Part 15 (1/2)
The people had so loved the scandal their King provided that they forgave him everything else, but it had been so because they had lived through the dreary years of puritanism and needed a violent change. Now that was over; and they wanted to settle down with a good and virtuous woman as their figurehead.
Anne often thought of this as she sat fondling her little dogs.
I want to be a good ruler, she a.s.sured herself. I want to be remembered as Good Queen Anne.
She must rouse herself. She was not going to be persuaded to what she did not want to do by anyone ... anyone. That was a fact she would make clear in her own way, which was not to quarrel with a person's opinion. She loathed quarrelling. It demanded too much energy and it was pointless. She was the Queen and she would have her way-only she wanted people to realize it without a great deal of discussion.
To set a good example to her people; to do good; to make England great. What a pleasant subject to contemplate while her dear little dogs nuzzled against her and she nibbled sweetmeats from the dish at her elbow, or sipped a cup of chocolate, or simply lay back contentedly while the efficient and most skilful hands of Abigail Hill ma.s.saged her swollen limbs.
George came into the Queen's apartments, more animated than usual and with him he brought an odd pair-a country man and a woman, in all possibility his wife-who looked so incongruous in the Windsor apartments that Anne was startled.
Abigail who had been playing the harpsichord stopped and turned to watch; Anne's attention was all for her husband and the odd little pair.
”My dearest,” cried George, ”I must present to you these good people. This is John Duddlestone of Bristol and this his good wife. You remember, my dear, vot I haf told you of the gootness of John Duddlestone.”
Anne smiled at the pair of them, who seemed struck dumb, and said, ”John Duddlestone, my dearest? Of Bristol?”
”You remember, my love.” He turned to them. ”The Queen is so goot. She remember everything I tell her ... and she likes much those who haf shown me the kindness.”
Anne mildly wished that George would express himself more clearly and come to the point, but she sat smiling graciously, never betraying by a fleeting expression that she had no notion who these people were.
Abigail, watching, thought then that it would be a great mistake to dismiss the Queen as a foolish woman. She was by no means so. Physical debility might make her seem lazy, amenable; but it was not so. Anne was so like many calm good-natured people; she could give way frequently until she decided to make a stand; then none could be more stubborn. Moreover, a great determination to be worthy of her office had come to her. To watch her now with these two country people was a lesson in good manners and diplomacy. She had not wished to be disturbed; she could not be greatly interested in the Duddlestones; she could not remember what she had heard of them; yet she betrayed nothing of this.
George went on: ”It is ven I am in Bristol. Ven I vas at the Exchange and none asked me to dine. Then Master John Duddlestone came to me and he says: 'Vos you the husband of our Queen Anne?' And I say, my love, that I haf that great joy and honour and he say 'I am a humble bodice-maker of Bristol and no one asks you to dine because they think you too great and important gentleman because you are husband to our Queen. But the shame of Bristol vould be great if the husband of our Queen must dine at a inn because no Bristol door was opened to him.' So, my love, he takes me to his home.”
George was beaming with pleasure and Anne was always delighted to see him pleased.
She looked at John Duddlestone and said: ”Anyone who has shown kindness to the Prince, my husband, is a friend of mine.”
The Prince whispered: ”You must kneel to Her Majesty.”
John Duddlestone did so with some awkwardness and Anne gave him her hand to kiss.
Then his wife came forward and made her clumsy obeisance.
George chuckled. ”He call to his wife and say: 'Wife, the Queen's husband haf come to dine with us, so put on a clean ap.r.o.n and come down to greet the guest.' So down she came in a clean ap.r.o.n....”
”It were blue, Your Majesty,” said Mistress Duddlestone.
Anne smiled as though the colour of the ap.r.o.n was a matter of great interest.
”And a very good dinner it was,” said George reminiscently.
”His Highness is very particular about his food,” put in Anne; and again Abigail was surprised by her ability to take part in such a scene.
”So pleased,” went on George, ”that I say, when next he comes to Windsor he must call and I give him dinner.”
”We came to buy whalebone, Your Majesty,” John Duddlestone told Anne.
”And you make ...?”
”Stays, now, Your Majesty. For the fas.h.i.+on has changed. Once we made bodices but now we make stays.”
”So, they haf come to dine with me,” said the beaming Prince.
”Then,” said Anne, ”they must dine with me also. Hill! Oh there you are, Hill. You will take Master and Mistress Duddlestone and tell them what they will need, and see that it is supplied for them.”
”Yes, Your Majesty,” said Abigail, and led the couple away.
The Queen's servants were discussing the affair.
The pages, Saxton, Smith and Kirk paused in their game of cards to offer their comment.
William Lovegrove, the coffer-bearer, said to Mrs. Abrahal, the Queen's starcher: ”Such a thing would never have happened if the d.u.c.h.ess were at Court.”
”Who ever heard of a stays-maker dining with the Queen?” demanded Mrs. Ravensford, the Queen's seamstress.
”I repeat,” said Lovegrove, ”the d.u.c.h.ess would never have allowed it.”
”Fitted out with Court dresses, if you please ... provided from her own wardrobe and made to fit!”
”Purple velvet. Because when the Prince dined with them that was what he wore.”
”And the Queen knighting the fellow so that the bodice- and stays-maker will return to Bristol Sir John Duddlestone ... and all because he gave a dinner to the Queen's husband! Did you ever hear the like?”
”And what do you think? Not content with giving the man and his wife their t.i.tles the Queen took the gold watch from her side and gave it to Lady Duddlestone.”
Amid the shrill laughter that followed Mrs. Abrahal said that she reckoned Lady Duddlestone would go to market in her ap.r.o.n wearing the Queen's gold watch.
The picture increased the hilarity to such an extent that Mrs. Danvers looked in to see what all the merriment was about. When she was told she tut-tutted with disapproval.
”I never heard the like!” she declared. ”I wish I had been told earlier that the wardrobe was going to be raided to provide purple velvet for bodice-makers.”
”Mrs. Hill received the orders, Mrs. Danvers,” said Mrs. Abrahal. ”I wonder I was not asked to starch a head for the new lady when I was doing the Queen's.”
”Mrs. Hill receives most of the Queen's orders now,” added Lovegrove.
”It's true,” agreed Mrs. Danvers thoughtfully. ”That girl is with Her Majesty most of the day.”
”On the d.u.c.h.ess's orders, Mrs. Danvers.”
”Yes,” said Mrs. Danvers slowly, ”on the d.u.c.h.ess's orders. If it were not so I would have a word to say to Her Grace about Mrs. Hill.”
”You can't say the creature gives herself airs, Mrs. Danvers.”
”Indeed no. She creeps about so that you can never be sure when she has entered a room.”