The Queen's Favourites aka Courting Her Highness (v5) (19 page)

Sarah smiled complacently. The fat old creature really doted on her; she could do what she wanted to with her. She could be rude and arrogant and still she came pleading for friendship.

“I remember your generosity to the others. You gave them five thousand a piece. Give the same to Elizabeth. That will please me mightily, Mrs. Morley.”

“I will speak to my Lord Treasurer about it as soon as I see him.” My Lord Treasurer! Lord Godolphin, her daughter’s father-in-law! He would put no obstacle in the way. What an excellent state of affairs when the rulers were all in the family!

Sarah was excited
because John was coming home for the winter. He would return as a hero, for although he himself believed that the campaign was only in its very earliest stages, everyone else seemed to think that he had scored great victories.

Anne was delighted for Sarah’s sake in his success and it seemed to Abigail that she wished to atone for the momentary feelings of antagonism she must have felt at times towards her great friend. There were times when Anne’s main preoccupation seemed to be how best to please Sarah.

Now she had hit on a great plan. A Dukedom for Marlborough. It was not difficult to get official sanction for this because it was agreed in the Commons that Marlborough had retrieved the honour of the English nation.

Anne called for Abigail to bring her writing materials that she might be the first to acquaint her dear friend with the good news.

“Your Majesty is happy today,” murmured Abigail.

“Very happy, Hill. I am going to give pleasure to one I love very dearly. But I shall not tell even you in what way because she must be the one to hear it first.”

She sat down at her table and wrote.

“Dear Mr. Freeman deserves all that a rich crown would give, but since there is nothing else at this time, I hope you will give me leave as soon as he comes to make him a Duke. I know my dear Mrs. Freeman does not care for things of that kind but …”

Anne paused to think of her dear friend. Duchess Sarah! She was worthy of such a title.

She went on writing, for she always enjoyed writing to Sarah; and when she had finished sent for Abigail to seal the letter; and then gave her instructions.

“See that it is delivered into none but her hands,” she said.

“Lady Marlborough’s, Your Majesty?”

Anne nodded. Lady Marlborough soon to be the Duchess.

Sarah read the
letter with elation. Duchess of Marlborough—Marl a Duke. It was wonderful. But … there was no talk of the estates and money they would need to uphold their elevated position. Did not old Morley understand that? There should have been an offer of at least five thousand a year to go with the Dukedom.

She went thoughtfully to the Queen. When she entered Anne looked up hopefully, expecting floods of gratitude. Instead she faced a very subdued Sarah.

“Mrs. Freeman cannot have received my letter.”

“Oh yes. I have received it.”

“You seem … displeased.”

“When I read Mrs. Morley’s letter,” said Sarah slowly, “I let it drop from my hand and for a time I felt as though I had received the news of a death of a dear friend.”

“Mrs. Freeman, I do not understand.”

“My dearest Morley I know wishes to please me. And believe me when honour is paid to Mr. Freeman nothing could please me more. But we have not the wealth to sustain a Dukedom. There. I am a simple woman and I give a simple answer. I do not couch my thoughts in flowery sentiments. So I give you the plain truth. A Dukedom is not for us, Mrs. Morley, because we simply have not wealth for such a title. And I will say this—it is but a matter of precedence—and that bothers me little. I do not care so much that I pass through one door and others of lesser rank through another, I know my good Mrs. Morley thought to please me. But it is difficult for one such as Your Majesty to understand the financial difficulties of others.”

Anne looked as though she would burst into tears.

But Sarah having made her point, asked leave to retire.

Sarah was furious
. Anne had of course immediately sought some means of providing an income for the Churchills which would enable them to accept the Dukedom and proposed an annual grant of five thousand pounds which would be taken from Post Office revenues. This she declared was necessary in view of Marlborough’s new title, and as his son would inherit that title in due course the income must be granted to the new Duke’s heirs.

