o b464705202491194 by Cheyenne

Author:Cheyenne
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-10-20T16:20:31.268997+00:00

The Princess Royal’s Romance

THE Princess Royal came hurrying into the apartments she shared with her

sisters and there was no need to ask her if something exciting had happened; it

was written clearly in her face.

‘I have just seen Papa,’ she cried. ‘So it is true— true.’ Elizabeth looked up

from the canvas on which she was drawing. ‘Not,’ she said, ‘a husband at last?’

Sophia rose from her seat and embraced her eldest sister. ‘Oh, you most

fortunate of women!’

The Princess Royal acceded this. ‘Oh, how grateful I am! How tired I am of

walking the dogs and filling the snuff boxes. I shall be free— free— of restraint for evermore.’

‘Husbands can be more restraining than fathers and mothers,’ Augusta

reminded her.

‘Not more than ours,’ retorted the Princess Royal. ‘I do believe Papa is

jealous of us all. I used to believe he wanted to keep us all here— pure and

unsullied and that is why husbands have never been found for us until now.’

‘And then only one husband!’ sighed Sophia.

‘It is not necessary to be pure as well as unmarried,’ cried Augusta with a

grimace. ‘Do you think dearest Papa realizes that?’

‘You should really be careful in front of the children.’ Sophia and Mary

exchanged glances and laughed. ‘Don’t mind us,’ they said.

‘I am eighteen and not so innocent as I’m supposed to be.’

‘And I can well believe that!’ replied Augusta.

‘Hush!’ cried the Princess Royal. ‘How can you think any man will want to

marry you if you talk like— like—’

‘Harlots?’ suggested Sophia. ‘I confess I often feel they have more interesting

lives than ours.’

‘They could scarcely be less so,’ added Mary gloomily.

‘But,’ soothed Elizabeth, ‘if a husband has been found for our sister perhaps

we need not despair.’

‘There are so many of us,’ wailed Mary, ‘and all getting older and older

every day.’

‘A fate no man or woman can escape, you must admit,’ Elizabeth reminded

them.

‘Yes, but the nearer we spinster-princesses get to the grave the farther we get

from the marriage bed. I must confess it is a dreary thought.’

‘Well let us rejoice that at least one of us is to have a husband,’ said Elizabeth.

‘What do you know of him, sister?’

‘That he is a prince.’

‘Naturally.’

‘That he has been married before.’

‘A widower!’ grimaced Sophia.

‘Pray do not give me your pitying looks,’ cried the Princess Royal. ‘A man

who has been married before is better than no man, I do assure you. And the

second is likely to be your fate. The fact that he has had a wife makes me like him the better. He will be so experienced— perhaps she was a great beauty.’

‘Hardly likely when she was the sister of our sister-in-law Caroline.’

‘Is that indeed so?’

‘My Prince of Würtemburg had the misfortune to take to wife a Princess of

Brunswick. She was Charlotte, too.’

‘He must have a fancy for the name.’

‘There are so many Charlottes in this family. Our mother, myself and now this

new baby.’

‘Not to mention Caroline’s sister, your Prince’s dead wife. I wonder what

Caroline will think of your marrying her brother-in-law.’

‘Caroline’s opinion is of no importance.’

‘I know. I just wondered. Perhaps she has already met him.

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