Courting Her Highness_ The Story of Queen Anne - Jean Plaidy [0]
Copyright © 1966 by Jean Plaidy, copyright renewed 1994 by Mark Hamilton
Excerpt from Royal Sisters copyright 1966 by Jean Plaidy, copyright renewed 1994 by Mark Hamilton
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Broadway Paperbacks, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
Broadway Paperbacks and its logo, a letter B bisected on the diagonal, are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in hardcover in slightly different form as The Queen’s Favourites in Great Britain by Robert Hale Limited, London, in 1966, and in hardcover in the United States by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, in 1978.
This book contains an excerpt from the recent Broadway Paperbacks reprint of Royal Sisters by Jean Plaidy, which was originally published as The Haunted Sisters by Robert Hale Limited, London, in 1966. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the edition.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
eISBN: 978-0-307-88843-3
Cover design by Laura Duffy
Cover photography by Barry Marcus
v3.1
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Abigail Hill
In the Princess’s Apartments
Queen Anne
A Death in the Family
King’s Evil
Queen’s Bounty
The Jealous Duchess
Blenheim
Intrigue in the Green Closet
The Sunderland Controversy
The Masham Marriage
After Oudenarde
Sarah in the Death Chamber
Marlborough’s Request
Wine for a Laundress
Dr. Sacheverel
The Last Meeting
The Fall of Godolphin
The Golden Keys
Disgrace and Departure
Queen Anne Is Dead
The Exiles Return
At Langley Marsh
The End of the Favourites
Bibliography
Excerpt from Royal Sisters
ABIGAIL HILL
hen the attention of Lady Marlborough was called to her impecunious relations, the Hills, she looked upon the entire subject as a trivial inconvenience, although later—much later—she came to realize that it was one of the most—perhaps the most—important moments of her brilliant career.
In the first place it was meant to be an insult, but one which she had brushed aside as she would a tiresome gnat at a picnic party.
The occasion had been the birthday of the Princess Anne, and on that day Her Highness’s complete attention had been given to her son, the young Duke of Gloucester. Anne’s preoccupation with that boy, although understandable, for he was the only one of her children who had survived after countless pregnancies—at least Lady Marlborough had lost count, for there must have been a dozen to date—was a source of irritation. Before the boy’s birth, Sarah Churchill, Lady Marlborough, had become accustomed to demanding the whole of the Princess’s attention, and the friendship between them was the wonder and speculation of all at Court; when they were together Anne and Sarah were Mrs. Morley and Mrs. Freeman respectively, because Anne wished there to be no formality to mar their absolute intimacy. But since the boy had been born, although the friendship had not diminished, Anne’s first love was for her son, and when she went on and on about “my boy” Sarah felt as though she could scream.
Thus it had been at the birthday celebrations; the boy was to have a formal introduction to the Court, and for the occasion Anne had ordered that a special costume be made for him; and she had had the absurd idea of decking him out in her own jewels. Anne herself did not greatly care for ceremonial occasions; she was far more comfortable reclining on her couch, with a cup of chocolate in her hand or a dish of sweetmeats beside her, entertaining herself with the cards or gossip. But she wanted “my boy” as she, to Sarah’s exasperation, constantly referred to him, to look magnificent.
Poor little wretch! thought Sarah, who delighted in applying