So Eléonore was lying to him … for his sake … to make it easier.

He was determined on two things: to have Eléonore and Celle.

He decided on a visit to Osnabrück. After all, Ernest Augustus had always been his friend and Sophia seemed satisfied with her fate, so perhaps she did not hold the jilting against him.

He would ask their advice and help.

Sophia received him graciously. How handsome he is! she thought. Being a little drawn, a little thinner, does not detract from his charm.

He went to the nursery and saw the children. George Lewis was almost five, Frederick Augustus four – and both were healthy boys.

‘What do you think of my sons?’ asked Sophia, watching him closely for a trace of envy.

‘You are fortunate. My brother is delighted, I am sure.’

‘From what I hear you are not pleased now that you renounced your rights. Is it true that there is a lady in Breda whom you would like to marry?’

‘It is true. I want to have a good talk with you and Ernest Augustus about her. I think you can help me.’

‘Help you? You need help to persuade the lady?’ Sophia’s laugh was a little harsh. So he is in love! she was thinking. He could not contemplate marrying me. He preferred to give up his rights to escape me. And now if he is as enamoured of this French creature as rumours say, he is feeling he acted a little hastily. He is wishing he had thrown me over without bothering to find a husband for me!

She could have hated him – if he was not so handsome, so much more charming than Ernest Augustus, if she had not decided when she had heard she was to marry him, to fall in love with him.

‘You will hear what I have to suggest?’

‘The contracts stand firm,’ she replied grimly.

‘Naturally. I did not mean in that way. George Lewis is all attention.’

‘He is an intelligent child.’

‘Two intelligent children! Lucky Sophia! Lucky Ernest Augustus! I am sure you will want to help me to be happy.’

George Lewis was holding up a wooden sword.

‘Uncle,’ he said, ‘I shall be a soldier.’

George William lifted the boy in his arms. What an ugly little fellow he was, but his eyes were bright.

‘We will go to war together, nephew.’

‘I shall come too,’ piped up Frederick Augustus.

‘Of course.’

‘Come,’ said Sophia, ‘dinner will soon be served. And afterwards we shall talk together.’

They left the nursery and George William went to his apartments in the palace.

They are contented, he thought; Sophia owes me no grudge and Ernest Augustus should be very grateful to me. They will help me.

They had eaten well of sausage and red cabbage with ginger and onions – a dish to which, during his sojourns abroad, George William had grown unaccustomed.

He thought longingly of the French cooking at the table of the Princesse de Tarente. But he must not think of Breda – only as to how he could bring Eléonore out of it.

He noticed that every time he saw Ernest Augustus, his brother was changing. He was getting gross with too much good living – greasy German food, and the heavy ale they drank. He hunted frequently, travelled occasionally; and took his choice of the women of his court. A typical ruler, thought George William. How different his own life would be with Eléonore!

And Sophia? She was dignified, never forgetting her royal blood, and as long as everyone else remembered it she did not care that her husband was blatantly unfaithful. She ruled the household and would never allow any of his mistresses to attempt to dominate her. She was the woman supreme in the castle; and as long as Ernest Augustus granted her that, he could go his own way. Now of course she was hoping for more children. Two were not enough; for this reason Ernest Augustus must spend certain nights with her.

It was an amicable arrangement and Ernest Augustus was pleased with his marriage.

Sophia kept her feeling to herself, which was as well, for George William had no idea of the emotions he aroused in her, and when she said that she wanted to help him, he believed her.

When they were alone together he explained the situation to them both.

‘A pity she is a Frenchwoman,’ said Ernest Augustus. ‘I never trusted the French.’

‘Oh, come brother, we know the French have been our enemies. But that is not the fault of Mademoiselle d’Olbreuse and her family. Why, they are exiles from France. Louis has had them driven out. That should make you friendly towards them.’

‘You think that we can help you?’ asked Sophia.

‘Yes, by inviting her here. Treat her with respect. If you did so she would understand that, in spite of the circumstances, she was being given all the honours that would be due to my wife.’

