The happy valley set

Chapter 7 - lavinia martingale

Lavinia was the daughter of a wealthy mill owner in the north. Nevertheless, she had attended the best public schools and then on to a finishing school in Switzerland. She may not come from the correct background, but she looked, behaved and sounded like she came from aristocratic stock.
She had married into an aristocratic family and then lived in Paris after the war. Her husband had been a captain in the cavalry and had been captured by the Germans before being shot. While her husband was at war, she'd had a rather sordid affair with a well known married man. She'd become pregnant by him and had to get rid of it before her husband found out.
Now she was out of the glare of the gossips, she wanted to find a new husband. She did not need money. She had plenty of her own that her first husband had left her. What she wanted was prestige. A man with a title. Xander fitted the description perfectly!
Lavinia was a fashionable, emancipated bleached blonde, with short skirts, bobbed hair and ruby red lips. She was a natural flirt and could always get her way when it came to men, whether they were married or not.
She found Xander to be a little melancholic. She knew exactly what he needed to boost his mood! It came all the way from South America, a little white powder called cocaine. It was perfectly safe. She showed him how to snort it up his nose with a narrow golden tube. It was perfectly legal to transport, import and use.
Within six months they were married.

They had a house built near lord Henry's estate. It came with a large chunk of land, but neither of them were interested in farming. They left it to the staff to do what they pleased with it. The house was designed to keep it cool, one storey high, built on stilts to prevent it getting flooded in the rainy season.
Lavinia saw to it that the rooms were decorated in the latest Paris fashions. The house was ideal for entertaining.
The drawing room had beautiful upholstery, a grand piano and a gramophone. The sofas could easily be pushed to one side and the rug rolled up to give ample room for dancing.
The dining room had a full sized bar for serving cocktails and there was room for eight to sit comfortably at the table. Ten at a squeeze.
Outside, there was a large verandah to relax in the shade on the swinging sofa overlooking the lawn.
It was a very modern house, with every modern convenience, but they still needed staff to see so their every whim.

Xander soon learned that Lavinia loved to have sex! She was adventurous too. He was more than happy to go along with her, especially when he had a nose full of drugs, but sometimes her ambitions were a little too adventurous for him and he had to let others fulfil her needs. He didn't mind her going off with someone else, especially when he was simply too exhausted to do it himself!