‘Yes? But it won’t be the same. I loved it here. This little house is so different from Carlton House and Windsor and Kew and the rest of them. It’s different from Montague House. It’s like a home … the sort of home I should like to live in sometimes. Perhaps I’d like to come to it when I felt sad. I have to learn to be a queen and so I suppose I need a palace for that. But I want to come and see you sometimes.’
‘Well, perhaps you will one day. These things happen and then after a while they are forgotten. You’ll come again perhaps and play with Minney.’
‘Minney is lucky … does she know it?’
‘I think she does.’
Charlotte stood up straight and said almost regally: ‘Goodbye, Mrs Fitzherbert.’
‘Let us say au revoir instead of goodbye.’
Charlotte held up her face to be kissed.
‘You are still my friend?’ she asked.
‘I’ll always be your friend,’ said Mrs Fitzherbert.
Oatlands
THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE was not exactly ill but she was now and then listless; her appetite was not so good as it had been; suddenly she would fly into a rage and although it was quickly over, Lady de Clifford thought she should report to the Queen that the Princess Charlotte’s health was not as good as it had been and it might well be that she needed a change of air.
The Queen consulted the King, who immediately began to worry.
‘The child should see her mother. It’s this she’s fretting for. Not natural, eh?’
‘I do not see what good her mother could do her. We cannot allow them to meet until this affair is settled. George said he was going to look through the evidence again. There is no doubt about it that that woman is leading a very immoral life at Montague House. It’s no place for the Princess.’
‘There was nothing proved against her. I think those people … those Douglases, or whatever their names are, were rogues.’
‘The sort of people with whom one would expect Caroline to be on friendly terms. No, the child cannot see her mother … not yet at any rate. That would be tantamount to receiving her at Court and that we cannot do. George would be very much against it.’
‘I’m not so sure,’ said the King with unusual firmness, ‘that I should be against it. I’m sure the woman means well. She’s all right. Not bad-looking. I can’t see why George can’t live with her. It’s what’s expected of us, eh, what?’
‘She is impossible. I can scarcely believe that she is a princess. She behaves like some low serving girl. No, with Charlotte’s temperament – which I fear she has inherited from her mother – it would be folly to bring them together.’
‘Something will have to be done about it soon. She’s got friends in the House. Canning’s one … Perceval’s another. They’ll be bringing the matter up, depend upon it. And then what are we going to do, eh, what?’
‘At least do our duty by the child until we are forced to do otherwise. The sea air would be good for her. I believe Bognor to be an excellent spot. I think I shall have inquiries made.’
‘There could be no harm in that, eh, what?’ said the King; and he was thinking of the Princess of Wales with her ready laughter and low-cut gowns, and free ways with all those men who had visited Montague House.
Nowadays, he thought, these young people! They don’t think of doing their duty. All they want is pleasure.
Then he thought of Sarah Lennox making hay in the gardens of Holland House as he rode past and how pretty she was, and how he had thought of nothing but Sarah Lennox for weeks, until he married a plain German princess and had turned from Sarah to do his duty.
We were different, he thought. Not like the young people nowadays. My sons for instance …
He must not think of them. When he did, he heard voices in his head and he thought he was going mad.
Let the Queen arrange what should be done about Charlotte. But he was not going to let her and George treat that poor woman too badly. A nice woman … in her way. If she had been sent over as his bride …
He looked at Charlotte’s plain face and her cold eyes and ugly mouth. He had never loved her, but she had done her duty and so had he.
Why couldn’t people be like they used to be?
It was decided that while plans were being made for Charlotte to spend a period by the sea, she should go and stay with the Duke and Duchess of York at Oatlands.
Charlotte was not displeased. Uncle Fred was her favourite uncle and his duchess, being eccentric in the extreme, interested her.
Life was certainly odd at Oatlands and Charlotte was far from bored; she shared to some extent the Duchess’s love of animals though she was not as fanatical about them. Still, a short stay at Oatlands could be a pleasure.
Merry Uncle Fred, having escorted Charlotte to his home, left her there with his wife while he went off to be with his latest mistress which Aunt Frederica did not mind in the least.
‘We live our own lives,’ she told Charlotte, treating her as an adult, which delighted the Princess. ‘It is a way wise people come to in time.’
The Duchess was as good as her word for she allowed Charlotte to follow her own inclination, too. To live at Oatlands was more like living in a zoo than in a royal palace; and as long as her animals were happy Frederica cared about little else. It was not unusual for Charlotte to awake in the morning to find a monkey swinging on her bedcurtains. The dogs were innumerable for there were many strays who had found their way into Frederica’s haven. There were also rabbits, hares and birds; for if she found any animal that was unable to fend for itself it was brought to Oatlands to be healed by her and then allowed to go free or make its home there. No animal was ever turned away; cats, dogs, monkeys, rabbits and squirrels lived in the park or the house, whichever they preferred.
And because her animals liked Charlotte, and Charlotte liked them, Frederica was fond of Charlotte.
It was a solace therefore to be here – far away from Grandmamma’s ill temper and constant criticism, from the people who had spoilt her friendship with Mrs Fitzherbert, and she knew that her father would not call at Oatlands; he disliked his sister-in-law and the smell of the animals would have offended his delicate nostrils. So there was no danger of any startling controversy. One could live the quiet country life: a few lessons with docile Dr Nott, walking with the dogs, riding with the horses and talking to the Duchess.
Charlotte found that she enjoyed talking to the Duchess as much as playing with the animals. She may have been looking for someone to take the place of Mrs Fitzherbert, and if Aunt Frederica was an odd substitute and Charlotte could not imagine her ever pleading for her with the Prince of Wales, she was sympathetic and seemed to understand that what Charlotte wanted was to live simply for a while.
Oatlands itself was an interesting place. Situated at Walton, it was close to the river Thames and Henry VIII had built it as a pleasure house. Queen Elizabeth had lived here. That made it very exciting for Charlotte – only it was not the same building, for that had been burned down more than ten years before. The Duchess had told her about the night of the fire.
‘The Duke your uncle, was fighting in Flanders, and my servants woke me. I smelt the smoke … and then I heard the crackle of fire. It was a wonder we were not all burned in our beds.’
Charlotte listened and thought of the gatehouse and battlemented towers ablaze. She had seen a picture of Oatlands as it had been when Queen Elizabeth had lived there. There had been two quadrangle courts, the principal of which had a machicolated gatehouse at each end; there were magnificent bay windows and turrets; and in the paddock Queen Elizabeth used to shoot with her crossbow. What a pity that it had all been burned down, and Uncle Fred had had to build the present Oatlands in its place!