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

perhaps it was pardonable between an uncle and his niece…even though she is a princess and he a king. And that was what you liked best.”
    I nodded.
    “You are a dear little girl,” he said. “I trust you will always have the sweet nature you have today, and that events… and those about you… will not succeed in changing you.”
    Then I said goodbye and he kissed me again.
    I was almost in tears at the thought of leaving him and he was very sad.
    Mama wanted to know exactly what he had said and what I had replied. I told her and added, “I think the King must be one of the nicest gentlemen in the world.”
    That did not please her, but that visit to the King had changed me a little. I had the impression that it was sometimes better for me to say what I meant rather than what I was expected to say.
    The King had thought so in any case.
    But there was so much I did not understand. Mama was right when she said I was so young; and quite often I did feel as though I were floundering in the dark.
    But I did know that the visit had made Mama very uneasy—not only about me, but about Feodore too.
    L IFE SEEMED DULL after the visit to Windsor. There were so many lessons and far too few holidays. If I complained Lehzen told me that it was my duty to acquire knowledge. A princess must not be an ignoramus.
    “But there is so much to learn!” I cried.
    “Of course there is,” retorted Lehzen. “We all go on learning all our lives.”
    “What a dreadful prospect!” I cried. At which she laughed and said that there was little to be compared with the joy of learning.
    I wanted to dispute that and say that I knew of many more pleasantthings, but Lehzen brought forth her favorite argument. “You are too young to know. In time you will realize.”
    And as I was young I could not really say this was not so. But I used to long to escape from the schoolroom. Then I would find Feodore and during the lovely summer days we would go into the gardens where I liked to water the plants. I had a very special watering can and I loved to watch the water spray out so prettily. I used to get my feet wet and Feodore would smuggle me in and Baroness Spath—whom I loved dearly because she was quite indiscreet and very kind—would put me into dry stockings, shoes, and gown, and there would be the added excitement because neither Mama nor Lehzen must know. That was imperative because if they did, the watering would be forbidden.
    We often went into my Uncle Sussex's garden and I watered his plants. He had apartments like ours in the Palace and although he was a very odd gentleman—like most of the uncles—he was a very kind one. When I was little I had been frightened of him because when I had screamed on one occasion, someone had said, “Be quiet or your Uncle Sussex will get you.” I suppose it was said because his apartments were near ours. And for a long time after that I regarded him with suspicion until I discovered him to be the last person who would complain, and in any case he would have been too absorbed in his books, his birds, and his music to be aware of my tantrums. But then I had been scared of all the paternal uncles until I came to know them—with the exception of Uncle Cumberland who really did strike terror into me, and I believe not without cause.
    However, there we were on those lovely summer days with the Baroness Spath—always so much less stern than Lehzen—in the gardens at Kensington—slipping into that of Uncle Sussex, Feodore with a book, I with the watering can, and Spath sitting on the grass beside Feodore watching me and now and then calling out a warning that I was pouring water onto my feet.
    I was so happy smelling the lavender, listening to the hum of bees, hidden away from the windows of our apartments in the Palace.
    Every time we were in Uncle Sussex's garden a young man would come to join us. He was Cousin Augustus, son of Uncle Sussex by his first marriage. Cousin Augustus was very handsome in his