Courting Her Highness_ The Story of Queen Anne - Jean Plaidy [117]
“I am glad to hear you have filched nothing,” said the Duchess. “While I am here I will examine the wardrobe to assure myself that everything is in order.”
Mrs. Danvers said desperately: “Your Grace, I overheard Mrs. Hill speaking of Mrs. Vain to the Queen.”
“What’s that?”
“Mrs. Hill does not wish Mrs. Vain to be brought into the bedchamber.”
“Not wish … But what concern is that of hers?”
“That is a question I should like to ask her, Your Grace, but I swear I heard her speaking to the Queen and telling Her Majesty why they did not need her.”
This made sense. Hill did not want Vain. Hill had spoken to the Queen on this matter and persuaded Anne to agree with her. And for this reason Anne had set herself against employing Vain in the bedchamber.
Impossible! Anne would never listen to Hill when Sarah expressed a wish. But it was strange. Anne had been so … stubborn, and about such a minor matter. One could understand the Sunderland affair. But a bedchamber woman was somewhat different from a Secretary of State.
Mrs. Danvers saw that she had succeeded in making the Duchess uneasy, so at least the visit had not been wasted. She would do what she could for Mrs. Danvers’ daughter and at the same time she was uneasy about Hill.
The Duchess rose to go. “Don’t worry about your girl,” she said. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”
“I thank Your Grace with all my heart and I trust you do not take amiss what I have said of Abigail Hill. I know she is a kinswoman of Your Grace.”
“You were right to tell me,” said the Duchess.
Her first impulse was to go to the Queen and demand corroboration of what Danvers had told her. But in a moment of rare hesitation she decided she would ponder this matter for a while; and perhaps in the meantime sound Abigail.
“It is a pleasure, George,” said the Queen as she lay beside her husband in the big connubial bed, “to know that Hill and Masham are so close to us. I am sure they will be happy.”
“You haf been kind to them, my angel.”
“George, dear, you’re lying too flat. It’ll bring on the wheeze.”
George hoisted himself up a little. “The fish was goot,” he said, “but it repeats.”
“George, you should drink a little less. Dr. Arbuthnot says so.”
“It makes no difference, my angel.”
“Dear George, this romance. It takes me back so.… Do you remember the first years? How happy we were!”
“I remember, my love. I am the happiest man.…”
“Yes, we fell in love at sight and that is a rare thing in royal marriages. Now Hill has become Masham. I shall never get used to calling her Masham, but of course just now it is as well, for the marriage remains a secret. I am pleased about that. And it is such a pleasure to see how Masham adores her. I am sure he realizes her good qualities and holds himself the luckiest man alive … which is how it should be. I have told Hill that I hope she will soon be bringing her first-born to me. I shall take a very particular interest in Hill’s first-born, George, and I hope you will too. You know, George, I believe you were the first to notice how taken Masham was with Hill. You pointed it out to me. It is so delightful to see young people in love and when marriages are so suitable … I think you are rather fond of Masham, George … just as I am of Hill, and is it not a pleasure to think of them together in their apartment within easy call should we need them. Eh, George?”
But George was fast asleep. In a few moments he would begin to snore.
Anne smiled at him; she did not see his unlovely face, the mouth slightly ajar, the heavy breathing that might at any moment become painful. She thought of him as he had been as a bridegroom. Dear George, so handsome,