The Queen's Husband (27 page)

A figure with a candle had appeared in the corridor. It was the Baroness Lehzen.

‘What is happening here?’ she demanded. ‘You will awaken the Queen.’

‘Oh, Baroness,’ said Mrs Lilly, ‘I’m sure I heard someone in the Queen’s dressing-room.’

‘
Mein Gott!
’ cried the Baroness. ‘And you stand here. The Queen may be murdered.’

She pushed them aside, unlocked the door and strode into the dressing-room like an avenging angel. Her precious darling in danger and these fools standing about doing nothing. She was thinking of the madman who had taken a shot at Victoria on Constitution Hill. So were the others, but this had the opposite effect on the devoted Lehzen.

She looked round the room. She could see no one. The only place where anyone could be hidden was under the sofa. Thrusting the candlestick into the hands of Mrs Lilly she pushed the sofa to one side.

There was a gasp. Cowering under the sofa was a small boy, his clothes ragged, his face dirty, his eyes wide with astonishment.

Who was the boy? He had been some days in the palace, he told them. He had hidden under the sofa on which the Queen and Prince Albert had sat and had lain there listening to them talking together; he had been to the throne room and sat on the throne; he had been in the nursery and heard the new baby Princess cry.

He loved Buckingham Palace. He confessed to having been there before. Last time had been in 1838 when he had spent a week there and he could not resist paying another visit.

People remembered the excitement of two years earlier. Of course he was the Boy Jones. Someone had waggishly christened him In-I-go Jones.

It was considered to be an amusing incident. The boy had done little harm. He had merely been curious.

The Queen laughed when she heard of it, but Albert took a different view.

‘My dear love,’ he said, ‘it alarms me that people could so easily get into the palace.’

‘It was only a boy,’ said Victoria.

‘Only a boy this time. But if a boy can get in so easily how much more easily could someone enter who might wish to do harm.’

‘He came before,’ said Victoria; ‘fancy that.’

Albert was thoughtful.

Albert had been making an investigation of the manner in which the household was managed. He was determined to find out how it was possible for a boy to get into the palace and spend several days there unobserved.

In one of the kitchens he found a broken pane of glass.

‘How long has that been broken?’ he asked.

The kitchen hand to whom he addressed the question scratched his head. ‘Well, Your Highness, it were done last Saturday week. I know for sure.’

Another kitchen hand came up and said the window had been like that for a month.

‘Whose duty would it be to see that it was repaired?’ the Prince wanted to know.

They didn’t know, but they would call the chief cook.

‘It’s like this, Your Highness,’ said the chief cook, ‘I’d write and sign a request to have the glass put back, but the Clerk of the Kitchen would have to sign it too.’

‘And did you?’

‘I did, Your Highness, two months ago.’

‘Send me the Clerk of the Kitchen,’ said Albert.

The Clerk of the Kitchen remembered signing the request but then it had to go to the Master of the Household.

The Master of the Household had signed so many requests that he did not remember the pane of glass in particular, but his duty was to take it to the Lord Chamberlain’s office and there it would await attention.

‘And what happens there?’ asked the Prince.

‘The Lord Chamberlain would sign and then it would go to the Clerk of the Works, Your Highness.’

‘
Mein Gott!
’ cried the Prince breaking into German, as he did when seriously disturbed. ‘All this for a pane of glass! And meanwhile people can break into the palace and, if they have a mind to, murder the Queen.’

His orderly Teutonic soul was outraged. He was certain that this was not the only anomaly. The servants’ domain was a little kingdom on its own. He could see that there was no discipline whatsoever. Servants absented themselves when they thought fit, or brought in their friends and entertained them at the Queen’s expense.

He was horrified.

His questions quickly aroused suspicions which were deeply resented. The Baroness Lehzen, who was in charge of the keys, although she had no special title, never bothered them. She had other matters with which to concern herself than what went on in the kitchens. As long as she had her caraway seeds served with every meal, and when there was a state banquet or a dinner party food appeared on the table, that was all that mattered.

The servants grumbled together that they wanted no meddling German coming to their quarters to spy on them.

The Prince’s investigations were reported to the Baroness, so she was ready for him.

He came to her room one day and told her about the pane of glass which had been missing for months because the inefficiency of the system had made it impossible for the request to reach the right person.

