The Queen's Favourites aka Courting Her Highness (v5) (22 page)

“Mrs. Freeman misunderstands me.”

“I misunderstand nothing! This Conformity Bill has been thrown out of the Lords … so your ministers have advised you to create four new Tory peers in order to get it through. It must not be.”

“It is already being done.”

“I’ll not have it!”

Anne was astonished. She had longed to see Mrs. Freeman at Court, and now she had come there was this trouble. She had no intention of arguing. She hated argument. But even dearest Mrs. Freeman could not decide matters of state policy merely by demanding to do so.

“Well, Mrs. Freeman, come and sit beside me,” said Anne. “I want to hear all your news.”

“My news is too sombre, Mrs. Morley. For these last months I have thought of nothing but my loss.”

“My poor, poor Mrs. Freeman. There is no one who can understand that like your unfortunate Morley.”

“But,” said Sarah fiercely, “we have to grow away from our grief. It is selfish to mourn for ever.”

Anne flinched a little. It was most exciting to have the dazzling and beautiful Sarah with her, but just a little uncomfortable.

“I came to you because I have to talk to you about this disgraceful matter. Four Tory peers! It is a scandal. If you are going to create four Tory peers you must at any rate create one Whig peer. I shall insist on that.”

“My dear Mrs. Freeman, this is a matter for our ministers.”

“This is a matter for
us
,” corrected Sarah.

She began to pace the apartment while she expounded the follies of the Bill. It was iniquitous. It was intolerant. Anne repeated placidly: “It is a matter for our ministers.”

“Ministers!” stormed Sarah. “What concern have they for anything but their own advancement? We need to keep a firm grip on ministers. You will remember how difficult it was to get the Prince’s grant through. That was ministers for you.”

“I do remember and I shall be eternally grateful to you and Mr. Freeman for working so hard on the Prince’s behalf.”

“You will also remember that that grant was passed with a majority of one vote and that had not Mr. Freeman and I worked day and night it could never have come to pass and Mr. Morley would be some hundred thousand pounds a year the poorer.”

“We shall never, never forget the pains you and Mr. Freeman took, and I do assure you that both Mr. Morley and I can never express our gratitude. I remember my dear George was so ill at the time. Dear Mrs. Freeman, his asthma gives me the greatest cause for anxiety. I was nursing him at the time. Do you remember? I really believed I was going to lose him. I thought that fate was going to strike yet another blow at your poor unfortunate Morley.”

“That was when your ministers needed a little prodding and they got it. Now here is another occasion.”

“But, dear Mrs. Freeman, I declare you have become a Whig. I do not share your affection for those gentlemen—and I can tell you that it is a great sorrow not to be able to share everything with my dear Mrs. Freeman.”

“Let us get back to this matter of the peers.”

“Dear Mrs. Freeman, it really is a matter for our ministers.”

Sarah thought: I shall scream at her if she says that again. There she sits, the old parrot, not listening, not paying attention once she has found her parrot phrase, “It is a matter for our ministers.” We shall see, Mrs. Morley, we shall see.

“I suppose Godolphin is partly responsible for this,” said Sarah.

Anne did not answer and Sarah thought: And I have allowed his son to marry my daughter! I have brought him into our circle and this is how he repays me!

“He is our minister,” Anne reminded her.

Anything, thought Sarah, rather than send the fat creature off on to that minister refrain.

“I will speak to him,” said Sarah.

“One cannot be held responsible for one’s relatives,” Anne reminded her. “I know how grieved you were when Sunderland voted against the Prince’s Bill. I believe he was one of its greatest opponents. And my poor George suffering so with his asthma … fighting for his breath, and Sunderland working up feelings about him in the Lords. I remember thinking at the time: And this Sunderland is my dear Mrs. Freeman’s son-in-law. I shall never like that man again … but it does not make me any less fond of my dearest Mrs. Freeman. Nothing could change my affection for her.”

“I shall speak to Godolphin; I shall write to Mr. Freeman. If these Tory peers are going to take their places in the Lords then there must be at least one new Whig peer.”

“It is really a matter for the ministers.”

Infuriating old fool! thought Sarah. It is time I was back.

She had bullied
Godolphin who could never stand up to her; she had written to Marlborough. They both advised caution. But when had Sarah ever been cautious? She was beginning to realize that she had been foolish to shut herself away from affairs. Marl was a genius, but he was not so perceptive as she was, and Godolphin was too timid. Neither of them—Tories that they were—had grasped the fact that they needed the support of the Whigs if they were going to carry on the war because the Whigs represented the commerce and finance of the country.

Sarah was fiercely on the side of those who wanted to throw out the Occasional Conformity Bill and although Anne supported it she was determined to bring the Queen to her way of thinking.

In this she would have Prince George on her side for he, when he had been appointed Lord High Admiral of England, had been obliged to take the Sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England and afterwards continued to worship at the Lutheran Chapel which he had attended all his life. It was therefore absurd for George to have voted for the Bill; nor would he have done so had not Anne insisted that he did.

