The Queen's Husband (36 page)

‘There,’ soothed the Baroness, ‘try to lie still. I will give you something warm and soothing. Your poor head must be aching. As if you haven’t enough with all you have to do without
people
behaving in such a way as to distress you.’

The Queen was scarcely aware of the ministering Lehzen; words kept going round and round in her head. What he had said. What she had said. What
had
she said? She wished she had never married! She had actually said that to
Albert
!

Who would have believed it possible to be so unhappy after the bliss of Christmas!

‘You must cheer up,’ said Lehzen. ‘You must try to hold yourself aloof from this … this … wickedness. You must remember that you are the Queen. It used to be so different when you could take all your troubles to Lord Melbourne. Of course it is Stockmar who interferes so. He is trying to deprive you of Lord Melbourne. Oh, to think that the Queen could be so treated!’

But she was still not listening with all her attention. She kept going over that perfectly dreadful scene. There had never been such a scene. Always before Albert had been so calm. To see Albert in a temper was a terrible thing. It simply was not Albert.

Lehzen was saying: ‘Lie down, my precious. You are so overwrought … and when I think of all your anxiety …’

‘Oh, leave me alone, Lehzen,’ she snapped.

Lehzen merely smiled tolerantly. Lehzen implied that
she
understood. The Queen’s temper was short and naturally so, considering all she had to contend with.

Alone, lying on her bed, pressing her hands to flushed damp cheeks, she thought of life with Albert and all it meant to her. There
must
be an end to this terrible state of affairs. They must explain to each other, that they did not mean those terrible things they had said.

She waited for him to come to her, his usual calm self, to tell her that he was sorry; then she would say she was sorry too and they would agree that there just must never be a scene like that again.

She could endure it no longer. She wrote a note to him. She forgave him for what he had said yesterday. He attached too much importance to unimportant matters; he listened to rumours about certain people and believed them; if he would come to her and discuss his grievances she could explain so much to him and there would not be these distressing disagreements.

When he received this note Albert decided that this was a crisis in his marital affairs which could affect the whole future and he went to Baron Stockmar to ask his advice.

He told him in detail what had happened. He was worried about his children, for he believed the nursery was mismanaged; the household was in chaos. Witness the fact that the Boy Jones had been able to enter the palace and remain in it unobserved for several days. The Queen was completely under the spell of an intriguing old woman who hated him and was determined to wreck his marriage; the Queen’s education had been so neglected that she felt inferior in the company of intellectual people and therefore avoided that company; and what was more her hasty passionate nature made it quite impossible to reason with her.

The Baron listened attentively.

‘Everything you say is true,’ he answered, ‘and it is a state of affairs which must not continue. The Baroness Lehzen must go.’

Albert was relieved. He had been right to come to Stockmar; even Victoria would have to listen to him.

‘I fear I spoke out too strongly,’ said Albert, ‘but I felt it was necessary. I know you advised patience and calm and rightly so; but I was discovering that because she relied on my patience and calm she made no attempt to hold her temper in check. She made me feel like a child. It is more than I can endure.’

‘This is the moment when firm action must be taken. The Queen is being ill advised and subversively supported. That advice and support must be withdrawn … and soon.’

The Prince nodded eagerly.

‘We shall have to deliver an ultimatum. You cannot ask the Queen to choose between you and Lehzen for obviously you cannot leave her.’

‘Leave Victoria!’ Albert turned pale at the thought, and Stockmar smiled.

‘An impossibility of course, but if it were not so and you threatened it, I have no doubt that her regard for you would make her ready to dismiss Lehzen. But no, we cannot do that, but if
I
threatened to leave, if I offer her my conditions, I think that might be effective. It will be a matter of her choosing between Lehzen and myself.’

Albert was relieved and yet at the same time a little apprehensive. Lehzen whom she loved so devotedly, or Stockmar who was a sort of god in the household. Stockmar who could criticise even Lord Melbourne? Albert wondered what would happen if she agreed to let Stockmar go. He pictured himself attempting to stand against Victoria with Lehzen behind her.

However, some action must be taken; and if anyone could solve their difficulties it was Stockmar.

