Courting Her Highness_ The Story of Queen Anne - Jean Plaidy [64]
“And you make …?”
“Stays, now, Your Majesty. For the fashion has changed. Once we made bodices but now we make stays.”
“So, they haf come to dine with me,” said the beaming Prince.
“Then,” said Anne, “they must dine with me also. Hill! Oh there you are, Hill. You will take Master and Mistress Duddlestone and tell them what they will need, and see that it is supplied for them.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” said Abigail, and led the couple away.
The Queen’s servants were discussing the affair.
The pages, Saxton, Smith and Kirk paused in their game of cards to offer their comment.
William Lovegrove, the coffer-bearer, said to Mrs. Abrahal, the Queen’s starcher: “Such a thing would never have happened if the Duchess were at Court.”
“Who ever heard of a stays-maker dining with the Queen?” demanded Mrs. Ravensford, the Queen’s seamstress.
“I repeat,” said Lovegrove, “the Duchess would never have allowed it.”
“Fitted out with Court dresses, if you please … provided from her own wardrobe and made to fit!”
“Purple velvet. Because when the Prince dined with them that was what he wore.”
“And the Queen knighting the fellow so that the bodice- and stays-maker will return to Bristol Sir John Duddlestone … and all because he gave a dinner to the Queen’s husband! Did you ever hear the like?”
“And what do you think? Not content with giving the man and his wife their titles the Queen took the gold watch from her side and gave it to Lady Duddlestone.”
Amid the shrill laughter that followed Mrs. Abrahal said that she reckoned Lady Duddlestone would go to market in her apron wearing the Queen’s gold watch.
The picture increased the hilarity to such an extent that Mrs. Danvers looked in to see what all the merriment was about. When she was told she tut-tutted with disapproval.
“I never heard the like!” she declared. “I wish I had been told earlier that the wardrobe was going to be raided to provide purple velvet for bodice-makers.”
“Mrs. Hill received the orders, Mrs. Danvers,” said Mrs. Abrahal. “I wonder I was not asked to starch a head for the new lady when I was doing the Queen’s.”
“Mrs. Hill receives most of the Queen’s orders now,” added Lovegrove.
“It’s true,” agreed Mrs. Danvers thoughtfully. “That girl is with Her Majesty most of the day.”
“On the Duchess’s orders, Mrs. Danvers.”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Danvers slowly, “on the Duchess’s orders. If it were not so I would have a word to say to Her Grace about Mrs. Hill.”
“You can’t say the creature gives herself airs, Mrs. Danvers.”
“Indeed no. She creeps about so that you can never be sure when she has entered a room.”
“It struck me, Mrs. Danvers, that Her Majesty does not fret for the Duchess so much as she did at one time … now that she has her good Hill to look to her comfort.”
“I have noticed it,” said Mrs. Danvers. “But she was put there by Her Grace so there is nothing we can do … as yet.”
Prince George was dozing. It was those two hours in the afternoon when Anne and her husband were together and more and more of the time George spent asleep.
He is growing fatter, mused Anne. Poor dear George. When he is not eating and drinking, he is sleeping; and he wheezes more than ever. Perhaps it is good for him to rest.
She wanted to talk to him this afternoon. Coming from Windsor to St. James’s the people had cheered her. They had called: “Long Live the Queen. Long Live Good Queen Anne.” Good. She wanted to be good. People in rags had called to her and she fancied she had seen hope in their looks. They hoped because she was their Queen, and she did not want to fail them. Dear Mr. Freeman was helping to make England great abroad. They were saying he was the finest general in the world. That was good. Perhaps he would make a quick conquest and there would be peace so that she and her ministers would have an opportunity of bringing prosperity home. She did not care to see her subjects in need. And they had called to her: “Good Queen Anne!”
“George,” she said. “I want to be good. I want to deserve the name Good Queen