The Government revolted. Marlborough’s services to the nation were appreciated but bestowing hereditary grants on individuals was frowned on; and to avoid an adverse vote Marlborough, now home once more, could only decline the offer of revenue from that source.

Sarah raged and ranted, but John tried in vain to soothe her.

“They are so ungrateful!” she cried. “When I think of all you have done for them. And now for a miserable five thousand …”

She went to the Queen.

“You see, Mrs. Morley, how wise I was to refuse the Dukedom in the first place. I know Mr. Freeman has no wish to accept so called honours when they are so grudgingly given. If he had taken
my
advice he would
never
have accepted the title. But now it is done … and here he is—the man who brought honour to his country, a Duke without the means to keep up his rank. A pretty state of affairs! A pretty example of a country’s ingratitude! I said to Mr. Freeman: It is folly to take this from a country who so clearly does not wish to honour you … rather to humiliate you.”

“My dear,
dear
Mrs. Freeman, this is most distressing. You shall have two thousand from my privy purse. No one shall know of it. It shall be a secret between us.…”

“Mrs. Morley should know that Mrs. Freeman could not easily be persuaded to enter into secret bargains.…”

She could not be comforted, and when she left the Queen was trembling and in tears.

Abigail came to her and bathed her forehead.

“There, Madam.” Anne accepted the brandy. “Would Your Majesty wish me to play a little on the harpsichord?”

“No, Hill. Just sit beside me. Your presence comforts me.”

Abigail took the trembling hand in hers and the Queen smiled at her.

“It seems peaceful now, Hill. Let us talk for a while and later perhaps when I am sleepy you will play me to sleep.”

Sarah stormed back
to Marlborough.

“She is ready to pay us two thousand from the privy purse,” she said. “What’s the use of that?”

John shook his head. “We couldn’t take it, Sarah. It could be embarrassing if it leaked out that we were being supplied in this way. But there is something else. I’ve a letter here from Sidney Godolphin. He writes from Newmarket.”

“Newmarket. I should have thought he might have been in London. Here is the Government treating you in this churlish way and he is at Newmarket if you please.”

“Our John is with him.”

“
Our
John! But why is he not at Cambridge?”

“There’s smallpox in Cambridge.”

Sarah turned pale. “John?”

“He’s all right. Sidney thought it better for him to leave Cambridge and go to stay at Newmarket. The air there is fresh and good. But I was a little uneasy.”

Smallpox! The dreaded scourge. Sarah could not bear to think of it having come near her only son.

“Perhaps he should come home,” she said.

“Sidney says he’s very well. I thought you might write to him and tell him that you are no longer displeased with him.”

“But I
am
still displeased with him.”

“He wrote to me asking me to plead with you on his behalf.”

“Then he should have written to me himself.”

“Sarah!” Marlborough laid his hand on her arm and gave her that sweet smile which never failed to charm. “I know you love him dearly—as you do the whole family, but could you not show it a little now and then?”

“Are you telling me how to treat my son, John Churchill!”

“Our son,” he reminded her.

She laughed. “We’ll have him home. I do not care that he should be near a pox-laden atmosphere.”

“Write to him and tell him he is forgiven.”

“No. He must write to me first. And what of this matter of our income …”

He laid his hands on her shoulders and drew her towards him.

“That is a matter which will, I doubt not, in time work out to our advantage … my Duchess.”

Anne was determined
that her dear Mrs. Freeman should happily accept the new honour and Sarah had no intention of standing in her way. It was certainly gratifying to be Her Grace, and she derived great pleasure from referring to Marl as The Duke.

With the coming of spring he would set out once more on his campaigns and the separations would begin again. “How I wish that you had chosen to become a statesman instead of a soldier!” she would exclaim angrily.

Christmas was just over and young John had written to his father to tell him that he was leaving the Godolphins to return to Cambridge.

“I trust,” said Sarah grimly, “that there he will learn some sense.”

It was in January when she had news from Cambridge.