Jewels (16 page)

When they reached the hotel, Sarah was relieved to be alone in her room for a while. She closed the door, and lay down on the bed with her eyes closed But the moment she did, all she could think of was William again. It was almost like being haunted. She got up, splashed cold water on her face, combed her hair, took a bath, which felt heavenly after the long ride on the train, dressed again in a fresh cotton dress, and an hour later went to find her parents. They had bathed and changed, too, and everyone seemed to feel revived in spite of the crushing heat of Rome in August.

Her father had planned an outing to the Colosseum that afternoon, and the sun was blazing as they explored each minute detail. It was late in the afternoon when they got back to the hotel, and Sarah and her mother were feeling seriously wilted by the heat. Her father suggested they stop for something to drink before they went upstairs, and even that didn’t really revive them. Sarah drank two lemonades, and she felt a hundred years old as she left the table to go back to her own room alone. She left them chatting there, over two glasses of wine, and she walked slowly back into the lobby, carrying the large straw hat she had been wearing since that morning, feeling vague, and thinking of nothing for once, which was a relief.

“Signorina Thompson?” One of the managers asked her discreetly as she passed the desk.

“Yes?” She was distracted as she glanced their way, wondering why they had called her.

“There is a message for you.” He extended an envelope to her, addressed in a strong, familiar hand, and she glanced at it, wondering absentmindedly how it had reached her so quickly. She opened it while still standing there, and all it said was “I will love you forever, William.” She smiled as she read the words, and slowly folded the letter and put it back in the envelope, realizing that he must have mailed it to the hotel before she even left London. As she began to walk slowly up the stairs to the second floor, her heart was full of him. Visions of him were flooding into her head, as someone brushed past her.

“Sorry,” she murmured without looking up, and then suddenly she was literally swept off her feet and into someone’s arms, and he was there, in Rome, in the hotel, and he was kissing her as though he would never let her go again. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. “What … I … you …
William
, where are you? … I mean … Oh my God, what are you doing?” She was breathless and totally shocked by what he’d done. But she was also very, very pleased, and he was delighted.

“I’m coming to spend three weeks in Italy with you, if you must know, you silly girl. You walked right by me in the lobby.” He had been pleased by how forlorn she looked. It was precisely how he had felt when he had left her at Claridge’s in London. It had taken him less than an hour after that to decide to throw all caution to the wind and meet her in Rome. And seeing her now made him doubly glad he’d done it. “I’m afraid I’ve got bad news for you, my dear.” He looked serious as he gently touched her cheek, and for an instant she was worried about his mother.

“What is it?”

“I don’t think that I can live without you.” He grinned broadly and she smiled in answer. They were still standing on the stairs, as people below them smiled, watching them talk and kiss. They were two very attractive young people in love, and it warmed people’s hearts just to see them.

“Shouldn’t we at least try to resist?” Sarah asked nobly, but she was too happy he had come to discourage him now.

“I couldn’t bear it. It will be bad enough when you go to New York. Let’s take the month and enjoy it.” He put his arms around her and kissed her again, just as her parents started up the stairs, and stopped to look at them in amazement. At first they couldn’t see who he was, all they could see was their daughter in a man’s embrace, but Edward knew instantly who it was, and he smiled at them with pleasure. They walked slowly up the stairs, and a moment later the four of them stood together. Sarah was flushed with happiness, and she was still holding William’s hand as her parents reached them.

“You’ve come to guide us around Italy, I see,” Edward said to him with amusement. “Very considerate of you, Your Grace. Thank you very much indeed for coming.”

“I felt it my duty,” William said, looking happy and a little sheepish.

“We’re very happy to see you.” He spoke for them all, and clearly Sarah, who was beaming. “It should be a much happier trip now. I’m afraid Sarah didn’t think much of the Colosseum.” Sarah laughed, in fact, she had hated every moment without William.

“I’ll try to do better tomorrow, Father.”

“I’m sure you will.” And then he turned to William. “You have a room, I assume, Your Grace?” They were becoming good friends, and the elder Thompson liked him.

“I do, sir, an entire suite of them, I might add. Very handsome. My secretary made the accommodation, and God only knows what he told them. Second in line to the crown at the very least, judging by what they’ve done.” The four of them laughed and walked up the stairs, chattering amiably about where they should go for dinner. And as they walked, William gently squeezed her hand, thinking of the future.

Chapter 9

HE
time in Rome flew by on wings, visiting cathedrals, museums, Palatine Hill, and visiting some of William’s friends in some very lovely villas. They went to the beach at Ostia, and dined in elegant restaurants, with an occasional foray into some quaint trattorias.

And at the end of the week they moved on to Florence, for more of the same. Until at last, in their third week, they went to Venice. And by then, William and Sarah were closer than ever and more in love. They seemed to think and move as one. To people who watched them and didn’t know who they were, it would have been difficult to believe that they weren’t married.

“It’s been such fun,” Sarah said, as they sat by the swimming pool at the Royal Danieli late one afternoon. “I love Venice,” she said. The entire trip had been like a honeymoon, except that her parents were there, and she and William had not done anything they shouldn’t have, which hadn’t been entirely easy for either of them. But at the outset, they had promised each other they’d behave.

“I love you desperately,” he said happily, soaking up the sun. He had never been happier in his life, and he knew for sure now that he would never leave her. “I don’t think you should go back to New York with your parents,” he said half jokingly, but he opened one eye to see her reaction to what he was saying.

“And what do you suggest I do instead? Move in with your mother at Whitfield?”

