The Summer Queen Read online

  ‘When I was approaching toddlerhood, my right arm was strapped to my side, in the hope it would miraculously result in my using the left arm. I didn’t, of course. How could I? All it did was hinder my learning to walk, because it affected my balance and meant I did nothing for years but fall over. And when strapping my good arm to my side didn’t work, I was given animal baths.’

  ‘Animal baths?’ May stared at him wide-eyed. ‘What are animal baths?’

  ‘It’s when an injured limb is placed inside a freshly killed animal. In my case, the animal was a hare. I was only four at the time, and I can’t begin to tell you how terrifying the experience was.’

  May felt ill. ‘But why on earth . . .?’

  ‘God only knows. Presumably the doctors thought doing so would energize my arm, but the only result was that I had nightmares about dead furry things for years.’ Willy shielded his eyes, looking out to sea, to where the Danish royal yacht lay at anchor. ‘After dead hares, I had electric-shock treatments, which were supposed to jolt my arm into life; and when they failed, I was strapped into an iron arm-stretching machine for an hour every day. The only outcome, for the years and years of medieval torture, was that it emphasized my difference from everybody else in the family. I’m so much of an outsider that sometimes I don’t feel part of the family at all.’

  May drew in an unsteady breath. That anyone else in the family should feel as she did − even if for a very different reason – was such a revelation that it made her feel dizzy. Even though Willy was eight years her senior and an adult, she suddenly identified with him in a way she had never done with any of her other cousins.

  Willy began one-handedly taking off his footwear. ‘I fancy a paddle to cool down. Are you coming, Alicky? May?’

  Alicky looked doubtful, but May, who didn’t want the unity that had so unexpectedly been forged between the three of them to come to an end, said encouragingly, ‘Come on, Alicky. I’m going in. Do you know Granny Queen has a bathing machine so that she can go into the sea and sea-bathe?’

  Alicky hadn’t known and, as May began undoing the buttons on her white boots, she said, ‘Is Granny Queen your granny as well, May?’

  ‘No.’ May took off her boots and began undoing Alicky’s. ‘The Queen is my mother’s first cousin, and though she isn’t my aunt, she allows me to address her as if she is, and it is how I always think of her.’

  With their boots off, they peeled off their long white stockings and then, hand-in-hand, began running towards the sea.

  ‘I wish I’d brought my bathing costume,’ Willy shouted, his trouser legs rolled up to his knees.

  May also wished she had her bathing costume with her. She could have changed into it in the privacy of the bathing machine. Scooping her skirt and petticoats as high and as far away from the water as she could, she splashed towards him, amazed at how much fun Cousin Willy – whom she had always regarded as being no fun at all – could be.

  Suddenly he frowned. Shielding his eyes from the sun, he looked towards the far end of the beach where two figures could be seen. ‘Do you think that’s Ella?’ He was rigid with tension. ‘And is that Louis of Battenberg with her?’

  ‘Yes, it’s Louis.’ May had exceptionally good eyesight. ‘But it’s not Ella he’s with. It’s Vicky.’ Willy’s shoulders sagged in relief and she said, ‘Why would it have mattered if it had been Ella?’

  ‘Because I’m in love with Ella, and I’m going to marry her. I made up my mind about it a year ago. The last thing I need is Grandmama matchmaking Ella with anyone.’

  May’s eyebrows rose. Ella was just fifteen and she thought even Aunt Queen would think that a little on the young side for serious courtship.

  Alicky pulled on May’s hand, whispering anxiously to her behind Willy’s back, ‘Ella won’t want to marry him. She doesn’t like him. Do you think we should tell him? It doesn’t seem fair for him to be hopeful, when he’s going to be so disappointed.’

  ‘I don’t think any good would come of telling him,’ May whispered back. ‘It would only upset him.’

  She didn’t add that, as his grandmother would already have a bride lined up for Willy, there was no point. She wondered who the bride would be and rather thought that in four years’ time, when she would be sixteen, it would be Looloo. For what could be more dynastically perfect than another marriage between the House of Coburg and the House of Hohenzollern? That they were first cousins wouldn’t be seen as a drawback. Aunt Queen had never made a secret of her belief that marriages between first cousins strengthened the royal bloodline.

