Виктория Холт - Indiscretions of the Queen

THE Court of Brunswick was preparing to celebrate the marriage of Princess Charlotte Georgiana Augusta to Frederick William, Prince of Würtemberg. The Princess was sixteen years old but quite ready for marriage, for life at the Court of Brunswick was free and easy; and both she and her sister, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, had never suffered the restrictions which were considered necessary in most royal courts. The girls had run wild, mixing with servants and villagers; and they already knew what obligations marriage entailed.

The Princess Caroline was in the schoolroom thinking about her sister’s marriage, wondering when there would be a similar occasion for her, and plaguing her governess, the Baroness de Bode, with questions.

‘Now, Baroness,’ she was saying, ‘whom do you think they will select for me?’

‘Your Highness knows that that day is some years distant.’

‘Some years?’ demanded Caroline. ‘But why, pray? If Charlotte can marry at sixteen, why not I?’

‘The Princess Charlotte is two years older than you.’

‘Two years? What is two years?’ Caroline narrowed her eyes and peered at her governess. ‘I should like you to know, Madam Baroness, that I am not lacking in experience.’

The Baroness gasped with horror, which made Caroline laugh. She is deliberately trying to shock me, thought the Baroness . Of course she is an innocent girl. Or is she? Oh, this family! They are all so— odd. Sometimes I wonder— And when I consider her brothers— Caroline watched her governess as she guessed the woman’s thoughts. She tossed back the long fair curls which hung over her shoulder and raised her light eyebrows; she was pretty and her figure was already well developed.

The Baroness thought : She has too much freedom. They all have too much freedom. ‘I beg of you,’ said the Baroness, ‘not to talk so freely.’

‘But I would be free. Why should I be caged— like a prisoner? I shall always be free. I shall do exactly what I want and when I have a husband— in two years time, because if Charlotte has one, why shouldn’t I— I shall see that he is aware of this.’

‘You talk in a most unbecoming manner.’

‘I say what I mean. Is there anything wrong with that?’

‘There could be a great deal. You should pray more.’

Caroline made a face. ‘Oh come, Baroness, everyone has a right to an opinion. You must admit that. I will never be anyone’s puppet. If I allowed myself to accept everything that I am told without reasoning I should be like a field that would not grow a single blade of grass. Have you always done everything that was expected of you? Have you always been so good?’

‘Indeed not. I fear I have often been wicked.’

‘Why?’

‘Why Your Highness, I suppose because an evil instinct impels me to do wrong.’

‘But why allow yourself to be impelled?’

‘I suppose because I could not overcome my bad nature.’

The Princess laughed aloud. Then you are like a piece of clay, Madam. That is all— a piece of clay, and therefore I do not think you are very wicked to allow yourself to be moulded.’

‘You must not think that whether we should be good or had does not rest with ourselves.’

‘But you have just said, Baroness, that you cannot help being bad. It is true.

We are all bad— very bad. But that was how we were created.’ She smiled mischievously. So you see, Baroness, it is no use your chiding me for this and that for I just cannot help it. I have no say in the matter. It is simply the way I was made.’

‘You talk too much.’

‘Of course,’ agreed Caroline. ‘Do I not do everything too much? But you will admit, Baroness, that it is better than not doing enough?’

‘You are determined to argue.’

‘And what better occupation? For how can we exercise our minds without arguments. But how did this start? Simply because I said that it will soon be my turn to have a husband.’

‘We cannot be sure—’

‘We can be sure of nothing in this world, you will tell me. But I am sure— about many things. I am sure it is good that Charlotte has a husband for she is the kind of girl who needs a husband— early.’

‘Your Highness!’

The Princess opened her eyes very wide and then laughed that rather wild laugh of hers which the Baroness always found a little alarming. And she added: ‘So am I.’

‘I hope—’ began the Baroness.

‘It is always good to hope,’ interrupted the Princess. ‘You even get what you hope for— sometimes.’ She shut the book on which they had been working with a final bang. ‘Now I really must go and fit on my dress. It must be ready for the wedding, must it not? We cannot have the bride’s sister— soon to be a bride herself perhaps— not looking her best. Who knows— there might be suitors for my hand at my sister’s wedding.’

She had gone, leaving the Baroness staring after her, asking herself if the Princess’s behaviour was a little more than odd. Or was it due to high spirits?

When one considered the others— one wondered.

From an upper window of the palace Caroline’s father Duke Charles William Ferdinand, saw his daughter cross the courtyard and come face to face with a young English boy who was being educated in Germany and living for a while at the Court of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

He watched the young man pause, bow deeply and stand gazing at Caroline.

A pretty picture, thought the Duke affectionately. In his eyes Caroline was charming; she was so full of vitality, so natural and very pleasing to the eye, with those long fair curls. She had grown in the last few months and it might have been a woman standing down there. After Charlotte was safely launched it would be Caroline’s turn.

Not yet, he thought. He would keep Caroline at home as long as he could. He had admitted to his mistress, Madame de Hertzfeldt, that Caroline was his favourite child.

She was obviously flirting with young John Thomas Stanley down there, but if she had known that her father was watching she would have been alarmed, for he was the one person of whom she was in awe. Sometimes he wished that it were not necessary to inspire fear in his children; but of course it was particularly so with children such as his.

He frowned and turned away from the window as Madame de Hertzfeldt came into the room.

Approaching him she slipped her arm through his. ‘You’re anxious,’ she said, and glancing out of the window saw Caroline in the courtyard with the English boy. ‘Yes,’ she went on. ‘It will be her turn next and perhaps we should not delay too long.’

Her face still seemed to him the most beautiful he had ever seen; it was many years since he had noticed her and fallen in love with her. He thought now, as he had thought so many times before, how different everything would have been if he could have married her.

‘Charlotte is happily settled,’ she reminded him, and drew him away from the window.

‘A good match,’ he admitted. ‘You think she will settle?’

‘Now that she has a husband, she is more likely to.’ She did not add that Charlotte’s passing from his care to a husband’s was a relief to them all; but he knew she thought this for there were no secrets between them.

Tall, stately, beautiful and dignified, devoted to him and the affairs of Brunswick she was in all but name his Queen. Their son was the boy he would have liked to be his heir. A soldier, handsome and, in his father’s eyes, noble in every way, already making a brilliant career for himself— and like his mother, serene. Oh, God, he thought, how he admired serenity! It was because of that taint which sometimes he thought had smeared all his legitimate children.