The Queen and Lord M by Jean Plaidy

Author:Jean Plaidy [Plaidy, Jean]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9780399119941
Publisher: Fawcett
Published: 1973-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Duchess came to the Queen’s apartments.

‘I thought,’ she said, ‘that my daughter might perhaps wish to see me.’

‘I always wish to see you agreeable, Mamma.’

The Duchess fingered one of the many bows on her dress. ‘My dearest angel,’ she said, ‘isn’t it time to put an end to this sad state of affairs?’

‘What state of affairs is this, Mamma?’

‘This animosity between us.’

‘It is not between us exactly Mamma. It is due to the people who surround us.’

The Duchess leaned forward in her chair.

‘That is exactly true. You see far too much of Lord Melbourne.’

‘My Prime Minister!’

‘Is he not a little more than that?’

‘I don’t think you understand these matters, Mamma.’

‘Oh, I understand very well. You think very highly of that man, now don’t you?’

‘It is of the greatest importance that the Queen should have confidence in her Prime Minister.’

The Duchess’s trouble was that she was unable to control her temper and, as Victoria had inherited a similar one, when these two clashed there were what the Duchess had called in Victoria’s childhood, ‘storms’.

‘Well,’ said the Duchess, ‘that is one way of describing it.’

‘Describing what and at what are you hinting, pray?’

‘Your friendship with that man. He is no friend to me.’

‘It is only necessary that he should be a friend to the Queen.’

The Duchess should have been warned that when her daughter continued to refer to herself as the Queen she was reminding her companion that she expected the respect the title demanded.

‘Take care!’ cried the Duchess. ‘There are some who are saying that he is the King … or would like to be … and that you would like him to be.’

Victoria did not realise the significance of these words; she was only angry that her mother, who had come ostensibly to seek a reconciliation, should think she would obtain it by attacking Lord Melbourne.

‘I am managing very well without your advice, Mamma!’ said the Queen coldly.

‘Yes.’ The Duchess was in a storm of rage now. ‘Then there is the way you obviously enjoy riding out and always doing it … so that the people can cheer you. And you eat far too much and show too much pleasure in your food. You gobble.’

‘If I wish to ride out, Mamma, I shall ride out, and if I wish to gobble, gobble.’

‘You laugh too loudly.’

‘I shall laugh as I please.’ Victoria rose. ‘And now,’ she said regally, ‘the Queen sees no reason why this interview should continue.’

The Duchess felt impotent to protest. This was the Queen and there was no doubt of that.

She rose and went back to her apartments.

‘I felt as though she would have ordered me to be sent to the Tower of London if I stayed longer.’

‘She is quite capable of it,’ retorted Sir John.

Lady Flora, who was present – she was often in the company of Sir John – hurried to find smelling salts.

‘Of course, Your Grace,’ she said, ‘the Queen’s unkind attitude towards her own mother comes from that ill-bred Baroness. Did you know

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