  Suddenly Willy said, ‘Time for us to leave.’

  May saw why. Uncle Wales was strolling from the woodland onto the beach, and with him were Alicky’s father and the Duke of Connaught.

  Willy was already striding rapidly out of the water, but not rapidly enough.

  ‘Whoa there, Willy!’ Uncle Wales shouted, cigar in hand. ‘What’s this love of the sea? Are you thinking of leaving the Foot Guards for the Navy? And which navy?’ He bellowed with laughter. ‘The Royal Navy, the oldest and biggest in the world, or the Kaiserliche Marine, the newest and the smallest?’

  May couldn’t see Willy’s face for he was bending over, rolling his trouser bottoms down, but she see could that he was tense with rage at the slur on the size of his country’s navy.

  Certain that his uncle would make more of what he always referred to as his ‘teases’, if he were to put his boots on one-handedly in front of him, Willy scooped them up and, without turning his head to say goodbye to May and Alicky, marched off in the direction of the footpath, his shoulders ramrod-straight, the back of his neck still crimson.

  May and Alicky were left facing a wall of disapproval, sensing that one of the reasons for it was that Alicky’s nanny wasn’t with them. Before Alicky’s father could say so, May pre-empted his scolding by saying, ‘Cousin Willy has been awfully good at looking after us, Uncle Ludwig. Because he’s an army officer, we felt very safe.’

  Picking up their stockings and boots, she took firm hold of Alicky’s hand. ‘And now, if it’s all right, we’re going to join Looloo, Toria and Maudie on the lawn for a game of Jacks.’

  Without waiting for a reply, and still holding Alicky’s hand, she set off towards the trees, walking as speedily as Willy had. Only when they had reached them did she come to a halt.

  ‘I wasn’t fibbing when I said we were going back to the lawn to play Jacks with the Wales girls,’ she said, helping Alicky on with her boots. ‘It’s something I promised Aunt Alix I would do. You don’t mind, do you?’

  ‘No. I like playing Jacks, and I like Looloo and Maudie.’

  ‘What about Toria?’

  Alicky frowned. ‘I don’t like Toria so much.’

  ‘Why?’ May was intrigued.

  ‘Because she’s a cat,’ Alicky said and, in complete agreement about Cousin Toria, they set off at a run up the woodland path.

  Chapter Two

  AUGUST 1879, OSBORNE HOUSE

  Osborne was May’s favourite of all her Aunt Queen’s royal residences. Whenever she stayed there, and if Ella was there at the same time, they always shared a bedroom and stayed up talking long after they should have been asleep.

  ‘What did Aunt Queen want to talk to Vicky about this afternoon?’ May asked, sitting up in bed in the darkness, her arms hugging her knees. ‘Was it a prospective husband discussion?’

  Ella made herself comfortable against the feather-filled pillows. ‘It was, and it didn’t end well. Granny Queen has two suitors in mind for Vicky, and Vicky says she’ll die before accepting either of them. One candidate was in his thirties and the other had a wooden leg. Can you imagine?’

  May couldn’t.

  ‘And what makes it worse for Vicky is that she has a desperate crush on Louis of Battenberg, and for her to marry a Battenberg is out of the question.’

  May was about to ask why, when she remembered that Louis’s parents’ marriage had been a mésalliance, just as her pa
ternal grandparents’ marriage had been. Like her, Louis was a Serene Highness and, when it came to being eligible in the family’s marriage market, being a Serene and not a Royal simply wasn’t good enough. Quickly she changed the subject. ‘Do you know Cousin Willy is in love with you, and that when you’re old enough to be married, he plans on marrying you?’

  ‘Yes. He’s a pest. I didn’t know his hope was public knowledge, though. Who told you?’

  ‘He did.’

  At the stunned expression on Ella’s face, May giggled. ‘Alicky and I spent some of the afternoon with him down on the beach, where, incidentally, I saw Vicky walking with Louis of Battenberg.’

  The fact that, after her conversation with their grandmother, her sister had immediately sought out Louis interested Ella, but something else interested her even more.

