Виктория Холт - The Captive of Kensington Palace

* * *

Victoria and the Duchess stood in the hall waiting to greet their guests.

Victoria’s heart was beating wildly beneath her rather prim white dress. ‘Albert and Ernest’ it seemed to be saying. ‘Ernest and Albert’ – the cousins whom dearest Uncle Leopold so fervently wanted her to love.

And here they were – Uncle Ernest a few paces ahead of them, embracing Mamma, and Mamma looked younger, tender and very, very happy. Now it was her turn.

Uncle Ernest held her tightly against him. It was too emotional a moment for ceremony.

‘And your cousins are longing to kiss your hand.’

Ernest first because he was the eldest – tall, dark-haired and very, very handsome. ‘Dear cousin Ernest, what a joy for us to meet at last!’

And Albert. As tall as Ernest she noticed, but not so dark – more my colour with big blue eyes – such beautiful eyes – a little stouter then Ernest who was just a little too thin – and a handsome nose and mouth and such white teeth.

They were charming and so clever and intelligent – both of them.

Her hand was held and kissed and the large blue eyes of Victoria met those of Albert and she wondered a little apprehensively if he thought she was as handsome as she found him.

‘Let us go upstairs,’ said Mamma.

She led the way with her brother and Victoria fell into step between the two cousins. They smiled at each other and the cousins talked to her in English which they spoke well and she thought how poised they were, what men of the world, far more sophisticated than Ferdinand and Augustus. Oh yes, Ferdinand and Augustus were ‘new in the world’ – not so dear Ernest and dear Albert.

Upstairs in the drawing-room Ernest was telling his cousin Victoria that he would be eighteen in a month.

‘My seventeenth birthday is only a few days away,’ Victoria replied.

‘Then Albert is the youngest for he will not be seventeen until August.’

Victoria smiled at Albert. She rather enjoyed the idea of being a little older than he was.

Uncle Ernest said he had a present for Victoria and the Duchess ordered that it be brought into the drawing-room. It turned out to be a lory which was so tame that she was able to hold it in her hand.

‘You may put your finger in its mouth and it will not bite you,’ Albert told her.

She promptly did so, laughing with delight.

‘Such glorious colours,’ she cried. ‘Purple and brown, red, blue and yellow. I shall sketch and paint him afterwards. Oh, I love him already. He is bigger than your grey parrot, Mamma.’

The Duchess agreed that he was, and they all went to see the grey parrot and Victoria told the cousins how Mamma had bought him from a man on the roadside when they were taking one of their walks.

‘You must not forget,’ said the Duchess to Victoria, ‘that you are dining with the Archbishop of York.’

Victoria looked so downhearted that everyone laughed.

‘It appears to me,’ said the Duchess in a pleased voice, ‘that you would prefer the company of your uncle and cousins.’

‘It’s true,’ admitted Victoria.

‘So soon,’ asked Albert who, she noticed, was never at a loss.

‘Yes, so soon,’ she replied.

The Duchess thought: A good beginning. Leopold will be pleased.

* * *

What a happy visit! What a pleasure to wake up every morning and think: My cousins are here. What shall we do today? I can go riding with them. I can sketch with them. They could both draw well – particularly Albert. They loved music and could play the piano. This they did charmingly. Particularly Albert.

How they laughed together! They were so easily amused and yet they could be so grown up.

They were the most fascinating cousins anyone could have.

Her seventeenth birthday came. But there was little time for writing in the Journal now. She did record it though.

‘I awoke at seven. Today I completed my seventeenth year; a very old person I am indeed.’

A very old person! One more year and she would be quite grown up. She was really looking forward to that very much.

Then she began to wonder what life would be like when the cousins had gone. How desolate! Not to walk with dear Albert … and Ernest; not to listen to their merry jokes and marvel at the way they suddenly became very solemn and grown up and talked about serious matters!

I shall be far more sad than when Ferdinand and Augustus went, she thought.

* * *

‘I’ll not have those damned Coburgs at Windsor,’ said the King.

‘Perhaps a brief visit,’ suggested Adelaide.