“That’s a nice idea. But frankly, I’d prefer to have you with me in London in the house there” She smiled at him. She would have liked nothing more, but it was a dream that would never come to fruition.

“I wish I could, William,” she said softly, as he rolled over on his stomach and got up on his elbows to discuss the matter with her further.

“And just why is it that you can’t? Remind me.” She had a long list of objections that he always pooh-poohed, the first of which was her divorce, and the second his succession to the throne.

“You know why.” But he didn’t want to. And finally she kissed him and urged him to be grateful for what they had. “It’s more than some people have in a lifetime.” She had come to be infinitely grateful for him, and for each moment they shared. She knew only too well how precious it all was, and how rare, and how unlikely that it would ever happen again in her lifetime.

He sat up next to her then, as they watched the boats and the gondolas in the distance, as the spires of St Mark’s Cathedral rose toward the sky. “Sarah …” He took her hand in his. “I’m not playing at this.”

“I know that.”

He leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips, and said something he had never said to her quite that openly before, “I want to marry you.” He kissed her again then in a way that told her he meant it, but eventually she pulled away from him and shook her head with anguish.

“You know we can’t,” she whispered to him as he kissed her.

“We can. I am not going to let my place in the succession or your divorce stop us now. That’s absolutely absurd. No one, but no one, in England gives a damn what I do. The only one I care about is my mother, and she adores you. I told her before you ever met her that I wanted to marry you, and after she met you she said she thought it a very sensible plan. She’s completely for it.”

“You told her
before
you took me to lunch at Whitfield?” Sarah looked horrified and he grinned at her wickedly.

“I thought she ought to know that you were important to me. I’ve never told her that about anyone before, and she said she was just grateful that she’d lived long enough to see me fall in love with such a nice girl.”

“If I’d known that when you took me there, I’d have gotten out of the car and walked back to London. How could you do that to her? Does she know about the divorce?”

“She does now,” he said seriously. “I told her afterwards. We had a very serious talk before you left London, and she agrees with me completely. She said that feelings like this only come once in a lifetime. And that certainly must be true for me. I’m almost thirty-six years old, and I’ve never felt anything for anyone except occasional desire and frequent boredom.” She laughed at what he said and shook her head in amazement, thinking how totally unpredictable life was, how wonderful, and amazing.

“What if you become an outcast because of me?” She felt as though she had a responsibility to him, but she was greatly relieved by his mother’s reaction.

“Then we’ll come here, and live in Venice. Actually, that might be rather nice.” He looked nonplussed by all her objections. They didn’t worry him at all.

“William, your father was the head of the House of Lords. Think of the disgrace you’ll bring to your family and your ancestors.”

“Don’t be absurd. And they won’t take my seat away. Dear girl, the only thing I cannot be is king. And let me assure you now, there was never the remotest chance of it, thank God. I can’t think of anything I’d hate more. If I thought there was a chance, I’d have given it up myself years ago. Fourteenth in line is purely a matter of prestige, my dear, and barely that, I assure you. It’s nothing I can’t very happily live without.” But she still didn’t want their love for each other to cost him something that could have been important to him, or his family.

“Won’t it embarrass you when people whisper that your wife was married before?”

“Frankly, no. I don’t give a damn. But I also don’t know how everyone would know, unless you tell them. You are not, thank heaven, Wallis Simpson, despite what you seem to think. Does that answer all your ridiculous objections, my love?”

“I … you …” She was stumbling over her own words as she tried to force herself to listen to reason, but the truth was that she loved him to distraction. “I love you so much.” She kissed him hard then, and he held her for ages, and then pulled away from her only slightly to threaten her this time.

“I will not let you go until you agree to be the next Duchess of Whitfield,” he whispered to her. “And if you don’t agree, I shall tell everyone at this swimming pool that you are really Wallis Simpson. … I beg your pardon, the Duchess of Windsor.” Her title stuck in his throat still, and he was very glad they had not accorded her the right to be called Her Royal Highness, which had infuriated David. “Will you agree?” he whispered fiercely, kissing her…. “Sarah, will you?” But he didn’t have to ask her again, she nodded, as tears filled her eyes and he kissed her even more longingly than before. It was a long time before he let her go again, and he smiled as he turned away from her and wrapped himself quickly in a towel when he stood up. “It’s settled then,” he said calmly as he held out a hand to her. “When is the wedding?” It stunned her to hear him talk that way. She couldn’t believe that they were really getting married. How was it possible? How did they dare? What would the King say? And her parents? And Jane? And all their friends.

“You’re really serious, aren’t you?” She looked at him, still stunned by it all, but incredibly happy.

“I’m afraid so, my dear. You’re in for a lifetime of it.” A lifetime of love with him. “All I want from you is the date of the wedding.”

Her eyes clouded for a moment as she looked at him, and she lowered her voice slightly when she answered at last. “My divorce will be final on November nineteenth. It could be any time after that.”

“Are you free on the twentieth?” he asked more than half seriously. And she laughed, giddy with the thrill of what he was saying

“I think that might be Thanksgiving.”

“Very well. What is it you eat for that? Turkey? We’ll have turkey at the wedding.”

She thought about the preparations they’d have to make, and the work for her mother, right after Thanksgiving, and smiled shyly up at him. “How about December first? That way we could have Thanksgiving with my family, and you’d have a little time to meet people before the wedding.” But they both knew it would be a small gathering this time. Particularly after the horror of her anniversary party, she had no desire for an enormous party.