  ‘Why on earth were you with Cousin Willy? He’s such a bore – people go to great lengths to avoid him, they don’t seek him out. Once, at Balmoral, when Papa saw Willy approaching him down a corridor, he opened the first door he saw and darted into what he thought was a room. Only it wasn’t a room, it was a cupboard. Even though no one saw him hide, Papa says he felt an awful fool.’

  Amused at the thought of the Grand Duke of Hesse’s embarrassment, May said, ‘I think the family have got Cousin Willy quite wrong. He was niceness itself to Alicky and me.’

  ‘That’s because you’re twelve and Alicky is seven, and he obviously didn’t feel he had to impress you. Papa says Willy’s bad manners and bullying are a way of covering up a secret lack of self-confidence.’

  ‘Because of his deformed arm and hand?’

  ‘I expect so. It’s a ghastly handicap. Do you know he needs someone to cut his food up for him? How did his desire to marry me one day come up in conversation? What was he saying about me?’

  ‘He hadn’t been saying anything. He’d been telling us about the nightmarish time when he was little and all sorts of hideous things were done to him, in the hope of making his arm grow properly. And suddenly he saw Vicky at the far end of the beach, walking with Louis – only at first he thought it was you with Louis. His mood changed so immediately when I told him it wasn’t you; and when I asked him why, he told me.’

  Ella swung her legs from the bed. ‘Even if I fancied Willy – which I don’t − Papa would never in a million years give his permission. It was Prussian warmongering that forced our family’s grand duchy into the newly formed German empire, and it’s something Papa will never forgive. He would rather see me married to a Turk than married to a prince of Prussia. I fancy a biscuit. Do you want one? Granny always has some Garibaldis tucked away in a dresser drawer.’

  With the Garibaldis retrieved, Ella sat on the side of May’s bed. ‘I hate this having to make a suitable dynastic-marriage business,’ she said. ‘Luckily, Granny Queen doesn’t have Willy in mind for me; she’s far more keen on a marriage that will strengthen the ties between the new Germany and England.’

  ‘But how?’ May was bewildered. The only eligible young men high-ranking enough to achieve such a purpose were Eddy and Georgie. Although it was obvious they would one day have to enter into politically advantageous marriages, it had never occurred to her that one of the brides might be Ella. Dry-mouthed and praying the groom wouldn’t be Eddy, she added, ‘And who with?’

  Ella brushed Garibaldi crumbs from the front of her nightdress. ‘Eddy. I can’t say I’m enthused. He’s too much of a mystery. You never know what he’s thinking. But after Granny Queen’s death and after Uncle Wales becomes King and he dies, Eddy will be King – although he won’t be titled King Edward or King Eddy, as his Christian name is actually Albert Victor – and as Granny Queen is now Empress of India, he’ll be an emperor as well. All of which means I will then be both a queen and an empress.’ She stood up and crossed over to her own bed. ‘Which isn’t bad for a princess of a little duchy like Hesse, is it?’ she asked, sliding down beneath the covers. ‘Goodnight, best friend May. Sweet dreams.’

  May’s dreams were anything but sweet, and the next morning her mood was glum and would have remained glum if it hadn’t been for Alicky seeking her out. ‘I’ve given Nanny Orchie the slip again, so that we can have another nice time on the beach with Cousin Willy,’ she said, taking hold of her hand. ‘He’s gone down to Granny Queen’s sketching alcove to write a letter to Ella and, when he’s finished writing it, I’m to give it to her. He says if he tried to give it her, she wouldn’t take it from him.’

  The semicircular sketching alcove had been built on the far end of the beach so that Queen Victoria could sit in the shade and, enjoying the view, indulge her passion for sketching in watercolours. There was a wooden bench built into the curve of the blue-tiled inside wall, and the ceiling tiles were prettily decorated with exotic yellow stars.

  As May didn’t fancy the idea of anyone else’s company, and as the Queen wouldn’t be sketching when she had so many family members visiting, she thought a visit to the alcove as good an idea as any. Walking across the terrace and skirting the island beds of geraniums, zinnias and marigolds, she wondered if it would be a kindness or a cruelty to tell Willy that his grandmother’s plans were for Ella to marry Eddy.

