The Summer Queen by Margaret Pemberton

Author:Margaret Pemberton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

Chapter Twenty-Three

DECEMBER 1891, NEW PALACE, DARMSTADT

Darmstadt was glistening white under a blanket of snow, and en fête in readiness for Christmas. Every stall in the little town’s market place was draped in swathes of holly and colourful paper decorations. Mistletoe was hanging at heights convenient for girls to be kissed beneath; horse-drawn sleighs, not carriages, thronged the narrow streets; and although Christmas Day wasn’t for another two weeks, carol singers were out in full force.

May’s letter to Alicky had taken longer to arrive than usual, because ships carrying mail across the English Channel had been disrupted by bad weather, and it was only now that Alicky, curled up in a wing-chair before a crackling log fire, was eagerly writing back to her:

Dearest Kindred Spirit,

When you wrote me of your engagement to Eddy, I thought at first it was a tease! Papa told me it wasn’t, as at the same time your letter arrived, letters for him, informing him of your engagement, arrived from both Granny Queen and Uncle Bertie. I think it is the most amazing, wonderful news, and I can well imagine how truly happy and over the moon you must be. Eddy is the sweetest person in the world, and I just know that the two of you are going to be incredibly happy together.

I don’t have much news. In a letter that arrived along with yours, Irène has written that, in Berlin, Kindred Spirit Willy has infuriated his mother by sending you and Eddy unqualified congratulations on your engagement and by being totally uncaring that his sister has, yet again, been passed over. Poor Mossy. I do feel for her, but, like Cousin Willy, I am very, very happy for you. All the unlikeable members of our vast family – those who have never let you forget your Serene Highness status – will now have to behave very differently towards you. Where some of them are concerned, it is something I would very much like to see!

Alicky started another paragraph:

Granny Queen has now turned her matchmaking passion to poor Ernie, who is ducking and diving and so far showing great resilience at not falling in with her plans. He is twenty-three now and, as Papa’s heir (and being the only boy), even Papa is anxious to see him suitably married and safeguarding the family line and title by producing a son (and, Papa says, preferably producing more than one son). In my wildest imagination, I cannot imagine Ernie ending up the father of a platoon, as Willy and Dona have. As their tally of boys is now six, I think it is safe to say that the throne of the German Empire has been well and truly secured!

She laid her pen down. The prospect of Ernie marrying wasn’t one she was looking forward to. With all three of her elder sisters married and living their lives far from Darmstadt – Vicky in whatever British naval base Louis was stationed at; Ella in a palace in Russia; and

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