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

Another thought came to May, which was that her own shyness and reserve must have always been as off-putting for George in the bedroom as his deep shyness and reserve had been off-putting for her. The stiff politeness that still existed between them, even after the birth of three children, hadn’t existed between them before their marriage. She remembered the Georgie who had wept in front of her when telling her how it had been explained to him that, as Julie Stoner was a commoner, he couldn’t possibly marry her. She remembered how they had relied on each other for mutual support during the agonizing days of Eddy’s illness, and of how they had instinctively known the depths of each other’s grief when he had died. There had been no stiff politeness between them then. Instead there had been mutual, bone-deep grief and an unspoken understanding of what the other was suffering. Only when it had become apparent that an arranged marriage between the two of them was the inevitable outcome of Eddy’s death had stiff politeness intruded on loving friendship. And for both of them, the stiff politeness had grown into a habit.

A feeling of resolution flooded over May. If she wanted to break down the unseen barriers between them, then she was going to have to take the first step, for she knew George was incapable of doing so. And if she was going to take the first step, there was no reason why she shouldn’t take it now, immediately, by going down to the stamp room and putting her arms around him and telling him how very, very fortunate she felt herself to be in having him for her husband.

Abruptly pushing her chair away from the desk, she rose to her feet. Swiftly she left the room and then broke into a run; running along the landing to the head of the stairs and, to the alarm of two members of her household staff, running down them.

At the stamp-room door she came to a breathless halt and hesitated, but her hesitation was minimal.

‘George?’ With a fast-beating heart, she gave the door a sharp knock. ‘George, it’s May. There’s something I’d very much like to say to you. There’s something I simply must tell you.’

Chapter Thirty-Two

image

JANUARY 1901, YORK COTTAGE