Royal Sisters: The Story of the Daughters of James II (8 page)

Sarah embraced her
John. Then she held him at arms’ length.

“Well, Baron Churchill?”

“Yes, my lady?”

“Have you a clever wife?”

“The cleverest in the world.”

“John, I only had to ask.”

“She thinks the world of you, as indeed she should.”

Sarah’s eyes were dreamy as she looked into the future. “I can see that she will do anything … just anything … I ask of her. She is in my power … absolutely.”

“Careful, my love.”

She was almost haughty for a moment. “You need not advise me, John Churchill.”

He retreated at once. “I know it well.”

She softened and put her arms about his neck. He was so handsome, so charming, and he had forsaken his rake’s life for her. She saw greatness in him and she was going to build that greatness. He was beginning to understand that now.

They stood looking at each other. This was a partnership. They needed rank, and they had taken the first step toward that, although a barony was not going to be good enough for the Churchills; they wanted wealth (at the moment they were poor, but Sarah would know how to remedy that) and what was more precious than anything to Sarah: Power.

Sarah was as near to loving him as she could love anyone; she saw in him a reflection of herself. He was hers to make and to mold; and she believed she had chosen the finest man in the world on whom to bestow her greatness. She was impatient with a fate which had made her a woman. Had she been a man, she was certain there was no heights to which she would not have arisen; as it was, she would work with John. Together they would stand.

Lord and Lady Churchill—this was the first step.

No wonder they were delighted with each other.

In the Cockpit
Lady Churchill was more arrogant than ever; she was, she said, of the frankest nature on earth; but woebetide anyone who tried to be equally frank with her.

With the Princess she was gentle and affectionate—but only to her.

As for Anne, she loved Lady Churchill even more than she had Mrs. Churchill, for it was very comforting to have given so much pleasure to a dear friend.

Anne was sitting
alone with her dear friend as she so loved to do.

“Sarah,” she said, “you are pleased with your new title.”

“You can well imagine what pleasure it gives me to stand on equal terms with some of these
vipers
you have around you, Madam.”

“I trust my aunt has not been unpleasant to you.”

“She is by nature unpleasant. She looks like a mad woman, that one, for all that she tries to talk like a scholar.”

Anne burst into laughter. “Oh, I do see what you mean, Sarah.”

“It is pleasant to amuse you, Madam.”

“When you call me Madam, Sarah, I feel we are too far apart. You are Lady Churchill now but that is a long way beneath the rank of Princess.”

“The rank of Princess,” said Sarah coolly, “is one which can only come through inheritance or marriage. It is not to be
earned.
”

“When I am with you, dear Sarah, I feel that you are so much more worthy to hold rank than I.”

“Why, Madam, we must all accept the injustices of fate.”

“I could never bring you up to royal level, Sarah, no matter what I did. So, I have been thinking how pleasant it would be if we could be together as … equals.”

Sarah was immediately excited. “How so, Madam?”

“When I was a child I loved giving myself names. So did Mary. It was a kind of game with us. Do you remember Frances Apsley?”

Sarah frowned. Indeed she remembered Frances Apsley, that young woman with whom Mary had formed a passionate friendship; and Anne, who always followed Mary in everything had soon been declaring
her
devotion to Frances.

“An insipid creature,” said Sarah.

“Compared with you, of course; but Mary and I thought her wonderful. I believe Mary still does. But they have been long separated and Mary is married to William, and Frances to Benjamin Bathurst now. Frances has a brood of children and poor Mary has none … but what was I saying? We all took names for ourselves alone. It was such fun being incognito. Mary was Clorine and Frances was Aurelia—just for themselves—and I was Ziphares and Frances—to me—was Semandra. I should like
us
to have our own names, Sarah. Simple names, so that we could pretend to be two old gossips.”

Sarah nodded slowly “But, Madam, I think that is an excellent idea.”

“Sarah, I am so pleased. Shall I tell you what names I have chosen—Morley and Freeman.
Mrs
. Morley and
Mrs
. Freeman. Then we are of one rank … in fact we are without rank. I think it would give me great pleasure.”

“I think so too,” said Sarah. “Then I shall feel free to talk to you as I so often wish to. The very fact of your being the Princess does I fear come between us.”

“Then Morley and Freeman it shall be. Now we have to decide which is which. You are clever, Sarah, so I am going to make you decide. Who are you going to be, Mrs. Morley or Mrs. Freeman?”

