In Nell’s house the Whigs gathered. Shaftesbury and Buckingham were excited. They believed that the country was behind them and that if they could bring about a general election they would have no difficulty in getting a majority.
Danby was nervous. He knew that, once Shaftesbury’s party was in power, it would be the end of his career. He was determined to avoid the dissolution of the present parliament at all cost.
Shaftesbury and Buckingham planned to bring this about. And Nell, believing that Danby was the one who was preventing the King from giving her the patent which would make her a Countess, and knowing that he was the friend of Louise, assured them that she supported them wholeheartedly. Nell believed that once Shaftesbury was in power he would make her a Countess.
She did not realize that, in demanding a new election, Shaftesbury and Buckingham were going against the King’s wishes, and that Charles’ great desire was to rule without a Parliament, as he believed the Divine Right intended a King to rule. It was ever Charles’ desire to put Parliament into recess, from which he only wished to call it when it was necessary for money to be voted into the exchequer.
Nell was awaiting the result of the meeting of Parliament and preparing for the banquet she would give that night. She believed that the diabolically clever Shaftesbury and the brilliant Buckingham would come back to her house to tell her how they had defeated Danby’s administration, and how there was to be a new election which would certainly give them a majority over the Court Party in both Houses.
Then, she thought, I shall be made a Countess. Charles wishes to do it. It is only Danby who, to please Fubbs, prevents him.
While she waited a visitor called. This was Elizabeth Barry, a young actress in whom my lord Rochester was interested. He had found a place for her on the stage and was helping her to make a great career. He had begged Nell to do all she could for Elizabeth, and Nell, who would have been ready to give a helping hand to any struggling actress, even if she had not been a friend of Rochester’s, had done so wholeheartedly.
Now Elizabeth was frightened.
“To tell the truth, Nell,” she said, “I am with child, and I know not what my lord will say.”
“Say! He will find great pleasure in the fact. All men think they are so fine that the hope of seeing a copy of themselves fills them with pleasure.”
“My lord hates ties, as you know. He might look upon this child as such.”
“Nay, acquaint him with the facts, Bess. They’ll delight him.”
“I understand him well,” said Elizabeth uneasily. “He likes to laugh. He says that a weeping woman is like a wet day in the country. He hates the country as much as he hates responsibility. I once heard him say to a dog who bit him: ‘I wish you were married and living in the country!’”
” ’Tis the way he has with words. He must ever say what he thinks to be clever, no matter whether he means it or not. Nay, Elizabeth, you should have no fear. He will love this child, and you the more for bearing it.”
“I would I could believe it.”
“I’ll see that he does,” said Nell fiercely. And Elizabeth believed she would, and was greatly comforted.
They talked of children then, and as Nell was discussing in detail her feelings and ailments while she was carrying my lord Burford and my lord Beauclerk, another visitor arrived. This was William Fanshawe, thin and poor, who held a small post at Court. He had married Lucy Water’s daughter, Mary, over whom the King had exercised some care, although he had refused to acknowledge the child as his own, since everyone was fully aware that she could not be.
“’Tis William Fanshawe,” said Nell. “He is proud because his wife is with child. He will boast and try to convince you that Mary was in fact the King’s daughter, I doubt not. It is the main subject of his discourse.”
William Fanshawe was ushered in.
“Why, Will,” cried Nell, “right glad I am to see you. And how fares your wife? Well, I trust, and happy with her belly.”
Fanshawe said that his wife was hoping the child would bear a resemblance to her royal father.
“’Tis to be hoped,” said Nell, “that the baby will not take so long to get born as her mother did.” This was a reference to the fact that Lucy Water’s daughter was born far more than nine months after Charles had left her mother. But Nell softened at once and offered a piece of friendly advice. “And Will, spend not too much on the christening but reserve yourself a little to buy new shoes that will not dirty my rooms, and mayhap a new periwig that I may not smell your stink two storys high.”
William took this in good part. He was delighted to be near one who was in such close touch with royalty.
But it was clear to Nell that he had not come merely to talk of his wife’s pregnancy, and that he had something to say to her which was not for Elizabeth’s ears.
So, finding some pretext for dismissing Elizabeth, she settled down to hear Fanshawe’s news.
“Your friends are committed to the Tower,” he said.
“What friends mean you?” asked Nell, aghast.
“Shaftesbury, Buckingham, Salisbury, and Wharton … the leaders of the Country Party.”
“Why so?”
“By the King’s orders.”
“Then he has been forced to this by Danby!”
“They argued that a year’s recess automatically dissolved a Parliament. They should have known that His Majesty would never agree that this was so, since it is His Majesty’s great desire that Parliament be in perpetual recess. The King was angry with them all. He fears, it seems, that the fact that they make such a statement may put it into the members’ heads to pass a law making a year’s recess a lawful reason for dissolution.”
“So … he has sent them to the Tower!”
“Nell, take care. You dabble in dangerous waters and you are being carried out of your depth.”
Nell shook her head. “My lord Buckingham is my good friend,” she said. “He was my good friend when I was an orange-girl. Should I fail to be his when he is a prisoner in the Tower?”
The King took time off from his troubles to enjoy a little domesticity with Nell. These were happy times, for Nell’s contentment was a pleasure to witness.
Charles took great delight in discussing their sons’ future. Ironically he copied Nell’s habit of referring to them by their full titles every time he addressed them or spoke of them to Nell.
“Nell, my lord Burford and my lord Beauclerk must receive an education due to their rank.”
Nell’s eyes sparkled with pleasure.
“Indeed yes. They must be educated. I would not like to see my lord Burford nor my lord Beauclerk suffer the tortures I do when called upon to handle a pen.”
“I promise you they shall not. You know, there is one place where they could receive the best education in the world—the Court of France.”
Nell’s expression changed. “Take them away from me, you mean?”
“They would merely go to France for a year or so. Then they would come back to you. They would come back proficient in all the graces of the noblemen you wish them to be.”
“But they wouldn’t be my boys anymore.”
“I thought you wished that they should be lords and dukes.”
“I do indeed; and forget not that you have promised they shall be. But why should they not be with their mother?”
“Because it is the custom for children of high rank to be brought up in the households of noblemen, Nell. Had I left Jemmy with his mother, he would never have been the young nobleman he is today.”
“Which might have been better for him and others. Mayhap then he would not have been strutting about as Prince Perkin.”
“You speak truth. I would not press this. It is a decision you must come to for yourself. Keep them with you if you wish it. But if you would have them take their place in the world beside others of their rank, then must they follow a similar course of education.”