Rogeringham

"Most of our foot soldiers do not feel they have any." Arabella explained, "The English cavalry stationed in the Peninsular are believed to be good for charging at the horizon, and very little else. A cavalry man will tell you different but their role is to support the infantry and not the other way about. If they are not there, they have no use."

I looked across the carriage to Richard where he rode on the same side as Charlotte. He was listening attentively as Arabella explained the situation to my sister, "On the other hand, the German émigré horsemen with Lord Wellesley's army - they call them the King's German Legion, they are most capable soldiers."

Charlotte nodded, "William has mentioned them before. "If they ride into camp at the gallop, --something is afoot", was that not it?"

"It was indeed!" I laughed, "Well remembered."

By this point we had arrived at the place where Richard would leave the park and go to his uncle's house. He took his leave of the ladies as I paused with him.

"Well, that was an education and no mistake. Miss Dorrington is most proficient in the ways of the army." He laughed.

"Never make the mistake of labelling her as a mere girl," I suggested. "She is an intelligent young lady."

"If I may, Your Grace, your sister is a very fine woman as well. I would like to call on her further, if I may?" Well, this was hopeful I thought.

"I suspect that she would be amenable, but I would like to be certain before I grant permission, Richard." He nodded.

"At the risk of being indelicate, dear chap," I said, "May I know your tailor's name? He has done a fine job on the presentation of your sleeve there and that jacket is particularly well cut. I should like him to come and see me."

Captain Carter said that he would send the man a note to call on me. As he turned his horse to go, he paused and said seriously, "Thank you, Your Grace, thank you for allowing me this." He waved his arm at the park and the horses. "I was considering going back to my regiment, where I could face the French, rather than come home and face polite society. But I am giving it some serious thought now."

Naiad side-stepped as she imagined something on the slight breeze. "Think nothing of it, sir, as I told you, I found changing from the army back to being a civilian, deuced tricky. If I can help a fellow soldier do the same, then my work here, as they say, is done.

"Now I am off, Richard, I need to run some of the fizz out of this one, before I return her to the stable. Will we see you at the concert tonight?"

Richard signalled that we would and I turned the mare's head for home.

On my return to Rogeringham House I found Charlotte in the sitting room, "Well?" I asked her.

My sister would not meet my gaze for a minute, until finally she broke down.

"Very well!" she blurted out, "I admit it. Captain Carter is quite personable, and he is quite attractive as well."

"And he does not remind you of me at all, does he?" I smiled.

"There is that too." Charlotte scowled, though not so severely that it spoiled her face, "But at least when he tells a joke, it is funny." She said as she broke into a smile.

"Touché!" I laughed. "Anyway, he has asked me if he can call on you."

For a moment Charlotte looked shocked. "And what did you say?"

"Simply that I would ask you first."

Charlotte came over and embraced me, "Thank you." She said, and then after a moment, she added "It would be acceptable for him to call on me."

After she had gone, I wrote Captain Carter a short note, and despatched it to him. If this worked out, I thought to myself, then we were three down and two to go.

82. The Queen

Several days later at a concert in St James's Park, I was escorting Helena to where we were to be seated, when a young man in the uniform of a royal page appeared.

He bowed, "Your Grace, the Queen requests your presence."

Though it was phrased as such, it was not the kind of request that one ignores.

Her Majesty was sat surrounded by courtiers in a small enclosure quite close to the stage. As we stood waiting to enter, another page announced "His Grace, Sir William Rogeringham, Duke of Norton."

It was completely unnecessary as Her Majesty had seen me and was indicating I should enter, even as he spoke, but I suppose he had his orders.

The queen wore white, dazzlingly, glitteringly white. To my eyes, her gown seemed to be archaic, out of time for the modern style, but as she was the queen, who was to gain say her?

After I paid her the correct compliments, she indicated a chair which had been placed near to hers. It is usual to stand in the queen's presence but in this case, I was commanded to sit, so I sat. I assumed that it was because she preferred not to draw too much attention to our conversation. I would have been the only one standing while everyone around us was seated - her courtiers, the concert goers outside of her enclosure, everyone.

