Jean Plaidy - Goddess of the Green Room

‘If the children go,’ said Miss Sketchley, ‘I will remain with you.’

So the decision was made. Dorothy parted with the children and went back to the stage.

She was playing again in the new theatre of Covent Garden. The audience went wild with joy. They were determined to show her how glad they were that she was back.

The Morning Post wrote:

‘She was greeted with reiterated bursts of the most ardent applause. Her performance throughout was such as fully to merit the warm testimonials of approbation by which in every scene in which she appeared she was honoured. She is increased in size but there is no abatement of her natural vivacity or that wonted gaiety of deportment and sweetness of expression which have ever formed so distinguished a characteristic of the performance of this inimitable and most favoured votary of Thalia.’

She was back on the stage. She was back in the news, for naturally there were those to detract as well as those to applaud.

They were delighted with her. They had missed her – theatre and press. And they were glad that Dorothy Jordan was back.

She played her light-hearted comedy roles with zest; but she was sad at heart.

She had lost her lover and her young children. But she had saved Fanny and her husband from disaster. That must be her reward.

WILLIAM WAS PENITENT. He knew why Dorothy had returned to the stage. She was not doing it for herself but for that family of hers – that ungrateful Fanny and her worse than ungrateful husband.

He wished that he could go back to her. But how could he now? The parting was too far behind him; too much had happened; and he was determined to marry. He must. It was for this reason that he had given up Dorothy; so he must have a wife to justify his act.

Was it his fault that Catherine Tylney-Long and Mercer Elphinstone had refused him? He had forgotten what they looked like now. Yet he could see Dorothy’s face as clearly as though she were beside him.

He must not think of Dorothy. It was a phase of his life which was over. But he would put no obstacle in the way of seeing the children; and although they could not live under her roof while she followed her stage profession they could visit her and write to her when they cared to.

George was a constant correspondent. So was Molpuss who was very interested in the theatre and wanted to know all about it.

Her children’s letters were her greatest comfort and she wrote to them in the same prolific way in which she had once written to William.

William wrote to her suggesting that he might help over Alsop. Lord Moira, who was an old friend of his and the Prince Regent, had been appointed Governor-General of Bengal and it had occurred to William that there might be a place for Alsop on his staff. It would be an excellent post for Alsop whom he understood had no employment; and would at the same time remove him from Dorothy’s roof so that he would cease to be a burden to her. In due course his wife could follow him there. If she thought it was a good idea and let him know he would speak to Moira and do what he could to arrange it.

Dorothy was gratified – not only because it seemed a good prospect for the Alsops but because William and she were friendly again.

When Alsop heard of the offer, he was delighted. Most certainly he would take it, he said; and if Dorothy would take over his creditors, as she was doing, there was absolutely no reason why he should not go to India.

Alsop had left, to Dorothy’s great relief. Fanny talked of going out after him but with no real intention of doing so, and Dorothy believed in her heart that if her eldest daughter did go there might be a chance of that peaceful life for which she had craved.

She had settled Alsop’s debts and if she went on commanding the high prices which theatre managers were willing to pay her she reckoned that in a year or two she would be able to retire.

She had lost he children, but several of them wrote to her regularly and she carefully followed all their activities. Sophie was the only one who never wrote; she was always in her father’s company; but George and Molpuss were good letter writers although George’s spelling was a little wild and she often jokingly rebuked him for not using his dictionary. The household in Cadogan Square was a tolerably happy one. Colonel Hawker was the strong man who looked after her affairs and Frederick March was her favourite son-in-law; he was affectionate to her and to Dodee and as far as possible he made up for the loss of the FitzClarence boys. Then there was Lucy and Dodee with dear Miss Sketchley who was so good and useful and who had become as one of the family.

Fanny was a problem. Her addiction to drugs was growing alarmingly and she was behaving oddly. One rainy day she was missing and they were very alarmed and not greatly comforted when she returned home, her clothes soaked, her shoes letting in the water. She would give no reason for her disappearance; and after that she would walk about the streets in the oldest clothes she could find, a torn dress, a bonnet with ribbons that looked like rags and stockings which she had dyed bright pink.

Fanny was decidedly odd and needed especial care. It would be a great relief if she joined her husband. Sometimes she would grow quite excited about this; at others she would shrug the idea listlessly aside.

But it seemed there was no lasting comfort. Dorothy was horrified when she heard that George and Henry were in trouble and were to be court-martialled. This angered her because, as she saw it, it was no fault of the boys. They had done what they thought was their duty and she was amazed at the sternness of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, the Duke of York, who had been reinstated by the Regent about a year or so after he had been forced to resign as a result of the Mary Anne Clarke scandal.

During the fighting against the French in which both brothers had been engaged – George as Captain and Henry as Lieutenant – in their opinion, and those of some other officers, the Commander, Colonel Quentin, had been negligent. A complaint was lodged by these officers and Colonel Quentin was court-martialled.

But the Duke of York was incensed. He wanted to know what right junior officers had to question the actions of a commanding colonel. He declared that discipline was at stake and action must be taken.

Since two of the officers concerned were his own nephews he believed that they had taken advantage of their relationship with him and he decided on drastic punishment. All the officers concerned were dismissed from their regiment of the 10th Hussars and their swords confiscated and the two FitzClarences were to be sent to India.

When Dorothy heard this she was overcome with grief. George was her eldest son and if he was her favourite it was understandable. He had always been devoted to her and during those heartbreaking months when she had first been separated from the Duke it had been his letters which had helped to sustain her.

When George wrote to her and told her that he was shortly to leave the country she wept with despair. To Miss Sketchley who was accompanying her on her tours as companion, secretary and in fact filling any post that was needed, she said: ‘This is the only letter I have ever had from George that did not fill me with happiness.’

That night she was taken ill on the stage and her part had to be taken over by her understudy. It was the first time that had happened.

The trouble which had fallen on George and Henry resulted in William’s writing to Dorothy. He too was worried about the fate of the boys and had tried remonstrating with his brother; but the Duke of York, who had previously been an easy-going and good-hearted man, was adamant. However, the Regent was sympathetic and so was the Queen and it was for this reason that they were being transferred to another regiment for the Duke’s first intention had been to dismiss them from the Army. His instructions had been that when they arrived in India they were to be treated by the commanding officer there to the utmost discipline; but the Regent had made it known that it was his wish that this should not be so.

It was pleasant to hear from William and to know that her concern for their sons was shared by him. But she did wonder whether there was an inclination in the royal family to disown the FitzClarence children now that their mother and father were separated and to treat them as any other illegitimate offspring – which owing to the long-standing relationship and the respectability of its nature had not been so before.

She must not fret too much and so upset the boys when they came to see her. And perhaps as the Regent was kindly disposed and she had never had any reason to doubt this, they would soon be home from India.

The case of Colonel Quentin and the part the young FitzClarences had played in it naturally called attention to their parents and there was a further spate of comments.

William was extremely unpopular, and Dorothy, although subject to criticism and ridicule, was a public idol. Now she was the deserted woman; and her two sons had been unfairly – most said – sent to India, just when the war was over and she could have hoped to be freed from anxiety concerning them.

Dorothy was away again on tour, working hard, trying to accumulate money for her retirement.

‘If only this hadn’t happened,’ she often said to Miss Sketchley, ‘I could have become reconciled. Why is it that as soon as I believe myself to have emerged from my difficulties another one appears?’