She was filled with tenderness towards him. How I wish he would confide in me! she thought wistfully. Such a feeling man must have suffered greatly and still does; but he hides it all under that careless exterior. Oh what a wonderful man Lord Melbourne was!
Lady John gave birth to a little girl in late October.
Victoria received the message while she was having her breakfast.
‘Daisy!’ she cried. ‘Adelaide Russell has her baby. It’s a little girl, so she will be named after me. I shall go along to see her.’
But before Victoria could do this news was brought to the Palace that the Lady John was very weak and her life was in danger. Almost immediately after this message had been received, there came another.
Lady John was dead.
Victoria wept bitterly. ‘Oh, Daisy,’ she said, ‘it is so sad. They were so happy, and this happens. If she had not had the child she would be alive today. Child-bearing is cruel.’
‘It’s natural,’ said Lehzen.
‘But to die! She was too young to die … and all because of that.’
‘It is, alas, an everyday occurrence.’
The Queen nodded sadly: ‘An everyday occurrence,’ she said. ‘And now,’ she added briskly, ‘we must try and comfort Little Johnny.’
For days she could think of nothing but the death of Lady John. The ordeal of childbirth obsessed her. It was something she herself would have to face in due course – and that time perhaps not very far distant. They would bring her cousins over and she would be allowed to choose either Albert or Ernest, though she believed there were some people who would like to see her take her cousin, George Cambridge. Which I shall not do, she told herself vehemently. She had taken a great dislike to his mother, the Duchess, who had become over-friendly with her own mother recently. So the Cambridges had really taken sides in the Palace feud and the side they had taken was not the Queen’s. No, it would have to be Ernest or Albert, she supposed. That was what Uncle Leopold wanted; but of course Uncle Leopold could not dictate policy to her. Yet she would have to marry.
Albert or Ernest. Ernest or Albert. Albert had pleased her more than his brother when they had visited Kensington before her accession. He was very good-looking and she felt that she could guide him more easily because he was a few months younger than she was. Yes, she had been delighted with Albert at that time and had marriage been suggested then she believed she would have been quite ready to agree. But she had grown up in the last years. She had become a Queen; she had emerged from her prison; she had benefited from the tuition of dear Lord M.
Soon, however, this question of marriage would arise, and she faced the fact that it no longer pleased her. She did not want anyone to interfere with the very pleasant relationship which existed between her and her Prime Minister. She was quite content as she was. And after this terrible affair of Lady John Russell, did she look on marriage and all it meant with a certain apprehension?
She wrote to Uncle Leopold, because they corresponded as frequently as ever, but there was a different tone in her letters now of which he must be aware. She was too open to pretend and their relationship had changed since she had been obliged to tell him that he must not meddle in English affairs.
But this was a personal matter. He had liked Lord John.‘My dear Uncle,We have all been very much distressed by the melancholy and untimely death of poor Lady John Russell … it is a dreadful blow to him for he was so attached to her, and I don’t believe two people ever were happier together … He is dreadfully beat down by it, but struggles manfully against his grief which makes one pity him more … I had known her very well and liked her, and I assure you I was dreadfully shocked by it …’
Yes, she was dreadfully shocked; and she felt something more than the loss of a dear friend and pity for her husband and the children she was leaving. She was vaguely depressed. The pleasantest summer she had ever spent had passed away; and she was facing realities which did not look quite so pleasant to her.
I wish, she thought, that that summer could have gone on and on and never ended.
But she did not speak of her misgivings, even to Lord Melbourne.
Chapter VIII
THE HASTINGS SCANDAL
Christmas followed closely on the death of Lady John. Several of the ladies-in-waiting went home to their families to spend the holiday and one of those who left was Lady Flora Hastings, who had gone up to Scotland to stay at one of her family’s seats, Loudoun Castle.
Victoria had never recovered from the depression which had begun with the death of Lady John and she began to feel not so well and to worry about her health.
‘I am putting on a good deal of weight,’ she told Lord Melbourne.
‘Oh,’ he replied easily, ‘plump people are much more comfortable to be with than thin ones. “I like not these lean men”, said one of your ancestors, King Henry VIII to be precise.’
‘It was all very well for him. He was tall. I am too short to be fat. Oh, how I wish I could grow!’
‘Your small stature somehow lends you dignity which shows how naturally that very regal quality comes to you.’
‘It could be even more noticeable if I were a few inches taller. And I hate to be fat.’
‘You should eat less.’
‘I know, but I do like food.’
‘It is very often that we like the things which do us most harm. Don’t have your food so highly flavoured.’
‘I like it so.’
‘All Hanoverians are very fond of food. You take after your family.’
‘That’s what I’m afraid of. My grandfather went mad. Some said Uncle William really was.’
‘I remember the gamblers making bets,’ said Lord Melbourne. ‘Would he be in a straitjacket before he could get to the throne?’
‘And I believe it was hinted that even Uncle George …’
‘Good God,’ cried Lord Melbourne, ‘what are you suggesting? It’s madness … I mean folly. People go mad through worrying too much, so that is what you have to watch for. As for being fat … walk more, take exercise. That will do it. Then you need not cut down on the food you like.’
‘My feet get swollen when I walk.’
‘Then walk even more and they’ll get over it.’
‘Some members of my family have walked a great deal and they are fat. I am getting rather lazy. I never want to dress in fine clothes now.’
‘You must dress,’ said Lord Melbourne. ‘The people expect it. Besides dressing brushes up a woman.’
‘I don’t feel quite the same as I did.’
‘You became Queen. It was a great experience. You were exultant, excited. It is only natural that the excitement wears off, and there follows a certain depression. Soon you will throw that off and settle down. Then you will discover what a fine thing it is to be queen of a great country.’
‘I hope so. I hate to feel so lazy. Sometimes when I get up in the morning I don’t want even to brush my teeth. I feel angry about teeth. They are such a nuisance.’
‘Mrs Sheridan used to say that there were four commandments and that children should be brought up to obey them … and if they did all would be well. They were: Fear God; Honour the King; Obey Your Parents; and Brush Your Teeth.’
Victoria began to laugh. Then she thought of Mrs Sheridan, who must have been the mother of Caroline Norton, that woman with whom he was involved in divorce proceedings.
She thought: How I wish he would tell me something of his past life – that very colourful, exciting and, some would say, wicked past of his, which has made him such a fascinating person!