Виктория Холт - The Queen’s Husband

‘This is a great kingdom,’ he reminded them, ‘rather different from the little dukedoms of Germany, eh?’

He liked to walk with Albert and leave his wife to entertain Ernest, to Albert’s great relief for he would have hated to have been left to the mercy of a pretty young woman. Uncle Leopold talked at great length about his illnesses, and how his good friend Baron Stockmar had advised him to take this and that remedy. ‘Stockmar is in England just now but one day I want you to meet him. He was my doctor and then my adviser. Stockmar is a very clever man.’

‘Why is he in England now, Uncle?’

‘My dear sister, your aunt, the Duchess of Kent is there, and she needs as many friends as she can find to support and advise her. She is in a rather uneasy position at the moment. I should like to be there but my duty of course is here in the country which I govern. Stockmar tells me what is happening there. I must know this,’ he added roguishly, ‘because my dear niece, your cousin, is a very important little person over there.’

‘Uncle, is she the one I am going to marry?’

‘Yes. But it is a secret so far. A few are in my confidence, but we do not want it to spread too far.’

‘Does she know, Uncle Leopold?’

‘Not yet.’

‘Do you think she will want to marry me?’

‘When I tell her that I want her to, she will.’

‘I would rather she had chosen me without being told.’

‘That would have meant that she was somewhat bold. No, it is well that when she is told of my wishes she will want to obey them. That is her character. It is because she is sweetly docile that I love her. And that, my dearest Albert, is the quality I prize in all my little nieces and nephews.’

That was how the conversation went whenever they were together. Leopold would always bring it round to the little girl of Kensington. Albert wished that he could see her. Uncle Leopold’s description sounded delightful; but when he discussed the matter with Ernest, his rather cynical elder brother remarked that Uncle Leopold could be prejudiced in his descriptions of the young lady of Kensington; he believed that this was a common practice with royalty when marriages were being arranged.

Albert suggested that his brother might be jealous because he, Albert, had been chosen to marry a queen – if she became one. This made Ernest explode into laughter. No, he wanted no queens, thank you. He would make the right sort of marriage but that would not prevent his having ‘friends’ whenever and wherever he wished.

Leopold questioned Herr Florschütz closely about the boys’ studies. He said he would consult Baron Stockmar and plan out a schedule for their education.

‘Will our father agree to that?’ Ernest wondered when the boys were alone together.

‘Agree,’ cried Albert, ‘of course he’ll agree. Uncle Leopold is the most important man in Europe.’

‘He has bewitched you,’ said Ernest.

‘Bewitched! Who’s bewitched? Now you’re thinking of the grandmothers’ fairy stories.’

‘You do seem to think he is the most brilliant, magnificent, clever …’

‘Oh, shut up,’ said Albert. And then: ‘But he is.’

‘There, I told you so. No wonder Uncle Leopold loves you. You flatter him so innocently.’

‘How could one flatter innocently? Flattery in itself suggests something false.’

‘There you go, Herr Florschütz’s model pupil. No wonder Uncle Leopold decided you should have the prize.’

‘What prize?’

‘The Queen of England, idiot.’

* * *

The visit passed all too quickly for Albert. It had been a wonderful experience. The dream uncle of his childhood had taken on flesh and blood and was every bit as godlike as Albert remembered. The Court at Brussels was grand. ‘You should have seen that of my late father-in-law in England,’ Uncle Leopold told the boys. ‘I never liked him but he was considered to be very artistic. Carlton House was absolutely splendid and the Pavilion at Brighton – well, it had to be seen to be believed. Then of course he got to work on Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.’

‘It must have been very grand to be grander than Brussels,’ said Albert.

‘Ah, my boy, you have seen nothing of the world. We’ll change that. We’ve got to get you educated along the right lines. One of these days you must go with Stockmar on the Grand Tour.’

‘We should enjoy it,’ said Albert, underlining the fact that Ernest would be there too. ‘But I don’t think our father would be able to afford it.’

‘There are some things which it is false economy to go without,’ said Uncle Leopold.

So it seemed very likely that when the time came the boys would go on the Grand Tour.

‘Of course,’ said Uncle Leopold, ‘you are young as yet. Thirteen. Boys still. But another six years, eh? Time soon passes. Have no fear, I shall write to your father. It is very important that you should be prepared. Do you speak English, Albert?’

Albert said that English was not included in his studies.

‘An oversight,’ said Uncle Leopold, ‘which shall be remedied.’

How he enjoyed those talks with Uncle Leopold. He avoided Aunt Louise, because he felt embarrassed in her company. She was pretty and when Uncle Leopold was not there, inclined to be gay. His uncle did in fact have to reprove her on one occasion for making a joke.

What a good man Uncle Leopold was! thought Albert. When he grew up he hoped he would be a little like him.

It was an exciting visit and Albert enjoyed it thoroughly, except for the evenings, when Aunt Louise organised entertainments for them and Albert was hard put to it to hide the fact that he was almost asleep.

When at last it was time to say goodbye, Uncle Leopold embraced his younger nephew fondly. There was an understanding between them. Uncle Leopold was going to make sure that he was prepared for his future, which was to be the husband of the little girl in Kensington.

When they reached home it was to find that their father, after having been a widower for more than a year, had married the Princess Mary of Würtemberg.

