BooksBarbecue
Back The Summer Queen Save as PDF
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

As he finished speaking there were fresh roars of laughter, this time obligatory ones. Willy had just cut through his Reich Chancellor’s braces with a penknife, and Caprivi’s trousers lay humiliatingly around his ankles.

Phili sighed. Showing hilarity at the Kaiser’s schoolboy jokes was compulsory, even for the victim. Overall it was, though, a small price to pay for high political office, and he had the comfort of knowing that not only had he never been the butt of one of the Kaiser’s practical jokes, but he was certain he never would be. The Kaiser loved him far too much ever to want to offend him. That he loved Phili more than he loved anyone was a declaration he’d had the satisfaction of receiving from the Kaiser’s own ruby-red lips.

Chapter Twenty

image

NOVEMBER 1891, BALMORAL

May had never known her mother to be as flustered as she was the morning she and Dolly left for Balmoral.

‘You must remember,’ she said for the umpteenth time, as she and the Duke accompanied them to Euston station where they would catch the night train to Scotland, ‘Aunt Queen lives very quietly and to a very strict routine. And she doesn’t like noise. You must move around the castle like little mice. And she keeps early hours. You, Dolly, must be sure to remember that. Oh, my goodness! What on earth can be Victoria’s reason for wishing to see you, May? I do wish I knew. I shall be in a frenzy until you are able to let me know.’

‘The reason Aunt Queen wishes to spend time with May,’ Dolly said, ‘is the one she set out so clearly in her letter. She wishes to get to know May a little better.’

Privately their mother thought this might well be true. However, she didn’t want it to be true. Her precious daughter had never been given one of the heart-to-heart talks that her cousin had always gone out of her way to have with granddaughters and grandnieces when they were approaching marriageable age. At twenty-four, May was, of course, way past the age when such talks usually took place. All the same, try as she might she couldn’t help fervently hoping that the reason for May’s summons to Balmoral was because Victoria had a husband in mind for her.

The question most tormenting her was, if that was indeed the reason, who was the intended bridegroom? In not accepting Prince Ernst, May had shown she was unwilling to marry for marrying’s sake and was only prepared to marry someone with whom she felt herself to be compatible, and for whom she felt the kind of affection in which, once married, love and respect could grow.