The Queen had dismissed the governess of her eldest girls and had decided that she would supervise their education. It was a little late now, Anne being nearly nineteen years old and even Caroline only four years younger. Oh, how angry she could become even now when she thought of the years that old monster George I had kept them from her. Still that was over now and she must make the best of it.

Here she had all her children under her care now. Even Frederick would have to come soon.

Not yet, she thought. The longer they kept him out of England the better.

She went to the nursery, for she had commanded the elder girls to be there with their little sisters and brother as she wished to talk to them all together.

When she entered the elder girls curtsied, but the young ones rushed at her and Anne looked on with haughty disapproval as young William claimed first attention.

She could never resist him. He was her favourite and she was touched by love and pride every time she saw him. Darling William, already Duke of Cumberland.

‘My darling!’ said Caroline fondly. ‘And you have been goot boy?’

‘He is never a good boy, Mamma,’ said Anne coldly. William swung round and ran at his sister preparing to pummel her.

‘I am a good boy. I am. I am. I am the best boy in the world, I tell you.’

‘Oh, William, William, that vill not do. Come here at vonce to Mamma.’

William stuck out his lower lip and grimaced at Anne before turning to his mother.

‘Now, you vill tell me how you are getting on with your lessons.’

‘I am very clever, Mamma.’

‘So he says,’ retorted Amelia.

‘No, no. It is Jenkin who says so.’

‘And you have been reading Mr Gay’s fables.’

William nodded, smiling at the memory of the fables. Anne interrupted by saying: ‘Mamma, what are we to wear for the coronation.’

‘Ah, the coronation! That is vy I have to you come. You vill all be taught your part and I know you vill do as you should. It vill be von great experience to see your father and me crowned. And I shall so proud of yen be.’

‘I shall be there!’ cried William.

‘And that,’ retorted Anne sourly, ‘will ensure the success of the occasion.’

William nodded gravely, believing this to be so, and his mother laughed.

Anne was so angry she could have slapped the spoilt child. The only thing that gave her satisfaction was that his arrogant little nose would soon be put out of joint. for surely Frederick would have to come home shortly. Then Master ‘William would learn that he was only a young brother. From the way he behaved now one would think he was the heir to the throne.

‘Mamma, shall we carry your train?’ asked Amelia. ‘Yes, my dear, you three eldest shall carry my train.’

‘I will carry it!‘ cried William.

The Queen laughed as though he had said something very clever.

‘You are too young,’ Anne told him. ‘And boys don’t carry trains.’

‘If I want to carry a train ...’ began William ominously. But Amelia interrupted: ‘Can three of us carry the train then, Mamma?’

‘Oh, yes. You three will carry it and you will be wearing your purple robes of states, with circlets on your heads.’

‘Not coronets?’ asked Anne, always anxious that no outward sign of royalty should be omitted.

‘No, dear. These vill be borne before you by three peers.’

Anne clasped her hands ecstatically. ‘Oh, how I wish that I were going to be crowned. Mamma, you must be the happiest woman in the world.’

‘I am happiest most to have my children vith me.’ ‘Shall I be crowned?’ asked William.

Anne laughed loudly. ‘You are not even Prince of Wales. It is the Prince of Wales who becomes the King. You were born a little too late, dear brother.’

‘Mamma, why was I born too late?’

Never was there such an arrogant six-year-old, thought Amelia. It was time brother Frederick came home if only to show Master William that although his mother spoilt him outrageously, he was not the most important member of the household.

‘My darling, these things vill be.’

The Queen was regretful. William himself could not have wished more heartily than she that he was the firstborn and therefore Prince of Wales.

‘But I don’t want them to be.’

‘And even William, Duke of Cumberland, can’t have everything he wants,’ replied Anne.

How sharp she is, how acid! thought the Queen. That must be corrected. And there was Amelia looking almost mannish although so good looking; and little Caroline stooping too much. Mary and Louisa were such babies, of course, but they seemed to be her very own because they had not been taken from her and she had always had charge of them. She feared that the quarrel with the late King had had a marked affect on her family.

She must correct their faults, but gently because she loved them tenderly and wanted to keep their love.

‘Soon,’ went on Anne, addressing William, ‘your brother will return and you will meet the Prince of Wales who will be the most important of us all.’

William looked questioningly at his mother who said: ‘I daresay your brother vill come to England in due course.’

‘Should he not be here for the coronation, Mamma?’ ‘That is impossible. He could not leave Hanover yet.’ ‘But when, Mamma, when?’ insisted Amelia.

‘That ve cannot yet say.’

The pleasure was spoilt. It was true he would have to come home. And she, his mother, had to admit that she didn’t want him. To her he would be as a stranger, a German stranger!

Perhaps she could get Walpole to help her contrive some scheme for keeping Frederick in Hanover. It was an idea. Frederick to remain as Elector of Hanover and William to be Prince of Wales. Even Walpole could never arrange that. Still, the longer they could keep Frederick in Hanover, the more hope there would be of making young William Prince of Wales.

She could not take her eyes from him—her beloved son. He was already a little man at six years old—very sure of what he wanted; and clever, too, if she could believe his most excellent tutor Jenkin Thomas Philipps who had published for William’s use his Essay Towards a Universal and Rational Grammarand Rules in English to Learn Latin.

