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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

May was wary of fiery temperaments and certainly wouldn’t have found one an advantage in a prospective husband, but it didn’t seem the right time to say so.

As they walked towards the Crimson Drawing Room she struggled over whether or not to tell Ella about the suggestion of exile that the Queen had made, and which she might now be making for a second time – only this time to her mother, and with far more force.

She thought of how horrified and sympathetic Ella would be, and decided against it. If it did come to living in exile, she didn’t want sympathy. Sympathy would be more than she could bear. And if she was wrong about the purpose of her mother’s invitation to Windsor, then there was no need for her to let anyone, even Ella, know how shamefully close a call it had been.

In the long Grand Corridor they were nearly knocked over, as Missy and Ducky careened towards them on roller-skates, with one of the Queen’s small terriers barking excitedly at their heels.

‘Oh, goody!’ Six-year-old Ducky swerved to a tottering halt. ‘Alicky’s gone off and left us, and we don’t have anyone to time how fast we are going from one end of the corridor to the other. The footmen are being mean and won’t do it, so will you?’

‘Yes,’ Ella said.

May asked, ‘Where has Alicky gone, Ducky? Do you know?’

‘No. She’s nice for a little while, and then she always falls quiet and goes off on her own.’

May had no intention of leaving Windsor without having spent time with Alicky, and she was just about to tell Ella that she was going off to find her, when her mother entered the far end of the Grand Corridor, looking visibly distressed.

There could only be one reason for her always happy-go-lucky mother to have lost such self-control. Certain of what it was, it felt for a moment to May as if the world had stopped spinning. Sucking air into her lungs, she began running as fast as she could towards her distraught mama.

Chapter Four

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JULY 1883, WHITE LODGE

An hour later, on the short carriage ride from Windsor to White Lodge, her mother was still complaining bitterly at what she termed the ‘barbaric’ treatment they were receiving.