"Cousin," the queen began. "We trust you are well?"

"I am, thank you, Your Majesty." I replied, by this time, I was done with the 'cousin' thing, if that was what the Queen wanted, then that was how it would be.

"And your mother, Sir William?"

"Very well too, thank you ma'am."

"We are pleased that that is so." She said, "It has come to our attention, that you are much seen lately with the daughter of Elizabeth, Lady Dorrington. Pray tell me, sir, is this true?"

Well, there was a question, and no surprise! I always assumed that the queen had her spies out and about, but I had not thought that Arabella and I would have been subjects for her attention. "It is true, Your Majesty, the young lady and I have often found ourselves thrown together on social occasions. I find Arabella Dorrington the most admirable and entertaining company."

"Lady Dorrington was in Portugal last year?"

"She was, ma'am."

"And were you acquainted with her there?"

"I made the acquaintance of both her and her daughter there, ma'am." There seemed to be no point in lying, Her Majesty appeared to be quite well-informed. The queen seemed to be satisfied with my answers, she nodded as if to herself.

"Forgive our directness, Sir William, but do you have any intentions towards Miss Dorrington?"

It has long been Her Majesty's inclination to over-see matches in society, I suppose that it was now our turn to be reviewed and approved or discouraged.

"As I say, Your Majesty, I find Miss Dorrington to be excellent company and having discussed this with all parties, and though nothing has been formalised - it has been said that our mutual interests might be better served if we engaged in the union of marriage."

"You have discussed it with all parties ... but ourselves, Sir William." The queen observed.

"It was our intention to do so when the moment was appropriate, ma'am."

The queen looked at me with those clear and intelligent eyes, "Perhaps then, this is the appropriate moment. We have given consideration to your situation, after all you are two wealthy families, and as such would make a powerful union. Were we to be assured that our blessing would ensure the support of your family if it was called for in the future, we would gladly bless the union of the Dorrington family with that of the Rogeringhams - if you decide to proceed with your union."

"If we do proceed, Your Majesty, I would hope that our support has never been in doubt, and that it will never be considered to be doubtful." I said, still wondering precisely what this was all about.

"In that case, Sir William, you may announce to all concerned that your union has my blessing."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. May I ask if we could do so when we feel it is appropriate?" The queen nodded her agreement.

"And would this be an appropriate time to mention the weddings of my sisters, Your Majesty? I have several and ..."

Her Majesty looked at me with an amused twinkle in her eyes, she knew that I was throwing the dice on this. "You may arrange matches for your sisters as and how you feel best, Sir William. We trust that your decisions will be the best ones for all of the parties concerned." And as a punctuation, a full-stop to the conversation, the queen picked up her opera glasses and surveyed the stage.

With that the audience was in effect, over. Rising and then bowing to Her Majesty I made my way back to our seats where I told my mother what had just taken place. Helena was quite excited by the news of the queen's blessing, but I sat through the whole performance rehearsing what Her Majesty had said, and why. I would have been hard pressed to tell you whether the concert was good, bad or indifferent, I paid it so little mind. The next thing I was aware of was Helena waiting for me to stand so that I could hold her chair.

When we returned to Rogeringham House, my sisters - who had been at a garden party, had arrived home. Elizabeth and Arabella were also there, they having been at the same event. This was good, as it saved me repeating the news for them.

The news from Her Majesty was received with great delight, not only had I secured the Queen's blessing for Hermione and James, and Caroline and Henry but she had effectively given her permission for the weddings of Charlotte and the twins, if and when they happened. The champagne went round, and there was an air of celebration.

I went down on one knee and in front of her mother, asked Arabella if she would marry me, and she said that she would, but then said that she wanted to wait a while, at least until after Caroline and Henry had married. As she wanted a spring wedding, she asked if I would be prepared to wait until the next year, when we could marry at Rogeringham church.