‘She would not be your wife,’ put in Ernest Augustus quickly. ‘That is quite out of the question.’

‘I know. I know,’ replied George William wearily. ‘I have sworn that I will not marry. But I could marry … morganatically. You could have no objection to that.’

‘The documents would have to be very carefully drawn up.’

‘Naturally.’

How time changed people! thought George William. Here was Ernest Augustus, wary and suspicious; and a few years ago he would have done anything in the world to please his adored elder brother.

‘Well, should we ask her here?’ said Ernest Augustus to Sophia.

She was pleased that he bowed to her decision in matters such as this; it was payment for refusing to hear the giggling and other noises which came from his bedroom.

‘We shall have to consider this,’ she said slowly. ‘To take her under our protection might be misconstrued.’

‘How so?’ demanded George William.

‘Oh, it is easy to make trouble. Look how John Frederick almost succeeded in snatching Celle from you. If you had not returned when you did who can say what might have happened.’

‘You must do this for me,’ insisted George William. He laid his hand on her arm.

She was conscious of the hand there – yet successfully she hid her reaction.

How he pleads for her! she thought angrily. He pleads for her as eagerly as he rejected me!

‘We will consider,’ she said coolly.

‘And you will give me your answer … when?’

‘Tomorrow.’

‘I shall expect you tonight,’ Sophia told Ernest Augustus. ‘There is this matter to discuss.’

He nodded. It was time they slept together again, and he had no other project in mind for the night.

In her bedchamber he sat on the bed watching her.

‘Well?’

‘I think we should invite this woman here.’

‘You would be prepared to do that?’

‘I think it would be good if he lived with his mistress. That is all she can ever be, of course. We must make sure of that.’

‘Naturally it is all that she can be. I have his signature on the documents.’

‘I saw a look in his eyes tonight. Ambition, I said. And I fear ambition.’

‘But he has signed the documents. I have them under lock and key.’

‘There they must be kept. But he has changed; and we must be careful. When he signed over his rights to you he was a feckless young man, wanting merely to flit from one adventure to another. Now he has become serious. He wants this woman to be his wife. What do you think he will want next? Children. And once he has them he will want estates for them.’

‘Which he can’t have.’

‘Which,’ agreed Sophia, ‘he can’t have. But that won’t prevent his wanting them. And this woman … she will want them too. Our George Lewis is the heir; but what if George William has a son?’

‘George Lewis will still be the heir.’

‘George William is rich … richer than you are … in spite of what he has assigned to you. I’d rather Celle than Osnabrück. And Celle must be for George Lewis.’

‘So it shall be.’

‘We have to be careful. That is why I want that woman here. I want to see what manner of creature she is who has worked this change in him. And I want her to know that it is useless for her to dream. She is a nobody and I am a Princess of a Royal House. I have English blood in my veins.’

‘Oh, how you go on about the English!’

‘I happen to be proud of my connection with a proud people.’

‘Who murdered your uncle!’

‘That was a few of their leaders. The people are now happy to have my cousin Charles back on the throne. I am proud of being English, Ernest Augustus, and I don’t care who knows it. They at least have one King to rule over them … they are not split into all these principalities which are not worth much alone. That is why George Lewis must inherit as big an estate as possible. He must have Hanover, Celle, Osnabrück … the whole of the Brunswick-Lüneberg inheritance. And that woman will try to prevent it if she can, because if she should have boys of her own … You see my point? I am going to ask her here. I am going to show her that if she comes into this family she comes on the wrong side of the blanket and need have no fine ideas of what her children will get, or she will get for that matter. She comes as the Madame of the Duke of Celle – not as his wife. That’s what I want her to know and that is why I am going to ask her here.’

‘So you are going to help our lovers?’

‘Yes, I am going to help them, because I think it is a good thing that George William settles down to produce a few bastards and remembers that they have no inheritance because when he passed me over to you, he passed over his rights with me.’

‘You sound as though you would punish him for rejecting such a prize.’