Victoria: A novel of a young queen by the Creator/Writer of the Masterpiece Presentation on PBS

Author:Goodwin, Daisy [Goodwin, Daisy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2016-11-21T16:00:00+00:00

BOOK THREE

CHAPTER ONE

“There is a letter for you, Majesty, from Brussels.” Lehzen produced the letter from a pocket in her skirts.

Victoria sighed. “I don’t want to read it now, Lehzen. Not today.”

Lehzen put the letter on the dressing table and retreated. Skerrett was unpinning Victoria’s hair from the elaborate style she had worn for the State Opening of Parliament. Victoria looked at the letter balefully. Today had been exhausting; she had been on view from morning till now. Riding to Parliament in the glass coach, waving and smiling to the crowds all the while, whether they waved back or not, and then in Parliament itself she had been under the scrutiny of all those grey men, as she mentally called the members of the House of Lords and the Commons. The worst thing was having to read the speech that outlined the government’s plans for the next Parliamentary session. It was always so long and with such cumbersome phrases.

She had complained to Lord M that it was like reading the sort of sermon that put her to sleep when she went to church, but Melbourne had laughed and said that no one could fall asleep when she was talking or they would be arrested for treason. But even Lord M could not understand the effort of keeping her voice steady as she read the speech in front of that audience. Every time she looked up from the page, as Lord M had encouraged her to do, she would see some red-faced peer cupping his hand to his ear in a pantomime of deafness, or some cadaverous MP smirking because he considered her pronunciation peculiar. She never looked up to the right, where she knew that the Duke of Cumberland was sitting, waiting and hoping for her to make a mistake. There were very few instances in which she would have preferred to have been born a man, but today’s ordeal made her wish for a baritone voice that never struggled to be heard.

There had been one moment when she had felt quite hoarse and had wished for a sip of water. Knowing, however, that everyone was watching for such a sign of weakness, she had swallowed and continued, allowing herself at the end of the sentence to look up and catch Melbourne’s encouraging smile.

All she wanted to do now was to fall into bed, close her eyes, and fall asleep, but the letter was still lying on the dressing table. It was from her uncle Leopold, her mother’s brother, who five years ago had been asked by the new country of Belgium to be its king. Before Victoria was born, he had been married to Princess Charlotte, the heir to the English throne, until she had died in childbirth, together with their child. To be King of Belgium was some consolation for not being the husband of the Queen of England, but not quite enough, so Uncle Leopold had decided that to be uncle of the Queen of England was a grave responsibility he must fulfill whether his niece liked it or not.

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