‘Just a brief one,’ Lady de l’Isle backed her up.

The King growled and supposed he’d have to receive them. He had to entertain the Oranges in any case.

‘But they’ll not get a ball,’ he insisted.

Never mind. He received them and there was no friction during their brief stay at Court.

They and Victoria were glad to be back in Kensington where the Duchess gave a ball for them and Victoria had the pleasure of dancing with her cousins.

Albert secretly found it all rather tiring. He was not fond of the social life and he thought the rooms overheated. He would have liked to be in his room reading – perhaps to Victoria – but not dancing which he found rather fatiguing.

He tried not to give any indication of this; he was aware that Uncle Leopold – that oracle of wisdom – wished him to like Victoria and her to like him, and he was determined to do his duty. Apart from the physical exertion required this was no hardship, for Victoria was an enchanting girl; she was so eager to please. He liked the times better when they talked or played the piano or sang and sketched together. The manner in which he was expected to stand at levees tired him considerably. He did not like the late hours which so delighted Victoria; he longed for his bed. Stockmar had said that he was growing too fast and that was why he was so drowsy early in the evenings. Once he grew so pale and looked so ready to faint that Victoria noticed. She was ‘all concern and there was that sweet anxious voice beside him. Dear Albert, are you sure you feel quite well?’

He assured her that he did and that it was merely the heat of the rooms which had overwhelmed him. He did not tell her that he was fighting off the desire to go to sleep all the time.

After that he saw his cousin regarding him anxiously. But he could always make her laugh with his quick wit, and even the way he played with Dash amused her. He wished that she did not enjoy dancing so obviously. What a pleasant companion she would have been if she only cared for the less demanding pleasures of life. But she was charming and he could not help being eager to please her.

* * *

At last the day came for the departure. When the last farewells had been said Victoria wept bitterly. Her only comfort was her Journal.‘At nine we all breakfasted for the last time together. It was our last happy, happy breakfast with this dear uncle and those dearest cousins whom I do love so very very dearly; much more dearly than any other cousins in the world. Dearly as I loved Ferdinand and also good Augustus, I love Ernest and Albert more than them. Oh yes, much more. Augustus was like a good affectionate child, quite unacquainted with the world, phlegmatic, and talking very little; but dearest Ernest and dearest Albert are so grown up in their manners, so gentle, so kind, so amiable, so agreeable, so very sensible and reasonable and so really and truly good and kind-hearted … Albert is the more reflecting of the two. They like talking about serious and instructive things …‘At eleven dear Uncle and my dearest beloved cousins left us … I embraced both my dearest cousins most warmly, also my dear Uncle. I cried bitterly.’

She had written to dear Uncle Leopold. She knew that he would be eagerly awaiting for her verdict on the cousins and particularly on Albert; and that very soon he would be seeing her uncle and cousins and asking them their opinion of England and her.

So before they left she had given Uncle Ernest the letter and asked him to hand it to Uncle Leopold when they met.‘I must thank you, my beloved Uncle,’ she wrote, ‘for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me in the person of dear Albert …‘He possesses every quality that could be desired to make me perfectly happy. He is so sensible, so kind, so good and so amiable too. He has, besides, the most pleasing exterior and appearance you can possibly see. I have only now to beg you, dearest uncle, to take care of the health of one so dear to me and to take him under your special protection …’

When he received her letter Leopold smiled complacently. He had known he could rely on Victoria.

When the cousins had left the Duchess decided that they would go and stay for a while at Claremont. Victoria was delighted. She loved Claremont – the home of dear Uncle Leopold where he had once been so happy with Princess Charlotte; and she could enjoy it even better now because Uncle Leopold was happily married to Aunt Louise – and even Charlotte, Victoria decided, could not have been more charming. So now there need be no sad thoughts at Claremont.

She had tried to adjust herself to the daily routine after the departure of the cousins and found herself talking of them constantly to Lehzen, of how Albert had done this and that and how very sensible he was.

‘Darling Dashy misses him. Oh, Lehzen, wasn’t he funny when he played with Dash?’