The Secret Rooms by Catherine Bailey

Author:Catherine Bailey [Bailey, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101636749
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-12-30T16:00:00+00:00

Reaching for the fountain pen he kept in the breast pocket of his suit, Henry wrote a note to his wife:

I think you ought to see this.

R [Rutland]

Then he summoned a footman to take the note, and the general’s letter, up to Violet’s bedroom.

*

‘John going!!! At any moment!!!’ Violet wrote to Diana: ‘I am cracked with fear.’

The letter from General Stuart Wortley lay beside her on the bed. His news was the last thing she had anticipated. The North Midland was a territorial division. On 4 August, the day war had been declared, the government had announced that all territorial divisions would remain in England. The war was expected to be over by Christmas. Violet had not, for an instant, imagined that John would actually be drafted to the Front.

Only the previous week, her great friend Winnie, Duchess of Portland, had written to congratulate her on her luck: ‘How heavenly for you that J is only to be in England. Gen. E. Wortley, I hear, is to stay here and defend us!!’ On numerous occasions, the general himself had written to reassure her. His last letter – sent to Belvoir by dispatch rider the night the North Midlands arrived at Luton – had been particularly avuncular:

North Midland Headquarters

Stockwood Park

Luton

15 August 1914

My dear Duchess,

Your boy drove me in the Rolls Royce to this place today – he drove very well – and we came from Derby in 3 hours!

I have told him to join my Staff tomorrow as Galloper (I hope he will not tumble off his gee!) and he will remain with me – so do not be worried.

Yours ever,

Eddy Stuart Wortley

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