The empress of ice cream

Carlo

There is no fruit so sweet it cannot be improved by being made into an ice. I have been fortunate to create eaux^lacees from the rarest fruits, and can say that they freeze as well as, or even better than, the common fruits of the orchard.

The Book of Ices

I was summoned to a meeting with Lord Arlington - not at his house, where Louise was staying, but at the postal office I had visited before. Once again Cassell escorted me there.

‘So,’ Arhngton began. ‘The king declines your ices. It is not the best of starts.’

I shrugged. It was hardly my fault if the king would not eat.

‘Perhaps he will feel differently if his sister is invoked.’ That from Walsingham.

Arlington’s eyes narrowed. ‘Go on.’

‘Just as we hoped, he seems to be quite taken with Mademoiselle Car well. Perhaps—’ :

‘De Keroualle,’ I said automatically.

Walsingham paused. ‘I’m sorry!*’

‘Her name is pronounced “De Keroualle”. Not “Carwell”.’

Walsingham nodded politely. ‘He seems quite taken with the girl. Perhaps if she were to offer him an ice, and say it was his sister’s favourite . . .’

‘Good.’ Arlington turned to me. ‘What was itf

‘What was what.^’

He frowned at my slowness. ‘His sister’s favourite ice.’

‘Oh.’ I shrugged again. ‘She didn’t have one. She drank chicory cordial, for her digestion.’

‘Then make one up,’ Arlington said. He made a dismissive gesture. ‘Anything will do. After all, the ice is not important. It is merely a means to an end.’

‘But let it be something special,’ Walsingham suggested. ‘He is less likely to refuse it if he knows it is a rarity.’

‘One of those fancy fruits Louis of France so admires,’ Arlington agreed.

I said hesitandy, ‘That would be a pineapple.’

There was a brief silence.

‘Pineapple!’ Arlington said. ‘You do realise what you are asking for?’

‘I do. But if you want something truly tempting, something that the King of France himself would prize as remarkable, at this time of year it must be a pineapple.’

I knew, of course, that even in France a single pineapple cost almost as much as a new coach. Here in England, they would doubtless be even more expensive. But they were the epitome of aristocratic luxury. Louis’s courtiers built heated pineries at their country estates where the fruit - which was imported from the colonies on the tree, roots and all - could be replanted under glass and ripened. Lesser people hired ripe pineapples by the day at enormous expense, just to adorn their tables and perfume their dining rooms, while only the very wealthy could afford to actually eat one.

‘The Earl of Devon has a pinery at Powderham Castle, of which he is inordinately proud,’ Walsingham said hesitantly. ‘Last year, I believe, he boasted of producing four or five fruits.’

‘Then he had better be inordinately proud to have his pineapples made into an ice and presented to the king,’ Arlington said. ‘I will speak to him.’ He got to his feet. It was clear that the meeting was at an end.

I said, ‘There is one other thing I am still confused about.’

‘What is it?’ Arlington asked.

‘The girl - Mademoiselle de Keroualle. How do you know that she will play her part?’

‘Oh, "that.’ Arlington gave me an amused look. ‘We are not completely backward in such matters here, you know. It is already being taken care of. The information you gave us about her was most useful in that respect.’

I could not remember having given them any information about Louise that could possibly be of use, other than that she was not the kind of woman who would go along with their scheme. But they were already gathering their papers, and I had no opportunity to ask any more questions.

I went back to Vauxhall still thinking about Arlington’s words. So Louise had, it seemed, agreed to go along with their plans. All those protestations of virtue, back in France, had been so much empty air, cast aside in her eagerness to bed a king.

It was as Olympe had said: all women are for sale. Which was not, in itself, a particularly startling discovery - indeed, it was almost self-evident. So why did I find myself almost disappointed in Louise de Keroualle? After all, it was to my advantage that she understood what was required of her. I could not return to France until our mission was achieved, and as things stood it was likely to be her, rather than myself, who was going to be the ,instrument of our success.