as though I have the same effect on our Miss Valentine.”
Pru glared at him from over the top of her book.
“I only blush when I’m perturbed,” she said.
“Perturbed. Riled up. Excited beyond reason. So, Mrs. Spencer, as the story goes, the young prince first saw you at Blenheim, where he witnessed your wicked serve and ultimately fell victim to your punishing forehand. Your beauty and intellect enchanted the man and your athletics paralyzed him. No one had ever beaten him before. And Little Willy liked his beatings.”
“You make it sound so libidinous,” Mrs. Spencer said, her lips twitching into a smile.
“By week’s end,” Win said. “Whilst on a drive, you coaxed the confirmation ring right off his finger and declared yourselves engaged. Much to the dismay of the kaiser, as you were never a true princess.”
“I don’t need a fledgling biographer to tell me that I’m not a princess.”
“You’d lured Willy into an engagement though he was, as everyone knew, happy to be caught. He never would’ve had the balls to do it himself, to upset Vater.”
“You’ve got that right,” Mrs. Spencer mumbled.
“When political powers on both sides of the Atlantic heard about your engagement, a surge of relief washed across the globe. This would not be a simple marriage but instead an important alliance between Germany and the United States.”
“I’ve had many engagements, Mr. Seton, but I don’t recall a single one of them surging anything across the globe. What’s an alliance anyway but a verbal agreement among two separate people with opposing interests? Easily formed, quickly broken.”
“They say the two of you could’ve prevented the first war.”
“Oh, I hardly think—”
“Mrs. Spencer, admit it. Everyone knows your love might’ve saved the world.”
Twenty-eight
THE BANBURY INN
BANBURY, OXFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND
NOVEMBER 2001
“Their love might’ve saved the world?” Annie said. “Don’t you think that’s a tad much?”
“No,” Gus said. “Why, is that what you think?”
“Uh, yeah. This author is every bit as dramatic as Mrs. Spencer herself, from the sounds of it.”
“Admittedly, he was prone to theatrics about all manner of things. But in this regard he was correct. Even Churchill echoed the comment. And he never would’ve voluntarily given Gladys that much credit.”
“I still don’t understand why Mrs. Spencer refused to admit she was the duchess.”
Annie uncoiled Gus’s scarf and handed it back to him. She shivered in the brisk, sunny air.
“The duchess’s reputation wasn’t exactly sterling,” Gus pointed out.
“I get that, but it’s not like Mrs. Spencer was the town’s most respected citizen, either. What did she have to lose? I would’ve been, like, damned straight my beauty was capable of keeping men from war!”
“So you remain convinced that she was the long-lost duchess?”
“Look, it’s very cute how you’re trying to frame this as a mystery but there is no other conclusion. Take Consuelo Vanderbilt. We know that she was the Duchess of Marlborough.”
“We do.”
“And we know that she and Gladys were close friends.”
“That’s correct.”
“Mrs. Spencer herself told Win and Pru that she and Coon were the tightest of pals. So there you go. One example of many.”
“Surely Consuelo Vanderbilt had more than one friend.”