“He wouldn’t marry me unless he believed our marriage was temporary. Of course I cannot get a divorce, it isn’t thinkable.”
Dolly leaned back. “Then J.T. will be king.”
“Prince consort.” Aria waved her hand. “But I don’t understand why he’s so angry with me now.”
“Easy. Of course he never admitted it to Bill, but he’s afraid he’s falling in love with you. He thinks he has to turn you over to someone else and he doesn’t want it to hurt so much.”
“Perhaps I should tell him the marriage is permanent.”
Dolly’s mouth dropped open. “Tell a red-blooded American male that he’s been snookered? Bamboozled? Taken for a ride?”
“Not the done thing?”
Dolly laughed. “I think you ought to make him finish falling in love with you.”
“Wear low-cut dresses, feed him strawberries and wine?” Aria said, having no idea how to make a man fall in love with her.
“First you have to get his attention. You can wear a sexy dress to the Commander’s Ball.”
“For his mother,” Aria muttered.
Dolly laughed. “I heard she might be here. She’s some bigwig, isn’t she?”
“Enough that the manners of a royal princess are considered to need work to meet her.”
Dolly put her hand on Aria’s arm. “Every man is that way about his mother. Bill told me so many glowing stories about his mother that I was ready to worship at her feet. He constantly bragged about her cooking and he insisted that I beg and plead if necessary to get her fabulous recipes. So when we went to visit the first time I took along a pad and pencil to take notes. Some cook she was! You know how she made spaghetti sauce? Two cans of tomato soup and one can of tomato paste. It was ghastly. Her ‘famous’ turkey dressing consisted of nine slices of bread cut into cubes, a half cup of water, and an eighth of a teaspoon of sage. No onion, celery, or anything else. She stuffed it into the turkey and cooked the bird until it was so dry you could have used slices of the breast for powder puffs. Then the old biddy had the gall to ask me if I thought I was a good enough cook for her little boy.”
Aria’s eyes twinkled. “Count Julian’s mother curtsies to me and addresses me as Your Royal Highness.”
Dolly laughed. “A dream come true. I’d like to see Bill’s fat ol’ mother curtsy to me. Does she kiss your ring?”
“She touches her forehead to the back of my extended hand,” Aria said airily.
“That I’d like to see.”
“If I ever get home, you have an invitation.”
“Deal. Hey! How’d you like to go to a movie? There’s a matinee on today.”
“I would love it.”
The women had heaping plates full of shrimp salad for lunch and they drank most of a bottle of wine. They were laughing as they set off to walk to the movie theater.
Aria was smiling and laughing when she heard Dolly gasp. When she turned to look, Dolly placed herself in front of Aria. “Let’s go this way,” Dolly said. “The cannonball tree is in bloom. I hear it’s the only one on the island. It’s really very beautiful and—”
Aria stepped around Dolly to look across the street. J.T. sat at a tiny table at a cafe, a pretty redhead across from him. While she watched, he lifted the woman’s hand and kissed it.
“Yes, let’s see the cannonball tree,” Aria said, starting to walk briskly.
Dolly ran after her. “So what are you going to do?”
“A wife ignores her husband’s infidelities.”
“What!” Dolly grabbed Aria’s arm and halted her. “That may be the way in your country but that’s not American. You should have gone over there and snatched that floozy bald.”
“The woman? But what has she done? She merely accepted his invitation. Perhaps she doesn’t know that he’s married. It is Lieutenant Montgomery who has committed the wrong.”
“I never saw it like that, but I guess you’re right. So, anyway, what are you going to do to get him back?”