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Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. The Summer Queen
  3. Dedication Page
  4. Family Tree of King George III
  5. Family Tree of Queen Victoria
  6. PART ONE
  7. Chapter One
  8. Chapter Two
  9. Chapter Three
  10. Chapter Four
  11. Chapter Five
  12. Chapter Six
  13. Chapter Seven
  14. Chapter Eight
  15. Chapter Nine
  16. Chapter Ten
  17. Chapter Eleven
  18. Chapter Twelve
  19. Chapter Thirteen
  20. PART TWO
  21. Chapter Fourteen
  22. Chapter Fifteen
  23. Chapter Sixteen
  24. Chapter Seventeen
  25. Chapter Eighteen
  26. Chapter Nineteen
  27. Chapter Twenty
  28. Chapter Twenty-One
  29. Chapter Twenty-Two
  30. Chapter Twenty-Three
  31. Chapter Twenty-Four
  32. PART THREE
  33. Chapter Twenty-Five
  34. Chapter Twenty-Six
  35. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  36. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  37. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  38. Chapter Thirty
  39. Chapter Thirty-One
  40. Chapter Thirty-Two
  41. PART FOUR
  42. Chapter Thirty-Three
  43. Chapter Thirty-Four
  44. Chapter Thirty-Five
  45. Chapter Thirty-Six
  46. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  47. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  48. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  49. Chapter Forty
  50. Chapter Forty-One
  51. Acknowledgements
  52. Select Bibliography
  53. The Summer Queen
  54. By Margaret Pemberton

‘What reason is given for the invitation, Mama?’ Knots of tension had formed in the pit of her stomach. ‘There must be one. Is it about the marriage proposal I turned down?’

‘Goodness, no! She says only that she would like to get to know you a little better. This could be the beginning of Aunt Queen taking a much greater interest in you, May – something I have been hoping for, for a long time. I must write and accept, without a moment’s delay. Do you think my not being asked to accompany you and Dolly was just a little forgetfulness? Perhaps I should include a delicate reminder about the omission?’

‘If Aunt Queen didn’t include Mama in the invite she sent, it was because she had no wish for Mama to accompany us,’ Dolly said when, back home at White Lodge, May had been able to talk to him about the oddity of the invitation. ‘It’s true that invites to Balmoral are as rare as gold dust, but there was a time when Alicky was invited there quite often.’

‘That was when Aunt Queen was trying to bring about a marriage between Alicky and Eddy.’

‘Perhaps your having received a marriage proposal from Ernst Gunther – and having turned it down – has brought home to Aunt Queen that if she wants to continue her passion for matchmaking, her next project should be finding a husband for you?’

‘But is she likely even to attempt that, when I’m not of equal birth? Perhaps she is simply going to say that I had an opportunity to marry and that, as another opportunity is unlikely to come my way, I should resign myself to spinsterhood and make the best of it.’

‘And if that’s the case?’

‘Then it will be the perfect opportunity for me to tell her that, since Ernst Gunther’s unwelcome marriage proposal, I have given a great deal of thought about my future and I have decided to do something I have longed to do for a long, long time.’ There was a determined set to her chin and her eyes had narrowed in deadly seriousness.

‘And what is that?’ Dolly asked, hoping to goodness that she wasn’t thinking of entering a convent.

‘I’m going to live in Florence. The friends I still have there – friends like Belinda Light – will make me very welcome. And in Florence no one will speak the hateful ebenbürtig word to me ever again.’

Chapter Nineteen

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JUNE 1891, NEUES PALAIS, POTSDAM