Victoria Victorious: The Story of Queen Victoria by Jean Plaidy Read Free Book Online Page A

of them I recognized.
    I said, “I had never thought that talking to a king could be like this.”
    “Ah,” he said, “many people speak ill of kings and it is harder for them than most people to win real affection. If they do one thing which pleases some, it displeases others … so there is no way of pleasing everybody all the time.”
    I pondered this and said that if one were good, God would be pleased so everyone must be pleased too.
    “Except the devil,” he suggested. “He likes sinners, you know. So I am right, am I not?”
    “But of course you are right because…”
    “Because I am the King?”
    “No …” I said judiciously, “because you are
right
.”
    Aunt Mary laughed and said we should go to Virginia Water as it was a lovely drive.
    We went to the King's fishing temple where we left the phaeton and went into a barge. Several important people were there. The King presented me to them and they showed me a great deal of respect. One of them was the Duke of Wellington about whom Lehzen had told me a great deal. He was the hero of Waterloo who had played such an important part in our history. He was a very great man, but I did not like him very much. He was rather haughty and I believed was trying to remind everyone of his importance. I supposed that as Waterloo had happened nearly ten years before, he thought they were beginning to forget it and the memory must be constantly revived. He was not so very tall and rather thin, with a hooklike nose and eyes that seemed to look right through one—which made me rather uncomfortable. The King seemedto like him very much—at least to respect him. I supposed because of Waterloo.
    There was music and the band played “God Save the King” while I clasped my hands and looked up with affection at my uncle, who noticed this and gave me a very pleasant smile.
    But all good things must come to an end and I was taken back to Cumberland Lodge where Mama was waiting for me.
    What an interrogation there was! “What did the King say?” “And what did you reply to that?” “And then?” “And then…?” With here and there Mama clicking her tongue. “You shouldn't have said that. You should have said this…or this…”
    “But Mama,” I insisted. “I think the King liked me to say what
I
meant.”
    “He wanted to know exactly what was going on. He wanted to trap you.”
    “Oh no, Mama. He just wanted me to laugh and enjoy it.”
    She shook her head at me. “You are very young, Victoria,” she said.
    “But I am getting older. No one stays young forever.”
    “You do not listen enough. You are too anxious to say what
you
think.”
    “But, Mama, how can I say what anyone else thinks?”
    She turned away and suddenly I felt sorry for her. It was odd to feel sorry for Mama when everyone in our household obeyed her…well perhaps not all. Perhaps not Sir John Conroy and it might well be that sometimes
she
obeyed
him
.
    The time came when the visit to Windsor was at an end and we must return to Kensington. The King asked them to lift me onto his knee when he said goodbye. He told me how much he had enjoyed my visit and hoped I had too.
    “Oh yes, indeed I have,” I said. “It has been particularly wonderful because I had been afraid that it might not be.”
    “Why were you afraid?”
    “One is afraid of kings.”
    “Because of what one has been led to expect?”
    “Yes, because of that.”
    “And I was not such an ogre after all? In fact I think you and I liked each other rather well.”
    “Well, I liked you, Uncle King, and I think you liked me too because you gave me such a wonderful time… besides the picture.”
    He smiled and said, “Tell me what you liked best of your stay.”
    I hesitated for a moment and then I said, “I liked so many things but I think the best was when you said ‘Pop her in' and we galloped off in the phaeton.”
    “Did I say that?”
    “Yes. ‘Pop her in.' ”
    “It was not really kingly language, was it? But