The old fool, thought Sarah. Too good-natured so say no, too anxious to please his dear angel, and too fat and lazy to discuss the matter with her.

Anne had to see Sarah’s point of view and Sarah was going to bring all her powers of persuasion to making her.

But first she intended to have her Whig peer and she had selected a certain John Hervey for the honour.

The Queen bleated that it was a matter for the ministers until Sarah’s fury could no longer be controlled.

“Unless Mr. Hervey is elevated to the peerage I shall leave Court and never set foot in it again!”

The Queen was distressed; Godolphin was shocked; Marlborough, deeply engaged in military operations, was horrified.

Thre was only one outcome. John Hervey became Lord Hervey and Sarah bowed her head in acknowledgment of victory.

Sarah was delighted when the Bill went through the Lords and emerged with an amendment which the House of Commons must surely reject.

She felt elated by her victory—for small though it was, it proved her to be a power.

It is time I came back, she told herself.

Sarah sent for
Abigail Hill.

“You have done well while I have been away,” she said. “That flibbertigibbit sister of yours will have to mend her ways though.”

“I trust Alice has done nothing go displease your Grace.”

“Displease me,” cried Sarah. “I should quickly box her ears if she did. I should remind her that I took her from a broom—as I told you—and made her laundress in the household of his Grace of Gloucester. And now she had her pension and her place here—all due to me. I find her idle and scarcely worth her salt. She gossips too much.”

“I will tell her of Your Grace’s displeasure.”

“And that brother of yours.”

“Jack!”

“Jack indeed.
He
has been importuning the Duke for a place in the Army, if you please.”

“Oh, it is too much,” said Abigail, lowering her eyes and folding her hands together.

Sarah watched her with gratification. Abigail Hill had not disappointed her, although she had carried no tales. Perhaps Danvers and the rest took care what they said in front of the girl, knowing her relationship to the Marlboroughs and realizing of course that she would lose no time in reporting all she heard. There was no doubt about it—she was a good influence in the Queen’s apartment.

“Never mind, never mind. Although it would have been better if the boy had come to me. The Duke has much with which to occupy himself.”

“As has your Grace.”

“That’s true enough. I only have to turn my back and we have bodice-makers given grand titles. We’ll be hearing that grooms are being turned into noble Dukes next. And then, if you please, we have to show our piety by touching for the King’s Evil.
Medieval
, I call it. You should have told me what was going on.”

Abigail looked contrite. “Your Grace, I knew that you were in mourning.…”

“It’s of no account. Well, now I am here and I shall see that all goes smoothly and as it should. I believe the Queen has been pleased with you. You have looked to her comfort without intruding. That’s being a good servant. I am going to reward you.”

“Your Grace is so good.”

“My youngest daughter is with me. I did not care to leave her at St. Albans now that her sister is married and her brother … gone. So I have brought her with me. I want you to keep an eye on her. It means that you will accompany us perhaps to the opera or to the play. You will watch my daughter and make sure no harm befalls her.”

“And the Queen …” Abigail was terrified for the moment. Did this mean that she was going to be taken from Anne’s service? She could not have endured that. She pictured herself going to the Queen, throwing herself on her knees and demanding to be kept.

But Sarah went on impatiently: “Certainly not. The Queen would not wish to lose you. You have proved yourself a good chambermaid. This will be in the nature of a little treat for your good services.”

A treat! A duenna for the hot-tempered Mary who was too like her mother for comfort. She hoped that Anne would soon ask for her to resume her duties.

Anne said fretfully:
“And where is Hill?”

“Your Majesty,” said Mrs. Danvers, “the Duchess said she was taking her to the opera.”

“The opera! Hill! But how very strange.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. It is strange that the Duchess should take the chambermaid to the opera.”

“Danvers, I should like you to bathe my feet. They are very swollen today. Oh dear, how I should love to go to the opera, but frankly, Danvers, I do not care to be
carried
there … and that is how it would have to be. I do believe my gout has been worse these last days. Hill had such soothing hands.”

Mrs. Danvers brought the bowl and bathed the royal feet.

There was not the magic in her hands that was in Hill’s. She closed her eyes. How tiring it had been this afternoon. Dinner at three of the clock had made George as sleepy as usual; and he had slept away that pleasant hour or two which she usually so enjoyed in her beloved green closet. It was Hill’s duty to sit at the tea table and pour the tea—she had rather pretty white hands. Her only beauty, poor Hill! Anne looked at her own. We have that in common, she thought. Poor Hill! So
thin
and plain. But such pretty hands and such a touch on the harpsichord, and her imitations were really amusing. They made George laugh. How she enjoyed seeing him amused—although not too much, for it could bring on the asthma. Hill had never done that. She was so discreet. If she saw it coming on—and she would be watchful—she would stop.