* * *

Having a step-mother did not inconvenience the Princes in the least. After their return from Brussels they continued with life just as before, and as the Princess Mary of Würtemberg was amiable, more like an older sister, life was very pleasant. It was true that Albert was more aware of what was happening in England than he had been. When he heard that Queen Adelaide had ‘hopes’ he was downcast because he knew Uncle Leopold would be; and when those hopes came to nothing he rejoiced. There were periods when he was completely unconcerned by the future; that was when he was composing a new song, or when he and Ernest went off on one of their expeditions into the forest together; the ‘museum’ was growing and each exhibit held some particular memory for him. It was a pleasant, happy life and he had no desire to grow up. Mornings were spent in study, long afternoons out of doors: riding, fencing, shooting, walking and long nights of sleep. No one, commented Ernest, enjoyed sleep as much as Albert and he didn’t confine this state of somnolence to the night either. ‘I am constantly prodding you to wakefulness,’ complained Ernest.

Ernest laughed at his brother for his increasing solemnity and rather against his will Albert indulged in an occasional practical joke which was the only sort he could see any point in.

Once he and Ernest filled the cloak pockets of one of their father’s guests with soft cheese. This was a lady, which rendered the joke doubly hilarious in Albert’s eyes. They made a point of being in the cloakroom when she was helped into her cloak and had the satisfaction of seeing her plunge her hand into the mess in her pocket. Suspecting them, she had berated them angrily, and, while Albert remained regarding her with big reproachful eyes, Ernest was almost choking with laughter.

That was a period when they played practical jokes whenever they could think them out. Their indulgent step-mother told their father that it was a phase most boys went through and it was in a way a relief to see Albert slightly less of a model boy.

But Albert was really much happier at the more serious activities. He was developing a great dignity, and practical joking did not really fit in with this. Music was his most pleasant relaxation; he played the piano and organ with skill and composed a little; he had a good voice which he liked to air; he could draw and paint tolerably well; he was interested in science; he wrote a little and confided to Ernest he would like to write a book – a very serious one, on German thought and philosophy. In addition to all these intellectual achievements he could fence and give a good account of himself in forays with Ernest; he was a good swimmer, and could manage a horse with skill. The one exercise he did not enjoy was dancing – not so much going through the motions but because it usually meant touching hands with people of the opposite sex and as he said to Ernest there was something erotic in the procedure.

‘Now that,’ said Ernest with a chuckle, ‘is exactly what I like about it.’

His step-mother noticed that when he was introduced to ladies his manner was awkward.

‘Oh, that’ll pass,’ said his father. ‘He’s a boy yet.’

When Ernest was seventeen it was time for his confirmation and, said Herr Florschütz, Albert was so advanced, so serious in his inclinations and in every way as forward as his brother that there seemed no reason why he should not share in the ceremony.

So on Palm Sunday in the Chapel of the Palace at Coburg, the boys were catechised for an hour. Albert’s responses made a great impression on the spectators, and when asked if he would steadfastly uphold the Evangelical Church he answered in a resolute voice not simply the ‘Yes’ which was expected but added: ‘I and my brother are firmly resolved to remain faithful to the acknowledged truth.’

Albert at sixteen had indeed grown into a model Prince; and few in Coburg seemed to think that his lack of social graces was of great importance.

It was almost a year later when a letter arrived from England for Duke Ernest; when he had read it he summoned his sons and told them that he had had an invitation for them.

‘It is from your aunt, the Duchess of Kent, who asks me to take you both to visit her. There is also a letter from your Uncle Leopold. I suspect he has arranged the whole thing.’

Ernest was excited; Albert a little apprehensive. He knew what this invitation meant and he had to face the fact that he could not be young for ever. He was nearly seventeen, a marriageable age for royal people. Could this visit mean that the pleasant life he had led for so many years with Ernest as his companion was over?

There would be a great many preparations to make, said their father. Uncle Leopold did not want them to visit their English relations like paupers.

The forest had taken on a new beauty; Albert spent many happy hours examining the specimens in the ‘museum’ and recalling how they had come into his or Ernest’s possession.

‘To leave all this!’ he cried.

‘Childish relics,’ said Ernest. Albert looked at his brother sadly. If he himself was the more learned, the more serious of the two, Ernest was in a way the more grown-up. ‘Just think what this visit means,’ went on Ernest. ‘We shall see your little paragon of Kensington.’

Albert shivered. ‘Perhaps she will prefer you, Ernest.’

Ernest said he thought that very likely.

‘I am sure Cousin Feodore does, and she is half sister to the Kensington cousin.’

‘I think women do prefer you, Ernest.’

‘That’s because I’m far nicer to them than you are. You just try a little flattery and you’ll find they succumb at once to your beauty.’

‘That’s something I can never do.’

‘The trouble with you, Albert, is that you’re too solemn, and too good. Women like something a little wild and wicked.’

‘Then I think they are too stupid to bother with.’

‘And so they will go on preferring my pale cheeks to your pink ones and my wicked dark flashing eyes to your angelic blue.’

‘I wish we need not grow up. I’d like us to remain boys together like this for always.’

Ernest’s eyes rolled wickedly. ‘Ah, there are pleasures in adult life, Albert, of which you have yet to learn.’

Albert did not believe it and he was very uneasy.