‘Impertinence!’ said the Duchess.
‘But you will accept the invitation. It is, after all, in the nature of a royal command.’
‘I shall accept, but there shall be no nonsense. If he behaves indecorously I shall simply retire and take my party with me.’
‘A ball at St James’s!’ Victoria was excited. ‘You will love it,’ she told the cousins. ‘The Queen gives such wonderful balls. She thinks of everything to please her guests. She gave me such a beautiful ball for my birthday.’
The amiable cousins said they were greatly looking forward to meeting their Majesties.
It was a ceremonial occasion and the King and Queen seated on gilt chairs received their guests under a canopy. They kept Victoria with them and the King asked her how she was enjoying this visit of her German cousins.
Victoria declared that she was enjoying it immensely. Her cousins were so amusing and so friendly; she was going to miss them sadly when they went home.
‘You ought to come and see your Cousin George. He is very interesting and amiable too.’
‘I know; and I love to be with him. And with my cousin George Cumberland. I daresay he needs cheering up.’
‘I will arrange some parties for you,’ said Adelaide.
Victoria was longing to dance but it seemed she was expected to sit with the King and Queen and talk; and just as she believed she was going to dance, the Duchess of Kent swept up and told their Majesties that the Kensington party was about to leave.
‘Oh, Mamma …’ began Victoria, but a look from the Duchess silenced her.
The Queen was too bewildered to speak, because the ball which had been given in honour of the visitors, had scarcely begun.
‘The Princes are so fatigued,’ said the Duchess. They have been to a review in the park this afternoon.’
‘But they look …’ began the Queen.
‘Fatigued,’ said the Duchess promptly, and Victoria was startled that Mamma could so interrupt the Queen.
Fortunately the King, busy talking to one of his naval friends, had not heard this; and the Queen who hated any form of conflict was trying to hide how surprised she was. If the Duchess was going to make trouble, she wished to pass over it as quickly as possible. She could not allow the King to be upset on such an occasion. There was enough whispering about him as it was, and people had not yet forgotten that scene at the Royal Academy.
‘So,’ said the Duchess firmly, ‘we must leave without delay.’
‘I should like the Princes to come and stay for a few days at Windsor,’ said the Queen. ‘You must make up a little party from Kensington.’
‘I’m afraid we cannot do that,’ said the Duchess. ‘They have engagements.’
‘But they are not going to leave us just yet?’
‘They have engagements for the whole of their stay,’ said the Duchess almost rudely.
The Queen said nothing; and the Princes at the Duchess’s request came up to say good-bye to the King and Queen before they left.
The King’s looks were black as he remarked audibly he was always glad to see the back of that woman. Adelaide behaved as though it was perfectly normal for guests of honour to leave a ball almost as soon as it was started, and the Kensington party went to their carriages.
Victoria was silent as they drove along.
What a disappointment! She glanced at the Duchess who was seated in the carriage beside her, her hands clasped in her lap looking as though she was a General and had just won an important battle.
The Duchess laughed hilariously when she and Sir John were alone.
‘That will show them how big a part I intend they shall play in our affairs.’
‘The Queen was docile, of course,’ mused Sir John. ‘But there is the King to consider.’
‘He’s half mad. He’ll be put away soon. He can’t stay around much longer. And then …’
‘Ah, and then …’ said Sir John smiling into her eyes.
‘They will be asking us again before long, you see, and then …’
‘And then we shall not be here.’
‘Oh?’ Her eyes were alight with speculation.
‘The Princes will want to see something of the country before they leave. What about a trip to the Isle of Wight? We could take the Emerald and have a very pleasant time.’
‘An excellent idea! And by the time their Majesties command us to come to St James’s, we shall not be at home.’
‘It is well that the Princes should realise Victoria’s standing in the country. We’ll have royal salutes fired on every possible occasion and we’ll fly the Royal Standard over the Emerald to let all know that the future Queen is on board.’
The Duchess was gleeful.
‘We’ll show their ridiculous Majesties what we think of them. How amusing … no matter how furious they become they can never shift Victoria from her position.’
‘As usual,’ said Sir John blandly, ‘you put your finger on the real issue. I often think how carefully we should have to tread if they had that power.’
‘But they have not. That is why we can do exactly as we want. And that, my dear Sir John, is what I intend to do.’
What a gloriously exciting morning! Victoria had been up since just after five o’clock, for they were leaving Kensington Palace at seven. The Duchess and Sir John had made hasty plans which were to be kept secret because the Duchess wished it not to be known that they were going away until they had gone.
‘How I shall love to be on the dear Emerald,’ said Victoria to Lehzen over breakfast. ‘I have been telling Alexander about it.’
Alexander was the favourite, thought Lehzen; she must report this to the Duchess. Or should she? She had served the Duchess well but she did deplore her friendship with Sir John, and Sir John was no friend to Lehzen, any more than he had been to poor Späth. Späth was happy enough now with Feodora and her children, but she did feel the break with Victoria sadly; and as for Lehzen, there was no one in the world whom she could love as she loved Victoria and to be separated from her … I would prefer death, thought Lehzen dispassionately, for she was not given to dramatising situations and the fact was that she sincerely would. And Sir John had tried to separate them.
What Lehzen wanted most of all was Victoria’s happiness; and if that was to be achieved her husband must be chosen with the greatest care. Victoria was inclined to love any member of her family with enthusiasm, and she was particularly attracted by young men, and when those young men took such pains to please her – for they were fully aware of what a prize might come to one of them – she was in a state of enchantment.
Victoria was affectionate by nature. She wanted to shower love on all those around her. In the last year there had been frequent visits to the opera and the ballet and the accounts Victoria gave of these in her Journal were ecstatic – one might say hyperbolic. She would describe in detail what the dancers and singers wore; she would write of their beauty; her delight in them was profound and she expressed it with the utmost frankness.
Her greatly beloved child was so spontaneous, so delighted by the world around her, thought Lehzen, that she was ready to fall in love with the first young man who was presented to her. It must be the right one. George Cambridge was a delightful boy but Lehzen thought that being brought up so near to Victoria had made her regard him as a brother. Poor George Cumberland since his accident had aroused her overwhelming pity and perhaps because of this had become a little more popular than Cambridge. But these glittering cousins with their precise German manners and their overwhelming ability to please had been taken right to her heart.