Leading Lady Read Free Page A

here, until I had told you and Franz. Then, you see, there can easily be a bit of confusion about whether it actually happened in Munich or back in Salzburg.’
    â€˜But you have been living as man and wife?’ Martha went to the heart of the matter.
    â€˜Martha, we didn’t mean to … I hadn’t thought … Desmond behaved so perfectly all the way to Munich. Treated me like a queen. I think I’d assumed we’d wait … But then, by some strange chance, our rooms at the Munich inn were next door to each other, in a remote wing. It was hard to find.When we got back late from the opera house, Desmond came with me, to show me the way. He opened the door for me, followed me in, kissed my hands, said I was his wife …’ Her hands were twisting together in her lap. ‘Then he kissed me. Our first kiss … And then …’
    â€˜I can imagine,’ said Martha. ‘And afterwards – at Ludwigsburg – what happened there?’
    â€˜Desmond said he could not bear to be parted from me. He arranged for adjacent rooms. He can manage anything, my Desmond. You will love him for my sake, won’t you, Martha?’
    â€˜I’ll do my very best.’ What could Martha do but kiss her and promise? But in her heart, she put a very different gloss on the story. Altogether too many coincidences, too many obliging friends. Desmond Fylde had pushed Cristabel into marriage, but he had done it successfully. They had been living together, in the full public eye, for almost a month. ‘Belle –’ How to ask it?
    â€˜Yes?’ Something heart-rending about Cristabel’s look of a child who expects to be scolded.
    â€˜You aren’t by any chance increasing?’ She got it out.
    â€˜Oh, no.’ Cristabel was glad to be able to reassure her on this point. ‘Desmond said … He thinks of everything, my Desmond. He says my career must come first for a while. He truly loves me, Martha, thinks of me. Says he wants to see the world at my feet.’ She smiled, turned the tables on Martha. ‘But you, Martha dear, have you any news for me?’
    â€˜No, alas. I’m afraid I am a sad disappointment to the Lissenbergers. Almost a year married, and still no sign of the heir they long for.’
    â€˜Well,’ said Cristabel. ‘If Franz stayed at home a little more. Or if you went with him on these foreign tours of his …’
    â€˜But how can he? And, come to that, how can I? You know how things are, here in Lissenberg. We have to face it that there are many in Franz’s revolutionary party who were sadly disappointed to find that instead of an elected president they had got themselves a prince after all. I think, in many ways, he was disappointed himself but, once he found himself the heir, there was nothing for it but to make the best of things. No use pretending it’s been easy this last year. Of coursehe has had to visit the neighbouring courts, try for their approval, their support. And equally of course I have had to stay at home and run things here. He trusts me to do that. It’s a great compliment.’ She was beginning to wonder if it was one she deserved.
    â€˜One you have earned! But where is he this time? Surely he has reached agreement with the neighbours? They speak well of him in Bavaria and Württemberg, and Princess Amelia must have taken his part when she got home to Baden. I know she died in the end, poor lady, but you did save her life, you and Franz – and Max – when her husband was poisoning her. Tell me, Martha, how is the wicked Prince Gustav? Has Franz thought better of letting him retire to Gustavsberg? I always thought that an act of mad generosity. He’s too dangerous a man to be let loose, that one.’
    â€˜I’m afraid I rather agree with you,’ said Martha. ‘But there has been no persuading Franz of it. He says Gustav’s teeth are drawn; why spend money