Buckingham Palace Gardens - Anne Perry [66]
How much would Elsa be wounded in mind and heart if she knew Cahoon had made love to Lady Parr? Not much; only revolted if he came back to her afterward. And if she were honest, she thought perhaps he would not. That was a strange kind of rejection too, a sort of loneliness half wanted, half painful.
Alexandra was asking something again. Elsa thought how difficult it must be always having to be the one to initiate every conversation, but one did not speak to royalty until they spoke first. She could not help, much as she wished to.
“You will miss your husband when they begin to build,” Alexandra went on. “Or will you go to Africa yourself?”
“I don’t yet know, ma’am,” Elsa replied.
“I hear Africa is very beautiful,” Alexandra continued.
Elsa must make an effort. She could see the look of open contempt on Minnie’s face.
“You should go,” Minnie said suddenly. “It would give you something to talk about. It is such a bore to have nothing whatever to say.” She knew that with her face turned toward Elsa, Alexandra would not hear her.
“Frightful,” Elsa said tartly. “Especially to those who insist upon saying it just the same.”
Alexandra turned to look at Minnie in time to see her face flame red. She seemed to understand as well as if she had heard. “It seems a shame to miss an adventure,” she said quietly.
“She has nothing to keep her at home,” Minnie added. She did not say that Elsa was childless, but it was implied. Minnie herself was childless, but still young enough to change that.
“I imagine you will be going,” Olga said suddenly to Minnie. “You will certainly want to follow the men!”
Minnie arched her eyebrows. “I beg your pardon?” she replied icily, but there was a hot flush in her cheeks still.
Lady Parr’s face flickered with amusement.
“Do you wish me to repeat it more loudly?” Olga inquired.
At home Minnie would have stormed out, as she had an impulsive temper like her father’s. Here, she was forced to remain.
“I imagine it will be necessary to begin in both Cairo and Cape Town,” Alexandra murmured, as if she had heard none of the last exchange. “You know Cape Town, do you not, Mrs. Quase?”
“I have a slight acquaintance, ma’am,” Liliane answered. “I’m afraid I don’t know Cairo at all.”
“I thought you knew Cape Town quite well.” Minnie looked puzzled. “Papa said you had lived there. Was he mistaken?”
Liliane faced her squarely. “He probably told you that my brother died there,” she replied, her voice trembling so slightly it was barely discernible. “Or perhaps it was your husband who told you. He was in the area at the time.”
“Julius never tells me anything,” Minnie replied. “But then I dare say you know that. You knew him before I did.” She frowned. “Although it does seem odd that he should not have mentioned it at all.”
“Perhaps you were simply not listening?” Elsa suggested.
“I suppose he told you?” Minnie retorted. “You are always listening. I don’t know what you expect to hear. Or perhaps it doesn’t matter, just so long as it is something.”
Elsa looked at her gravely. “I am sure you would like to reconsider that remark,” she observed. “You cannot have meant it.” She allowed her gaze to wander to Alexandra, then away again quickly.
Suddenly Minnie understood and the blush spread from her cheeks down her neck to her bosom, but there was of course no elegant way for her to explain that she had meant Elsa’s vanity, not the Princess’s deafness.
For the first time in the evening, Olga laughed. It was a rich, extraordinarily pleasant sound, more attractive than Minnie’s higher, louder voice.
There was another half hour of chatter, gossip, polite nothingness, before the gentlemen rejoined them. Cahoon was in charge, talking so earnestly with the Prince it seemed an effort for them to even acknowledge the ladies. They returned