The Widow of Windsor by Jean Plaidy Read Free Book Online Page B

years before it was over.

Chapter IV
    A DAZZLING PROSPECT
    Life had gone on much as before in the Yellow Palace. Alix and Dagmar shared an attic room which contained two narrow beds, a chest of drawers and very little room for anything else. There were lessons every day with their mother. Music played a very big part in their lives. Louise played her pianoforte with skill and feeling and she was anxious that the children should do the same. Alix was taught to make her own clothes for they were much too expensive to buy; and as soon as Dagmar was old enough she would learn too. In the meantime she was allowed to watch. Alix had developed a skill in dressmaking which was a pleasure to her mother; she could choose the most becoming colours with ease and had a natural artistic bent. She enjoyed making clothes and when they were completed would like to parade up and down before her brothers and little sister while they applauded.
    When she walked out with her mother wearing the new dress or jacket which she had helped to make she would be very conscious of its cut and would compare it with clothes worn by others; on her return she would, on her mother’s orders, take it off, put on something less precious, and hang it up in her wardrobe so that it should be fresh when next required. There were the visits to Rumpenheim which still went on in spite of the war. There Alix became aware that her clothes were very simple compared with those of her female relations.
    ‘Never mind,’ said her mother. ‘You wear yours so much better that they look as good.’
    This impressed Alix. It was true. Some of them slouched or did not stand up straight. She must remember that.
    They continued with their physical exercises.
    ‘Papa will expect it when he comes home,’ said Louise.
    And at last Papa did come home.
    What rejoicing there was! It was just as Fredy had said all those years ago – it seemed an age – when the war had started. The bands played; there were marches through the streets; uniforms and general rejoicing. Uncle Frederick had won his war against the rebels of Schleswig-Holstein. Denmark was safe and the King was a hero. So was Prince Christian.
    How proud they all were and how delighted the Prince was to be home with his family!
    Mama played the piano and they all sang Danish songs. Songs of Triumph now. No need to ask for God’s help. They had won the war. They were safe.
    Papa explained it all to them and they listened eagerly.
    Schleswig-Holstein had ‘come to its senses’; it was content now to be part of Denmark; and the wicked ogre of the story, who oddly had the same name as Papa, Prince Christian, though of Augustenburg, had gone to Germany.
    Papa was jubilant; he had conducted himself with honour in the war and had worked closely with King Frederick so that they had become good friends.
    It was all wonderful.
    Louise, however, was not so optimistic; she had qualms about the future and she often discussed these when she was alone with her husband.
    ‘It’s a temporary peace,’ she said. ‘A truce really.’
    ‘Why, my dear,’ remonstrated Christian, ‘we well and truly trounced them.’
    ‘What about Prussia? There are plots brewing there, I’m sure.’
    ‘You worry too much.’
    But dear Christian was a little naive and none knew it better than his wife. The European powers shared Louise’s fears of the growing ambitions of Prussia and realised that a strong Denmark was essential to curb those ambitions. And as Frederick was without a son to follow him, the succession was still unsettled. A conference of the powers took place in London and one of the items discussed was a possible heir to the throne of Denmark, and now that Prince Christian of Augustenburg was in disgrace, it was decided that, in accordance with an earlier suggestion of the late King, it should be settled on Prince Christian through his wife Louise.
    There was an immediate agreement to this.
    Prince Christian heard the news with some