Виктория Холт: Queen in waiting

The three girls were alone together in the Princess's robing chamber when Mary said: "We want to tell you something, Sophie. Molly and I are married."

Sophie did not answer and as she lowered her head and her lip trembled Mary and Molly began to understand.

"Is it Tony Lowther?" asked Mary.

Sophie nodded.

"How long?"

"Three months."

"You will have to be married ... secretly as we were."

"But..."

"You mean he won't."

Sophie nodded. "What am I going to do?" she asked.

"Tony Lowther will have to marry you. That's the only answer."

But Sophie only shook her head.

The two girls did what they could to comfort her; but there was no comforting Sophie.

Caroline was sorry for the girl. Poor silly little Sophie! She was an example of the folly of acting without thought. It was no use speaking to Lowther; he had left court knowing that pressure might be brought to bear on him; and would it be wise to force marriage on him? Even Sophie did not wish that.

Margaret Meadows went about with lips pursed and an air of 'I told you so'.

Poor heartbroken little Sophie!

Caroline sent for the girl.

"My poor child," she said, "I think you should leave the Court and go home."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"There at least you vill be far from gossip. I vill write to your family and tell them to be kind to you."

"Your Highness is good."

"I vish I could help you more. I suppose he promised to marry you?"

"Yes, Madam."

"You are not the first to be deceived by empty promises. Your ... indiscretion vill be a lesson to you. Take it to heart but try to make a new life for yourself. Profit from your misfortune, my tear, and try to be happy in the new life you vill surely make for yourself."

Sophie sank to her knees and kissed the Princess's hand.

A few days later she left court; and it was not long afterwards when Molly Lepel, her marriage no longer a secret, left the Princess's service to start a new life in the country.

My Court will not be the same without them, thought Caroline. And even Mary Bellenden has emerged as a married woman.

But she soon ceased to think about the affairs of her maids of honour for the time came for her child to be born and this time to her great joy it was a healthy boy whom she called William Augustus; and when she held him in her arms she believed that her ill luck had changed. This child would be her very own and no one would attempt to take him from her.

She was right. From the time of the child's birth she was happier. She would have more children and then it would seem as though she had another little family all her own. The King showed that he did not find her company distasteful. He would often sit dourly listening when she talked, but he seemed to enjoy her conversation as much as he enjoyed any.

When she heard from Lady Mary Wordey Montague that in Turkey smallpox was rendered harmless by making a small wound and infecting it with pus from a smallpox sore she was very interested. Lady Mary wrote that she had allowed her own son to be inoculated; and when her doctor, Charles Maitland, came to England Caroline sent for him and asked him to tell her more.

There was an outcry, for nothing the Princess did could pass unnoticed. Lady Mary was counted an unnatural mother; the doctors decried the practice as against God's Will.

Caroline pondered the matter. She was constantly afraid of the smallpox which had killed her mother; every other person in the street was marked by it; she herself had escaped lightly, through great good fortune; she learned that seventy-two people out of every thousand died of it.

She longed to make her own children secure against it but dared not take any risk.

She tried to talk to the Prince about it, but he was not really interested.

"Imagine," she said, "the benefit to the nation ... if ve could vipe out this terrible scourge."

"It vould be goot... very goot "

He thinks of nothing but his own vanities, she thought a little contemptuously, a little indulgently. Strangely enough as the years passed she was discovering that she would not have had him otherwise.

At the King's reception one evening she had an opportunity of speaking to the King. George was there. The Duchesses of Kendal and Darlington inevitably were in attendance, listening to music while some played cards.

Mary Bellenden was present with her husband and as they came in the Prince scowled at her and shook his finger; then he turned his back. It might have been comic but he was really angry with her for preferring his bedchamber groom to himself. Caroline was glad though that he had not dismissed John Campbell and confined his display of pique to a shake of the finger and a turn of the back.

Caroline took her place next to the King and talked awhile to the Duchess of Kendal who, she secretly thought, grew uglier every day.

Then she broached the subject of inoculation and told the King of Mary Wortley Montague's experiences. The Prince scowled when he heard the name of Mary Wortley Montague because she had attracted him and refused to become his mistress. It was bad enough to have the beautiful Bellenden there with her husband, biu to hear Caroline refer to another who had refused him was most irritating. He was surprised that Caroline should be so inconsiderate; she was not usually so. Then he realized that she was on her old hobby horse inoculation, so he ceased to be interested.

"If I were sure," she was saying to the King, "I should like to have the children innoculated."

George nodded.

"There would have to be more experiments first. I have talked to Maitland."

"Who is this Maitland?"

"The doctor who inoculated Lady Mary's son."

The King nodded.

"I think we should try these experiments. Suppose we took prisoners from Newgate ... those condemned to die in any case. Would Your Majesty agree that might be a good idea?"

The King nodded. "It is a good idea," he said.

That was all she needed.

The next day she summoned Maitland and the experiment began.

To Caroline's delight it was entirely successful.

"But we must be sure," she told Maitland, and six charity children were inoculated with equal success.

Caroline summoned Sir Hans Sloane for discussions with Maitland. As he was favourably impressed she allowed Amelia and Caroline to be inoculated.

When this was successful, many hurried to be inoculated . It became the fashion to be so treated.

Caroline was delighted. The battle against the deadly killer had begun.

Little more than a year after the birth of William Augustus, Caroline's daughter Mary was born. This was great happiness. She now had two healthy children and the fact that the older ones were not entirely hers gave her less anguish. She had a second little family which was a consolation.

Occasionally she was uneasy about her daughters whom she was sure lacked the training she would have given them. Anne was very haughty and she believed very ambitious; Amelia showed signs of beauty and was more amiable than her sister; Caroline, her namesake and favourite, was quiet and delicate, her health a constant source of anxiety. They need their mother, thought the Princess uneasily and often. But there was nothing more to be done. As for Frederick—little Fritzchen— he was now nearly seventeen, a man who kept a mistress. It was so long since she had seen him and although she had pined for him in those first years of separation, now she hardly ever gave him a thought.

How grateful she was therefore to have her dear little William Augustus and Mary—her own, entirely her own.

She was able to invite to her court those men of letters who interested her; she was able to read their works and discuss them with their authors. That was a great pleasure. She enjoyed both Pope's Ihad and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, and when she read Gulliver's Travels with its allusions to the political figures of the day—the Prince not excepted—she declared she must meet the author as soon as he arrived in London.