Africa—which he had visited—and its gardens of Eden clinging to the slopes of its mountains, limitless fresh, sweet food that came in harvests not once but two, three, four times a year, and wide-open plains where animals ran free, uncaged.
Within a few weeks Charles had filled the space that Euan had left open.
IN OCTOBER IT BECAME CLEAR that there was not much of the war left. Euan would soon be home. Idina had to consider the prospect of trying to rebuild a life with a man whom she loved but who might any day leave. During her years apart from Euan they had developed lives so separate that it was hard to imagine pulling them back together again. Like Euan, Idina could have simply drifted from lover to lover. But she feared the future, and what old age might bring. 6 Her paramours would cease to visit. Euan, if he hadn’t already left her for another wife, would be out at the latest social occasion or in some mistress’s arms, and with all that money, however advanced his years, he would never be short of either mistresses or would-be wives.
Idina had been scarred by Euan’s semi-disappearance. She felt that there was something very wrong about her husband being targeted by women who wanted not just to be close to him (which she could put up with), but to take him away from her altogether and marry him. However many lovers she would have in the years that followed, it was said of her that “she never stole other women’s husbands, but might pick them up if they were left lying around.” 7 To Idina “left lying around” would show itself to mean either sanctioned by their wives to sleep with whomever they chose, or abandoned by wives adventuring abroad. It would not mean husbands who were at a loose end while their wives were sick.
In the autumn of 1918 Idina was twenty-five. Her life had hardly begun, yet the life she had been planning with her husband appeared over. Twenty-five, however, was young enough to start again and, in theaftermath of a war that had broken both a continent and a generation, everyone who could was starting over, including several of Idina’s closest friends, among them Dorry Kennard and Rosita Forbes. These women were not retracing their steps to a time before the war in order to relive the same marital disharmony: they were setting off on great adventures and new lives. Marriage to a handsome, rich Cavalry officer had been Idina’s attempt to conform to the social norm of the day. It had also been a rebellion against her unconventional upbringing. Now, both convention and rebellion had failed her. After a fatherless childhood, she had been looking for a man who belonged to her. Euan clearly no longer did. And Idina’s instincts turned her toward the examples of her upbringing. Like her mother, she was not going to take second place in an unhappy marriage. And the blood of her globe-circling grandmother, Annie Brassey, ran deep in her veins. Right now, the lives led by Idina’s girlfriend explorers were more familiar territory to her than a loveless life with Euan. Somewhere there had to be a better life than this one, painfully married to a man she still loved but who no longer seemed to love her, in a country heavy with grief.
Idina’s friend the travel writer Rosita Forbes
Idina’s confidence, however, had been rocked by the failure of her marriage. She was not going to go abroad alone. She needed someone who loved her to come with her. There was Charles. And East Africa was now offering all former soldiers the chance to buy farms there. A farm would, again, offer Idina a life like the one she had grown up with.
Idina suggested to Charles that they go to Africa. 8 She had ten thousand pounds (the equivalent of a million today), which her mother had given her in her own name on her marriage to Euan. It was enough tobuy a farm and live off of it until, on three harvests a year, they could make it pay. And there they could live the English idyll that this terrible war had
Within a few weeks Charles had filled the space that Euan had left open.
IN OCTOBER IT BECAME CLEAR that there was not much of the war left. Euan would soon be home. Idina had to consider the prospect of trying to rebuild a life with a man whom she loved but who might any day leave. During her years apart from Euan they had developed lives so separate that it was hard to imagine pulling them back together again. Like Euan, Idina could have simply drifted from lover to lover. But she feared the future, and what old age might bring. 6 Her paramours would cease to visit. Euan, if he hadn’t already left her for another wife, would be out at the latest social occasion or in some mistress’s arms, and with all that money, however advanced his years, he would never be short of either mistresses or would-be wives.
Idina had been scarred by Euan’s semi-disappearance. She felt that there was something very wrong about her husband being targeted by women who wanted not just to be close to him (which she could put up with), but to take him away from her altogether and marry him. However many lovers she would have in the years that followed, it was said of her that “she never stole other women’s husbands, but might pick them up if they were left lying around.” 7 To Idina “left lying around” would show itself to mean either sanctioned by their wives to sleep with whomever they chose, or abandoned by wives adventuring abroad. It would not mean husbands who were at a loose end while their wives were sick.
In the autumn of 1918 Idina was twenty-five. Her life had hardly begun, yet the life she had been planning with her husband appeared over. Twenty-five, however, was young enough to start again and, in theaftermath of a war that had broken both a continent and a generation, everyone who could was starting over, including several of Idina’s closest friends, among them Dorry Kennard and Rosita Forbes. These women were not retracing their steps to a time before the war in order to relive the same marital disharmony: they were setting off on great adventures and new lives. Marriage to a handsome, rich Cavalry officer had been Idina’s attempt to conform to the social norm of the day. It had also been a rebellion against her unconventional upbringing. Now, both convention and rebellion had failed her. After a fatherless childhood, she had been looking for a man who belonged to her. Euan clearly no longer did. And Idina’s instincts turned her toward the examples of her upbringing. Like her mother, she was not going to take second place in an unhappy marriage. And the blood of her globe-circling grandmother, Annie Brassey, ran deep in her veins. Right now, the lives led by Idina’s girlfriend explorers were more familiar territory to her than a loveless life with Euan. Somewhere there had to be a better life than this one, painfully married to a man she still loved but who no longer seemed to love her, in a country heavy with grief.
Idina’s friend the travel writer Rosita Forbes
Idina’s confidence, however, had been rocked by the failure of her marriage. She was not going to go abroad alone. She needed someone who loved her to come with her. There was Charles. And East Africa was now offering all former soldiers the chance to buy farms there. A farm would, again, offer Idina a life like the one she had grown up with.
Idina suggested to Charles that they go to Africa. 8 She had ten thousand pounds (the equivalent of a million today), which her mother had given her in her own name on her marriage to Euan. It was enough tobuy a farm and live off of it until, on three harvests a year, they could make it pay. And there they could live the English idyll that this terrible war had
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