‘The Prince naturally finds the evenings dull,’ said Mr Anson. ‘He is bored with his double chess every evening and now of course he is drawn into the round games which seem positively childish to him.’
‘It is to be hoped that he doesn’t look for excitement in dangerous places,’ said Lord Melbourne.
Mr Anson looked surprised.
‘Well, my dear fellow, there are some very beautiful ladies at Court. I have often felt the Queen was ill advised to choose her ladies for their beauty, which she appears to have done. She loves beauty – particularly in the human form.’
‘The Queen is delighted with the Prince’s utter indifference to other ladies.’
‘It’s early days yet,’ said the Prime Minister. ‘I told her this and she was very indignant. But, if he is going to be bored in the evenings, she should take care. The Prince has been very successful so far. Oh, I know there have been some stormy scenes. I know well that royal temper. But his success has been remarkable. It may well be that very soon you will be seeing the company at the palace becoming literary and scientific and far more intellectual, but the Prince must be wary.’
‘He knows that very well, Lord Melbourne.’
‘And the Daisy lady?’
‘Still reigns.’
‘A battle royal will take place there one day. And until it is won our Prince should walk very carefully. I have no doubt of the outcome. Albert is a very good chess player. He’ll know the strategy. His danger is impatience.’
‘He is a very patient man, Prime Minister.’
‘He needs to be. Let him remember that and he’ll be the victor. I’ll prophesy that if he is clever enough he’ll clear the palace of his enemies and be master in his house.’
Lord Melbourne was a little sad, thinking of the days when he was the most important one in the Queen’s life. What a happy time that had been! He had lost his cynicism and had felt like a young man in love. But he had not been a young man and the object of his devotion was a young girl – a queen – to whom he could never speak of love.
But there was love between them – on his side an enduring love. That was why he wanted above all things to see her happy.
And she would be of course, and he would know that she was when Albert became master in the house. A long battle lay before the Prince. He, the Prime Minister, hoped that he would live long enough to see that battle won, for only if the Prince was the victor could Victoria be happy.
Chapter X
LORD MELBOURNE DEPARTS
The Christmas holidays were coming to an end. Lord Melbourne wrote to the Queen condoling with her because, against her will, she must return to London for the opening of Parliament. It was an ordeal which the Queen would have happily missed.
The Queen had reproved Lord Melbourne for not coming to Windsor. It was a long time since she had seen him and he knew that she did not like to be away from him for too long.
He could not, wrote the Prime Minister, leave London because of the uncertain state of politics and when she did arrive in London he would have a few words with her about the speech from the throne, which would have to be more carefully worded than usual because of the country’s rather uneasy relations with France.
He was very happy though, he wrote, to hear that she was reluctant to leave the country, which he construed as meaning that the simple pleasures shared with her husband were more enjoyable to her than the unavoidably public life in London. He believed that this meant she was very happy and there was nothing on earth that Lord Melbourne desired more than her happiness.
‘Dearest Lord M,’ murmured the Queen when she read that letter. At least one thing would make her happy to return to London; she would see her Prime Minister.
Uncle Leopold wrote that although discretion had prevented his being present at Victoria’s coronation and wedding, he would come to the baptism of the Princess Royal.
Albert was delighted. It would be a wonderful reunion and they would have so much to talk about. He must not of course mention their differences. Uncle Leopold would make a big issue of that and could well give all sorts of advice not only to Albert but to Victoria which might prove fatal to Albert’s hopes.
On the 23rd of January Victoria opened Parliament and when that was over all her thoughts were directed to the christening. At the beginning of February the weather turned very cold and there was ice on the lake in Buckingham Palace gardens. The Prince’s eyes sparkled. It reminded him of the skating he and Ernest had so much enjoyed in Coburg.
Day after day the frost continued and a few days before that fixed for the christening Albert declared that the lake was hard enough for skating.
Victoria wanted to join him but he begged her not to. ‘I should be overcome by anxiety. It is too soon after Pussy’s birth,’ said Albert.
Because he begged and did not command, Victoria was happy to fall in with his wishes and touched, she said, by his care of her. So each day she and her ladies would go out into the grounds of Buckingham Palace to watch the skaters, and the Queen was delighted with the figure Albert cut on the ice. He was an expert.
The palace garden with its forty acres was a consolation to Albert for having to live in London. The lake was delightful and there was a pleasant summer-house situated on a mound for which he had plans. He was one day going to have it decorated and made into a refuge from the great palace which, though so close, was invisible during summer when the trees were thick with leaves.
On the day before the christening it seemed a little warmer. The Queen commented on it to the Duchess of Sutherland and some of the other ladies as they made their way to the lake where the Prince was already skating. He liked her to watch him.
As she came near to the lake she saw Albert. He waved to her. She waved back.
‘How beautifully he moves!’ she murmured.
As Albert skated towards her there was a sudden sound of cracking ice and the Prince, throwing up his hands, disappeared. Where he had been was a big hole of dark water.
The ladies started to scream. One of them ran to the palace to get help. But Victoria could only think that Albert had disappeared beneath the ice.
She ran to the lake. ‘Albert!’ she cried desperately.
His head appeared.
‘Albert, I’m coming,’ she said, though she was not quite sure what she could do.
‘Go back!’ called Albert. ‘It’s dangerous.’
But she took no notice. Cautiously she ventured on to the ice, testing it with her foot before taking a step forward. She held out her hands to him.
Albert by this time was scrambling out. ‘My dearest,’ he panted, ‘keep away.’
But she had seized his arm and was pulling him out of the water.
The ice seemed firm where Victoria stood and later she heard that it had been broken just where Albert had fallen in and had lightly frozen over again, which was why it was so weak at that particular spot.
Clinging together they reached the bank.
‘My brave love!’ said Albert. ‘You might have joined me beneath the ice …’
‘You are shivering,’ said Victoria sternly. ‘I must get you into the palace at once.’