By this time the only one of my sisters that remained with us in the parlour was Charlotte, along with Helena and Elizabeth. The idea of a spring wedding went down well, though I was surprised that she was prepared to have such a long engagement.

Arabella laughed. If we kept the engagement secret, she said, it meant that we could enjoy the rest of the Season, and create all sorts of intrigue with the gossip rags and yet our future would still be secured.

Her reasoning had been well thought out, as usual, and I agreed with her. Then she and Charlotte went off leaving my mother, my future mother-in-law and myself.

"Do you have many friends in the Parliament, Lady Elizabeth?" I asked.

"I have some," she replied, with a smile. "Why do you ask, Your Grace?"

"Something that Her Majesty said." And I recounted what Queen Charlotte had said about whether she could count on our support.

"That would be the government moving to install the Prince of Wales as the Prince Regent," She said, "It has been discussed before - some years ago, but with the King's ill-health recently, some members of Parliament think it is becoming a necessity again. And of course, if they elevated the Prince, Her Majesty would lose any authority she has."

"God save King George," I murmured, "And preserve us from his half-wit son."

"You do not like His Royal Highness?" Helena asked.

"Not particularly," I said, "But that is of no matter. You are probably right, Lady Elizabeth, but let us not talk about that for now. There are some things that will happen anyway, no matter what our feelings. Let us hope that the King is blessed with better health and talk of more pleasant things." And we spent the evening discussing the union of our two families, now that it was becoming a reality. It was a frank discussion of the situation, almost dispassionate, about issues such as Arabella's dowry and what other things she would bring to the marriage including heirs, and what freedoms we would grant each other. There would be a contract eventually - once we had a clear way ahead, and it would delineate both of our sides of the relationship.

83. Concerning Hermione's wedding

Hermione had created a contract for her marriage with James. However, where Arabella and I were approaching it very much as a union of equals (though without explicitly saying so, as M. Dumas once wrote 'one should be careful of what one writes'), my sister had used her contract to consolidate a position of strength in their marriage.

In my name, you will recall, my youngest sister had set several clauses in the contract, which James' family - his mother - had disagreed with. Hermione had asked 'me' - on their behalf, to alter those conditions (as you will further recall that she had made all of the decisions herself), and those clauses had then been amended in various ways. The result was that Hermione was now guaranteed a status in the marriage which meant that she would need to be consulted when certain decisions were made, that she and James would have equal access to their family monies, and that her own money was vouchsafed to her control and no other.

Unless there was a male heir, Hermione also had the primary position in terms of inheriting the estate, which our solicitors agreed, was a particularly strong clause, and even with a male heir my sister would automatically become the guardian of the child and the boy's estate until he reached the age at which he would inherit. What she had done, in effect, was to insulate her and her husband from the Barthomley family empire. There was nothing to prevent James from participating in family enterprises, nothing at all, if he chose to. But Hermione's contract allowed them to establish themselves, for themselves, outside of any manipulation from within the family.

Because of the manner Hermione had "wrung" concessions from me, she was in distinctly good odour with James' mother, Eugenie, and she spent nearly as much time at the Barthomley house in Belgravia as she did at our own house in Mayfair.

Hermione also made certain that James knew that she enjoyed riding out on Rotten Row, and the two of them often rode together, sometimes with Charlotte acting as their chaperone and sometimes with me. Hermione was often the first to trot or canter, ensuring that when her husband eventually asked about the lack of a maidenhead, if he asked, then the evidence would be clear.

I found that James was less nervous when I was about, but he still looked like he would jump if I said 'Boo!' to him. What I did notice was that he seemed less of a twit these days, and more serious. I was actually coming to like him.

One area in which James did surprise me was in his horsemanship. The first time we rode out together, he came into the yard at Mayfair upon a very nicely set up grey gelding. The horse had been prepared beautifully - brushed to a high shine, his mane and tail brushed out just so. James himself had an almost perfect seat upon his mount and the pair looked as if they had been made for each other. Mr Barthomley had a gentle hand and did not tug and saw at his horse's mouth, but instead, his movements were fluid and very much in tune with his mount.

