They were all dazzlingly dressed, and as her brother-in-law approached to kiss her hand, Catherine was glad that she had disregarded Maria’s and Elvira’s injunctions to receive the visitors in her native dress. She realized that it would seem strange to these gentlemen and that they would expect her to be dressed as the ladies of their Court. So she wore a dress which had been provided for her by the indefatigable and so tactful Richard Fanshawe; it was made of white and silver lace, and Elvira and Maria held up their hands in horror at the sight of her. It was, they declared, indecent compared with her Portuguese costume.
But she refused to listen to them and, in the cabin, which had been hastily turned into a small presence chamber, she received these gentlemen.
The Duke set out to charm her, and this he succeeded in doing, for, although his manners with ladies were considered somewhat clumsy by the members of his brother’s Court, Catherine sensed his great desire to please, and she was only too ready to be pleased.
They talked in Spanish and, as the Duke was eager to dispense with ceremony, Catherine was delighted to do so. She asked for news of the King, and James told her many things concerning her husband: how he loved ships, and what care he had spent in decking this one out that it might be worthy to receive his bride; how he loved on occasion to take a hand at the tiller himself; he told of the improvements he had made in his parks and houses; how he loved a gamble at the races; how he made experiments in his laboratories, and grew strange herbs in his physic garden; he told her a great deal about his brother and mentioned the names of many ladies and gentlemen of the Court, but never once did the name of Castlemaine pass his lips.
Catherine received him daily when he would be rowed out to the Royal Charles in his launch; and they talked together, becoming the best of friends, so that Catherine felt her fears diminishing. And when the Royal Charles sailed to Portsmouth, James followed and was at hand again, when she left the great ship, to accompany her to port in the royal barge.
Once on land she was taken to one of the King’s houses in Portsmouth, where the Countess of Suffolk, who had been appointed a lady of her bedchamber, was waiting to receive her.
The Duke advised her to despatch a letter to the King, telling him of her arrival, when he would with all haste come to greet her.
Eagerly she awaited his coming.
She shut herself into her apartment and told all her attendants that she wished to be alone. Elvira was still suffering from her fever, and Maria was exhausted; as to her six ladies-in-waiting and their duenna, they too were feeling the effects of the journey and, like their mistress, were not averse to being left alone to recover.
Catherine lay in the solitude of her chamber and once more took out the miniature she had carried with her.
Soon he would be here. Soon she would see him in the flesh—this man of whom she had dreamed so persistently since she had known he was to be her husband. She knew what his face was like. He was tall, rather somberly dressed, for he was not a man who greatly cared for finery. This much she had heard. No! He would not care for finery; vanity in dress was for smaller men! He was witty. That alarmed her. He will think me so very stupid, she thought. I must try to think of clever things to say. No, I must be myself. I must apologize because I am simple and have seen so little of the world. He will have seen so much. He has wandered over Europe, an exile for years before he came into his kingdom. What will he think of his poor simple bride?
She prayed as she lay there: “Make me witty, make me beautiful in his eyes. Make him love me, so that he will not regret giving up that woman whose name I will not mention even to myself.”
I shall walk in his parks with him and I shall love the plants and bushes and trees because he has planted them. I shall love his little dogs. I shall be their mistress as he is their master. I shall learn how to take clocks to pieces and put them back. All his interests shall be mine, and we shall love each other.
“He is the most easy-going man in the world,” they said of him. “He hates unpleasantness. He avoids scenes and looks the other way when there is trouble. Smile always, be gay … if you will have him love you. He has had too much of melancholy in his life. He looks for gaiety.”
I will love him. I will make him love me, she told herself. I am going to be the happiest Queen in the world.
There was commotion below. He had arrived. He had had news of her coming, and he had ridden with great speed from London.
She should have had time to prepare herself. She rose from her bed, called frantically to her women.
“Quickly! Quickly! Dress me in my English dress. Loosen my hair. I will wear it as the English wear it … just at first. Where are my jewels? Oh, come … come … we must not delay. He must see me at my best…. I should have been prepared.”
The Countess of Suffolk hurried into the chamber as her women bustled about her.
“Your Majesty, a visitor has come to see you.”
“Yes … yes … bring him in. I am ready.”
She half closed her eyes. She would not be able to bear to look at him. This was the most important moment in her life. Her heart was fluttering like a frightened bird.
She heard the Countess say: “This is Sir Richard Fanshawe. He has letters for you … messages from the King.”
Sir Richard Fanshawe!
She opened her eyes as Sir Richard came into the apartment.
He knelt. “Your Majesty, I bring letters from the King’s Majesty. He sends loving greetings to you. He commands me to tell you that he will be with you as soon as he can conveniently travel. At this time imperative business detains him in London.”
Imperative business! What business could it be, she wondered, to keep a man from the wife whom he had not yet seen, a King from his Queen who had undertaken a perilous journey to come to him? She wished that she could banish the name of Lady Castlemaine from her mind.
The bells were ringing in London. The people stood about in groups, as they did when great events were afoot. The Queen had arrived at Portsmouth; and now it would not be long before the ceremony of marriage took place in England; there would be more pageantry; more revelry; and it would be amusing to see what would happen when the new Queen and Lady Castlemaine came face-to-face.
The King himself had received the news of the Queen’s arrival. He had heard also of the bags of sugar and spices that she had brought with her.
He let the communication drop from his hands. So he had a wife at last; but the very reason for her coming—that half a million of money which he so badly needed—was to be denied him.
The Queen Mother of Portugal had promised the rest would follow. In what form, he wondered; fruit? More spices? He had been deceived by that wily woman, for she had known that the reason he had agreed to marry her daughter was that the dowry would help to save his country from bankruptcy.
He must see Clarendon, his Chancellor. But no. Clarendon had been against the match; Clarendon had wished him to marry a Protestant wife, and had only agreed to support the Portuguese marriage when he was overruled by the majority of the King’s ministers. And why had they agreed to this marriage? Simply because of that half a million in gold.
So, said Charles to himself, I have a wife and much sugar and spice; I have a port on the coast of Morocco which is going to cost me dearly to maintain—did the sly woman wish me to have it because she could no longer afford to keep it?—and I have the island of Bombay, which I may discover to be equally unprofitable. Oh, my marriage is a very merry one, I begin to believe!
The Queen was here. She was waiting for him at Portsmouth, and he was expected to go and greet her … her and her sugar and spice.