Page 40 of A Queen's Match
May hadn’t seen him all day, not since he’d gotten off their motorboat and marched up the slope of the yacht club toward his grandmother. When he was still missing an hour before his supposed engagement announcement, she had started to panic—but then George had arrived, dragging Eddy in his wake, as well as their cousin Ernest of Hesse.
Both Eddy and Ernie were in distinctly rough shape. Their cheeks were sunburned, their movements slow; though somehow, probably with the help of very competent valets, George seemed to have gotten both young men into eveningattire.
It would seem that Eddy had gotten off the boat that morning, declared to Queen Victoria that he would marry May, and then spent the day with Ernie, getting drunk. Probably at a dockside bar that catered to common sailors.
As if he wanted to get drunk enough to forget this engagement altogether.
“What a divine view,” Mrs.de Falbe remarked. May smiled and murmured a reply; Mrs.de Falbe was one of the few guests who paid her any mind, and she suspected that the woman only did so because Mr.de Falbe was the Danish ambassador, and had never explained to his wife just how unimportant May was. Earlier, May had tried to start up a conversation with a few of the married ladies her own age, who had all come with their husbands from London—Lady Clementine Walsh, Lady Leigh Arlington. They had turned up their noses at her. If they only knew.
“Good evening, everyone.”
Though the queen did not shout, her voice projected through the space like an actor’s. She stepped up near the railing of the yacht, diminutive and yet unmistakably the most powerful force present.
One by one, everyone fell silent and turned expectantly toward Victoria. She held out her hands. “Bertie and I are so pleased to welcome you on our family’s boat this evening. I do hope you all enjoyed the races. I had my money on theJasper,so I’m afraid I lost a few bets. Apparently, I know horses better than I know yachts.” There was polite laughter at the queen’s words.
May tried to catch Eddy’s gaze, but he didn’t see her. His expression was glassy and vacant, almost haunted.
“I have an exciting announcement,” the queen went on. “My dear grandson and heir, Eddy, recently came to me with momentous news.Grandmother,he said,I have fallen in love and asked a young woman for her hand in marriage. Now I come to you for your blessing.”
Victoria was taking a rather liberal approach to the truth, but this was the sort of story people wanted to hear, wasn’tit?
May tried to arrange her features into a simpering sort of smile, the way a young woman in love would look.
“Luckily for us,” Queen Victoria went on, “the young woman in question is far from a stranger. Why, she’s a member of our own dear family!”
All over the yacht, eyes cut to Ducky, though a few people glanced at Alix, too. Not a single person was looking at May.
So there was a moment of uncertain shock when the queen said, “I am delighted to congratulate my darling Eddy for his engagement to Princess May of Teck!”
There was a heartbeat of flat, disbelieving silence. Then the guests all came to their senses and began to applaud, even if they looked at May in bewilderment.
Uncle Bertie stepped forward, gesturing to May. When she placed her palm in his, he held out his other hand to Eddy, as if he meant to clasp their two hands together.
Eddy stumbled as he came to join her. May forced herself not to wince, though her eyes cut to George. Wasn’t it his job to keep track of Eddy, to keep him from getting so roaring drunk?
When she met George’s gaze, though, there was something in it she couldn’t decipher. May’s heart skipped.
Eddy had regained his balance, reaching a hand obediently to May. He wasn’t smiling. It didn’t matter, she told herself, and smiled broadly enough for both of them.
None of the rest of it mattered now May was going to marry Eddy. Finally, after all her striving, she had won.
Finally, she was safe.
Chapter Seventeen
Hélène
Eddy was engaged to Mayof Teck.
Listening to Queen Victoria congratulate the happy couple, Hélène felt frozen in place, as if she’d transformed into one of those marble statues at the Earl of Stafford’s house. Unable to even lift a hand toward the man she loved. Unable to breathe.
How many times had she imagined the queen making this very same announcement about her? Not that Hélène cared about the social status such an engagement would convey. She wasn’t like May, staring around the party with that smug little smile on her face. Hélène only wanted a public engagement because she wanted to proclaim her love for Eddy to the world. She longed to stake her claim on him, to shout from the rooftops that he was hers and no one else’s.
Instead she had to stand here, the world spinning around her, while he got engaged toMay.And no one knew how much it hurt her.
Except Nicholas, she realized, as he reached a steadying hand beneath her elbow. Nicholas knew.
“Hélène.” Nicholas’s breath was warm in her ear. “Should we leave?”
