The Shadow Queen by Rebecca Dean

Author:Rebecca Dean [Dean, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-98583-5
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2012-08-13T14:00:00+00:00

By early 1917 her life as a Navy wife had settled into a well-established routine. Though the bungalow she and Win had been allocated was small—so small it could have fitted easily into the drawing room at 34 East Preston Street—it was also pretty. On a little verandah that looked out over a glorious view of the bay, scented roses and oleanders grew in tubs. Inside, every wall was painted white. It was the very first thing Wallis had insisted on having done. The gay chintz curtains at the windows were curtains she had made herself, and though the bungalow was too small for live-in household help, household help was cheap on the air station and, like every other wife living there, she had both a cook and a maid.

There was a strict rule on the base that no pilot was allowed to drink on the days he was scheduled to fly. Wallis was well aware that Win—and several other aviators—broke this rule by toasting the flag before a flight, having another to “boost their courage,” and a third to “settle them down,” but at least they never risked getting noticeably drunk, and when Win wasn’t drunk, he tended not to be so violent.

Saturday nights were when he always let his hair down, doing so at the only nightspot Pensacola possessed: the San Carlos Hotel.

“You’re a lucky woman, Skinny,” Corinne said to her one evening as they and other friends were grouped around one of the tables and Win, having grabbed a cane and a straw boater that weren’t his, was fronting the orchestra as an impromptu song-and-dance man. “Win is such a live wire. He must be great fun to live with.”

Wallis did what she always did on such occasions. She laughed agreement, grateful that Corinne didn’t suspect that fun, where she and Win were concerned, was in very short supply.

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