How strange, that May had never really paid him any mind. As a child George had always trailed along in Eddy’s wake, watching the older, more rambunctious cousins. Yet there was clearly a sense of humor beneath his placid surface.
“You know what animal should have been named the hippopotamus? The dolphin. They are incredible—so fast, and as playful as frolicking puppies,” George told her, still smiling.
“You saw a dolphin? Was this in the navy?”
“Off the coast of Malta. Missy and I saw them, right alongside the yacht.”
Right. Missy.
When they were children, George had always been overly solicitous of their younger cousin: holding the lead rope when Missy learned to ride a pony, helping her try to catch fireflies at dusk.
The oldest daughter of Uncle Alfred and Aunt Marie, Missy was pretty in a bright, vivacious way, nothing at all like shy Alix of Hesse. Honestly, Queen Victoria might have considered Missy as a bride for Eddy if she weren’t so young.
And George was clearly still infatuated with her.
“George!” Maud bustled over, relieving May of the need to reply. “Father is looking for you.”
“Very well.” George cast an inscrutable glance at May, then nodded his goodbye and disappeared.
Maud watched him leave. “What were you and Georgetalking about?”
May couldn’t explain the unexpected, almost whimsical turn their conversation had taken—or that the mention of Missy had acted like a dash of cold water to her face. “We were just discussing the theatricals. Did you enjoy them?”
“Not really.” Maud shrugged. “But you know how Grandmama is. It’s easier to agree to her demands than to put up a fight.”
Of course. Queen Victoria’s will went unquestioned, at least within her family.
A burst of laughter across the room caught Maud’s attention. May couldn’t help glancing over as well—to where Alix of Hesse stood with Prince Eddy.
They should have looked like a couple; they were standing so close together, both of them wearing those bizarre peasant wedding costumes. And they were certainly both attractive. In her cream-colored dress, her golden hair shot through withfirelight, Alix looked ethereal, angelic. Yet there was something stiff about the way they moved around each other, neither of them quite meeting the other’s gaze.
What was it Alix had said on the train?That’s the kind of love I’m looking for.The romantic, adoring devotion of a spouse who never stopped grieving you: the way Alix’s father had done for her mother, the way Victoria still did for Albert.
Alix would never find that kind of love with Eddy, May felt certain of it.
But Alix wasn’t brave enough to extricate herself from the situation. If nothing happened to change their course, she and Eddy would get pulled into an engagement through sheer inertia—swept along by everyone’s expectations, by the force of Queen Victoria’s will. Alix would say nothing in protest, until one day she looked up and realized she was married to Eddy after all.
May had her own reasons for wanting to sabotage things, but was it really sabotage when you weresavingsomeone from a fate they didn’t want? May tried to think of what Agnes would say if she were here.
She knew the answer as clearly as if Agnes had whispered it to her all the way from London.
Agnes would want her to tell Maud the truth about Alix.
“The marriage vignette surprised me a bit,” May heard herself say. “I take it that an engagement is already in the works?”
Maud blinked at the directness of the question. “Nothing has been announced yet, but if Grandmama had her way, it would be in the papers tomorrow.”
“Perhaps it’s for the best that no formal announcement has been made,” May murmured in reply.
“What do you mean?”
Wordlessly they both took a step back, settling onto an ottoman upholstered in scratchy blue fabric. It meant they had to sit ramrod-straight, but at least this way they could see the entire room.
May sighed. “I worry about Alix, with all her ailments.”
“Ailments?”
This was the point of no return. May could still take it all back, pretend that she’d only meant Alix suffered from harmless headaches. But then she would be lying. Besides, Alix’s panicked episode had happened out in public; for all May knew, other people had seen. The truth would come out eventually, with or without May’s help.
