Royal Sisters: The Story of the Daughters of James II - Plaidy

The Archbishop was surprised by the signs of grief in William’s face, for never before had he seen him betray any emotion. Never during his married life had he shown how much affection he had for his wife; and in view of the Archbishop’s mission the latter was doubly surprised.

“Your Majesty,” he said, “I come on an unpleasant duty and an indelicate mission. I pray you will forgive my frankness.”

William said coldly: “Pray proceed.”

“The Queen left me a casket which contains a letter addressed to you.”

“Left you a casket! With a letter for me! Why was it not left to me?”

“Because her late Majesty wished me to give this to you; there was also a letter for me in which she explains the contents of her letter to you. She wished me to remonstrate with you and to point out the evil of your conduct.”

William was startled out of his calm. “This seems to me both incredible and monstrous.”

The Archbishop’s eyes were as cold as those of the King. “Her Majesty suffered greatly from your infidelity and she fears that if you continue in your adultery you will not be received into heaven.”

“I do not understand how …”

The Archbishop held up a hand. William might be angry but Tenison was in command. The Queen had entrusted him with the saving of the King’s soul and he was going to perform his duty no matter how he offended him.

“The Queen was, of course, right to be anxious. You endanger your soul by continuing with this liaison.”

“I will be responsible for my soul,” retorted William.

“To God or to the Devil,” murmured the Archbishop. “I will leave the casket with you so that you may open your letter.”

“Pray do.”

“Then, Your Majesty, if there is anything you wish to discuss with me, if you wish my help in any way …”

“That is unlikely.”

The Archbishop bowed his head. “Then have I Your Majesty’s permission to broach a matter of a different nature, something which concerns the temporal position rather than the spiritual.”

William bowed his head.

“This concerns the Princess Anne. Your Majesty will be aware that many of those who have ignored her in the past are now flocking to pay their respects to her.”

“I know this.”

“And it is well that the people should know that she is recognized by Your Majesty as the heiress to the throne?”

“This is so.”

“The people would accept no other heir. Had you and her late Majesty been blessed with a child, that would have been different. But you were not.” The Archbishop looked reproachful as though suggesting that the barrenness of the late Queen was a punishment for her husband’s sins. It was an indication of how the people were feeling that the Archbishop should dare censure him in this way. He was now implying that if William married again and had issue, the child would not be accepted as heir to the throne.

He understood this, and of course Tenison was right.

“I propose,” went on the Archbishop, “that I speak to the Princess Anne and remind her of her duty. I believe that a reconciliation between Your Majesty and Her Highness should not be delayed.”

William answered: “Pray do this.” And in spite of the shock he had just received his spirits lifted a little. Tenison was an honest man. He disapproved of William’s relations with Elizabeth Villiers and said so; but at the same time he was anxious that there should be an end to the quarrel with Anne which was necessary if William’s reign was to continue in peace.

A good friend, this Archbishop, though an uncomfortable one. But William was wise enough to know that the best friends a King could have were often those who spoke their minds and made as little concession to royalty as possible.

He shut himself into his cabinet and opened the letter. He read it and as he did so he could scarcely stop the tears falling from his eyes. He understood her now as he never had when she had lived. She had been so constantly aware of his infidelity; and yet she had rarely given a sign of it, outwardly accepting it, behaving as though it did not exist, when all the time it was souring her existence. Poor, foolish Mary! Courageous, clever Mary! He had thought her more simple than she was. He remembered how she had sat knotting her fringe, close to the candlelight, because her eyes troubled her so; he could see her looking up at him smiling tenderly, radiantly, giving him the homage and humility he had demanded. And all the time she was thinking of him with Elizabeth.

Again he read her letter. He must give up Elizabeth. His immortal soul was in danger. She implored him to do so. Marry again if he must, but marry someone worthy to be a consort of a great King.

She was gone; he had lost her, never to see her again, to see her start at his entrance and flutter her hands in that helpless way which had so often exasperated him; and yet he had been annoyed when she had seemed more composed. Never to be able to talk to her, to have her give him all her attention, to let him see in a hundred ways how she adored him.

