I said that would be most agreeable.

“It is one of my favorite palaces,” he told me. “You will enjoy it, as I shall. It is a place where a great deal has happened and I shall tell you of some of this. It was built many years ago…four hundred, I think, and much later it was bought by a man who is very well known in our history. He was called Cardinal Wolsey. He displeased the King, Henry VIII, who took the palace from him, and it has been royal property ever since.”

“I want to see it very much.”

“We shall dally there for a while. You will like the gardens. You will like the river which runs alongside, and you will not be afraid of the ghosts who haunt the palace, because I shall be there to protect you.”

I told him I should not feel afraid of anything if he were there.

Now our relationship had deepened. I was young, innocent and ignorant. He, as I learned later, was as well versed in the art of lovemaking as anyone on the earth. And I was sure he must have been born with it. How charmingly and romantically he initiated me. And what an apt pupil I was. I believed I delighted him. I did not realize then that it was because of my innocence, which must have made me very different from most of the women he had known. Few would have lived such a sheltered life as I had.

I found life enchanting. We were together for most of the days and nights during the time we spent in Portsmouth; and we were to leave for Hampton Court as soon as enough carts could be found to take the court there.

Charles joked about the Portuguese costumes which my ladies had brought with them.

“It is fortunate that the ladies of England do not follow the same fashions. If they did, there would not be enough carts in England to carry them and their belongings from place to place.”

It was about four days after our wedding when we left for Hampton Court.

What a welcome we received there! There were two reasons for rejoicing. It was the twenty-ninth of May, the King’s thirty-second birthday, and the second anniversary of his restoration to the throne. The English loved excuses for holidays and pageants and making merry. Moreover, Charles told me, they were also celebrating his marriage and my arrival in England.

“So you see, my love, there is ample reason for rejoicing.”

There were bonfires all along the route. People lined the roads to see the King and Queen. They shouted loyal greetings and threw garlands at us. We smiled and waved as we passed along.

They seemed pleased to see me. I had learned to recognize the shouts of “God save the Queen.” Charles was always delighted by their recognition of me.

And thus we came to Hampton.

It has always been one of my favorite palaces. To me now it is the one place where I was most happy, where I had spent those magical days…childlike in my innocence. How happy I could have been if I had never lost that innocence! But one cannot go blindfold through life.

When we arrived at the palace, the guards were waiting to greet us. How I wished that we could have come there alone and have entered the palace without ceremony, but we had to pass through the lines of soldiery, followed by our retinue, and there must be presentations and kissing of hands. As the new Queen, there were important people whom I had to receive. It was so difficult because of the language. I could only nod and smile, for I was not at that stage ready to attempt those few words which Charles had taught me.

Hoy joyous that homecoming could have been if only we were alone!


* * *

MY MEMORIES OF THOSE DAYS at Hampton Court will remain with me forever. I was perfectly happy during them, or almost, the only flaw being that we were so rarely alone. But to be otherwise would be asking too much. Charles was, after all, the King and I the new Queen; and it was our duty to receive the many people who were eager to see us.

There were morning levees at which Charles must present the leading people of the court to me; and it seemed there was always some ceremony to perform. He would smile at me apologetically during these sessions, because I believed he too was wishing that we could be alone; and happily I would return his look with understanding.

It was only at night that we were free.

There was continual revelry. The Portuguese court had been much more formal. The English flung themselves into pleasure with an abandonment which at first astonished me. Then I reminded myself that they had only just escaped from Puritan rule, so perhaps in time they would grow a little more restrained.

There were banquets and balls, pageants on the river; plays were performed and there was much dancing. Charles was always at the center of these. He was noted for his wit and was as addicted to pleasure, light-hearted banter and laughter as the rest. He danced most gracefully, and I always applauded him loudly, and during those halcyon days he always looked at me and acknowledged my approval. It was deeply touching, and I was more in love every day.

There were minor disappointments.

