Mayfair, London, April 1921
"Helen, darling! So glad you could come!" Helen smiled and embraced her hostess fondly, the smell of gin filling her nostrils. The sound of a piano playing and the hubbub of chatter drifted down the hall.
"I always try to make time for old friends Audrey," Helen replied sweetly as she straightened up. "This is my good friend Nikola Tesla. Nikola this is Audrey Sacksville-West."
"Oh charmed I'm sure," Audrey gushed holding out her hand and smiling graciously although she didn't give any indication of recognising the name. Nikola pouted for a second but on meeting Helen's stern look put on his most charming smile and reached forward to kiss the back of her glove before straightening up.
"A pleasure," he drawled, giving Helen a sideways smirk and Audrey giggled inanely.
"I'm so very glad you could come. It feels like I've been working on these pieces forever, I'm just dying to show them off!" she told Helen excitedly.
"I'm sure they're wonderful," Helen replied, turning and pushing her arms out behind her back as Nikola peeled her coat from her shoulders. Audrey plucked it from his hands and shoved it to into the waiting arms of a maid in a lace apron who had appeared as if from nowhere behind her.
"Won't you come into the salon and we'll get you something to drink," Audrey asked, waving towards the door behind her, ash dropping from the end of the long cigarette holder in her hand. Nikola smiled and placed his hand on the small of Helen's back.
"Spiffing," he crooned sarcastically.
"Where ever do you find these people?" Nikola whispered into her ear a little while later. They were standing at the back of the gathered bodies as Audrey discussed primitivism in one of her paintings. Helen could not suppress a chuckle as she gesticulated melodramatically to the fawning acolytes and assorted bright young things seated before her.
"Her husband was great supporter of my work," Helen told him quietly, raising her glass to her lips and taking a long drink. "He made a fortune manufacturing scientific equipment before the war." Nikola nodded and turned his face back to the spectacle before them.
"And after?" he enquired, plucking a fresh glass of wine from a tray as one of the servants glided elegantly by.
"He was killed at Ypres," she told him in a flat tone, staring ahead and Nikola licked his lips and regarded her with a smirk.
"I see," he said after a moment. "So you kept up your courtship of the widow instead. You always were a very shrewd businesswoman Helen." She turned and glared at him.
"You don't have to make it sound so sordid, Nikola. Audrey might be a little..." she hesitated and let her gaze flick towards their hostess for a moment. "...whimsical but she's been very generous and she does a lot for women's suffrage besides."
Nikola chuckled. "Should I expect to have to carry one of those monstrosities all the way home then?" he asked, tilting his head towards the centre of the room as Audrey moved away from the portrait towards a somewhat avant-garde piece of sculpture.
"Oh really Nikola," Helen chastised and Nikola began to laugh heartily as her expression morphed from sour to saccharine and she raised her glass to the smiling face of their hostess, who beamed back at them in delight. Nikola took advantage of her distraction to slip his arm about her waist and squeezed her hip, smirking at the way she started at his touch. She glowered at him fiercely.
"Did I tell you you look beautiful tonight?" he said contritely and Helen shook her red hair out of her eyes and sipped her drink with a sceptical look on her face. Nikola grinned. "I'm not the only one who's noticed," he whispered conspiratorially in her ear and she looked up to see him gesture with his chin across the room. Helen turned her head to see a teenage boy gazing at her across the grand piano. When she caught his eye he turned away abruptly, staring ahead to watch Audrey intently as she described the influence of Native American totems on her sculpture. Nikola chuckled beside her.
