A Conspiracy of Crowns by Alfred de Marigny & Mickey Herskowitz

Author:Alfred de Marigny & Mickey Herskowitz
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781939430182
Publisher: Garrett County Press
Published: 2016-04-07T00:00:00+00:00

11. Guilty of Marrying Nancy

Shortly after my return, I completed the purchase of the land on Eleuthera—whose name was the Greek word for "freedom"—and built a bungalow at Governor's Harbor. Not that Ruth was pleased. Nothing that had to do with the islands, with that way of life, pleased Ruth.

She disliked the people, the heat, the isolation, the absence of fashion. She disapproved of my friends and resented my dogs, a white bull terrier pup and a pair of Belgian police dogs, gifts from Basil McKinney. Least of all did she like the time I spent sailing. This was her constant complaint. In the beginning, I tried to humor her, pointing out that she was my wife, while the boat was merely a concubine. Even as I spoke the word, I liked the sound of it. And so I named my boat the Concubine, in the process raising a few eyebrows at the stuffy Royal Nassau Sailing Club.

The sea was my escape from a marriage that all too soon became intolerable. Ruth was insecure, demanding, and jealous. I knew her moods well. She would go into a rage, pick a fight once we were home, arouse her own passions, and then want to make love.

Once she went into hysterics after claiming that I had paid too much attention to our hostess, a young widow, at a dinner party. Soon after that, while I was away on business, Ruth drowned two of my dogs. Prince, the Belgian male, ran into the woods and was saved by George Thompson.

I knew then that my wife was a sick woman. I flew her to New York to seek psychiatric help. While we were there, I discussed the range of our problems with Maurice Speiser, and knew there was but one answer. Ruth agreed to a divorce, persuaded in part by the prospect of no longer being burdened by British currency laws. Speiser called it a "divorce of convenience."

Though for several months we lived off and on in the same house, our divorce was final in April of 1940. It might have ended there, except that Ruth, having returned to New York, was enraged by the news that I had married Nancy Oakes. She was half-mad with jealousy. She wrote a vicious and distorted letter to Lady Oakes, and the prosecution would pounce on her accusations to inflate its case against me.

None of us knew it then, but 1939 would be a turning point in the history of Europe and Nassau, if not the world. Germany and Russia signed a peace treaty in August, leaving Hitler free to invade Poland. There was an influx to Nassau of people either fleeing the coming bloody upheaval, or in search of a safe place to spend their money.

Among the newcomers, a few were to play a role in the desperate times I would encounter in the years just ahead.

A Mrs. Effie Henneage, whose husband was assigned to the War Office in London, rented a cottage near Harold Christie's home.

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