Виктория Холт - Queen in waiting

Lying there, thinking of George Augustus, she came to new terms with her life. She would try to understand him, to help him conquer that feeling of inferiority which being smaller than most men had given him and which manifested itself in arrogance and apparent conceit.

Their destiny lay together. There should be no discord between them.

She must remember that in future. She must curb her impatience; she must try to give him the confidence he needed and perhaps she could do this by letting him know she valued him.

She would try to make him understand this when ... if he recovered.

If he recovered? She shivered at the possibility of his not doing so. And it was not only because of the uncertainty his death would place on her, for after all she was now the mother of little Fritzchen who was one of the heirs to Hanover and possibly the crown of England. No. It was not that. Could it be that she really had some affection for the little man?

The Prince's attack was a slight one and he soon came to Caroline's apartment in good spirits.

The need to go to war was temporarily forgotten; he had won his laurels for bravery in the sick room.

Caroline was still very weak having suffered a more severe attack and George Augustus was delighted to prove his great resistance to the disease, having taken it after and recovered sooner than his wife.

The Electress Sophia came to see them as soon as there was no danger in doing so.

She embraced them both and was delighted she said to see them well again.

"It has been a very anxious time," she told them. "The whole Court was plunged in melancholy, so fearful were they. The English were very disturbed. They think very highly of you both."

She looked at them proudly as though it were more commendable to please the English than to recover from an attack of the smallpox.

She was thinking that poor Caroline looked very wan. She will never again have that bright young beauty, that freshness, she thought. Although she has come through better than I expected; but the change is there.

As though reading her thoughts Caroline said: "You are thinking I have changed."

"Very little," answered the Electress. "And you have to get really well yet. You have had a very bad attack, remember."

"And do you think / have changed?" demanded George Augustus.

"You don't look as if you've had the pox at all," replied his grandmother. "The people might wonder whether some fleas had bitten your face."

George Augustus was examining his face at a mirror.

People would look at him and say: Have some fleas bitten his face? And the answer would be: No, he caught the smallpox, you know. He could have avoided it, but he would nurse his wife. He saved her life. Brave. I should say so! How many men or women would risk their lives like that!

His grandmother and wife watched him, understanding his thoughts.

They smiled.

Sophia said: "I am pleased to see you two so happy together."

George Augustus came and taking his wife's hand kissed it.

"I'd do the same again," he said.

It was a happy convalescence.

George Augustus was more contented than he had ever been.

He had a son; he had nursed his wife through the smallpox, had caught it himself, had recovered, and was training to go into the army.

He was a very loving husband.

Caroline became pregnant again and to George Augustus's great joy he was allowed to join Marlborough's army in Belgium.

George Lewis spoke to him before he left telling him that he was fortunate to be with the greatest captain in the world; and for the first time in their lives father and son seemed almost fond of each other.

With George Augustus away Caroline was able to spend a great deal of her time with the Electress Sophia and in the gardens of Herrenhausen they talked with Leibniz and other visitors to Hanover. It was almost like being in Lutzenburg again, for the little coldness which had sprung up between the old Electress and Caroline was over. There were so many English in Hanover now that it was known as Little England, and Sophia secretly called herself the Princess of Wales and longed for news from England that Queen Anne was no more.

They were happy days, for Caroline believed that his war experiences would give George Augustus maturity and that she might eventually learn to make a good life with him.

Fritzchen caused a little anxiety by not being able to walk; he was a pretty child but small for his age and backward.

When it was discovered however that he had rickets special care was taken of him and he began to show improvement.

As with Fritzchen, Caroline had miscalculated and when the time came for her child to be born nothing happened, but she remained calmly waiting. So pleasant it was to wander in the gardens of Herrenhausen; to stroll through the orangery while music was played for them and Leibniz talked to them; with George Augustus away and no one to reprimand her for talking like a scholar rather than a Princess, she was happier than she had been since the death of Sophia Charlotte.

Together they discussed the religious controversy which was taking place in France at the time between the Jesuits and the Jansenites and Caroline was in her clement in the centre of discussion, surprising them all with her knowledge for she had always possessed an extraordinarily retentive memory and remembered everything she read.

Those were happy days.

There came news from the battle front. Oudenarde had been won under Marlborough's command and George Augustus had distinguished himself by his bravery. At the head of the Hanoverian Dragoons he had led them to victory and although his horse had been shot under him, he had plunged into the thick of the fighting and to the admiration of all had proved himself as fine a soldier as his father.

The English at Hanover were talking about his bravery and Marlborough had written to the Elector congratulating him on the Prince's action. He had played his part in the great victory, said Marlborough.

Even George Lewis was pleased with his son ... for a time; then he realized that his success on the battlefield had made him a hero in the eyes of the English and as those at Hanover had already reported back to London that the Electoral Prince was more favourable to the English than the Elector, the old antagonism was as fierce as ever. Was his son trying to ingratiate himself with the English? wondered George Lewis. Was he hoping that they would want to pass over the father and take the son?