I could not fail but to complement the young man, someone had taught him very well, and he was an exemplar of their teaching.

You would have thought that I had given him his own personal key to the Kingdom of Heaven, his chest swelled, and he stuttered as he thanked me, before waxing lyrical about Naiad as we rode out of the yard. Hermione, riding between us on a fine boned dark bay mare, beamed at the way her fiancée had taken the compliment.

I also had the same conversation with James that I had had with Henry. Obviously, it was not the exact duplicate of the one I had had with Mr Adams - there were certain questions which never arose, and because of that were never addressed. However, I did explain that although I was giving Hermione into his care, she would always remain my baby sister. I could tell from the way that James' complexion paled, that he fully understood the implications of that simple statement, and that there would be no need for any more explicit threats.

84. Hermione's last night as a Rogeringham

The next big occasion then, was the actual wedding of Hermione and James. The Queen's approval had been secured, the banns had been read, the agreements had all been made and signed. The couple had even secured a property in Kensington, not far from where General Bradley lived, though the house was smaller than his house, it was still a very nice property. All that remained was the actual ceremony.

This was to take place at St George's church in Mayfair.

I understand that James celebrated the end of his bachelor status at a club in St James's with a group of his friends. I believe it was drunken, and I understand that there were women of negotiable virtue, but although I was invited, I declined.

While James celebrated his last night as a single man, out drinking with his friends, Hermione chose a more domestic evening. She chose a dinner at Rogeringham House with her sisters, Helena and I. She said that she wanted 'nothing more than her closest friends, her family about her' before she left to become the mistress of her own house.

It was a splendid evening. We dined, we sang in the parlour and when we pushed the chairs back, we danced to Charlotte's accompaniment on the piano. The first part of the evening ended with me giving Hermione a gift of a necklace I had had made for her. The silver and diamonds glittered and shone, as she modelled it for us in the candle light.

Charlotte, Caroline and the twins excused themselves and retired to bed, leaving just my mother, the bride-to-be and myself.

We sat for a few moments as we enjoyed a glass of sweet sherry. We had all eaten well and enjoyed our meal, the cellar at Rogeringham House had provided some excellent wines, and while we had sampled a variety of different drinks, we were none of us tipsy. As we had what I thought would be a last glass together before retiring, I suddenly felt that this was not the way it would be. Helena and Hermione had something planned.

I do not know what it was that tipped me off, possibly it was the studious way that both women were examining their laps, as if they were searching for something, or the way that the conversation had ceased, as if in anticipation.

I laughed. "Come on then?" I said, "Out with it! What are you planning?"

They both looked up, Helena looked relieved and was laughing. Hermione was laughing too but her look was more anticipatory.

"We were hoping ..." Helena began.

"Would you?" Hermione leapt in.

"I don't know." I told her, as her smile faded a little, "At least not until you've told me what it is that you want." I finished.

Helena rose and took my hand, drawing me up and out of my seat towards the door. Hermione also rose and followed close behind me.

"Hermione asked me," my mother explained, as we crossed the hall, to the stairs, "She wanted to spend one last night in your bed."

I looked at my sister, she nodded.

"But I thought ... we'd already done that," I said.

"I suppose that we did," Helena conceded. "Except that the last time you and your sister slept together, I asked if I should stay and Hermione did not want that."

As we reached the landing, I looked back and Hermione nodded.

"I decided that this time, she will have no say in the matter, and that this time I will stay."

Obviously, Elizabeth Dorrington had wrought many changes in Helena, "I have asked Mr Barclay to arrange some wine for us," She went on. "You and I will celebrate my sweet girl's last night in our house and fulfil her wish."

Barclay waited at the door of my rooms, "All is as you requested, Your Grace," he told Helena.

"Thank you, Joshua," I said, realising that this was out of my hands at the moment, "I do not think you will be needed again tonight."

"In that case, good night Your Grace," He said solemnly, "Your Grace," to my mother. "Lady Hermione."