Sarah considered. “Well,” she said, “I am of a very frank and free nature so I think Freeman would best suit me.”

“You have chosen, Mrs. Freeman. Now sit down and tell me the latest news of Mr. Freeman. Mr. Morley is in great spirits and with me is looking forward to the appearance of Baby Morley which I must confess, dear Mrs. Freeman, still seems to me a long way off.”

“You are too impatient, Mrs. Morley. You are like every other mother with a first child. I remember how I was with my Henrietta.”

Anne laughed. “Oh, Mrs. Freeman, I think this was an excellent idea of mine. Already I feel you are different toward me.”

“I believe it is going to make greater freedom between us, Mrs. Morley.”

The Princess Anne
was brought to bed of a daughter but almost immediately it became apparent that the child could not survive, and there was scarcely time to baptize the little girl before she died.

Anne was temporarily distressed, but it was easy to comfort her. She was surrounded by loving attention. First there was her husband, plump and genial, to sit by her bed and hold her hand.

“Don’t you fret,” he said in his quaint English. “As soon as you are well enough, dear wife, we will have others.”

There was her father, so anxious on her behalf that it was said he cared for nothing as much as his daughter.

“My poor, dear child,” he mourned. “I understand well your disappointment. But you have shown that you are fertile. Why, scarcely were you married than you were pregnant; as soon as you are up and well there’ll be another. We all share your disappointment; but, my dearest, I can bear anything as long as my beloved child grows better every day.”

“You are the best father a daughter ever had,” she told him.

“Who would not be to the best of daughters?” he answered fondly.

Her stepmother came, with the Queen, both of whom had frequently suffered similar disappointments. They condoled with her, but there was one theme of their conversation: there would soon be a baby in the cradle for Anne.

If it were so, she would be perfectly happy, Anne declared. She had experienced motherhood, briefly and tragically, but it had made her realize that she wanted children. This one had been a girl, but there would be boys; and secretly she reminded herself that one of these boys could be King of England.

Anne had never felt so ambitious as she did lying there in her bed surrounded by all the luxuries her father could think of—ambitious for the son she would have.

The King came to visit her—kind, as ever, but looking older. His smile was merry, but there was a tinge of red in the whites of his eyes.

“Don’t you fret, niece,” he said. “If ever I saw a good stud, it’s our friend George. Don’t waste too much time being the invalid and, by God’s fish, I’ll warrant you’ll soon begin to swell again!”

It was all very gay and she felt secure and happy, sparing a thought now and then for dear Mary who had suffered miscarriages and must have sadly missed her father, stepmother, uncle, aunt, and most of all the kindness of a husband. Dear, dear George, how different he was from that hateful William, who, so reports from Holland had said, blamed Mary for the loss of her children.

What a good family she had, and how comforting it was to feel oneself cherished!

She was so contented that for some days she forgot the existence of Mrs. Freeman, who, to her disgust, was not allowed the liberty which had been hers before. Lady Clarendon had taken charge of the household and naturally the Duke of York paid more attention to his sister by marriage than to his daughter’s favorite woman.

It shall not always be so, thought Sarah, and during Anne’s confinement she grew to hate the Duke and Duchess of York.

Papists! she thought. They were nothing more than papists. Madame of Modena had swept through the apartments like a Queen bestowing little attention on Lady Churchill.

Well, Madam, thought Sarah, you will be sorry for that. Lots of people were going to be sorry one day.

But Anne was
soon asking for Mrs. Freeman who complained to her bitterly that she had been kept from her Mrs. Morley at the time she was most needed.

“I missed you,” Anne told her.

“It was a pity Mrs. Morley did not demand that Mrs. Freeman be brought to her.”

Anne yawned faintly and Sarah noticed this. She must curb her frankness with the Princess, who was of course utterly spoiled by those around her and in particular her father.

“Well, we are together now and I shall see personally that my dear Mrs. Morley does not over-tax her strength, for I do believe that it was due to this that we have had this unfortunate tragedy.”

“Please, do not let us talk of it. Get the cards, Mrs. Freeman, and call Barbara Fitzharding—and whom shall we have for a fourth?”

Not that old aunt of yours, thought Sarah, hurrying away to summon Mrs. Danvers. And how dared she suggest cards when clearly Sarah wanted to talk.

But John was right, of course. She must go carefully.

So when she returned with the cards and the players she insisted on placing cushions about the Princess and setting a box of sweetmeats beside her.