Queen in Waiting: (Georgian Series) (4 page)

She kept well out of the way of her stepfather whom she regarded as an ogre and he naturally never noticed her absence; in fact he had forgotten her existence and only remembered it when, on those rare occasions when he was in the presence of his wife, he wanted to taunt her with her uselessness; and those occasions were growing less for she bored him so much that he found no pleasure even in quarrelling with her.

Caroline found little enjoyment in her mother’s company either for Eleanor was in such a state of nervous tension that she could not pay much attention to her daughter; her mind was dominated by her own depressing situation and as she did not believe she could discuss this with her daughter had nothing to say to her.

A whole year had gone by since Caroline’s arrival at Dresden, but she felt more than a year older. Nine years old, but very knowledgeable in the ways of men and women. She had seen her stepfather with his mistress revelling in the gardens at some fete; she had watched their crude caresses. She had to grow up quickly for there was no one else to protect her mother from a fate which was none the less horrifying because her daughter did not fully understand it.

There was one at the Dresden court of whom Magdalen von Röohlitz was in awe and that was her mother. She would never forget that it was her mother who had first put her in the Elector’s way and who, once the liaison had started, conducted it so cleverly from the shadows that she had made what might have been a fleeting affair into what it was at this time.

The extremely ambitious Madam von Röohlitz was the widow of a Colonel of the Guards; not a position in which she could have had high social ambitions if she had not possessed an outstandingly beautiful daughter. She had been the first to appreciate Magdalen’s charms and assess their value. She had always known that Magdalen’s brains did not match her beauty; but since she had a very clever mother this was not an
insurmountable difficulty – in fact, it was proving an asset. Magdalen could make full use of her erotic genius while her mother planned calmly behind the scenes.

Magdalen had little to complain of so far. She was, in fact, astonished how easily she could please her lover when all she had to do was satisfy his sexual desires, and as hers were as eager for fulfilment as his, that was no hardship. Mother arranged all the tiresome details and was very happy to do so. That seemed a pleasant enough arrangement to Magdalen; and she was surprised to discover that Mother was not pleased.

She had come to her daughter’s apartment because it was time they had a little talk.

‘You need not frown, daughter. If you will do exactly as I say it will be easy enough.’

Magdalen nodded and stretched her limbs luxuriously.

What a magnificent creature she is! thought her mother. It would be churlish to reproach her for not being able to
think
, when she is so expert in other matters.

‘That man would do a great deal for you.’

‘He always says so.’

‘Talk is one thing, actions another.’

Magdalen yawned.

‘You must listen to me because this is important. You are a Countess now, my dear; you are very rich, and that is as it should be. I’m delighted. But things could be so much better.’

‘Could they?’ asked Magdalen.

‘Of course. What happens when important visitors arrive? Who has to receive them? You or her? Then she is brought forward, isn’t she? She is after all the Electress of Saxony and his legal wife.’

‘He’s never with her.’

‘That is not my point, Magdalen. She is received. She is accepted. I wish that for you.’

‘Well, she’s his wife.’

‘You should tell him how humiliated you feel.’

Magdalen raised her eyebrows. ‘How humiliated do I feel?’

‘You, whom he swears he loves as he can never love another woman are snubbed, covertly insulted by visitors from other courts.’

‘But I’m not, Mother.’

‘They say, “Oh she’s only his mistress.” And they pay court to Madam Electress.’

‘Oh no, Mother…’

‘Listen to me. You could become Electress.’

‘How?’

‘By insisting that he marry you, of course.’

‘He’s married already.’

‘You are determined to see the obstacles.’

Magdalen looked puzzled. ‘Well, she is his wife, isn’t she? They were married in Leipzig.’

‘Oh yes, their dear friends the Brandenburgs saw to that.’

‘Because you had been too busy with your dear friends the Austrians.’

‘Because you, my dear, were not subtle enough. I had to find money from somewhere and you betrayed the fact that we had friends in Austria who had been kind to us. But never mind. That’s all behind us. Let’s think of the future. How would you like to be the Electress of Saxony?’

‘I shouldn’t mind it. I shouldn’t mind it at all.’