  By the time they were walking down the steps to the lower terrace she had decided it would be an unnecessary cruelty – especially as most royal bridegrooms didn’t marry until their early twenties, and Eddy was still only fifteen She wondered if Eddy knew of the plans his grandmother had for him and, if he did marry Ella, if he would be happy.

  Because her mother gossiped with her on subjects that girls her age were usually in ignorance of, May knew that some arranged royal marriages – although not many − were happy. Willy’s parents’ marriage was a love match and a happy marriage. Her Aunt Alix’s sister’s marriage to the Tsar of Russia was also, according to her mother, happy. ‘Which is a miracle,’ her mother had said, ‘for Minny was first engaged to Tsar Uncle Sasha’s older brother, and it was only when his older brother suddenly died that she was handed on, so to speak, to Tsar Uncle Sasha.’ In those kinds of circumstances, May thought her Aunt Minnie’s happy marriage was nothing short of a miracle.

  As she walked over an immaculately clipped lawn towards the belt of woodland, it occurred to her that there was another side of the coin to not being ebenbürtig. She would never be in Vicky’s position of having, for dynastic reasons, to marry a man who was not of her choice, when she was in love elsewhere – as May was sure Vicky was with Louis. But would anyone not royal, but aristocratic, marry her, when she would come to marriage without a dowry? And was marriage to someone not aristocratic out of the question, because it would simply never be allowed?

  May knew that at her age she shouldn’t be worrying about her future marriage prospects in this way, but she couldn’t help it and, up to now, there had never been anyone she felt she could share her worries with. Now, however, there was. There was Cousin Willy.

  He was already seated in the sketching alcove as they walked up to it, and the first thing he did, on rising to his feet, was to hand Alicky a sealed envelope with the House of Hohenzollern crest on it.

  ‘There’s something I want to talk to you about,’ May said to him, as Alicky put the letter safely in her peggy-purse. ‘The Queen has been talking to cousins not much older than I am about their future marriage prospects, but she’s never going to have a chat like that with me, because I’m not ebenbürtig.’

  ‘That’s a funny word.’ Alicky looked up, interested. ‘What does it mean?’

  ‘It means “of equal birth”.’

  Seeing that Alicky was still puzzled, May added, ‘It means I’m semi-royal and that I don’t have the title Royal Highness, only Serene Highness.’

  ‘And what is it about being a Serene Highness, and not a Royal Highness, that you want to talk to me about?’ Willy asked.

  ‘Because I’m not of equal birth and no royal marriage will be arranged for me, what will happen to me? Will anyone aristocratic want to marry
me, when I’m not an heiress? Papa has no fortune, for he was only an officer in the Austrian Army when he and Mama married, and he and Mama are always in financial difficulties.’

  Willy frowned and twirled an end of his narrow, upturned moustache. ‘Then perhaps the Queen will settle a dowry on you.’ He didn’t sound hopeful. ‘Or perhaps a rich member of the peerage – so rich it won’t matter to him that you are not an heiress − will fall in love with you?’

  ‘But is that likely to happen, when I’m so very gawky and plain? And as I’m gawky and plain now, I suppose I will still be gawky and plain in another four or five years’ time.’

  Unable to deny that what she’d said was a very likely possibility, Willy said nothing.

  Not having expected him to, May said dejectedly, ‘And so what is to become of me, Willy? Will I have to marry a commoner?’

  ‘Lieber Gott, May! You will never be allowed to do that.’ When he was at Osborne, Willy’s English seldom lapsed into German unless other relatives were speaking it, or unless the Queen – in memory of her late beloved husband – interjected a German expression into the conversation. That Willy had done so showed May more clearly than anything else that marrying a commoner was never going to be an option.

  Alicky’s pretty face was deeply concerned. ‘Does that mean you are too royal to marry anyone who isn’t, May? And that you are not royal enough to marry anyone who is?’

  May squeezed her hand. ‘Yes, Alicky, I think it does. And it makes me feel an outsider and as if I’m not quite part of the family – just as Cousin Willy’s arm makes him feel an outsider and as if he’s not part of the family.’

  Willy put his good arm around her shoulders. ‘Then, May, we are kindred spirits. And now we should walk back, so that Alicky can deliver my letter to Ella.’

  As they rose to their feet, Alicky said, ‘What is a “kindred spirit”, Cousin Willy?’