‘Sir,’ cried Miss Knight, ‘I beg of you tell me in what way I have failed?’
‘I am making no complaints, Miss Knight,’ he replied, ‘but I wish to make changes in my daughter’s household. You will agree that if I so wish it is a matter for me to decide without explanations. I should blame myself if I allowed the situation now existing at Warwick House to continue. Now I think there is no more to be said. If you have nowhere to go tonight, you may have a room at Carlton House.’
‘I fear, sir,’ said Miss Knight, ‘that that might put you to some inconvenience. My father served His Majesty the King for thirty years; he lost a fortune in that service and his health suffered considerably. It would be extraordinary if I could not put myself to a little inconvenience for the sake of my Sovereign.’
‘Very well, Miss Knight. You may leave us now.’
She curtsied and left the room.
This is the end, she thought. I have lost Charlotte now.
She would go to her; she would summon Mercer; they would discuss this and make some plan before she left Warwick House.
She ran to Charlotte’s room.
‘Where is the Princess?’ she demanded of a whitefaced, scared Louisa.
‘I don’t know. I saw her rushing out of the room like a mad thing. She put on a bonnet and shawl and sped past me.’
‘She can’t have left Warwick House.’ Cornelia felt as though her knees would not support her. ‘Where is Miss Elphinstone? Pray ask her to come to me at once.’
Mercer arrived. ‘What has happened? Is Charlotte still with her father?’
‘No, and we don’t know where she is. She put on a bonnet and shawl and ran out. She can’t have gone into the streets.’
‘I think I know where she has gone,’ said Mercer. ‘She has mentioned it often. She has been saying for the last few days that if her father were unkind to her or tried to force her to anything, she would go to her mother.’
‘She wouldn’t!’
‘In her present mood she would do anything.’
Mercer ran down the stairs summoning the servants. Had any of them seen the Princess?
They had seen someone in a bonnet and shawl running out of the house, someone who looked like the Princess Charlotte but clearly could not be.
And where did she go? Out of the house, into the streets!
‘Someone,’ said Mercer, ‘will have to tell the Regent.’
The Regent was talking to the Bishop when Mercer, with Cornelia, begged leave to enter. It was graciously given.
‘Your Highness,’ said Mercer, ‘I fear the Princess has left the house.’
‘Left?’ said the Regent. ‘Where can she have gone?’
‘I fear to her mother, Sir.’
The Regent smiled. ‘Then, of course, the world will know the type of person she is. No one will marry her now. She has ruined her reputation.’
There were tears in Mercer’s eyes. ‘I trust Your Highness does not blame me for this.’
His manners would not allow him to be unmoved by a lady’s tears so he said gently: ‘I am making no complaints, as I told Miss Knight. I have merely decided to act.’
The Bishop said: ‘Is it Your Highness’s wish that I and Miss Elphinstone should follow the Princess?’
‘It might be a wise thing to do.’
‘Perhaps Miss Knight would accompany us,’ suggested Mercer.
Miss Knight, fearing that she was at any moment going to disgrace herself by bursting into tears, could only think of placating the Regent. ‘I could not bear to enter that house.’ she said with a shudder.
The Prince Regent was looking a trifle bored. He said: ‘You must do what you will. I am due at a card party at the Duke of York’s.’
With that he left them. They stood bemused, listening to the sound of his carriage wheels as they faded into silence.
When Charlotte snatched up her shawl and bonnet there was one thought in her mind: she must go to her mother. There she would find refuge. She would wait to consult no one … not even Mercer. She must delay not one second for if she did it might be too late. Only her mother could save her from … prison, for that was what it would be. Cranbourne Lodge would be far worse than anything that had happened before. She had defied her father and she was sure that he would never allow that to happen again, if he could help it. But her mother would protect her. She ought to have gone to her long before.
She ran out into the street where she had never been alone before. What did people do when they wanted to get from one place to another? They took a hackney coach and there was one coming towards her now.
‘Stop!’ she cried. ‘Stop!’
The whip was held up to denote that the coach was free and a whiskered face was close to hers.
‘Hop in, lady, and where do you want to go?’
‘To Connaught House. Do you know the way?’
‘Connaught House. That’s the Princess of Wales’s place, that is. That’s where you want to go, is it?’
‘Oh, yes, please, and quickly. Can you hurry?’
‘Anything to please a lady.’
Up the Haymarket and on to Oxford Street. Charlotte looked out on the passing scene. What was happening now at Warwick House? What was her father saying? Had he discovered her flight? There would be storms. But never mind, she would be with her mother and she would not leave her. They would live together and have the people on their side.
‘Connaught House, lady.’
And praise to God, there she was.
What did one do? Pay the man? She had no money.
‘Wait a moment,’ she cried imperiously. One of the doormen was gaping at her.
‘Your Royal Highness …’
‘Blimey!’ said Mr Higgins the hackney coachman.
‘Pray give this man three guineas,’ said the Princess. ‘He has driven me here and deserves it.’
What an adventure! thought Mr Higgins. He would talk of this night for the rest of his life. And three guineas! She was a real princess, this one.
Charlotte went into Connaught House. ‘Pray take me to the Princess of Wales at once,’ she said.
‘Your Highness, the Princess left an hour ago for Blackheath.’
‘Then let someone ride there immediately and tell her that I am here. It is a matter of the utmost importance.’
A messenger was hastily despatched.
Mr Higgins was not the only one who believed this was going to be a night to remember.
The groom who had been despatched to Blackheath caught up with the Princess of Wales in her carriage, accompanied by Lady Charlotte Lindsay on the way to Blackheath.
She put her head out of the window and asked what brought him.
‘Madam,’ she was told, ‘the Princess Charlotte has run away from Warwick House and is at Connaught House. She has come to you for protection, she says. She sent me off immediately to tell you so and to beg you to return.’
The Princess of Wales chuckled.
‘Well, this will cause a bit of excitement in some quarters, I know,’ she said to Lady Charlotte. ‘Turn the horses,’ she commanded. ‘We’re galloping back to London with all speed.’
On the way she said: ‘We’d better have Brougham and Whitbread. Oh yes, we’d better have this done in the right manner. I’ll swear he’s champing with rage. So she has run away from him to me! It’s the best thing that’s happened for a long time.