Mrs Udney’s malicious smile played about her lips. Dare she take Charlotte there one day? It was a bit risky, for she could lose her position if discovered.

‘Old Gillray is above, working away at his cartoons. I’ve seen him once. Such a quiet man, Your Highness – grey eyes and grey hair, but there is a sort of liveliness about him. You would never guess he could do such clever … wicked work.’

‘He is undoubtedly clever,’ said Charlotte.

‘Yes, yes. Look at this one.’

It was a picture of the King – looking quite ridiculous and yet somehow so exactly like her grandfather that there was no mistaking him. He was seated at a bench making buttons. There were rows of them on the bench and beneath the picture was written ‘The Royal Button Maker’. There was another of the King wearing leggings and with straw in his hair. It was called ‘Farmer George’. There was one of the King and Queen – the Queen wearing an apron and frying sprats while the King toasted muffins. This was ridiculing the humble way they liked to live.

‘They have some very wicked ones,’ said Mrs Udney with a laugh. ‘Miss Humphrey serves below with Betty Marshall who can’t stop giggling. They know me well. I’m a good customer.’

‘I wonder my grandfather does not send him to prison.’

‘Oh, we’d have all London up in arms and marching on St James’s if he did. No one would be allowed to lay a finger on Gillray. London would see to that. He makes the people laugh too much … and they like to laugh. Miss Humphrey thinks he’s a genius, which is not surprising, considering …’

‘Considering what?’

Mrs Udney winked.

‘She’s his … m … mistress?’ asked Charlotte.

Mrs Udney nodded significantly. ‘Well, you’ve got to know how your future subjects live, haven’t you? Your Highness would be surprised. It’s very respectable, mind. They’re as good as married. Betty Marshall told me one day that he and Miss Humphrey did start out for St James’s Church to get married and before they got there he got an idea for a cartoon and that made him change his mind. So they went back and things went on just as they had been.’

Charlotte was vitally interested and wanted to hear more about James Gillray and Miss Humphrey.

There was a great talent in his work, and he was very prolific. According to Mrs Udney, he had made not only a name for himself but a fortune.

Mrs Udney had brought an old cartoon with her of Mrs Fitzherbert and the Prince with Mr Fox and Mr Pitt which had been done soon after the Prince’s secret marriage to Mrs Fitzherbert. Pitt and Fox were both dead now but Charlotte knew a great deal about them. A study of politics was essential to her education and no study of English politics could be complete without these two illustrious names.

The cartoon was called ‘Dido Forsaken’ and it showed Mrs Fitzherbert – a good deal younger than she was today – standing on a pile of logs on the shore. A boat was sailing away from them and in it were Pitt, Fox and the Prince of Wales. From the Prince’s mouth came a bubble in which were written the words: ‘I never saw her in my life,’ and from Fox’s: ‘No, damme, never in his life.’

Charlotte was studying this intently when Dr Nott came in so quietly that neither she nor Mrs Udney heard him. This gave him the opportunity to see what it was they were so intent on and there spread on the table was not only ‘Dido Forsaken’ but ‘The Royal Farmer’ and ‘Button Maker’ and ‘Frying Sprats and Toasting Muffins’.

As he stared at them his face grew scarlet. He tried to speak but he could only splutter.

Then he turned to Mrs Udney and said in a voice cold with fury: ‘You will hear more of this.’

The entire household was discussing the trouble between Dr Nott and Mrs Udney. The Bishop arrived and was closeted for a long time with Dr Nott.

The general verdict was that Mrs Udney would receive orders to leave the household. Dr Nott had the Bishop on his side and everyone knew that Mrs Udney was a scandalmonger and that the subjects she discussed with the Princess were unsuitable.

Charlotte was dismayed. She discovered that although she admired Dr Nott she preferred the company of Mrs Udney. Dr Nott was a good man and he had been selected by the King and approved by the Prince of Wales because of his piety; his lectures on Religious Enthusiasm had brought him fame; but he was a bore.

Hourly everyone was waiting for Mrs Udney’s dismissal, and Charlotte was sorry for her.

‘I shall miss you if you go,’ she said.

They were both thinking of that mention in her will. ‘Nothing … for reasons.’ Things had changed since then and Charlotte had realized that Mrs Udney brought a great deal of amusement and enlightenment into her life.

‘Your Highness should not be made unhappy by the loss of your servants,’ said Mrs Udney.

‘Alas,’ replied the Princess. ‘I do not choose them.’

‘That old man is very sensitive. I believe he would go if he thought Your Highness was displeased with him.’

‘I am displeased with him.’

‘Perhaps he does not know it.’

‘Lady de Clifford is in a fret about this.’

‘Lady de Clifford is always in a fret about something, Your Highness.’

Charlotte went thoughtfully away and when she met Dr Nott she looked past him coldly to indicate that she blamed him for the trouble, and he was most upset.

All in the household thought the affair very strange for Dr Nott suddenly made up his mind that he wished to retire, that he did not believe he was suitable for the task which had been given him, and that he could be of greater service elsewhere in his chosen profession.

So Dr Nott went and the affair was suddenly over.

Mrs Udney was very amused and gratified by the way everything had turned out.

It was pleasant to think she could still make her little trips to Mr Gillray’s shop in St James’s where she could buy his latest prints and see how his life was progressing with Miss Humphrey.

