Queen in Waiting - Plaidy Jean (электронную книгу бесплатно без регистрации TXT) 📗

He put out a hand gingerly.

"I suppose," she said, "that people come to you and offer to sell their hair. I am not the first one."

He was silent. Girls came to him—serving girls, working girls, sometimes a mother who had a baby to provide for ... but not ladies of quality.

"I want to know," said Henrietta clearly in her English-German, "whether you would consider buying my hair and whether it would be worth my while to sell it."

"I would consider buying it... yes."

"Ah," she sighed. "You admit it is good hair and plenty of it."

He nodded and named a sum. Her heart leaped. It was considerable but she needed a considerable sum to entertain those who were going to open up the way for her.

"Not enough," she said, and started to pull up her hood. But he was fascinated by that hair; he was terrified that she would go straight to the rival wig maker in the town who would make it into such a wig that everyone would be transferring their custom to him. He had never seen hair of such a rich colour, such a texture which although fine was not too fine; he had rarely seen such rippling waves.

He could afford a little gamble. Moreover she was a lady and it was always well to be on the right side of the quality.

He put up his price but she seemed to hesitate.

He said: "I would take it from the level of the chin and I don't think we should argue about a thaler this way or that."

Henrietta hesitated once more; it was a great effort not to run from the shop; she felt that her entire future was being decided in this moment.

"Very well," she said, and seated herself in the chair he offered.

In a few moments, her shining hair lay on a table and she herself looked like a handsome boy—her hair clustering thickly about her neck like that of a page boy. It was not unbecoming, she comforted herself as the wig maker was counting out the thalers.

She hurried back to her lodging; there to begin preparations for the dinner party which was going to change her life.

The Electress Sophia was delighted to meet Henry and Henrietta Howard. Certain friends of hers had dined with the couple in their lodgings in the town and had found them charming. They had just arrived from England and knowing how interesting the Electress found such people it was wondered whether she would graciously grant them an interview.

"I am always delighted to meet anyone from England," was the expected reply.

Sophia made Henrietta sit beside her and talk about England. Had Henrietta met the Queen? Yes, said Henrietta, for

she had seen Anne from a distance and how would Sophia ever know that they had never exchanged a word.

**Tell me about her."

"I fear, Your Highness, that she is not long for this world. There are occasions when she has to be carried in her chair throughout the palace. The gout and dropsy will surely kill her soon for Her Majesty is a martyr to them."

**It grieves me to hear it," lied Sophia.

Henrietta had chosen the right subject when she enlarged on the infirmities of the Queen; as she listened Sophia saw herself arriving in state, being crowned Queen of England.

I should die happy, she thought, if I could die Queen of England.

How ironical that this great hope of a lifetime should come to her when she was so old she must surely herself be only a step or two from the grave. But not until I have been crowned Queen of England, she told herself firmly.

And what entertaining tales Henrietta had to tell of Court life in England. Sophia had heard most of it before but she never tired of hearing it again. Sarah Churchill, that virago, had been dismissed. Imagine it. The great Duke's wife. And he was in disgrace too. Mousy little Abigail Hill queened it over the queen. She was a wise one; she did not stamp and storm like Sarah. She had won the day with soothing hands that knew how to poultice aching limbs; she had never demanded that this man be given office, that man be put down. But she had had her way all the same. It was said that Robert Harley, Lord Oxford, who was her cousin and the Queen's chief adviser, owed his position to her, and that she was responsible for the downfall of the Marlboroughs.

'Tascinating! Fascinating!" murmured Sophia. *'Now tell me about the people of England."

"They like to be amused. They like sport and laughter and hate to be serious. Your Highness would be interested in some of the lampoons that are written about events. The coffee houses are full of scribblers like Swift and Steele, and men such as Harley use them to write their lampoons and hold up to ridicule that which they wish to destroy."

"How I should love to be there 1"

"Your Highness will soon be there. The poor Queen suffers so with her gout and dropsy. Her life is despaired of at least once a month."

"And tell me how much support is there for the King across the water?"

"Only that of the Catholics, Your Highness. Most of the people of England swear they will never have a Catholic on the throne; it was for that reason that James II was sent into exile."

"Then they are happily looking to us in Hanover?"

"Most happily, Your Highness."

Sophia was enjoying the company of this young woman from England who seemed to have such a grasp of affairs.

"You must come and see me again," she said. "Soon."

Henrietta replied promptly that she would present herself next day and every day until the Elcctress had time to see her.

She went away well pleased. She had achieved her purpose. It was easier than she had hoped. As for her hair, it would grow again, and the approving eyes of several men and the envying ones of women had assured her that short as it was, it was still admired; and in its unusual fashion attracted as much attention as when it had been coiled heavily about her head.

The Electress came into the nursery to see her grandchildren. Fritzchen her favourite scrambled up on her knee and asked if she had brought him any cake or sweetmeat.

"You're a greedy boy, Fritzchen," she told him indulgently. "And where are your sisters?"

There were two of them now for two years after the birth of Anne little Amelia had appeared.

Anne, independent and self-important, had been known to exchange blows with Fritzchen; Amelia, a sturdy two-year-old, adored him. Fritzchen liked being adored and was very kind to his younger sister thus winning more adoration.

I hope, thought Sophia, he is not going to take after his father.

Hearing that her mother-in-law was in the nursery, Caroline came to see her and talk about the children.

**My dear Caroline," said Sophia affectionately. "You are looking very well.'*

She studied Caroline's figure; she certainly looked pregnant and by ordinary standards would soon be giving birth; but Caroline's pregnancies always seemed to last so long. It had certainly been so with the two elder children. What a satisfactory daughter-in-law she was, and how bored she must be with George Augustus; yet she never showed it. Clever Caroline. At least, thought Sophia, I had a clever man, even though he preferred his mistresses to me all through our married life. It wasn't quite so with George Augustus. Somehow he appeared to be in love with his wife even while he was unfaithful to her; and he had never set up a mistress to equal Clara von Platen who had had such influence with Ernest Augustus.

Yes, Caroline was a clever woman and she was glad George Augustus had had the good fortune to have her for his wife.

"I hope for a boy this time," said Caroline.