‘Now,’ said the Queen, ‘I vant to hear from you all. How are you elder girls spending your time, eh? And you little ones must tell me how you are progressing with your lessons. ... Come Louisa, my dear.’ She lifted the three-year-old on to her lap. ‘And you too, Mary.’ Mary, a year older than Louisa, was overawed by the presence of her elder sisters who were almost strangers to her, and came shyly to her mother. But William was of course pushing for the first place.

The elder girls remained rather aloof—Anne haughtily, Amelia indifferently, and Caroline diffidently.

Oh dear, thought the Queen, how difficult this welding together of her family was proving! Every day her grudge against the late King seemed to deepen when she considered what his cruelty had done to her family.

If I had always had them under my care ... she thought.

She was determined to be a good mother, and good mothers were supposed to love all their children equally. At least they always swore they did. She could not help it if her gaze rested a little more lovingly on young William. After all he was her son.... There was Frederick, but she couldn’t count him.

She had tried calling him Fritzchen in her mind in the hope that it would help her return to the love she had once had for him; but it was no use. She did not know what he looked like, for a young man of twenty must look very different from a boy of seven. And to think he had been only seven when she had left him. Another thing to blame that wicked old monster for. He had parted a mother from her son and during thirteen years the longing for her child had been suppressed until, with the coming of other children, it had been stifled altogether.

What is the use of pretending? Caroline asked herself. I don’t care if I never see Frederick again.

But his name was on everyone’s lips. Even here in the nursery her children were talking about him.

When is Frederick coming home?

The question came between her and her peace of mind. She did not want Frederick and the reason was that she deeply regretted he was her firstborn; she wanted all the honours that would be his for her adorable, bright, and utterly spoilt six-year-old William.

‘At least,’ said Anne, ‘we shall be properly dressed for the coronation. Papa will not be allowed to be so mean as to stop that.’

‘Oh, Anne!’ cautioned the Princess Caroline.

‘It’s the truth,’ replied Amelia. ‘Papa hates parting with money. That is why we are all kept so poor. It’s not fair.’

‘He asked to see my accounts,’ complained Anne, ‘and when Mrs Powis brought them he said that the braid on my top coat was too wide and could have been half the width—thus saving money. Who would think we were princesses. We might be charity girls!’

‘Sometimes I think,’ said Amelia, ‘that it would have been better not to be so highly born. I am sure maids of honour enjoy a freer life than their mistresses. There is our mother, Queen of England, but not daring to speak her mind for fear she offends Papa.’

‘But he does all she tells him nevertheless.’

‘Without knowing it,’ said Amelia. ‘I think our father is not half as clever as he thinks himself.’

The elder girls began to laugh and Caroline looked a little shocked. ‘He is after all our father and the King.’

‘Dear Caroline! You always believe the best of everyone. For me I prefer rather to tell the truth than deceive myself.’ That was Amelia. She was kneeling on the window seat in a pose which her mother would have deplored, for it was not femininely graceful. She glanced down to the courtyard below and her manner changed; a smile touched her lips and she waved a greeting.

Anne was quickly beside her.

‘So ... you are flirting with Grafton.’

Amelia was still looking at the man on horseback whose dark handsome looks and physique made him outstanding.

‘I am acknowledging the greeting of Charles, Duke of Grafton,’ retorted Amelia tartly.

‘You know that is most unwise.’

‘I cannot see that it is unwise to give or return a greeting.’

‘Greeting! You know it is more than that. You know you have a fancy for him.’

‘You are inclined to thinkyouknow too much, sister.’

Caroline moved away to another window and stood there gazing out. She was always seeking to escape from her more forceful sisters who were constantly quarrelling. Quarrels were commonplace in this family. There had been the Great Quarrel between Grandfather and Papa—and now that was over minor ones were continually springing up between members of the family.

‘Who is Grafton?’ demanded Anne. ‘I think you forget that you are royal.’

‘It is as well that all of us don’t keep reminding everyone on every occasion of the fact,’ retorted Amelia. ‘And the Duke of Grafton is as royal as you are.’

‘His grandfather was a king, I know, since his father was the bastard of Barbara Villiers and Charles II. A very pleasant recommendation.’

‘They say he inherited his father’s brilliance and charm and his mother’s beauty,’ said Amelia.

‘And doubtless the immorality of both. For shame, Amelia! You know you are all but betrothed to the Crown Prince of Prussia.’

Amelia shivered. ‘I hope that I never have to make that marriage.’

Caroline drew farther into her corner, shivering slightly. She had heard stories of the terrible King of Prussia who beat his children, locked them up and starved them and then worked out how much he had saved by keeping them without food. He quarrelled constantly with his wife, their aunt Sophia Dorothea, tried to beat her too, and because that wasn’t possible contented himself by spitting into her food when it was a dish she especially fancied.

What a household for poor Amelia to enter l No wonder she thought longingly of staying in England and marrying a man who was as handsome and charming and daring as the Duke of Grafton.

Caroline was terrified of the day when she might have to go away. It wouldn’t bear thinking of. But they were growing old now and they were no longer merely the granddaughters of a king; they were the daughters of one; and that made a difference. Matches would be made for them and princesses always had to do what was expected of them.