Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard Read Free Book Online

spent a privileged childhood in Brooklyn until the age of fifteen, when her mother, who had had enough of her husband’s serial infidelities, had moved to France, taking her three daughters with her. Even though Jerome, who had founded the American Jockey Club and briefly co-owned the New York Times , was famous for his flamboyant and conspicuous consumption, he had lost as many fortunes as he had made and could offer his daughters very little in the way of a dowry. He had, moreover, the type of reputation that made Americans take notice and Britons take flight.
    None of that had mattered to Randolph Churchill, however, the first time he laid eyes on Jennie. He had been in the middle of a conversation with the Prince of Wales during a ball aboard the royal yacht HMS Ariadne when Jennie, nineteen years old and wearing a white tulle dress with fresh flowers, her hair shining like a dark jewel, appeared at the door. Before she had even said a word, she had Randolph’s undivided attention, as well as that of every other person in the room.
    Jennie was well aware not only of her beauty, but of the power it gave her. She used it as both a weapon and a wand, breaking hearts and enthralling anyone who caught her eye. Even when Randolphwas still alive, there had been rumors of flirtations, possibly even affairs, but after his death she was openly surrounded by a legion of powerful older men and, to her sons’ dismay, handsome younger ones.
    She had had a friendship with the Prince of Wales that was so lasting and intimate that many believed her to be not just one of his many mistresses but his favorite. Because the prince was himself married, and had such a wandering eye that he was nicknamed Edward the Caresser, he did not much complain about Jennie’s dalliances. In fact, he had scolded her only twice: The first time was just a year earlier, when she had had an affair withMajor Caryl Ramsden, a man who was so strikingly handsome he was nicknamed Beauty and who was fourteen years her junior. “You had better have stuck to your old friends,” the prince had chided her after her very passionate and public breakup with Ramsden on a trip to Egypt. “Old friends are best!”
    Now, however, the prince’s reprimand was more severe because Jennie’s latest love affair was more serious, and more dangerous. Apparently determined to risk everything—the prince’s displeasure, her reputation, her sons’ happiness—she had fallen in love with a dashing young officer who was not only well known to Winston but only two weeks older than he was.
    Like Randolph, George Frederick Myddleton Cornwallis-West came from an aristocratic family and traveled in the same social circles as the Prince of Wales. In fact, one of Jennie’s few real rivals for the prince’s affection over the years had beenPatsy Cornwallis-West, George’s mother. There had even been rumors that George could be the prince’s son. None of which had added to the prince’s enthusiasm for Jennie’s choice of companion. “You are evidently up to your old game again,” he had written archly to her after finding out about her affair with George. “It is a pity that you have got yourself so talked about—& remember you are not 25!”
    Jennie, however, had never been interested in other people’s opinions about her life, even the prince’s, and she continued to do exactly as she liked. “I suppose you think I’m very foolish,” she had writtento a friend. “But I don’t care. I’m having such fun .” At forty-five years of age, she was as beautiful as she had been the day Randolph first saw her, and Winston, like every young man in her orbit, could not help but adore her. “She shone for me like the Evening Star,” he wrote. “I loved her dearly—but at a distance.”
    Over the years, Churchill’s mother had, on occasion, made life difficult for him, but she had also been extremely useful.At his insistence, she had charmed and coaxed everyone from the Duke