England's Mistress_ The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton - Kate Williams [153]
Nelson wrote to Emma after his victory at Copenhagen, "very tired after a hard won battle," and sent her a few sweet lines of poetry, addressing her as "Lord Nelson's Guardian Angel." "I leave my anchor in my Angel's heart," he continued, and reminisced how "this day twelve months we sailed from Palermo on our tour to Malta. Ah! those were happy times, days of ease and nights of pleasure." Three days after the victory, he gave a party on his ship to celebrate Emma's birthday and had his mates and superior officer, Sir Hyde Parker, raise champagne toasts to "the Birthday of Santa Emma." Convinced she brought him good luck, he heaped her with compliments: "There is certainly more of the angel than the human being about you."11
CHAPTER 42
Paradise Merton
No detail was too insignificant for Nelson's passionate letters to A Emma. He even described how he had not cut his nails since February, for "I should have thought it a treason to have them cut, as long as there was a possibility of my returning for my old dear friend to do the job for me." He was nervous, suffering from palpitations, and "more emaciated than you can conceive."1 Eager to spend every possible minute on his return with Emma, he was tired of snatching time with her in Sir William's house and hotels. He wanted Emma to find him a home.
Even though she had Horatia, Emma's position was not secure. Crowds of starstruck girls, powerful aristocrats, respectable wives, and fine ladies were desperate for a piece of England's hero. Nelson, always a social climber, was most attracted by the aristocrats. Emma knew from her own experience his fondness for kissing hands, bowing, flattering, and making lecherous comments, and she had to ensure that no rival stole his heart, as she had done. She felt stronger on her own territory, and she knew that sharing a house with Nelson would confirm her as his mistress, controller of his patronage, and head of his domestic life.
Sir William continued to take on the cost of caring for Emma Carew while Nelson remained unaware of her existence. In April, taking advantage of Nelson's absence, Emma paid for her ever-reliable mother to visit the Kidds in Hawarden and then Manchester, to see Emma, now nearly twenty. It would seem that she had been unhappy as a governess or had retired because of ill health, for she was living back with Mrs. Blackburn and no longer working. There were still no precise plans for her future.
When the hero of Copenhagen arrived in England on June 30, he immediately hired a decorated post chaise drawn by six fine stallions, rattling to 23 Piccadilly, where the lovers were reunited. Emma planned a holiday (along with her husband) at Box Hill in Surrey, where, Nelson wrote, "we are all very happy." The party then set off for a fishing holiday on the Thames along with William Nelson and his wife and daughter, two of Nelson's officers, and Captain Edward Parker, Nelson's latest protege. They spent a fortnight soaking up the sun, staying at the Bush Inn in Staines. Sir William fished contentedly while the lovers boated and walked, joining up with the rest of the party for raucous dinners at the inn. The paparazzi were always peering over the wall and hiring boats to go alongside them, but they were all growing more practiced at ignoring them. The holiday came to an abrupt end with the news that Napoleon was preparing to invade England. Nelson was called to Whitehall and sent to protect the south coast between Orfordness and Beachy Head. There he waited dolefully, obsessed with his desire for a home.
Nelson wanted a palatial