The notion, he realized dimly, was a reflection of his own nervousness. Simpson hated being nervous, and handled it with such a rigid external pose that the mind beneath was sometimes prone to mad flights of fancy. He could remember entering a stockholders meeting once, followed by the top officers of his corporation, to give a very pessimistic report. Entering the room and seeing the angry and gloomy faces of the stockholders, he’d had to choke down a sudden impulse to turn around, draw his gold-plated pen, and order the vice-president in charge of marketing to commit seppuku with it on the spot.
But . . . he hadn’t. He’d given the report, and weathered the storm which followed, with his usual wooden expression. The same expression had been on his face the next day, when he’d fired the incompetent jerk.
A little tug on his arm distracted him from the memory. “Why are they announcing us in French?” Mary whispered. “I didn’t think that had become the language of the courts until Louis XIV came along.”
Simpson shrugged. “No idea.” He listened to the babble of conversation filling the room. “Most people seem to be talking in German. Of some sort or another. I think. Hard to tell, as many dialects—”
“Monsieur L’Admiral! Et Madame Simpson! Enchanté!”
A very pretty woman in her late twenties or early thirties was advancing toward them, hands outstretched. The beaming smile on her face was echoed in fabric and embroidery by every single item of apparel she was wearing. From the top of her well-coiffed hair to the soles of her expensive-looking slippers, she positively radiated splendor and wealth.
The smile was supple as well as wide, somehow conveying great unexpected pleasure with I realize you have no idea who I am combined with don’t worry about it, I’ll get us through the awkward part.
Simpson remained stiff and wooden-faced. His wife Mary, on the other hand—one old pro instantly recognizing another—had a smile plastered on her face that was just as wide and just as supple. God knows who this is welded to but I’m sure we’ll get along soldered firmly to no sweat, dearie, give me a lob and I’ll get the volley started.
A moment later, the unknown woman and Mrs. Simpson were chattering away like magpies. In French, a language Simpson neither spoke nor had ever had any desire to learn. To his wife, French was the language of class and culture. Good taste personified. To Simpson, it was the tongue of a nation whose character—as any proper Pentagon-corridor-man could attest—was the very definition of “obnoxious” and “obstreperous.” He’d learned to speak reasonably passable simple German and Dutch in his NATO years. Useful languages, spoken by useful folk.
He felt a hand on his other arm, and swiveled his head. Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar was smiling up at him.
“Delighted you could come, Admiral,” said Wilhelm in his fluent English. “If I could tear you away from your wife for a moment . . . some gentlemen I’d like you to meet.” He gestured in the direction of an archway in the far corner of the huge room. “Like me, they find the din in here tiresome, so we’ve sequestered a smaller room for more civilized conversation.”
Before Simpson could even think of a response, Mary was saying: “By all means, John. You’ll be more comfortable there anyway.” The smile plastered on her face was as wide as ever. It would remain so, he knew, for the rest of the evening. Supple as always, of course, the variations would change as quickly as clouds passing through the sky. Right now the smile was radiating thank God I’m in civilized hands standing at attention next to and she’s got such a splendid volley with you’ll get underfoot, buster saluting smartly and get lost but don’t go far holding up the colors.
A moment later, Wilhelm was steering him toward the archway. Again, Simpson had to fight down an almost irrepressible urge. This time, to laugh uproariously. This was not the first time in his life, of course, that he’d seen this same maneuver carried out on the field of social battle. But he couldn’t ever recall seeing it handled so surely and effortlessly.