‘I did not know Your Highness would concern himself with such a little thing.’

‘It is of great concern. That boy got into the palace. How?’

‘Not through that broken window surely?’

‘He was in the palace because there is a lack of security.’

Lehzen said: ‘As soon as I heard a commotion near the Queen I was out of bed. I have looked after her for years. The slightest sound … and I am there.’

‘That is not the point,’ said the Prince patiently.

The Baroness broke into German. He followed. It was easier for them both. The Baroness was trying hard to control her anger; she had to remember that he was the Queen’s husband. He found it easier to remain calm. He must not quarrel with her. She would distort what he said and carry tales to the Queen.

But in those moments there was one fact which was clear to them.

There was not room for them both in the palace.

Albert said: ‘My love, I want to talk to you about palace security.’

‘Oh, Albert, are you worrying about the Boy Jones?’

‘It has started me thinking, and I have been looking into these matters. Really, there are some strange things going on in your household.’

‘What do you mean, Albert?’

‘Well, for one thing it takes months to get a pane of glass repaired.’

‘Does it?’

‘All because of stupid mismanagement. I want to go into all the details of the household management. I think we could dismiss several of the servants who are of no use at all.’

‘Dismiss them! Oh, but Albert, where would they go?’

‘To some households which could find work for them. There is not enough here for so many.’

‘It has been going on for years, Albert.’

‘All the more reason why it should go on no longer. I want the keys of the household.’

‘Lehzen has them.’

‘Well, they must be taken away from her.’

‘
Must
, Albert?’

‘Yes, since she mismanages everything in this way.’

‘Albert! I couldn’t possibly take the keys away from Lehzen. She would be so
hurt
.’

‘Then hurt she must be. You should tell her that I am not satisfied with the way in which she allows the household to be run.’

‘But I am satisfied, Albert.’

‘How can you be?’

‘Because it has been running for years and I never heard any complaint before. Besides, it is not for you to run the household.’

‘I disagree.’

She was tired and the baby was always crying and not such fun as she had thought a baby would be. She was worried about Dash, who wouldn’t eat anything and looked at her with sad mournful eyes. And Albert plagued her about the household!

‘I shall certainly not speak to Lehzen,’ she said. ‘And Albert, I must beg of you not to interfere when I do not wish you to.’

Albert clicked his heels and bowed. Now he was going to be tiresome. He was going to retire to his room and be very calm and behave as though nothing had happened. How maddening calm people could be! Every minute she was getting nearer to an outburst of anger.

It was coming.

‘You forget that this is
my
household. If I am satisfied that is all that matters. You are not the ruler of this country though sometimes I think you imagine you are.’

Albert was at the door.

‘I wish I had never married,’ she shouted. ‘I wish I had never allowed myself to be persuaded.’

Albert had gone.

She stared at the door.

Oh, dear, dear Albert, she thought. Whatever had made her say such a silly thing!

Albert was gently forgiving but when he showed signs of raising the matter of the household he saw the danger signals in her eyes. He decided to wait. He had made some advance and his position had greatly improved in the last months; he was sure that if he were patient eventually he would bring Victoria to a logical point of view, and then she would be able to see that Baroness Lehzen was doing a great deal of harm.

So Albert began planning for Christmas, which should be spent at Windsor; and the Queen, who loved festivities and was only too delighted to have Albert friendly and appearing to have forgotten their differences, listened excitedly.

She was happy sitting beside Albert as the carriage rolled along, the nurses following behind with Lehzen and dear Pussy.

Albert was telling her about Christmases at Rosenau and how he and his brother had gone into the forest and brought home the yule logs. All the presents had been arranged on tables under the Christmas trees and each member of the household had his or her own table.

It had been very similar in Kensington Palace, said Victoria. After all Mama had come to England from Leiningen and had brought the same family customs to Kensington.

‘I want this to be a
very
happy Christmas,’ said Victoria, feeling contrite about the terrible thing she had said to Albert. She took his hand, and laughing added: ‘I shall try to control my terrible temper and then I shan’t say things I don’t mean and for which I am so sorry afterwards.’

Albert pressed her hand and said he loved her generous heart.

So she was very happy driving along the frosty roads and she shared Albert’s pleasure at the sight of the stately castle and could scarcely wait to step within its ancient walls.