George Lewis had no great desire to accept the crown of England; but on the death of Anne and Sophia it would be his ... not his son's. George Augustus could only have it on his death.

George Augustus returned to Hanover flushed with triumph, ready to receive a hero's welcome. There were many ready to give it and he was content. For his father's grim disapproval he cared nothing; in fact he was glad of it. He had no wish for the hatred between them to be diminished. He revelled in his new popularity. The people of Hanover, he liked to believe, as well as the English, loved him better than his father.

There was his devoted wife, large with child. There was little Fritzchen shouting with glee at the sight of his brave Papa.

George Augustus had never been so happy in his life.

And on a dark November day Caroline's second child was born—a healthy girl.

"We will christen her Anne," said the Electress, "in compliment to the Queen of England."

Caroline agreed that this was an excellent idea and Anne of England graciously consented to be godmother to baby Anne of Hanover.

George Augustus who had to leave before the birth wrote of his joy in the event and in his wife who had given him so much happiness.

"This token of your love attaches me to you more deeply than ever. The peace of my life depends on knowing you are in good health and upon the conviction of your continued affection towards me. I shall endeavour to attract it by all imaginable love and passion and I shall never omit any way of showing you that no one could be more wholly yours, dear Caroline, than your George Augustus."

When she read that letter, holding her newly born child in her arms with little Fritzchen beside her, she told herself that she had passed through the dangerous years of marriage. She would know how to find happiness in the life that lay ahead.

The wagon trundled into the main square of Hanover and came to a stop before the inn. Among the passengers who alighted were a man and woman who were obviously foreigners, but in the last years there had been so many foreigners in Hanover—and particularly English—that little notice was paid to these two.

They were travel-stained and weary and seemed to have one thought: to provide themselves with food and a room for the night.

They followed other travellers into the inn where they were assigned a room and told that supper would be ready within an hour. The woman wrinkled her nose at the smell of sauerkraut, sausages and onions which came from the kitchens, as she and the man were conducted to a room.

As soon as the door shut on them, she threw back the hood of her cloak and taking the pins from her hair shook it out. It fell like a golden brown shawl about her shoulder and immediately transformed her into a beauty.

"My head aches," she said in a quiet voice.

The man nodded and took a bottle from his pocket. He drank deeply while she looked at him with contempt.

"Not too much, Henry/' she said. "We cannot afford any drunkenness now."

He scowled at her. "Nag! nag I nag I" he said. "What a life you lead me."

"If you'd listened to me/' she began.

"I know. I know. We shouldn't be in the state we are today. We should be at the Court of Good Queen Anne not trying out our fortunes here in Hanover."

"Don't forget we need all our wits."

"You won't let me."

"Henry, we can't afford to fail. We've got to consider very seriously where we go from here. If we're clever, if we can win the favour of these people, we'll go back home with them and it'll be our turn to hold high places at Court."

"Yes, and there are a hundred other people here with the same idea."

"We're in good time. If only we can bring ourselves to their notice. If only we can please them. But if you're going to drink yourself silly ... if you're going to drink away all the money we have..."

"Have we any money?"

"Scarcely any. I've got to think ... think seriously what we're going to do. We've got to get an introduction to the old Electress. If only I can get that we'll go forward from there. You only have to be English to please her, they say. And if we haven't money we have background ... both of us."

"Well, you're the clever one."

"I'll have to think. But I want your help, Henry. You've got to give me your help."

He sat down on the bed and regarded her gloomily. He was wondering why he had married her; she was wondering why she had married him.

Furiously she went to the mirror which was tarnished and mottled and threw ageing shadows on her face which momentarily alarmed her. That was how she would look in reality in a few years time if they continued to live this hole and corner life. She put up a hand to stroke her hair. It was magnificent. her greatest beauty and she was more than averagely good looking even without it. Her features were neat, her eyes very good, her smile most agreeable and her figure slender without being thin.

She was an attractive woman; and appearances were so useful.

At home in Norfolk they had expected her to make a good match, and so, they thought, she had; for it had seemed that the eldest daughter of Sir Henry Hobart had done very well in securing a son of the Earl of Suffolk. Of course Henry was only a third son and he had disgraced himself in his family before the marriage, which was why he was allowed to throw himself away on the daughter of a Norfolk baronet—only of course the Hobarts had not known that until after. He was a drunkard; he was immoral; he had an alarming temper which could at times be violent; and he had long before his marriage run through his own patrimony; therefore Henrietta Hobart with her dowry of six thousand pounds seemed an attractive proposition.

Henrietta soon realized the mistake. Often she wished she were back in her father's house in Norfolk, sitting under the apple tree or in the rose garden with her sisters talking of the men they would marry. The peace of a country mansion had often during the last few years seemed the most desirable thing in the world.