The Queen and Lord M by Jean Plaidy Read Free Book Online

superb bosom for a few seconds but she was thinking: Mamma will have to remember that I am the Queen.
    The Duchess was quivering with questions and advice. She wanted to carry off her daughter, advise her, warn her, in general lay before her the plans which she and Sir John had devised for the future. Victoria’s attitude of the past months might have prepared her for the difficulties she was facing, but the Duchess refused to accept this. Victoria was her child and she would always be so.
    ‘Thank you, Mamma,’ said Victoria coolly.
    ‘My darling, there is so much to talk about.’ The Duchess shot a glance at the Uncles and Lord Melbourne. Sir John had said: ‘Victoria must be warned against Melbourne. He is not on our side.’
    And there he was, thought the Duchess, taking charge, having paid two calls on Victoria already this morning although she had not been Queen more than half a day. Oh yes, Victoria must certainly be warned against Lord Melbourne.
    ‘Mamma,’ said Victoria, ‘am I really and truly Queen?’
    ‘But, my love, you have seen that you are.’
    ‘Then, Mamma, I hope you will grant the first request I make to you as Queen.’
    The Duchess’s smile was indulgent. A request? Some honour she was going to bestow on her dear Mamma in appreciation of all that had been done for her? ‘Dearest Mamma, I beg of you to accept …’ Now what would she be most likely to offer?
    ‘My love, I shall of course be delighted and now I suppose I should say honoured, for you are our little Queen, are you not? I shall be delighted to grant any request.’
    ‘Then, Mamma, let me be by myself for an hour.’
    The Queen passed on, leaving an astonished Duchess staring after her. Lord Melbourne was bowing to her with a slightly ironic smile on his handsome face.
    The Duchess was accustomed to scenes, having been responsible for many, but even she knew that this was not the moment to make one. The ingratitude! she was thinking. How could she … a daughter of mine!
    But Victoria was the Queen now and capable of anything.

    In Victoria’s room Lehzen was waiting for her.
    ‘I was a success, Lehzen,’ she cried. ‘All those men were expecting me to blush and stammer and show my fear of this great responsibility, but I did no such thing. I showed them quite clearly that having for so long been accustomed to the idea of being Queen, I know exactly how to act.’
    ‘As I always said you would.’
    ‘And I have just spoken to Mamma.’
    Lehzen was alert. It would never do for the Duchess to gain ascendancy over Victoria for that would mean that Lehzen was relegated to the background.
    ‘Do you realise, Lehzen, that all my life I have never been in a room alone?’
    ‘It was the Duchess’s orders that you should not be.’
    ‘I know, and we had to accept it. Now , Lehzen, I do not have to accept anything. I might decide to, if Lord Melbourne desired it, but that is a very different matter. So I told Mamma that I had a request to make which was that I be allowed to be alone for an hour.’
    ‘And the Duchess agreed—?’
    ‘My dear Lehzen, how could she do otherwise? I am the Queen.’
    Lehzen could take a hint. It would never do for her to become a nuisance.
    ‘I understand your feelings,’ she said. ‘It is so natural that you should wish to be alone. You will have so much to think about. So I will leave you to yourself.’
    If she were hoping for a protest she did not get it. This was indeed the Queen.
    Lehzen shut the door quietly and Victoria looked blissfully about the room.
    ‘Alone!’ she said aloud. ‘For the first time in my life.’

    It would not be for long, she knew, as her Ministers would soon begin to arrive and she must give them audience; but from now on if she ever wished for an hour’s solitude it could be hers.
    I never knew what a prisoner I was until now that I am free, she told herself. Free, that is, as ever a monarch can be.
    She would never be free to consider her own wishes if