When Victoria read Stockmar’s note she was horrified. Stockmar was always candid and to the point. He stated quite clearly that he was displeased by the recent conduct of the Queen towards her husband and if such violent and undignified scenes occurred again he would not stay at Court. He would retire to Coburg and settle down with his family, which he had wanted to do for a long time.

Impulsively she replied to Stockmar that she hated these scenes, but Albert must not provoke them. He should not believe the foolish things she said when she was in a temper. Of course she did not mean them, and she only said them in the heat of the moment when she was not feeling well.

She could not ignore the implications that Lehzen must go. This last scene had made the animosity between the Baroness and the Prince so obvious. She remembered the happy time she and Albert had had when they made their tour of the Whig Houses just before the election; she thought of Christmas and how wonderful Albert had been with the Christmas trees and how he had danced Pussy on his knee and explained to her about Christmas in Coburg.

How could she
live
without Albert? He meant more to her than anyone else on earth – Pussy, The Boy and Lehzen. She was happiest alone with Albert. Dear Lord Melbourne had told her that Albert would be a great comfort and Lord Melbourne was as usual right. But this was not a matter of being wise; this was a deep need.

She
loved
Albert; she would always love Albert. She could never be happy away from Albert and she knew that nothing in her life could ever be as important to her as her love for Albert.

The Baron looked sternly at the Queen.

‘I can assure you,’ she said, ‘that quarrels with Albert are far more distressing to me than to him.’

‘Then they must no longer be provoked,’ said the Baron. ‘And there is one reason why they start. Let us be frank. The Baroness Lehzen and the Prince are not good friends, never will be good friends and there will always be trouble while the Baroness remains in your household.’

The Queen was very pale and agitated. It was true of course. Lehzen and Albert – although of the same nationality – were sworn enemies and they could never be anything else. Strange that the two people she should love so dearly should be so very different. Albert was so meticulous, such a good organiser; Lehzen was always in a muddle; and she had to admit that the nurseries were not properly run. What if Pussy was suffering because of that?

She said: ‘There is a mistaken idea that Baroness Lehzen is a sort of power behind the throne. That is not so. Lord Melbourne understood perfectly. She was good to me when I was a child; she was like a mother to me; I only want her to have a home with me. That’s all. There is too much speculation and imagination.’

‘I think she should go away,’ said Baron Stockmar. ‘Indeed she must go away.’

‘You mean for a holiday?’

‘A long holiday,’ said Stockmar. ‘You would see then how differently your household could be managed.’

Victoria now knew that all she really wanted was to be back on good terms with Albert. Suppose Lehzen went back to her home in Coburg for a long holiday. Then they could see how they managed without her. ‘Dear Daisy,’ she would say, ‘it is so long since you saw your home. You have worked far too much. You know that you are not well. There was that attack of jaundice. Have a long rest.’

Poor Daisy! She would understand of course. Perhaps in her heart she would know that there was no room at the palace for her while the Prince was there; and the plain fact was that Victoria could not be happy without Albert.

Stockmar smiled benignly.

‘I can see that Your Majesty has made up your mind.’

He went back to Albert. ‘I have made her see reason.’

‘You cannot mean that the Baroness is going!’

‘In due course. I’m certain that before the year is out she will have said goodbye to the palace.’

‘But the Queen has consented to this?’

‘Not in so many words. But she realises that I shall not stay here if Lehzen remains and even more important she knows that you and Lehzen cannot continue amicably under the same roof. She has to choose between her old governess and a happy life with her husband. I had no doubt that when she saw exactly how matters stood she would have no hesitation in making her choice.’

Albert seized Stockmar’s hand and wrung it warmly.

‘There is still need for caution,’ said the Baron. ‘We have won the first skirmish only. The main battle is to be won. You will act with care. Your task, even when the Baroness is gone, will be to show the Queen that, although in public she is the Queen and you are only her consort, in the home you are the master.’

‘You think it is possible to show Victoria that?’

‘Not only possible but a necessity. Her nature demands that you should do this. You must be very careful indeed until Lehzen departs and even after that you will tread warily. Make no concessions. Be your calm self; that disconcerts her. But I think you were wise on this one occasion to match your temper with hers. But not again. From now on you will be the calm, judicious husband.’

Stockmar laughed – something he rarely did.

‘I think I see victory,’ he added.