Free Victoria in the Wings: (Georgian Series) by Jean Plaidy Page B

due within the next hour and she wished him to see the children before he committed himself.
    Victoria turned away from the window and sat down looking into the fire.
    He will have to take a widow and two children, she thought. And I shall have to take a reluctant man of fifty.
    Reluctant? Well, of course he would be reluctant. She had asked Leopold for all details of the Duke of Kent and he had not spared her.
    ‘He has been living for the last twenty-five years or so with Madame de St Laurent, a woman to whom he is devoted. She was received by the Prince of Wales who is notoriously lax where his brothers’ indiscretions are concerned.’ (Dear Leopold, he would never be lax over such matters!) ‘But of course it was a relationship of the left hand and she was not received at Court. Recently they went to live in Brussels where they intended to settle, until my dearest Charlotte died and so changed all our lives.’
    She could imagine it well. The Duke’s being forced to abandon the mistress whom he would regard as his wife and marry a strange young woman who could not speak English – although he could speak German she supposed; and in any case his mother Queen Charlotte could not speak English when she first arrived in England.
    The language presented no difficulty. It was Madame de St Laurent. But she would be old compared with herself, and she who was plump and handsome was attractive to men, she was fully aware. If she did not take the Duke of Kent there would be other offers.
    ‘The Duke of Clarence is older than the Duke of Kent, but he has made himself rather ridiculous lately,’ wrote Leopold. ‘First by deserting the actress with whom he lived for twenty years and by whom he had ten children, who live with him in his house at Bushy. Then by proposing marriage to several people, some most unsuitable, and being rejected by them. At first I was put out that you were not to be offered Clarence because any children he had would come before any you might have. But it is almost certain that you would prefer the Duke of Kent, who is moreserious-minded and in every way more suited to become the father of the heir to the throne.’
    One could always trust Leopold. He had the family welfare so much at heart.
    There was a knock at the door and the children came in. Feodore curtsied; Charles bowed. Her expression softened. How delightful they were! If they should have a stepbrother who was Prince of Wales brilliant marriages would be arranged for them.
    ‘Did you enjoy your ride, my children?’
    ‘Yes, Mamma, thank you,’ said Charles.
    ‘We rode so far we could see Amorbach in the distance.’
    ‘That was quite a distance. I am expecting a visitor, from England.’
    ‘From Uncle Leopold, Mamma?’ asked Charles.
    ‘No, not exactly; but he would be a friend of Uncle Leopold.’
    ‘Then he must be a good man,’ said Feodore. ‘When will he arrive?’
    ‘At any moment, I believe.’
    ‘As he has come from England,’ said Charles, ‘he will be able to give us news of our uncle.’
    ‘I shall ask him when Uncle Leopold is coming to see us.’
    ‘You must not ask questions,’ said their mother, ‘but wait until you are spoken to.’
    ‘Is he very important, Mamma?’
    ‘He is the son of the King of England.’
    The children’s eyes were round with wonder.
    ‘Even Uncle Leopold’s Charlotte was only the daughter of the Prince of Wales,’ said Charles.
    His mother laid her hand on his arm. ‘You talk too much, Charles,’ she said severely. ‘And when the Duke arrives I want you to remember that you are in the presence of a very important man.’
    Thus when Edward arrived he found Victoria with her children.
    I can’t do it, thought Edward, as he made his journey across Europe to the castle of Wald-Leiningen. It will break her heart. Clarence will have to be the one. Why not? He’s older than I. Then there’s Ernest; he’s very likely to have a child. Just becausemy mother won’t accept his wife