Queen in Waiting - Plaidy Jean - Страница 31

"You're making excuses for him! "

"It's true. But they're answerable to him."

"Ah, there you see! If you say a word about him in their hearing they'll report it."

"Then I must be careful not to."

"You'd never please him whatever you did."

"I wish that you and he were friendly towards each other."

"As if that's possible! "

"Why not?"

George Augustus laughed. "You wait until you know him, Caroline."

She began to realize that this was a divided household. She had hoped to make a good impression on the Elector. There was one characteristic she had regretted in Sophia Charlotte and that was that she had not been interested in the politics of her husband's court. Caroline could imagine nothing more

exciting than helping to govern. She had quickly learned that George Augustus did not possess an intellect to be compared with her own. That at first had not displeased her. It was well, she believed, for the woman to be the dominant partner, even if—and perhaps it was better so—the husband was unaware of this.

She had hoped that the Elector, who for all his boorishness was a shrewd man, would have recognized this and she could, while having a say in Hanoverian politics, put an end to the strife between father and son.

It suddenly occurred to her that that would not be possible if she were to retain her husband's affection.

This discord had been going on too long—ever since George Augustus had known that his mother had been sent into exile.

It would be necessary for her to make a choice. She must support her husband or lose his affection because it was not possible to be on friendly terms with both of them. Thus Caroline quickly learned that she had no choice. She must take sides and join in the conflict.

She made another unwelcome discovery.

Leibniz was delighted that she was at the court of Hanover. As she walked with him in the gardens of Herrenhausen he told her how the presence of a cultivated person was needed here.

"This is very different from our dear Liitzenburg," he said. "They are not very interested in ideas here. Perhaps now that Your Highness is come that will be clianged."

"But the Electress Sophia is here."

"Yes, that's so. I should not be here otherwise. I could not exist in this slough of ignorance. But the Electress is ageing. She has not been well lately and I have been very anxious about her. Besides, it is for the young to lead opinion. You will set a new fashion in Hanover—a fashion for learning and culture."

"That would be very pleasant."

The Electress Sophia who liked to spend a certain time of

the day out of doors joined them and they sat on one of the terraces talking together.

They were speaking of Sophia Charlotte and her theories about death when they were joined by George Augustus and one of his friends.

"I think she preferred always the open mind," said Caroline. "She used to say that to have faith one must first take a leap in the dark."

"What's this?" asked George Augustus.

"We were talking of the blessings of faith. Your Highness," explained Leibniz.

"Why?" asked George Augustus rudely.

"It's an interesting subject," said Caroline. "The Queen of Prussia loved to discuss these matters. We did it constantly at Liitzenburg."

"Well, you're not at Liitzenburg now."

"But we can have equally intelligent conversations here at Hanover."

"I don't care for these intelligent conversations."

"You would soon learn to. If you would read some of the philosophers..."

She stopped for he was looking at her oddly and the Elec-tress Sophia said quickly: "Oh the philosophers were never much to my grandson's taste, were they, George Augustus?"

"They would be if I wanted them to. I just don't, that's all. Caroline, are you ready?"

She was on the point of saying that she wished to stay with Leibniz and the Electress, when she caught the old woman's eye.

She rose at once and went with George Augustus into the palace.

As soon as they were alone he turned on her.

"So you would flaunt your cleverness?" he said unpleasantly.

"My ... cleverness?"

"Oh yes ... I am to read the books you give me. I am to learn to be as clever as you."

"But I did not say that."

"In front of that old fool Leibniz! "

"He is not a fool. He is one of the cleverest men living."

"Clever! Clever! Books, books, books. I tell you I won't have you trying to make me look a fool."

"But I had no intention ..."

"No intention! " he screamed in his rage. It was the first time she had seen these rages. He took off his wig and stamped on it. "Listen. I married you. You had nothing much to offer ... no dowry to speak of ... nothing ... but I married you."

She was about to say: Because the King of Spain had asked for me. But she stopped herself in time, and remained silent.

It was the right thing to have done for it stemmed his rage.

"I'll not have it," he said. "No wife should be cleverer than her husband, should she? Should she?"

If she is, she thought, there is no help for it.

"Should she?" he cried again, kicking his wig to the other side of the room.

In the silence that followed it was as though the sad ghost of the young Sophia Dorothea was warning her: Be careful. Don't go my way.

No, her way was not the right one. Caroline thought fleet-ingly of her own mother's miserable marriage.

Clever women took the reins in marriage, but they often did it by seeming docile.

"No," she said slowly, "she shouldn't."

A slow smile spread over his flushed face.

He walked to his wig, picked it up and crammed it down on his head.

He came to her then, his smile loving and very affectionate.

He kissed her with fervour—her lips first, and then he slid her bodice from her shoulders.

"You are the best wife in the world," he said thickly; and he reminded her of his father.

She wanted to cry out: No. Go away.

But she had learned her first lesson. She could not love this boy with his pitiful arrogance. But she could win nothing by letting him know that she was beginning to despise him.

• * *

When George Lewis retired to his bedchamber he found the

Countess von Platen waiting for him. He had not intimated that he would need her services that night but he was not surprised because she was the only one of his three established mistresses who now and then took the initiative.

George Lewis was not displeased. Although he liked variety it was among a selected circle; he was a faithful lover and once a mistress had a firm position she usually kept it. George Lewis was a man who had always dispensed with romantic wooing which he considered a waste of time; therefore a mistress who knew exactly what was expected of her—be she old and ugly as his two favourites Schulemburg and Kielmansegge undoubtedly had become—was more to his taste than any coy and shrinking virgin.

The Countess von Platen differed from the other two in the fact that she was both beautiful and fairly young, but he would never have selected her in the first place if she had not brought herself to his notice. When she had come to the Court as the wife of his first minister's son he had been unaware of her; until one night he had discovered her in his bedchamber where she threw herself on her knees and demanded to know why she had offended him.