Queen in Waiting: (Georgian Series) Read Online Free PDF

not really paying attention either.
    Caroline stopped reading and said: ‘We were happier than this in Ansbach.’
    ‘What did you say?’ asked Eleanor.
    Caroline said: ‘Mamma, couldn’t we go away somewhere for a little change?’
    Eleanor looked startled. Then she said: ‘Where could we go?’
    ‘To Ansbach perhaps.’
    ‘We should not be welcome there.’
    ‘We are not welcome here.’
    ‘Caroline, what do you mean? This is our home!’
    Home! thought Caroline. Where you were unhappy! Where no one wanted you! Where people whispered about you in corners.
    ‘Perhaps,’ she said, ‘we could go-to Berlin.’
    ‘To Berlin. I doubt whether they would want us there either.’
    ‘Mamma, how can you know? The Electress Sophia Charlotte was so kind. She talked to me about lessons and things like that.’
    ‘I hope you are getting on well with your studies, Caroline.’ That worried look was in her eyes. She was thinking: I neglect my daughter. She is allowed to run wild. Oh what will become of us?
    ‘I try to work at them,’ answered Caroline gravely. ‘The Electress Sophia Charlotte said I should. Do you think she will ever come here to see us?’
    ‘Nobody ever comes here to see us.’
    There was no bitterness in the tone, only a sad resignation.
    Nothing will ever change, thought Caroline.
    But even as the thought entered her mind one of her mother’s attendants came into the room. She was agitated and showed clearly that something had happened to upset her.
    She did not seem to see Caroline sitting in her chair, but went straight to the bed, and handed a paper to Eleanor. ‘I couldn’t believe this when I read it, Your Highness. It is… terrible.’
    Eleanor took up the paper in trembling hands.
    ‘What… Oh, I had heard… Oh, no .’
    ‘They are saying that it could not have been circulated without the Elector’s consent, Your Highness.’
    ‘I am sure that is so.’
    Caroline shrank back into her chair and watched her mother intently.
    She threw the paper on to the bed. ‘This is the end,’ she said wearily. ‘He is determined to be rid of me.’
    ‘They will never allow such a law, Your Highness.’
    ‘If he insists…’
    ‘No. It can’t be. It’s another plot of that von Röohlitz woman. Nothing can come of it.’
    ‘A great deal has come of her plans. I feel very faint.’
    ‘It’s the shock. Lie still, Your Highness.’
    ‘Lie still,’ murmured Eleanor. ‘Yes, for what else can I do? Just be still and wait… for whatever they plan against me.’
    Caroline, sitting in her chair, wanted to run to her mother, shake her and cry out: It’s not the way. You shouldn’t allow them to hurt you. You should fight them as they fight you.
    But she sat still while the woman brought an unguent from a cupboard and rubbed it into her mother’s forehead.
    ‘That’s comforting,’ said Eleanor.
    The pamphlet fluttered to the floor not far from Caroline’s feet. She picked it up and read it. It was obscurely phrased but the gist was that it might be advantageous for men who could afford to support more than one wife to have another.
    So the Elector thought this a good idea! The reason was plain. He was able to support another wife, he was not satisfied with the one he had, and there was someone he would like to set up in her place.
    Yes, she could understand why her mother was disturbed.
    Eleanor was saying in a sad, tired voice: ‘I feel so… alone, and I know they are determined to be rid of me by one means or another.’
    ‘Your Highness should not distress yourself.’
    ‘How can I help it? They are getting restive. They have endured me long enough.’
    ‘Your Highness, this could never be. There would be an outcry. It is against religion as well as the laws of the state.’
    ‘They’re desperate,’ said Eleanor. ‘This could be a safer way… than some.’
    She was aware of Caroline standing there with the pamphlet in her hand.
    ‘Oh… Caroline. Put that paper down. I want to