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"Shoot. "
"Four months ago, I told you that I love you. "
"I haven't forgotten. "
"But you haven't said how you feel about me. "
"Isn't it obvious?"
"Perhaps, but I'd like you to tell me. Do you love me?"
"Oh, Gus, don't you understand?" Her face changed and she looked anguished. "I'm not good enough for you. You were the most eligible bachelor in Buffalo, and I was the one-eyed anarchist. You're supposed to love someone elegant and beautiful and rich. I'm a doctor's daughter-my mother was a housemaid. I'm not the right person for you to love. "
"Do you love me?" he said with quiet persistence.
She began to cry. "Of course I do, you dope, I love you with all my heart. "
He put his arms around her. "Then that's all that matters," he said.
{V}
Aunt Herm put down the Tatler. "It was very bad of you to get married secretly," she said to Maud. Then she smiled conspiratorially. "But so romantic!"
They were in the drawing room of Fitz's Mayfair house. Bea had redecorated after the end of the war, in the new art deco style, with utilitarian-looking chairs and modernistic silver gewgaws from Asprey. With Maud and Herm were Fitz's roguish friend Bing Westhampton and Bing's wife. The London season was in full swing, and they were going to the opera as soon as Bea was ready. She was saying good night to Boy, now three and a half, and Andrew, eighteen months.
Maud picked up the magazine and looked again at the article. The picture did not greatly please her. She had imagined that it would show two people in love. Unfortunately it looked like a scene from a moving picture show. Walter appeared predatory, holding her hand and gazing into her eyes like a wicked Lothario, and she seemed like the ingenue about to fall for his wiles.
However, the text was just what she had hoped for. The writer reminded readers that Lady Maud had been "the fashionable suffragette" before the war, she had started The Soldier's Wife newspaper to campaign for the rights of the women left at home, and she had gone to jail for her protest on behalf of Jayne McCulley. It said that she and Walter had intended to announce their engagement in the normal way, and had been prevented by the outbreak of war. Their hasty secret marriage was portrayed as a desperate attempt to do the right thing in abnormal circumstances.
Maud had insisted on being quoted exactly, and the magazine had kept its promise. "I know that some British people hate the Germans," she had said. "But I also know that Walter and many other Germans did all they could to prevent the war. Now that it is over, we must create peace and friendship between the former enemies, and I truly hope people will see our union as a symbol of the new world. "
Maud had learned, in her years of political campaigning, that you could sometimes win support from a publication by giving it a good story exclusively.
Walter had returned to Berlin as planned. The Germans had been jeered by crowds as they drove to the railway station on their way home. A female secretary had been knocked out by a thrown rock. The French comment had been: "Remember what they did to Belgium. " The secretary was still in hospital. Meanwhile, the German people were angrily against signing the treaty.
Bing sat next to Maud on the sofa. For once he was not flirtatious. "I wish your brother were here to advise you about this," he said with a nod at the magazine.
Maud had written to Fitz to break the news of her marriage
, and had enclosed the clipping from the Tatler, to show him that what she had done was being accepted by London society. She had no idea how long it would take for her letter to get to wherever Fitz was, and she did not expect a reply for months. By then it would be too late for Fitz to protest. He would just have to smile and congratulate her.
Now Maud bristled at the implication that she needed a man to tell her what to do. "What could Fitz possibly say?"
"For the foreseeable future, the life of a German wife is going to be hard. "
"I don't need a man to tell me that. "
"In Fitz's absence I feel a degree of responsibility. "
"Please don't. " Maud tried not to be offended. What advice could Bing possibly offer anyone, other than how to gamble and drink in the world's nightspots?
He lowered his voice. "I hesitate to say this, but. . . " He glanced at Aunt Herm, who took the hint and went to pour herself a little more coffee. "If you were able to say that the marriage had never been consummated, then there might be an annulment. "
Maud thought of the room with the primrose-yellow curtains, and had to suppress a happy smile. "But I cannot-"
"Please don't tell me anything about it. I only want to make sure you understand your options. "
Maud suppressed a growing indignation. "I know this is kindly meant, Bing-"
