‘Of course she is very clever and her house is the meeting place for the Whig opposition. His Majesty won’t be too pleased to have her here, but it’s clear the Prince is delighted. And look … Oh, is she not beautiful! The tall one with the golden hair. I know who she is. Mrs Grace Elliott. There was a big scandal about her. I wonder the Queen allows her to come to Court.’
‘She is too tall,’ said Perdita.
‘Do you think so? They call her Dally the Tall. It’s because her name was Dalrymple before she married Mr Elliott … who divorced her, I might say.’
Perdita pursed her lips. Such a woman could mingle with guests while virtuous people must be seated in boxes!
‘Oh … look.’
Mrs Denton had no need to direct Perdita’s attention for she had already seen. The tall Mrs Elliott had selected two rosebuds from her corsage and had approached the Prince, curtsied and offered them to him.
‘What … blatant impudence!’
‘They say she is very free in her manners, but … at a public ball …!’
‘It is quite shocking.’
‘He’s taking them.’
‘He’s too chivalrous to do anything else.’
The Prince was standing smelling the rosebuds while Grace Elliott remained before him, smiling complacently. Then the Prince looked up at the box and caught Perdita’s eye.
He called to one of the members of his suite and handed the rosebuds to him.
‘What does it mean?’ twittered Mrs Denton.
Perdita was silent. It was a direct insult to her. This tall woman with the golden hair was telling her, and the Court, that she was ready to be – or already was – the friend of the Prince of Wales; and the fact that he had taken the flowers was almost an acknowledgement of this.
There was scratching on the door of the box.
Perdita did not look round; she felt too mortified.
Then a voice said: ‘Er … Mrs Robinson …’ And she saw the gentleman of the Prince’s suite to whom he had handed the flowers standing there in the box and holding in his hands the rosebuds.
‘With the compliments of His Royal Highness, Madam.’
Perdita felt almost hysterical with joy. She took the roses. She was well aware of the watching eyes. Dramatically, as though acting for an audience, she put the rosebuds into her corsage making sure that they were very prominent.
She sparkled. It was a successful ball. No matter that she must sit in a box while others danced with her lover. He had shown his regard for her publicly.
She was happier than she had been for some time.
The King and Queen were at Windsor – not so homely and comfortable as ‘dear little Kew’ but preferable to St James’s.
The Queen was pleasantly excited and the King was pleased to humour her.
She explained to him: ‘It is always pleasant to see people from one’s native land even though it has ceased to be one’s home.’
The King could see this point.
‘Herr von Hardenburg and his wife are charming people. I trust you will honour them with an audience.’
‘Pleased to, pleased to,’ said the King.
‘They have with them a young woman … about eighteen years of age. She is very pretty and of good family. I wish them to be comfortable during their stay here.’
Any such problem pleased the King. There was nothing he enjoyed more than planning domestic details. So he threw himself wholeheartedly into the matter and questioned and cross-questioned the Queen about the arrangements which had been made for the Hardenburgs.
She had asked that a house be found for them in Windsor; and she believed that they were very happy there. They had several small children and Fräulein von Busch, the young lady whom they had brought with them was such a pleasant creature … very handsome but modest; the Queen was sure that His Majesty would find her a pleasant change from some of these garish women who seemed to be considered so fashionable nowadays … women like the Duchesses of Cumberland and Devonshire …
‘Dabbling in politics,’ grumbled the King. ‘Never should be allowed. Women … in politics, eh I what?’
The Queen did not answer, but her resentment on that score was appeased a little. There were ways in which women could play their part in state affairs – for the amours of a Prince of Wales could be state affairs, witness the way he had fallen into the hands of Mr Fox – subtle ways; and because she was not pregnant she now had the time and energy to exert herself in her own particular brand of statescraft. And the King knew nothing about it. Comforting thought.
She suggested that they go for a drive and ordered the coachman which way to go. This took them past the house occupied by the Hardenburgs and as Frau von Hardenburg was in the garden with her children and swept a most demure and becoming curtsey, the Queen ordered the coachman to stop.
‘Would Your Majesty allow me to present these pleasant people to you?’
The King was happy that this should be so. Beaming with goodwill he even condescended to dismount and go into the house.
It was pleasant to talk in German again. Even the King spoke in it as though it were his native language. The Hardenburgs were delighted and honoured. The wife, the King noticed, was a very pretty woman indeed, and as for the children they were quite enchanting. The King sat down and took several of them on his knee, questioning them and smiling at their bright answers.
‘Charming, charming,’ he muttered.
And there was Fräulein von Busch. What a pleasant creature! Plump, pink and white, golden haired and so modest.
When the visit was over and they rode off the Queen was smiling complacently. As for the King he declared himself to have been enchanted.
‘Must make friends from Germany welcome. Very nice people. Homely … pleasant … eh, what?’
The Queen agreed that the Hardenburgs – and Fräulein von Busch – were indeed homely and pleasant and she could wish that there were more like them.
The Prince came down to Windsor. This was what the Queen had been waiting for. The King had gone to London on government matters, and she had taken advantage of his absence to summon the Prince.
Windsor, thought the Prince. What was there to do in Windsor? There was only one place to be and that was London.
He was bored; he could not think why his mother had sent for him.
Did she want to chatter to him of what a bonny baby he had been while she did her tatting or sewed for the poor (Pious Person in the Palace of Purity). If so he would return to London at the earliest possible moment. He would do that in any case.
‘You should drive with me,’ said the Queen.
‘For what purpose?’
‘Because the people would like to see us together.’
So he rode with her and the carriage stopped at the Hardenburgs’ house and there was Frau von Hardenburg in the garden making a pretty domestic scene with her children which would have delighted the King, but the Queen feared it would not make the same impression on the Prince of Wales.
‘I should like to present you to these visitors from Germany.’ She spoke quickly knowing that the Prince did not care to be reminded of his German ancestry.
The Prince was however extremely affable – and how charming he could be when he wished to!
He stepped down from the carriage and went into the house; and there was the enchanting Fräulein von Busch, flushing with her realization of the honour and looking so pretty and modest.
The Prince was clearly impressed. On the drive back he asked a great many questions about the Hardenburg ménage.
The Prince stayed at Windsor to make arrangements, was his excuse, for his birthday ball in August. He would be nineteen – only two years off his majority. In the last year he had changed considerably; in the next two years there would be more changes.