An Embarrassment of Riches by Margaret Pemberton

Author:Margaret Pemberton [Pemberton, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

The funeral was held at St Thomas’s. Alexander had determined on as private a funeral as was possible, but New York society outmanoeuvred him. Ever since Alexander’s marriage Victor had suffered snubs and humiliations from members of the Old Guard anxious that their inviolate caste should not be sullied by contact with a father-in-law to an Irish emigrant. Now he was dead they could ease their consciences by paying their respects. And they could perhaps catch a glimpse of the emigrant in question.

Maura had allowed Miriam to guide her in her choice of mourning wear. Her dress was fine black wool crêpe with long sleeves and a high neck. Her hair was swept high in a severe chignon, crowned by a small black velvet toque and veil. The sombreness of her clothes should have rendered her plain and unprovocative. Instead the stark blackness of her dress emphasized the creamy perfection of her skin and the startling gentian-blue of her eyes. Looking across at her, as they waited for Miriam to bring an ankle-length, black, sealskin coat, Alexander felt something akin to a shaft of pain. She was exquisitely beautiful. Even more beautiful than Genevre.

‘We’re ready to leave, sir,’ the funeral director said to him sotto voce.

Alexander nodded. Now that it had actually come to it, he was beginning to feel distinctly odd. It was becoming harder by the minute to remember the father he had hated and tried to destroy. All that he could remember were the good times. His father taking him to Franconi’s Hippodrome to see elephants and camels and monkeys riding ponies; tobogganing with him; swimming with him at Newport. Tears glittered on his long eyelashes. Why the devil had his father been so unreasonable about Genevre? Why, in God’s name, couldn’t they have remained friends?

The cortège seemed to take for ever to reach the church. In the hot August heat his high starched collar and stiff formal suit became more and more uncomfortable. In the carriage behind him he knew that Charlie was suffering similarly. Other Schermerhorns followed the carriage conveying Charlie and his parents. Old Henry had turned out, looking distinctly glum at being so forcibly reminded of mortality. There were distant cousins, second and third time removed. Despite his initial wish that the funeral be small, Alexander was glad of their presence. The Schermerhorn connection had meant a great deal to his father and it was gratifying that the Schermerhorns were paying their respects.

There were no Karolyises present. The only Karolyis was himself. For the first time in his life Alexander found himself wondering what family his grandfather had left behind in Hungary. Presumably he had other cousins, several times removed, living in and around the village his grandfather had left so long ago. It was an intriguing thought. Perhaps one day he would visit Hungary. It would be nice to erect a memorial there to his grandfather. A hospital or a school.

The purple plumes on the horses’heads bobbed in the strong sunlight as the cortège turned in the direction of St Thomas’s.

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