Madam von Röohlitz gave her daughter a playful slap.

‘Well, listen to me. I have an idea. Pay close attention.’

‘Yes, Mother.’

Caroline was in her mother’s bedchamber reading aloud to Eleanor who lay on her bed, her nervous fingers pulling at the coverlet; Caroline knew that she was not listening. Yet if she stopped she would realize it and ask her gently to go on.

It seemed useless and ineffectual; for Caroline was not really paying attention either.

Caroline stopped reading and said: ‘We were happier than this in Ansbach.’

‘What did you say?’ asked Eleanor.

Caroline said: ‘Mamma, couldn’t we go away somewhere for a little change?’

Eleanor looked startled. Then she said: ‘Where could we go?’

‘To Ansbach perhaps.’

‘We should not be welcome there.’

‘We are not welcome here.’

‘Caroline, what do you mean? This is our home!’

Home! thought Caroline. Where you were unhappy! Where no one wanted you! Where people whispered about you in corners.

‘Perhaps,’ she said, ‘we could go-to Berlin.’

‘To Berlin. I doubt whether they would want us there either.’

‘Mamma, how can you know? The Electress Sophia Charlotte was so kind. She talked to me about lessons and things like that.’

‘I hope you are getting on well with your studies, Caroline.’ That worried look was in her eyes. She was thinking: I neglect my daughter. She is allowed to run wild. Oh what will become of us?

‘I try to work at them,’ answered Caroline gravely. ‘The Electress Sophia Charlotte said I should. Do you think she will ever come here to see us?’

‘Nobody ever comes here to see us.’

There was no bitterness in the tone, only a sad resignation.

Nothing will ever change, thought Caroline.

But even as the thought entered her mind one of her mother’s attendants came into the room. She was agitated and showed clearly that something had happened to upset her.

She did not seem to see Caroline sitting in her chair, but went straight to the bed, and handed a paper to Eleanor. ‘I couldn’t believe this when I read it, Your Highness. It is… terrible.’

Eleanor took up the paper in trembling hands.

‘What… Oh, I had heard… Oh,
no
.’

‘They are saying that it could not have been circulated without the Elector’s consent, Your Highness.’

‘I am sure that is so.’

Caroline shrank back into her chair and watched her mother intently.

She threw the paper on to the bed. ‘This is the end,’ she said wearily. ‘He is determined to be rid of me.’

‘They will never allow such a law, Your Highness.’

‘If he insists…’

‘No. It can’t be. It’s another plot of that von Röohlitz woman. Nothing can come of it.’

‘A great deal has come of her plans. I feel very faint.’

‘It’s the shock. Lie still, Your Highness.’

‘Lie still,’ murmured Eleanor. ‘Yes, for what else can I do? Just be still and wait… for whatever they plan against me.’

Caroline, sitting in her chair, wanted to run to her mother, shake her and cry out: It’s not the way. You shouldn’t allow them to hurt you. You should fight them as they fight you.

But she sat still while the woman brought an unguent from a cupboard and rubbed it into her mother’s forehead.

‘That’s comforting,’ said Eleanor.

The pamphlet fluttered to the floor not far from Caroline’s feet. She picked it up and read it. It was obscurely phrased but the gist was that it might be advantageous for men who could afford to support more than one wife to have another.

So the Elector thought this a good idea! The reason was plain. He was able to support another wife, he was not satisfied with the one he had, and there was someone he would like to set up in her place.

Yes, she could understand why her mother was disturbed.

Eleanor was saying in a sad, tired voice: ‘I feel so… alone, and I know they are determined to be rid of me by one means or another.’

‘Your Highness should not distress yourself.’

‘How can I help it? They are getting restive. They have endured me long enough.’

‘Your Highness, this could never be. There would be an outcry. It is against religion as well as the laws of the state.’

‘They’re desperate,’ said Eleanor. ‘This could be a safer way… than some.’

She was aware of Caroline standing there with the pamphlet in her hand.

‘Oh… Caroline. Put that paper down. I want to rest. Go now.’

Caroline laid the pamphlet on the table and went out.

