Виктория Холт - The Queen’s Husband

Albert put the ring on her finger – a little awkwardly perhaps and she had to help him along, but she loved him for his lack of poise. Dear, dear Albert! She would cherish him for ever more.

The ceremony was over. Victoria and Albert were married.

* * *

They drove back to the palace where the wedding breakfast and the guests awaited them, but before going to them they were alone together for a brief while, during which time she gave Albert a ring. He must wear it all his life, she told him, and they must never, never have any secrets from each other.

How tiresome, she added, that they must mingle with the guests.

‘But, dearest Albert, that will soon be over. Then we shall be on our way to Windsor.’

Windsor! he thought. Fresh air! The trees and the fields! He would feel well there; it was an ideal place in which to start their married life. He would show her, with the utmost tenderness, that although she was the Queen, she was his wife and a husband must be master in his own house.

‘Darling Albert, I know you love Windsor. So do I. It will be wonderful to spend a few days there before returning to my dear London. I never like to be away too long from my capital city. Other places seem a little dead when compared with it. And everyone of course is in London. They have to come to Windsor.’

A pained look crossed his face. What different tastes they had!

‘And when we get back to London there will be lots of celebrations. Everyone will expect it. Banquets and balls, I daresay.’ Her eyes sparkled at the thought.

He feared his dear little Victoria was very frivolous. But this was not the time perhaps to attempt to improve her.

* * *

‘Look,’ she cried, ‘there is the castle.’

‘Magnificent,’ said Albert with deep feeling.

‘Dear Albert, I am so glad you like it. It will be one of your homes now.’

‘It will be my favourite home,’ he said.

‘Because we shall spend our honeymoon there? Oh, Albert, what a delightful thought.’

‘That and because it is in such a beautiful setting. I hope we shall come here often.’

‘It is difficult of course when Parliament is sitting. You see, dear Albert, the Prime Minister cannot keep coming back and forth, nor can he stay at the Castle when there is so much business going on in the House.’

A gentle reminder that she was the Queen.

‘I hope I shall be of use to you,’ he said. ‘I should want you to consult me now and then.’

‘Dear Albert, you can be sure that if the need arose I should certainly do so.’

If the need arose! What did she mean by that? But he must not show irritation on his honeymoon.

They alighted from the carriage and Albert stood gazing in wonder. What splendid Gothic architecture!

‘The terraces were made for Queen Elizabeth,’ chattered Victoria.

‘Beautiful,’ murmured Albert. ‘Grand. Imposing!’ And he thought: How different from Rosenau, and he could not suppress a longing to be there.

‘Those are the private apartments looking east,’ explained Victoria. ‘The state apartments to the north and the visitors’ apartments to the south. But let us go in.’

The past seemed to envelop him as he went inside those thick stone walls, and as he did so he wondered what part he would play in the future. If he were King of this country, if this stately and glorious castle were his and he was introducing his bride to it, how proud and happy he would have been.

But he was the outsider; hers was the hand from which all blessings flowed. ‘Come, Albert,’ she was saying, ‘I will show you my castle.’

In the great banqueting hall Kings of the past had feasted. Here Henry VIII had knighted a sirloin of beef and sported with Anne Boleyn. He pictured them all, the long line of English sovereigns … mostly men but some female … Elizabeth who would allow no man to share her throne and Anne whose husband, stupid Prince George of Denmark, had been given £50,000 a year when he, Albert, had been considered worthy of only £30,000.

‘What are you thinking, Albert?’

‘Of all the Kings and Queens who have lived here.’

‘So you know our history.’

‘But of course.’

‘My clever Albert! But now the castle is mine.’

Mine! he noticed. Ours would have been so much more gracious.

They went to look at the suite which had been prepared for them.

‘The royal bedroom,’ she said with a blush and downcast eyes.

He went through to another room: ‘And this?’

‘My dressing-room.’

‘There is a door leading to another room.’ He opened it. It was a bedroom.

She was beside him. ‘Oh that,’ she said, ‘is dear Lehzen’s room. Hers is always next to mine.’

A cold fear touched him. Why should he be so apprehensive of that woman? She was only a governess.

‘That will be changed now,’ he said, trying to sound authoritative.

‘Oh, no,’ she replied lightly. ‘I could never permit that. Poor darling Lehzen would be broken-hearted. You see, dearest, her room was always next to mine. One could not change that sort of thing. It would be too unkind. Besides, I should not wish it.’

Her loving gaze belied the arrogance of her tone; but he knew the Queen was very close at that moment.

* * *

He left her and went down to the drawing-room. She was ecstatically happy. How adorable he was, and how beautiful! Lehzen had not yet arrived. She would be coming later in the evening, so it was not possible to pop in for a chat with her, which was a pity. She had asked dear Lord Melbourne to come down to Windsor the day after tomorrow. She never felt completely happy unless she knew that he was close.

In the meantime there was dear Albert.

How pale she looked. She was really exhausted; and she had not got over the feverish cold which to her – and everyone else’s – consternation had attacked her a week ago. She must be well for her wedding night. She threw off her tiredness and went down to the drawing-room.