For instance, on the first day after our arrival, I was preparing to go down to the levee where certain ladies were to be presented to me. Six of my ladies-in-waiting came with me, dressed in the costumes of our country. Their hair was frizzed to resemble a periwig, and in their farthingales — I now noticed — they walked awkwardly.

Donna Maria looked at them with approval.

She said to me: “They look like ladies. I declare the loose fashions of the English shock me. Indeed, they shock me deeply. I tremble to think what your mother would say if she saw you in these unholy English fashions. Come, let us dress you as a Portuguese queen should be dressed. Let us give you back your dignity.”

I wondered, after, that I allowed it. It was due to the mention of my mother, perhaps. I knew that she would not have approved of the English customs.

So I relented and sat there meekly while they dressed me. They called in the hairdresser, whom we had brought with us from Portugal and whose services I had not yet used because Charles had so admired my hair that I had worn it loosely dressed most of the time.

So I went down to the reception with my attendants, in the costume of my native land.

There was a brief silence, which was eloquent enough. I saw one or two of the ladies put their hands to their mouths, as though holding in their laughter.

Charles was looking at me. For a few seconds I saw his expression of bewildered amazement. Was it horror? Or dismay? I glanced at the ladies. The somber colors made their skins look darker. Or did they seem so against the English skins, which for the most part were fair?

Charles took my hand. He was then smiling as blandly as ever.

I received the ladies, but I knew my appearance was causing a certain amount of amusement.

When the company had gone I said to Charles: “I think some of the company were surprised to see me in the fashion of my country.”

“I think they were indeed,” he replied.

“And you?”

“I must confess I was a little taken aback.”

“I think they were laughing at me. Were you?”

“I think you look enchanting, no matter what fashion you adopt.” He smiled and added: “Even the Portuguese.”

Then he laughed and I could not help laughing with him.

He touched my hair. “It is so beautiful,” he said. “It is a pity to treat it so.”

I said: “It is the fashion.”

“I know it is the command of the dragons. Is that so? The fierce Donna Maria, the stern Donna Elvira?”

I nodded.

“They are good souls,” he said. “They love you well and I love them for that. But they are not, I dare to say, the arbiters of fashion. Here we follow the French…and the French, as you know, have an understanding of these matters. I myself am half French, so I should know.”

He pulled at my hair and released it from the pins. “Ah, now you look more like my fair Catherine. You are beautiful, and nothing can change that…not even…”

“My hideous costume?”

“I was going to say the ministrations of your hairdresser.”

“I am not beautiful,” I cried. “I am too small. Oh, how I wish I could grow a few more inches. You are so tall, and most of the ladies stand higher than I do.”

“Nay,” he said tenderly. “I would not have you otherwise. You are delicate and tiny…and that makes you doubly precious.”

I said: “I shall not wear this costume again. I shall dress in the English fashion.”

“I think you will find it more comfortable. It suits you well. You have such a pretty neck and shoulders. It is a sin to conceal them.”

“You will make me vain. I am not beautiful.” I added: “There are so many beautiful women at your court.”

“In my eyes…none so as my Queen.”

“I cannot believe you really mean that.”

“My dearest, I swear I speak the truth.”

“Look at my teeth.”

“Delightful.”

“They stand out.”

“Of course they do. They are so pretty, they insist on showing themselves, and quite rightly.”

“You are so comforting to me.”

“From now on its is my mission in life to comfort you.”

“I shall change my costume now.”

“With my help.”

“I think perhaps Lady Suffolk would be more proficient at the task.”

“You disappoint me,” he said in mock dismay.

That was typical of him, but I was determined not to let Maria and Elvira persuade me to wear the Portuguese costumes again, for I believe he thought them as hideous as the others did.


* * *

AMONG THE PEOPLE WHO were presented to me soon after my arrival at Hampton Court was my sister-in-law Anne Hyde, Duchess of York, wife of James, who had treated me so courteously on my arrival.