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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

During the rest of the day Eddy, drenched in perspiration, tossed and turned, shouting orders at the top of his voice to his regiment, the Prime Minister, his horses. He shouted for Hélène; for his long-dead Grandpa Albert; for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Time and again he thought he was still aboard the Bacchante and climbing the rigging.

Throughout the entire nightmare his distressed mother remained at one side of the bed and May, dazed with horror, at the other. The screen was removed, so that Georgie, Toria, Looloo and Maudie could squeeze into the room without anyone first having to leave it.

That evening, flanked by Dr Manby and Dr Broadbent, Dr Laking informed the Prince of Wales that they feared the worst.

‘Are you,’ Bertie asked hoarsely, ‘telling me my son is dying?’

Laking, for years his personal physician, said with compassion in his eyes, ‘Yes, sir. There can no longer be any hope.’

It was the moment when the family’s sick-visiting turned into a vigil, as all through the long, agonizing night Eddy fought for life.

As the first rays of morning seeped into the room, he said in delirium, ‘Something terrible has happened! My darling brother Georgie is dead!’ And then, panic still in his voice, ‘Who is it? Who is it?’

Her voice thick with tears, May said gently, ‘It’s May, Eddy darling.’

A great calm came over him. Weakly he squeezed her hand and then, so faintly his mother claimed never to have heard it, he took his last breath and, with love in his voice, died with her name on his lips.

PART THREE

CHOICES

Chapter Twenty-Five

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JULY 1892, WHITE LODGE

As she sat at a desk that looked out onto a garden thick with summer roses, May wrote:

Dearest Alicky,

Forgive the far-too-short notes I have been sending you so far this year. Until now I haven’t been able to bring myself to relive the morning of my darling’s death and the months that have passed since then. Now, however, I feel I can at last do so.

In the hours before he passed away I was seated at the side of his bed, holding his hand. Eddy had no awareness of my being there, or of anyone else – even of his mother and Georgie being there – but just before the end he squeezed my hand ever so weakly, and I know that he knew it was my hand that he was squeezing. Moments later he passed away and all that was left for me to do was to kiss him goodbye. As I kissed his dear brow, I was so crushed by all that I had lost I could scarcely comprehend the enormity of it. Even now, six months later, it is still difficult to do so.