He had lost the best wife he could have had; she was all that he had needed in a wife; and he had never appreciated that when she was here with him. He had never thought of what he would do without her; in fact he had never believed he would have to be without her. He had been the delicate one, he had been the invalid.

But now she had gone. Mary, whom he had never quite understood.

Oh, there was the subtlety of his emotion. She had wanted to save his soul and that was the reason why she had left this last letter. But why had she thought fit to write to the Archbishop of Canterbury on this very private matter? Would it not have been enough to write to him? Now he was wondering about her motives as he constantly had during her lifetime, and he realized that he could never be sure of Mary—no more in death than in life. Perhaps she had believed that if she had not sent him the letter through the Archbishop he would not have taken it seriously. Now the Archbishop would remonstrate with him, for that was what Mary had asked him to do.

It was surprising that now he must be unsure of her, even as he had in life.

He touched his cheek and it was wet. He, cold stern William, was weeping. He wanted her back with him; there were so many questions he wanted to ask her. He wanted to know what was going on in her mind. Suddenly a sense of desolation swept over him. He understood that he had loved Mary; and he had lost her: he would never be able to tell her that he had loved her—in his way. Why had he not, when she was alive? Perhaps he had not known it.

He shut himself in his closet and gave orders that he was not to be disturbed. He opened a drawer and took out a lock of her hair. She had given it to him before one of his departures in what he had considered to be an excess of unnecessary sentimentality, and he had thrust it into this drawer, exasperated by her action.

Now he took it out and looked at it. It was beautiful hair, and he wished that he had appreciated it during her lifetime.

How odd that he felt no resentment toward her for writing that letter to him and worse still writing to the Archbishop. He would never feel resentment toward her again, and wished with all his heart that she were with him now.

He made a bracelet of the hair and tied it about his arm with a piece of black ribbon.

No one would see it; only he would know it was there; but he would wear it, in memory of her, until he died.

There was someone at the door of his cabinet. He cried out angrily: “Did I not say I did not wish to be disturbed?”

“The King will see me.”

He recognized the voice of the Archbishop and for the second time was too taken aback in the presence of this man to assert himself. The Archbishop shut the door and faced him.

“I see,” he said, “that Your Majesty suffers remorse. I come now to ask you for the promise as Her Majesty wished me to.”

“Promise?” demanded William.

“The promise that you will not see Elizabeth Villiers again.”

William was silent. The Archbishop had found him in the midst of his remorse; there were even traces of tears on his cheeks. Perhaps Tenison knew that what he felt today he would not feel next week: and that this was the time to complete the commission left to him by the dead Queen.

“It was her dying wish,” went on the Archbishop. “All her thoughts were for you. She died in fear that as an adulterer you would never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Perhaps she is watching us now, waiting, praying for you to give the answer she wants.”

William was choked by emotions. It seemed to him that he could never miss anyone as he missed Mary. He longed for her meekness, her tender docility—all that he had lost.

“She is watching us,” said Tenison. “Do you not sense her near?”

William murmured: “I promise. Please leave me now.”

The Archbishop, smiling serenely, left him.

William sat down and covered his face with his hands.

Elizabeth Villiers was alarmed. It was long since she had seen her lover. There was so much to discuss; she had news for him of how the Queen’s death was affecting the Princess Anne’s household. But he did not come.

He would though, she was sure of it. He could not do without her. It might be that, knowing they were spied on he did not want to give his enemies the scandal they were hoping for.

It was only a matter of waiting, Elizabeth assured herself.

There was excitement in Berkeley House. Sarah had dismissed everyone so that she could have a private talk with Anne before she left.

This was a change in their fortunes, she assured her friend.

“His Majesty will graciously see you. He has changed his tune a little. And that does not surprise me, for I can tell you this, Mrs. Morley, the people are not so fond of William on his own as they were when your sister was Queen. They ask themselves what right he has to assume the crown. And what right has he? It is you, Mrs. Morley, who should be wearing it. You should be thinking of riding to your coronation instead of being carried in your chair to wait on Caliban!”

