The Queen's Confession by Victoria Holt

Author:Victoria Holt [Holt, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780449232132
Publisher: Fawcett
Published: 1981-07-11T14:00:00+00:00

There seemed no point then in holding Court at Versailles;

why should I not spend more and more time at the Pent Trianon, where life was so much more fun, surrounded as I was by the friends I had chosen?

The blow struck me suddenly. I had not even known that she was ill.

The Abbe Vermond came to my apartments and said he must speak to me alone. His eyes were wild, his lips twitching.

I said: “What is wrong?”

He replied: “Your Majesty must prepare yourself for a great disaster.”

I rose staring at him. I saw the letter in his hand and I knew.

The Empress . * He nodded.

“She is dead,” I said blankly, for I knew it was true. I was conscious of a terrible loneliness such as I had never known before.

He nodded.

I could not speak. I was numbed. I felt like a child who is lost and knows it will never feel entirely safe again.

“It cannot be,” I whispered.

But he assured me that it was.

I said unsteadily, “I want first to be alone He nodded and left me and I sat on the bed and thought of her as I had known her in Vienna. I saw her at her mirror while her women dressed her hair; I could feel the cold Viennese wind, sharper than anything I had known since I left Austria; I could picture her bending over my bed when I was pretending I was asleep. I could hear her voice.

“You must do this. You must do that. Such Ugerete … such dissipation… You are rushing on to destruction. I tremble for you.”

Oh tremble for me. Mamma, I whispered, for without you I am so alone.

The King came and wept with me. He had waited a quarter of 255

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