Fall of Giants

“I know Morrison. And I know where he spent the night.” Maud hesitated.

Ethel waited a moment, then said: “Aren’t you going to tell me?”

“You’ll be shocked.”

Ethel grinned. “All the better.”

“He spent the night with Robert von Ulrich.” Maud glanced at Ethel in the dressing-table mirror. “Are you horrified?”

Ethel was fascinated. “Well, I never! I knew Morrison wasn’t much of a ladies’ man, but I didn’t think he might be one of those, if you see what I mean.”

“Well, Robert is certainly one of those, and I saw him catch Morrison’s eye several times during dinner.”

“In front of the king, too! How do you know about Robert?”

“Walter told me.”

“What a thing for a gentleman to say to a lady! People tell you everything. What’s the gossip in London?”

“They’re all talking about Mr. Lloyd George.”

David Lloyd George was the chancellor of the Exchequer, in charge of the country’s finances. A Welshman, he was a fiery left-wing orator. Ethel’s da said Lloyd George should have been in the Labour Party. During the coal strike of 1912 he had even talked about nationalizing the mines. “What are they saying about him?” Ethel asked.

“He has a mistress.”

“No!” This time Ethel was really shocked. “But he was brought up a Baptist!”

Maud laughed. “Would it be less outrageous if he were Anglican?”

“Yes!” Ethel refrained from adding obviously. “Who is she?”

“Frances Stevenson. She started as his daughter’s governess, but she’s a clever woman-she has a degree in classics-and now she’s his private secretary.”

“That’s terrible.”

“He calls her Pussy.”

Ethel almost blushed. She did not know what to say to that. Maud stood up, and Ethel helped her with her coat. Ethel asked: “What about his wife, Margaret?”

“She stays here in Wales with their four children.”

“Five, it was, only one died. Poor woman.”

Maud was ready. They went along the corridor and down the grand staircase. Walter von Ulrich was waiting in the hall, wrapped in a long dark coat. He had a small mustache and soft hazel eyes. He looked dashing in a buttoned-up, German sort of way, the kind of man who would bow, click his heels, and then give you a little wink, Ethel thought. So this was why Maud did not want Lady Hermia as her chaperone.

Maud said to Walter: “Williams came to work here when I was a girl, and we’ve been friends ever since.”

Ethel liked Maud, but it was going too far to say they were friends. Maud was kind, and Ethel admired her, but they were still mistress and servant. Maud was really saying that Ethel could be trusted.

Walter addressed Ethel with the elaborate politeness such people employed when speaking to their inferiors. “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Williams. How do you do?”

“Thank you, sir. I’ll get my coat.”

She ran downstairs. She did not really want to be going for a walk while the king was there-she would have preferred to be on hand to supervise the housemaids-but she could not refuse.

In the kitchen Princess Bea’s maid, Nina, was making tea Russian style for her mistress. Ethel spoke to a chambermaid. “Herr Walter is up,” she said. “You can do the Gray Room.” As soon as the guests appeared, the maids needed to go into the bedrooms to clean, make the beds, empty the chamber pots, and put out fresh water for washing. She saw Peel, the butler, counting plates. “Any movement upstairs?” she asked him.

“Nineteen, twenty,” he said. “Mr. Dewar have rung for hot water for shaving, and Signor Falli asked for coffee.”

“Lady Maud wants me to go outside with her.”

“That’s inconvenient,” Peel said crossly. “You’re needed in the house.”

Ethel knew that. She said sarcastically: “What shall I do, Mr. Peel, tell her to go and get knotted?”

“None of your sauce. Be back as quick as you can.”

When she went back upstairs the earl’s dog, Gelert, was standing at the front door, panting eagerly, having divined that a walk was in prospect. They all went out and crossed the East Lawn to the woods.

Walter said to Ethel: “I suppose Lady Maud has taught you to be a suffragette.”

“It was the other way around,” Maud told him. “Williams was the first person to introduce me to liberal ideas.”

Ethel said: “I learned it all from my father.”

Ethel knew they did not really want to talk to her. Etiquette did not permit them to be alone, but they wanted the next best thing. She called to Gelert, then ran ahead, playing with the dog, giving them the privacy they were probably longing for. Glancing back, she saw that they were holding hands.

Maud was a fast worker, Ethel thought. From what she had said yesterday, she had not seen Walter for ten years. Even then there had been no acknowledged romance, just an unspoken attraction. Something must have happened last night. Perhaps they had sat up late talking. Maud flirted with everyone-it was how she got information out of them-but clearly this was more serious.