“It is true enough, Mrs. Freeman; but my sister would not have wished it so.”

“Oh, she was bemused and bewildered by that Dutch Abortion.”

“How I wish that we had been good friends! I was sitting here remembering, dear Mrs. Freeman, when we were little girls. I could not bear her out of my sight. I always wanted to do what she did, wear what she wore … I loved her, I think, more than anyone in my life at that time.”

“Children at play!” said Sarah sharply. “Well, now she is dead and gone.”

“Alas! I would I could have her with me for a while so that I could mend our quarrel.”

“You have another to consider, Mrs. Morley, and therefore little time to waste on regrets for the past. What of the young Duke of Gloucester. You must make sure of his future.”

“My precious boy! How right you are, Mrs. Freeman, as usual.”

“And,” went on Sarah, “when you talk to Caliban, you must make sure that he does not forget that he cannot thrust your son from his position.”

“He wouldn’t dare.”

“Caliban would dare anything, I do assure you. What if he married again? What if he had a son? Ah, Mrs. Morley, I can see that he would be very anxious then to make sure your boy did not have the throne.”

Anne’s lethargy dropped from her. “There would be a revolution if he ever attempted to take my boy’s rights from him.”

“Remember that and make sure he understands it. You need friends, Mrs. Morley, as you never did. And those who would be the best friends to you are languishing in exile. Banished from Court. It is something you can remedy now, I’ll warrant.”

“You are thinking of Mr. Freeman.”

“He is the best friend Mrs. Morley ever had, and if he were brought back to Court would be ready to defend your rights and those of the young Duke with all his skill, which I assure you, Mrs. Morley, is formidable; and it is for this reason that Dutch William has kept him from you. Ask him now to bring him back. Now is the time for you to ask favors. He wishes to show the people he is on good terms with you. Bring Mr. Freeman back and then Mrs. Morley will have two Freemans to protect her from whatever ill wind is likely to harm her and the precious little Duke.”

“My dear good friends!” murmured Anne.

“And here is Mrs. Morley’s chair.”

“I need it. I do not think I could walk a step.”

“You must save all your energies for facing that monster!” said Sarah.

Anne was lifted into her chair and carried from Berkeley House first to Campden House and from there to Kensington Palace, where William was waiting to receive her.

Anne was suffering so much from gout and obesity that her chair had to be carried right to the door of the King’s presence chamber, where William, making an unusually gracious concession, came out to receive her and himself opened the door of her chair.

Taking his hand, Anne hobbled out.

Anne said tremulously: “I am sorry for Your Majesty’s loss.”

William answered: “I am sorry for yours.”

For the first time in her life Anne saw that he was moved by his emotions and this let loose her own; she began to weep silently.

William said gently: “Pray come in and be seated.”

He closed the door and they were alone. He brought forward a chair that Anne might sit and then he brought another for himself and placed it close to hers. For a few seconds they remained silent as though to control their grief.

Anne said simply: “If we could have been friends before she died …”

William nodded. At one time he might have given her a sardonic look, but he too had his remorse to disturb him.

“It is too late,” he said. “We must forget the past for the future could be troublesome. I want to make that safe for our heir.” Anne was alert at once. William’s voice was dry as he went on: “In this we must stand together. Do not forget that your father calls himself the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland; and that his son in France is known as the Prince of Wales. We must not deceive ourselves. There are some here who drink secretly to the King over the Water and who insist that that young boy is the Prince of Wales.”

Anne nodded slowly. They disliked each other intensely, but they must be allies.

“We have to make sure that you are accepted as heir to the throne to be followed by your son. I think this is a matter in which we are in complete agreement. Therefore we must forget all other differences. Are you of my opinion?”

“Your Majesty is most kind and gracious.”

“Then … we must show the people that we have settled our differences and are … friends.”

“Your Majesty will remember that the cause of my quarrel with my sister was that she wished me to dismiss my best friends.”

William was alert. “The Marlboroughs?” he muttered.