Free The Princess of Celle: (Georgian Series) by Jean Plaidy Page A

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 agohe 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