Queen in Waiting: (Georgian Series) Read Free Page A

her daughter if she were a wandering exile? But if Caroline’s stepfather was the Elector of Saxony…
    She said quietly: ‘Your Highness does me much honour.’
    Much honour indeed! He wondered what Magdalen would say when he returned to Dresden. Her mother would be furious because he knew that Madam von Röohlitz dearly desired her daughter to be his wife. An exciting project! He would be willing to marry Magdalen but his ministers would never agree of course, and he had to take this poor creature instead.
    He looked at her with fresh distaste but reassured himself that a wife and a mistress need not interfere with each other.
    ‘Then you will take me as your husband?’
    ‘I… I will, Your Highness.’
    ‘Then that matter is settled.’
    He bowed, turned on his heel and went to the door. The natural sequence to such a question and answer should have been an embrace, a confessing of admiration, a promise of enduring affection. But he had no intention of letting her think he cared sufficiently for her to pretend to hold her in any regard. She would have to understand that this was an arrangedmarriage. He might have to attempt to get an heir; she had two children already so was no doubt fertile, and once she was pregnant he need not see her unless it was necessary to get another child.
    Left alone Eleanor stood staring at the door. She was trembling. He had seemed so strange. He was younger than she was – in his twenties and not without good looks. Uneasily she remembered having heard a rumour that he behaved oddly at times since he had had a blow on the head. She had heard too that he was dissolute, extravagant – in fact a libertine.
    What will this marriage be like? she asked herself.
    It will be like many other marriages of state, she told herself. Arranged. The surprising aspect was that she should have something to offer. If he had not been infatuated with a woman who was reputed to be a spy for the Austrians would the Brandenburgs have arranged this marriage? It was scarcely likely. Her duty was to influence him when she was married; she had to keep him aware that alliance with Brandenburg was preferable to that with Austria. How could she persuade him when he seemed to regard her with such distaste?
    She could have wept with humiliation and frustration. With the passing of the years tears had come with increasing ease.
    It was a bitter choice – to wander from one friend’s hospitality to that of another, becoming more and more of an encumbrance as the years passed; or marriage with a man of wealth and some power who could, if he were so inclined, make a good match for her daughter.
    There can be no choice, she thought. Besides, it is the wish of the Brandenburgs. But how I wish it need not be, how I wish my dear John Frederick had lived. Never had the palace of the Margraves of Ansbach seemed so inviting; never before had she longed so fervently to be back in those baroque rooms with their porcelain galleries.
    Trying to hold back her tears she went to find her daughter.
    Caroline curtsied before the Electress Sophia Charlotte.
    ‘Well, my dear,’ said the Electress. ‘We have some good news for you. Have you told her yet?’
    ‘Not yet,’ answered Eleanor. ‘I thought I would consult you first.’
    ‘Come here, my child.’
    Sophia Charlotte stroked the auburn hair and smiled into the pink rather plump little face with the bright blue, very intelligent eyes.
    ‘You will soon be going to a new home, my dear. I think that will please you.’
    ‘Are we coming here?’ asked Caroline eagerly.
    Sophia Charlotte shook her head but she looked pleased because Caroline had betrayed her desire to stay in Berlin.
    ‘No, my dear. You are to have a father.’
    Caroline looked bewildered; then she saw that her mother, although pretending to smile, was really very frightened; but as the Electress was pleased she supposed it was a good thing.
    ‘You will be going to live in Saxony and you will find it very