Dr William Short was appointed to take Nott’s place and the Prince of Wales decided that as Charlotte was now thirteen it was time she learned something about the laws and the government of the country; so in addition to Dr Short, William Adam was sent to her to give her instruction. This was significant because Adam, lawyer and politician, had become Solicitor General and Attorney General to the Prince of Wales and Keeper of the Great Seal for the Duchy of Cornwall. He was a Whig and ardent admirer of the late Charles James Fox – although at one time they had fought a duel. Adam’s task was to make a Whig of Charlotte and this he found by no means difficult. Young and impressionable, she was charmed with Adam who was a man of very easy manners and personal attraction, though well advanced in his fifties. He won Charlotte’s affection immediately, for he was gay and kind; and he had recently lost his wife which made him at times attractively melancholy.

Charlotte was delighted by the change which had taken away poor old Dr Nott and put in his place this exciting personality, and it was through William Adam that Charlotte made an important friendship.

One day after she and Adam had had their lesson on parliamentary affairs, Adam mentioned his niece Margaret Mercer Elphinstone.

‘Mercer,’ he said, ‘we’ve always called her Mercer – has more personality than any woman I know. Mind you, she is a girl yet. Well, she would be some eight years older than Your Highness. But she is intelligent and forthright … indeed a young woman of great character. I think Your Highness would be interested in meeting her, so if at some time you will give me permission to present her …’

Charlotte thought everything that William Adam said was full of wisdom and she could scarcely wait to meet his niece.

So very soon Margaret Mercer Elphinstone was presented.

Charlotte was enchanted. Mercer had the most wonderful red hair; she was handsome and undeniably attractive; she was certainly forthright, poised and extremely knowledgeable of the world; she could talk politics with the utmost ease and it was obvious that William Adam had a respect for her opinions, and she was an ardent Whig.

The hour she spent with Charlotte passed all too quickly and when it was over Charlotte declared: ‘You must come and see me again. Please … when?’

Mercer replied coolly that when the Princess chose to command her she would come.

‘Command!’ cried Charlotte impetuously. ‘Let there be no talk of command. I want you to be my friend.’

There was no doubt that Mercer was pleased. She said she was glad of that because she had been hoping they would be true friends and between friends rank meant nothing.

‘I am so pleased you came,’ said Charlotte; and Mercer said she would call the next day.

Margaret Mercer Elphinstone was an exceedingly rich young woman; as the only child of Viscount Keith (whose sister William Adam had married) she was his heiress as well as her maternal grandfather’s; and because of her wealth she was pursued by suitors who, however, admired her as well as coveting her fortune.

Mercer opened a new world for Charlotte. Mercer attended balls and all kinds of functions where she had met interesting people. She had stories to tell of that wild and extraordinary young man Lord Byron who, Mercer confessed, had it in his mind to become one of her suitors. He was handsome, witty and had some deformity in his foot of which he was most ashamed. ‘I often wonder whether I should marry him,’ said Mercer. ‘I might be able to help him.’

‘Does he need help?’ Charlotte wanted to know eagerly. ‘He seems to be so sought after.’

‘Oh, everyone is amused and interested by him. But at the same time he is often melancholy. He will be a great poet one day and I am sure I could help him.’

Charlotte was equally sure Mercer would be able to; in fact there was nothing, according to Charlotte, that Mercer could not do.

She thought about Mercer constantly. She wanted to give her presents; when Mercer was absent she wrote long letters to her and could not be lured away from the writing table.

‘It has made all the difference to me,’ she declared, ‘to have a friend of my own.’ She quickly became passionately fond of Mercer; when Mercer was coming to see her she was filled with gaiety; when she went away she was melancholy.

She gave a ring to her friend in which she had had a message engraved stating her love for her friend and expressed the hope that Mercer would always keep it.

Mercer vowed she would and it would be a precious memento for the rest of her life; it would be a comfort if the day came when she was separated from Charlotte.

‘That day shall never come,’ declared Charlotte. ‘I shall see to that. When I am queen you shall be chief minister.’

That made Mercer laugh. Would they allow a woman to be that? she asked.

‘I am the one who shall make such decisions and I will have no one else.’

How pleasant it was to talk of the future. They also discussed the politics of the past; Mercer was widely informed on the Colonies question and she told how they would never have been lost if Fox had been in power. Fox was the greatest politician of the age and he had simply never had a chance to show his genius. Poor Lord North had vacillated – and the King with him – and so England had lost America. Mercer wanted to free the country from Tory influence, so Charlotte did too.

How exciting the world had become since she had known Mercer – and to think that she had once thought it the height of bliss to sit on a stool in Mr Richardson’s bakery and eat his buns!

Lady de Clifford reported the absorbing friendship to the Queen, who decided to speak to Charlotte.

‘Future rulers,’ said the Queen, ‘should never make particular friendships. People are apt to presume on such … they may be the best of people but the fact that one is going one day to be in a position of importance should make one very careful.’

What is the old Begum talking about? thought Charlotte.

‘Your great and only source of happiness comes from your father,’ went on the Queen. ‘You should not look for it in other directions until he advises you to do so.’

Now what did that mean? Until her father procured a man and said ‘Marry him’? She would not allow herself to be forced into that, Mercer believed in independence. ‘If you are weak people will impose on you,’ said Mercer. How right she was. How right she always was. And how adorable! The best friend in the world.