Albert was seated at the piano, playing divinely and looking even more divine.

He stopped playing when she entered and rose to embrace her. What bliss, she thought. How I love dear Albert.

‘But, dearest Albert, I interrupted your playing and it was so wonderful.’

He continued to play.

Afterwards he came and sat on a footstool at her feet and they talked of the future. She told him how happy she was to have such a wonderful husband and that she had never spent such a happy evening in the whole of her life in spite of the fact that she could still feel the effects of her recent fever and had had such an exhausting time.

She must retire early, said Albert, and submissively she agreed.

* * *

They rose early next morning and before breakfast they took a walk in what Albert called the wonderful fresh air.

February air was indeed fresh, commented Victoria, but it did not matter because she glowed from the warmth of Albert’s love; and she told him that there was nowhere she would rather be than walking in the gardens at Windsor on a cold February morning with her dearest husband at her side.

She was so hungry, she told him; she was ready for a good breakfast.

Albert smiled indulgently and said she was like a child.

‘Don’t forget, Albert,’ she laughed. ‘I am three months older than you.’

‘No one would believe it,’ he said.

‘They know it.’ She was solemn suddenly. ‘That is one of the drawbacks of being royal. People know everything about one.’

‘Everything?’ he queried. ‘Isn’t my dearest Victoria inclined to exaggerate?’

‘I was not aware of it.’

‘Well your remark was not exactly truthful.’

She looked concerned. ‘And one must be truthful. I will remember in future. Thank you, Albert, for pointing it out. I see that you are going to be good for me.’

He loved her in that moment. All was going to be well. She was enchanting, his dear little wife. He had been overawed because of the manner in which those around her behaved to the Queen.

‘Come, my precious angel,’ she said, ‘let us go in to breakfast.’

Hand in hand they entered the castle, where an unpleasant surprise was awaiting Albert.

The Baroness Lehzen was seated at the breakfast table. She scarcely looked at the Prince; her eyes went at once to Victoria.

‘Good morning, dearest Daisy,’ said Victoria. Daisy! Her name was not Daisy. He had discovered all he could about this Lutheran pastor’s daughter and he knew that her name was Louise.

‘My precious love, how are you this morning?’

‘Oh, so happy, my dear.’

The Baroness gave a nod of approval. Then she said good morning to the Prince as though she had just become aware of him.

She poured Victoria’s coffee.

‘Just as you like it, my love.’

‘Oh, thank you, dear Lehzen.’

Lehzen handed Albert his coffee.

He was mortified and angry, but he could not show it. Their first breakfast the morning after their wedding day and the Baroness Lehzen had to share it with them!

On the third day after the wedding, the honeymoon was over and the Duchess of Kent arrived at Windsor accompanied by Albert’s brother and father.

Albert was delighted to see them; he felt that his father and brother would give him support; as for the Duchess, she made a special point of being gracious to him, telling him that she felt already that she had another son. Being indiscreet she hinted that Victoria was not the most grateful of daughters but that she had been led astray by a certain person – not very far from them at this moment, and indeed never very far from the Queen – and this was a matter of great grief to her.

Albert knew that the Duchess’s enemy was the Baroness Lehzen and he was beginning to regard that tiresome woman as his also, which made a bond between him and his mother-in-law.

The Duchess put her finger to her lips in a conspiratorial gesture when she told him this; and as they could talk in German, which came easier to the Duchess than English in spite of the years she had lived in England, they understood each other very well.

They were allies from the very beginning.

It seemed that the entire Court was soon invading the privacy of Windsor. Lord Melbourne arrived and the effect this had on Victoria was startling. If he had been her own father she could not have treated him with greater respect and affection. She called him her dear Prime Minister and affectionately Lord M; they were always talking together; and often she would be alone in one of the closets with him, or they would walk together in the gardens.

The Duchess told Albert confidentially that Victoria was rather impulsive and had become attached to Lord Melbourne as she was inclined to do with certain people. Perhaps Albert might suggest to her at some time that there was no need to be quite so friendly with any of her ministers.

In less than a week after the wedding Victoria and Albert were back in London. There were levees and receptions and Albert was beginning to feel more and more wretched every day.

Now that the glamour of the wedding was over the press was looking critically at Albert and unpleasant cartoons and lampoons were appearing each day. Some said that Albert had come over to help himself to English gold; others said the Queen was master in the house and the Prince merely there for one purpose.

There were even unpleasant and rather coarse sketches on the stage concerning the royal pair. One comment was that they were seen walking early in the morning following the bridal night, and this was not the way to provide the country with a Prince of Wales. But money was the main theme of these comments. The Coburgs had a reputation for easing themselves into the best positions in Europe. Albert was accused of being greedy, of trying to snatch the crown from Victoria’s head, of selling himself to the Queen of England for £30,000 a year which was a fortune to a man who had only £2,500.

It was humiliating. In his father’s kingdom it would not have been allowed.

‘We cannot interfere with the liberty of the press,’ Victoria told him. ‘Lord Melbourne is constantly saying this.’