They thought she understood nothing; they thought she was a child still.

Magdalen told all her friends that very soon she would be the
Electress. The Elector was going to marry her. He had a wife already? Oh, but the Elector believed that in certain circumstances a man should have two wives.

Madam von Röohlitz had discreetly let it be known that anyone seeking honours should come to her. Magdalen would be able to arrange anything with the Elector she considered desirable, but as she would be very busily occupied her mother would shoulder some of her daughter’s responsibilities.

Madam von Röohlitz was almost delirious with the new sense of power.

Her suggestion of another marriage had worked very well. Magdalen had learned her part adequately; she had told her lover how much she desired to be his wife and he yearned to grant her wish.

She assured herself that the plot was succeeding far better than at first she had thought possible. The fact was that the Electress was such a spineless creature that no one cared to defend her. Her only friends, the Brandenburgs, were far away; but she must impress on Magdalen the need to get this matter settled as quickly as possible.

However, she was soon disappointed for although the Elector would willingly have married Magdalen, his ministers had refused to consider the question.

‘It strikes at the very tenets of our Faith,’ they declared. ‘It is quite impossible.’

‘Nothing is impossible if I decide it shall be done,’ shouted John George.

‘Your Highness,’ he was told, ‘a man who has one wife in the eyes of God cannot have another until her death. That is the law of the Church and the State.’

‘I will be my own law!’ he cried.

But he knew they would not allow Magdalen to be his wife and he would remain married to that woman whom he had come to loathe… until death parted them.

He was angry but not so deeply as Madam von Röohlitz. He still had his mistress even though he could not make her his wife. As for Madam von Röohlitz, what had become of the lucrative business she was going to build up by selling honours to those who could pay well enough for them?

She shut herself in her apartments and would see no one… not even Magdalen.

Till death parts them! she murmured and seemed to derive a little comfort from the thought.

Someone was standing by Caroline’s bed.

‘Wake up! Your mother has sent for you.’

Caroline scrambled up. It was dark and the candle threw the long shadow of her nurse on the wall.

‘What is it?’ she asked, her teeth beginning to chatter because she was conscious of a sense of doom.

‘Your mother has been taken ill and is asking for you.’

‘How… ill?’

‘Don’t talk so much. She’s waiting.’

As she was hurried into her robe she was thinking: She is going to die. She will tell me what I have to do when I am alone.

Then a feeling of desolation struck her and she knew that she had rarely been so frightened. She was so lonely. She had no friends in this alien court. Because she was her mother’s daughter nobody wanted her.

‘Hurry!’

‘I’m ready,’ she said.

She was taken to her mother’s bedchamber where Eleanor lay in her bed looking exhausted, her skin yellow, her eyes glassy.

‘My child…’ she began and Caroline ran to the bed and kneeling took her hand.

‘Mamma, what has happened? You are ill.’

‘I have been very ill, daughter. I think I am going to die.’

‘No… no… you must not.’

‘I have no place in this world, child. Life has not been very kind to me. I trust it will be kinder to you.’

Caroline gripped the bedclothes and thought: I will never let people treat me as they have treated you! But how prevent it? There must be a way. She was sure of it and she was going to find it.

‘Mamma, you are not going to die.’

‘If this attempt has failed, there will be others.’

‘Attempt… failed…’

‘I ramble, child.’

It was a lie, of course. She was not rambling. Why would they treat her as a child? It was true she was only nine years old but the last year at the Court of Saxony had taught her more than most children learn in ten. She knew how frightening marriage could be; but she thought: Had I been Mamma, I would not have allowed it to happen. What would she have done? She was not sure. But she believed she would have found some way of avoiding a position which was degrading, wretched, and had now become very sinister indeed.

‘If anything should happen to me, Caroline… are you listening?’

‘Yes, Mamma.’

‘You should go back to Ansbach.’

‘Yes, Mamma.’

‘You could write to the Electress of Brandenburg. She was my good friend until she persuaded me to this marriage.’

Caroline spoke hotly in defence of her beloved Sophia Charlotte. ‘But, Mamma, you need not have married had you not wished to.’