Courting Her Highness_ The Story of Queen Anne - Jean Plaidy [193]
Blenheim was not yet completed although vast sums had been spent on it; it was going to cost £300,000 pounds before it was finished and although the country supplied four fifths of this sum the remaining fifth had to come from the Marlboroughs. This gave Sarah the firm belief that she had every right to dictate what should and what should not be done.
So quarrelling with Vanbrugh, Cadogan, Sunderland and her grandchildren Sarah found her days lively. John had no idea of all the strife which was going on about them; as for Sarah, she constantly assured him that all was well; she would not have him disturbed in any way and on the occasions when he suffered relapses she remained in the sick room day and night.
Nor did she neglect her grandchildren. They were now growing up and much entertainment took place at her various houses. It was amusing to act plays—for the Duke loved to watch his grandchildren performing, and they played for his benefit All for Love and Tamerlane.
Even so she must expurgate the plays before she allowed the children to perform them.
“I will allow no bawdy words to be spoken in my house,” she warned them. “And I shall have no unseemly fondling and embracing in my house even though you tell me it comes in the play.”
So they argued together and often the sound of high words would come to the Duke’s ears as he sat in his chair. There must be these quarrels wherever Sarah was, and he had to accept this. It was part of her nature. And he would rather hear her voice raised in anger than not hear it at all.
She was alternately triumphant because of some conquest over an enemy or wildly vituperative. She would not have a friend left in the world, he feared, when he was dead. She quarrelled incessantly; her two daughters were on bad terms with her; this upset her but she could not curb her violent tongue—and nor could they; moreover they were not of an age now to fear her. She had her favourites among her grandchildren but there was trouble with them too—and there would be more as they grew up.
She was as fond of money as he was. He wondered if he had taught her that. They were rich and growing richer. When the South Sea Bubble exploded Sarah was one of the few who sold out in time. While others lamented that ruin had come upon them Sarah was boasting that out of her adventure in speculation she had made £100,000. Yes, they were rich now, but that could not make Sarah happy.
She lived in constant anxiety for John and although her assiduous care for him was such a comfort to him, even he, who loved her devotedly, was made uncomfortable by her. If she disagreed with doctors she would threaten to pull off their wigs and drive them from the apartment. They were incompetent ninnies, she told them, when she fancied that John did not respond to their medicines.
Her daughter Henrietta, Lady Godolphin, and Mary, Duchess of Montague—neither of them having the sweet tempers of Elizabeth and Anne—decided that they would no longer allow her to bully them and made a point of visiting their father when Sarah was not at home.
John reasoned with them; their mother would be hurt, he pointed out.
“Dearest father,” replied Henrietta, “it is no use. We are not children any longer and we will not be treated as such.”
“Your mother has nothing but your good at heart.”
Mary kissed him. “You are the sweetest man on earth and where she is concerned the blindest. She makes it so unpleasant for us that frankly we have no wish to be with her.”
But seeing how such remarks distressed him