We headed toward Thor’s Cave, a limestone cave with a thirty-foot arch that could be seen for miles from the floor of the Manifold Valley. This natural formation was something I had wanted to see since I had first come to Derbyshire. When we finally pulled over, I watched as two hikers climbed the steep stone steps, and when the steps stopped, they had to claw their way into the opening of the cave. I looked at Michael and shook my head, but he wasn’t taking “no” for an answer.
The steps were no problem, but the next bit required that Michael cup his hands as if I was getting on a horse, and then I had to crawl to the cave’s mouth. Completely stripped of all dignity, I turned around to watch as Michael got a running start, and using the top step almost as a springboard, he took the last part in one giant leap.
“And there are some who say that once you are out of the Army, you never use the skills you learned in basic training,” he said, helping me to my feet.
“You’ll have a hard time convincing me that this is the usual way of getting into caves in the District,” I said, suspecting that even with the lack of maintenance during the war and tight budgets, it wasn’t necessary to crawl around on all fours or have the skills of an acrobat to tour the other caves.
“No, but this gives me a chance to impress you with my athletic prowess,” he said, showing off the muscles in his arms.
“And I’m sure I made an impression on you, too.”
“Oh, you have.” He extended his hand to help me up. I was shortly to find out that getting into the cave was the easy part. There was a stream running right down the middle of it. As a result, everything was wet. I kept slipping and sliding on the uneven rocks and falling against the steep limestone walls until I finally fell back right onto Michael, and we both went down. He rubbed his hands together as if he was some evil magician and said, “Everything is going according to plan,” and I burst out laughing, which didn’t help as I continued to grope my way forward. We finally made it to a huge opening that served as a window to the magnificent landscapes of the Peak District, now dressed in its autumn colors.
There was nothing in my experience to compare to the scene before me. I had never been to the American West with its wide open landscapes, and to be a witness to endless miles of rocky crags and lush valleys was a thrill for me. But all the while I was taking in the magnificent views, I felt as if Michael was looking at me and not at the peaks. When I turned around, I finally decided to ask him straight out if he had a girlfriend. “I am seeing someone who is serving in the Women’s RAF on Malta,” he said in a tone that was almost sad. “And you? Do you have a boyfriend?”
“Yes,” I lied. Michael had a girlfriend, and he was stationed on an island in the Mediterranean that was more than a thousand miles away from England. So it really didn’t matter whether or not I had a boyfriend. But on the train ride back to London, I couldn’t help but wonder what Michael would have said if I had said, “No.”
Chapter 6
Three weeks went by before I was able to return to Crofton Wood. It was Thanksgiving weekend in America, and thinking about my family gathered around a table, eating a turkey with all the trimmings, I was overwhelmed by a sense of being isolated from everything I cared about, and I didn’t want to be alone.
While Beth went riding, Jack and I headed toward Chatsworth, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Devonshire. Located near the Peak District, Chatsworth, with its 80,000 acres, was considered to be one of England’s great country manors. Looking at the house from a distance, I had to agree that if Jane Austen imagined Mr. Darcy living there, then she certainly had raised him very high indeed. But the scale of the mansion seemed all wrong for Elizabeth Bennet. I think she would have preferred Montclair.
Jack explained that in the early 1900s, when the 8th Duke of Devonshire had died, over a half million pounds in death taxes became due, a phenomenal amount of money. The family had to sell some of their book collection, including four Shakespeare folios, as well as properties from all over the country, to pay the debt, but they had managed to hang on to Chatsworth.
“I’m a Derbyshire man, and I don’t mind telling you that some of the most beautiful scenery in England is right here in the Peak District and at Chatsworth. This estate had thousands of visitors even in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Because the Devonshires were involved in politics, they hosted Public Day once a week when they were in residence, and the duke and duchess welcomed the visitors themselves. Some would be invited to stay for dinner, and they would help themselves to the port and get knackered. Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, wrote in her diary about drunks falling down the stairs and relieving themselves in the fireplace. In those days, politics was not for the timid.
“There’s an American connection to Chatsworth,” Jack said. “William Cavendish, the oldest son of the 10th Duke of Devonshire, or Billy Hartington as he was known to his friends, married an American, Kathleen Kennedy, the daughter of Joseph Kennedy, the Ambassador to the Court of St. James in the late 1930s. The couple hadn’t been married but a few months when Billy was killed by a German sniper. I understand her brother, John, is now a congressman from Massachusetts. When their love story hit the front pages, it got a lot of ink, a lot of it nasty, because ‘Kick’ Kennedy was an American and a Catholic, who was marrying into one of Britain’s great titled Protestant families. Oh, what a brouhaha their romance caused! To me, the whole thing was a storm in a teacup. What difference does it make if the two people get on? With all the blood spilled in the wars, people get upset about nonsense like that. Anyway, she’s still the Marchioness of Hartington until she remarries.
“The current duke and duchess aren’t living here at present, and I haven’t heard what their plans are for Chatsworth. Right now, it’s occupied by two housemaids, who keep it tidied up with the help of some of their friends. There are more than one hundred rooms in that house, so there’s a lot of tidying up to do.”
“Did the Laceys socialize with the Devonshires?”
“Yes. In fact, Will Lacey’s mother, Anne Devereaux, was a good friend of the most famous Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana Spencer, and named her daughter after her. I know Elizabeth relied heavily on Her Grace’s advice when she became mistress of Montclair. The duchess was several years older than Elizabeth and wrote her letter after letter telling her how to avoid the mistakes she had made when she had first married the duke.
“The next in line was Georgiana’s son, Harty Cavendish, the Bachelor Duke. For many years, the duke kept a beautiful mistress named ‘Skittles’ until she was pushed out by the Duchess of Manchester. Just about the time I was making my appearance in this world, that would be 1891, the Duke of Manchester died, freeing his widow to marry Harty, and she became the Duchess of Devonshire, making her a Double Duchess.”
“Did the Duke of Manchester ever find out about their affair?”
“It was never a secret.” Looking at my expression, Jack cautioned, “Maggie, when you are that high in society, you make your own rules. The most important ones are that you are always discreet, you don’t make a scene when the affair is over, and you never ask for a divorce. Divorces are messy things, and all your dirty laundry ends up in the newspapers. If you break those rules, you are cast out into the wilderness.”
I asked Jack if Montclair had visitors like Chatsworth did. “Not like Chatsworth,” Jack answered. “It’s one of England’s great country houses and is chockablock with art, including paintings by Rembrandt, Gainsborough, and Beth’s favorite, The Adoration of the Magi by Veronese. The cascade fountain alone was a major draw. It was quite a feat of engineering in its day, and as an engineer myself, I agree that it’s a mechanical masterpiece, much more interesting than family portraits of well-dressed people with little dogs lying at their masters’ feet.