Edward VII by Catharine Arnold

Author:Catharine Arnold
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Chapter Fourteen

THE HEART HAS ITS REASONS

He looked at me in a way all women understand.

—DAISY, COUNTESS OF WARWICK

From the start of her married life, Daisy regularly witnessed the courtly dance of romantic affairs played out against the backdrops of grand country houses, and longed to be part of it, regardless of Brookie’s feelings. There seems to have been a certain acceptance on Brookie’s part that Daisy was a force of nature who made her own rules. Brookie’s real passions were hunting, shooting, and fishing,1 although given the opportunity, he possessed a keen eye for the ladies. Daisy loved hunting, too, but she found shooting and fishing desperately dull. However, being married to a sporting man was not without its advantages. Brookie’s love of field sports meant that the couple were invited to numerous shooting parties at remote country houses.

It was in this milieu, as a married woman, that Daisy saw exactly how her contemporaries conducted their affairs. Indeed, it appeared to Daisy that an affair was almost de rigueur, as long as both parties remained discreet. Unfortunately, discretion was one quality of which Daisy was almost entirely devoid.

Determined to have a little fun of her own, and realizing that country house weekends were the ideal opportunities to bag a lover, Daisy began to cast around for a suitable man for the role. But finding the right individual proved to be more difficult than Daisy expected. On one occasion, Daisy experienced the thrill of “a certain Lord X” professing undying love for her,2 and was very much attracted to him in her turn. But one night at a party Daisy overheard Lord X address Lillie Langtry as “my darling” as he draped her cloak around her shoulders, following the gesture with a request for an assignation. Utterly furious, Daisy resolved that she would never look at Lord X again.3 However tedious the country house circuit might be, Daisy had her standards.

The Prince of Wales himself should have met Daisy’s exacting criteria in these early days of Daisy’s marriage. Bertie had already made one visit to Easton Lodge, and Bertie and Daisy met again at Eastwell Manor, Kent, home of Bertie’s brother, the Duke of Edinburgh, at a ball thrown in Bertie’s honor. Daisy wore “a ruby velvet dress, en princesse, which was much admired,”4 she recalled, although in hindsight she admitted that it might have been a little dowdy. “The Prince asked me to dance, and sat out a long time talking with me in a corridor, but he doubtless found me shy or stupid, for he spent most of the evening with Mrs Cornwallis-West, then in the zenith of her beauty.”5 Patsy Cornwallis-West was also in the zenith of her affair with Bertie, which is perhaps why Bertie did not trouble Daisy with his advances.

Having provided Brookie with three children, Daisy succeeded in sticking to her marriage vows, despite her headstrong and impulsive character, until the fateful day when she met Lord Charles Beresford. A close friend of the Prince

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