Her father sent for her one day and all unsuspecting she went to him to find her mother present. The Duke looked very solemn; the Duchess was needing all the little restraint she possessed to prevent herself shouting the news to her daughter.
But it was the Duke’s place to acquaint his daughter with the news and this he did. ‘Caroline, I have something of great importance to tell you. I think it is very good news. I have a letter here from your uncle the King of England. The Prince of Wales is asking for your hand in marriage.’
‘The Prince of Wales!’ A great joy came to her. She thought: I am not too late then. I waited and now I have the biggest prize. ‘It is a great honour,’ said the Duke. ‘Of course, the Prince is your first cousin and this is an opportunity which I am sure you will not want to miss.’
‘Of course you will not want to miss it.’ The Duchess could contain her excitement no longer. ‘Think of it, Caroline, you’ll be the Queen of England.
Imagine it. You— Caroline— a Queen!’
‘Yes,’ said Caroline slowly, ‘if I married him I should one day be Queen of England.’
Her father looked at her almost fearfully. He laid a hand on her shoulder and looked into those eyes which could suddenly grow so wild. ‘I would never wish to be rid of you or to send you away,’ he said gently. ‘But if you wish to marry, daughter, you will never have an opportunity like this again.’
‘It’s true, Father,’ she said.
‘You realize it, do you not?’ cried the Duchess. ‘Oh, the Prince of Wales! My dear, dear nephew! The First Gentleman of Europe. I have heard that he is the most fascinating creature. And handsome— so handsome! Caroline, you are the luckiest of young women— and when you think that you will soon be twenty- seven. It is a God-given chance. I think I should write to my brother at once. I think there should be no delay. I think—’
‘Madam,’ said the Duke coldly, ‘it is Caroline who is to marry— not yourself.’
The Duchess opened her mouth to protest. It was humiliating— the way in which she was treated. And before her children too. He would never speak like that to the Hertzfeldt woman. Oh, no, her advice would be sought— and considered.
She flashed her husband a look of hatred, of which Caroline was acutely aware. It would be pleasant to get right away.
‘My dear,’ said the Duke, ‘you need time to consider.’
‘I have considered,’ said Caroline. ‘I will accept the Prince of Wales.’
The Duchess was clasping her hands in ecstasy. The Duke looked relieved. As for Caroline she stood very still, in a mood of rare calmness.
‘My child,’ said the Duke, ‘you have made a wise decision.’
She looked at him steadily and then threw herself into his arms. His sternness relaxed and he held her tightly. The Duchess looked on but she was not thinking of them; she was seeing the wedding preparations; the marriage; and she was exulting because this difficult daughter who had been such a trial to them was now going to be the Princess of Wales.
Caroline returned to her apartments and found there the Baroness de Bode who had realized that something of great importance was afoot and since she had seen the messengers from England, she guessed it might be an offer of marriage for the Princess.
Caroline said: ‘Well, you have come to hear the news.’
‘I trust it is good news.’
‘That,’ replied Caroline, ‘I shall not be able to tell you until I am on my deathbed.’
‘What does Your Highness mean?’
‘That only at the end of a marriage can one say whether it was good or bad.’
‘Marriage!’
‘Now do not look so surprised because you are not in the least. You guessed it was an offer, did you not?’
‘From England?’
‘How strange that everyone should be more excited about my wedding than I am.’
‘Pray tell me which of the sons of the King of England.’
‘The eldest, Madam. You should not be shouting questions at me in this manner. Rather you should be treating the future Princess of Wales and Queen of England with the greatest respect.’
‘Then it is indeed? Oh, what a great day this is!’
‘You are all to be relieved of the presence of your tiresome Princess.’
‘I did not mean that. I meant that it was an excellent prospect. Oh, Your Highness, you will— take care. You will always remember to profit from your past mistakes.’
The Princess regarded her governess slyly. ‘What is gone is gone,’ she said.
‘It will never return; and what is to come will come of itself, whatever I do.’
The Baroness was about to protest when Caroline held up her hand.
‘I want to be by myself to think,’ she said. ‘I have accepted the Prince of Wales whom I have never seen but of whom I have heard much. I have accepted him because I am so tired of my life at Brunswick.’
‘Your Highness—’
The Princess shook her head. ‘I am catching at the crown and sceptre as a drowning wretch catches at a straw.’
‘Do not speak so. It is dangerous— If it were to reach the Prince’s ears—’
‘The Prince of Wales.’ Caroline was laughing suddenly, the old wild laughter.
‘He has never seen me— yet he will take me for his wife. Don’t you think, Baroness, that his feelings about this marriage will be similar to mine?’
The Baroness was silent.
Caroline cried: ‘Don’t let us be so glum. This is a time for rejoicing. The Princess of Brunswick is now about to be betrothed to the Prince of Wales.’
Frederick, Duke of York, called on the Prince of Wales at Carlton House, where he was received in the Prince’s apartments overlooking St. James’s Park.
The Prince was elegantly clad in a coat of pearl grey, the diamond star flashing on his left breast; his buckskin breeches fitted tightly to his shapely if somewhat plump legs; his neck-cloth was a masterpiece of artistry of blue and grey tints worn in the fashion he himself had made because of a slight swelling in his neck; his abundant fair hair was frizzed and curled; his white shapely fingers were adorned not ostentatiously but noticeably with diamonds; and his entire person smelled of a delicately applied fragrance.
‘Now, Fred,’ said the Prince, ‘I want the truth. What is she like?’
Frederick thought back to those visits he had paid to the Brunswick Court, and tried to remember his cousin Caroline. Quite pretty, he had thought; he had not wanted to marry her, but would it have been such a tragedy? He could not have done worse than he had. When he thought of the woman with whom he had blithely entered into matrimony for, the same reason of course that George was compelled to contemplate it now— debts— any woman seemed attractive.
‘She’s a pretty creature, as far as I remember.’
‘Yet you might have married her and did not.’
‘Pray don’t talk to me about marriage— mine at least. It’s been a fiasco from start to finish.’
‘You seem to have arranged matters to your satisfaction, I notice.’
‘Merely by refusing to live with the creature.’
‘And since,’ said the Prince, ‘you have chosen to do this and there is therefore no hope of your marriage proving fruitful, I am forced to consider my obligations to the State.’
Frederick laughed. ‘You’ll admit, George, that it is your concern rather than mine.’
‘I thought one of you might have taken on the task.’
‘With a woman who turns the house into a zoo. I tell you this, George, Oatlands Park is no longer a human habitation. It’s one big cage of animals.