Courting Her Highness_ The Story of Queen Anne - Jean Plaidy [189]
But when he rode through the City he was cheered; in fact it was noticed that he received a more enthusiastic welcome than the King; but that was a temporary triumph, and nothing was the same, mourned Sarah.
The new King delighted her by offering Marlborough his old post as Captain-General of the Army; and when John said that he thought it would be wise to refuse she was overcome with rage.
“Why! Why in God’s name! Are you mad, Marl?” she demanded.
“My dearest Sarah, I am not the man I was,” he explained. “I am too old for this most exacting role.”
“Too old! I never heard such nonsense. You’ll take it. Have we come back to tell the world we are too old! What have we been waiting for all this time?”
He embraced her and tried to stroke her lovely hair, which always delighted him, but she tore herself away.
“Marl, what nonsense is this that has got into you?”
“To be a success, a Captain-General must be strong … alert … capable.…”
“Oh, be silent. There are times when I could take a stick to you.”
“I am the best judge of my capabilities.…”
“So you want to rot in the country?” Her eyes were flashing; her hair had fallen loose about her shoulders. He thought how young she looked, and that her hair had lost scarcely any of the bright gold it had had in her youth.
She followed his thoughts and shook her head angrily so that the golden strands waved about her head.
“You don’t age, Sarah,” he said. “Your hair is the same as when we were first married.”
“Sentimental nonsense!” she cried. “You are offered the post of Captain-General and you talk about hair. Now, Marl, of course you will take it.”
“Listen, Sarah, I am no longer young. I am ten years older than you. I am not fit for the post.”
“You will take it,” she said.
“I will not.”
When he spoke like that he meant it. There had been occasions during their married life when she had had to bow to his wishes.
“So you have decided this?”
“I cannot take a post which I know I am not fit for. Sarah, for God’s sake, accept the truth. We are no longer young. We must adjust ourselves to this new phase of our lives. We have each other.…”
Again the golden strands were shaken. Then she turned and left him.
She shut herself in her bedroom and looked at her angry reflection. He would rather stroke her hair than command an army, would he? In a sudden fury she picked up a pair of scissors and cut off strands of her hair so that instead of falling to her waist it scarcely reached her shoulders. Then gathering it up she went with it to his study and threw it all on to his desk.
Back in her room she looked at her reflection. She seemed different—older.
Grimly she smirked. “We shall see how my lord Marlborough likes that!” she cried.
But when they next met he made no comment; and when she went into his study she could find no trace of the hair.
He told her the next day that, as she so wished it, he had decided to accept the King’s offer.
Marlborough was once more Captain-General of the Army.
It soon became clear that the new King, although he had decided to make use of Marlborough’s services, had no great liking for him; and although some court posts were allotted to the family, none came the way of Sarah.
Mary, now Duchess of Montague, became a Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess of Wales, and her husband was given a regiment. The Earl of Bridgewater, husband of Elizabeth who had died recently, was made Chamberlain to the Prince of Wales, while Henrietta’s husband, Lord Godolphin, was given the offices he had possessed before the fall of his father and the Churchill faction, and Lord Sunderland, Anne’s husband, was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
An indication, commented Sarah, that the family was back in favour; and although Sunderland might be furious to be sent to Ireland, at least he had a little more recognition