Queen in Waiting - Plaidy Jean. Страница 4

Sophia Charlotte smiled over the girl's head.

I wish, thought Eleanor, that I could feel as pleased.

It was arranged that the wedding should take place at Leipzig and neither the Brandenburgs nor John George's ministers saw any reason why it should be delayed. It was only the bride and groom who wished for that.

Both had considerable misgivings. Eleanor, who had gone back to Ansbach to make preparations, spent a great deal of the time on her knees praying for a miracle, by which she meant some occurrence which would make the marriage unnecessary. Blankly she faced the future trying hard to convince herself that it was all for the best and that marriages which were made as this had been, often turned out to be the most successful.

John George in Dresden had no such illusions. The more he thought of marriage with Eleanor the more he loathed the idea; he was beginning to hate the woman they had chosen for him.

His ministers had suggested that while he was waiting for his wedding day he should not see his mistress. It would not be considered good taste and it was impossible to keep such meetings secret. If news reached the bride-elect that her husband was spending his nights with a mistress she might decide not to marry him after all.

That made John George laugh aloud. "Then for the love of God tell her."

"Your Highness is not serious."

"Never more. Never more," he cried.

But he dared not oppose his ministers. His position was too precarious. Harried on one side by them and by Magdalen's letters on the other he was frantic and when he was frantic he was furious.

"I won't go through with it! " he declared a hundred times a day.

But his ministers assured him that he must.

Magdalen's letters were smuggled in to him every day. He had betrayed her, she wrote. He had promised her marriage. He had taken her virtue ... and so on.

He laughed reading them. All written by her mother, he knew. Magdalen was too lazy to write; all Magdalen wanted to do was make love. "Very creditable, my darling," he said fondly; and he wanted her with him, no matter if she did say what her mother had taught her to; he didn't care if the old woman was taking bribes from Austria. Magdalen was worth it. With her masses of dark hair, her willowy body which was at the same time the most voluptuous in the world, how different she was from the flaxen Gennan women he had known before! She was a perfect animal; she cared nothing for politics; she cared nothing for anything but sensual pleasure.

He wanted to be with her. He would marry her if he could— to please her mother and her too, for that ambitious woman had convinced her daughter that what she wanted was to be the Electress of Saxony.

He might defy his ministers and the Brandenburgs yet. What if he married Magdalen ... secretly? What if he summoned them all to his presence chamber and told them they could stop the preparations for the wedding in Leipzig for he was already married?

He shivered. They were powerful old men. They had the experience which he lacked and had deposed their leaders for less.

No, he must do as they wished. He must marry that woman. He would prove to them that she was a spy ... a spy for the Brandenburgs. What was the difference between spying for the Brandenburgs and spying for Austria?

To hell with the agreement they had made with the Brandenburgs and which they fondly called The Golden Bracelet!

But a pretty princeling who is young and uncertain cannot say to hell with his ministers or his ministers may say to hell with him.

He must do as they wished but it should not always be so. One day they would have to obey him. In the meantime there was nothing he could do but depart for Leipzig.

Leaving Caroline in Ansbach with her brother, Eleanor travelled to Leipzig with her friends the Elector and Electress of Brandenburg, and with each stage of the journey grew more and more uneasy; and when she met her future husband her fears were increased. She had heard rumours of his passionate attachment to Magdalen von Roohlitz whom he had made a Countess and on whom he had bestowed rich lands, but she had not thought he would be so inconsiderate as to allow the woman to accompany him to Leipzig and attend his wedding.

In fact John George had not known it either but his satisfaction was immense when he discovered that Magdalen had been smuggled into his entourage. That was her mother's doing. He believed that indefatigable woman never gave up and had some idea that even at this late hour he might be persuaded to substitute his brides.

They were together during the journey. His ministers pretended not to see. They doubtless said to each other: Let him have a little sweetmeat before he takes his medicine.

He was determined to enjoy his sweetmeat. She railed against him at first in a half-hearted way, repeating the phrases her mother had taught her. "If you wanted a wife why should you choose her? Have you forgotten you promised me...?" No, he hadn't forgotten he soothed her, and he wished with all his might that it could be different. If it were possible he would marry his Magdalen and send that woman back to Ansbach or to the Brandenburgs wherever she belonged. All he wanted was his Magdalen. Nothing would be changed. She would see.

Magdalen was ready to be placated. In her opinion any time not spent in love-making was wasted time.

The days were filled with tension. It was feared that at the last moment the bridegroom would rebel. His ministers wrangled together. It had been a great mistake to allow Magdalen von Roohlitz to come. Who had been responsible for

that? They blamed each other but they all realized that they would not feel safe until after the ceremony.

There had been that shocking episode when he had received his future wife with his mistress beside him. Coldly he had greeted her, plainly showing his dislike and then during the ensuing banquet had given his attention to his mistress. Fortunately the bride was of a meek disposition; fortunately the Brandenburgs were too eager for the marriage to take offence.

And to the great relief of all except the bride and groom the wedding day arrived and the marriage was solemnized without a hitch.

But at the banquet and ball which followed the bridegroom said not a word to his bride; and made it clear that he had no intention of consummating the marriage by brazenly spending the night with his mistress.

The Shadow of Murder

Dresden, where Caroline joined her mother, was very opulent; it was said to be one of the most licentious courts in Germany and since the Elector's marriage had become even more so. Having obeyed the wishes of his ministers by marrying a woman he did not want, John George made it clear, that as far as they were concerned that was an end of the matter. The woman they had chosen for him might live in his palace but he wanted nothing to do with her. It was only on state occasions that he saw her and then he treated her as though she were not there. At the same time he made no secret of his unflagging devotion to Magdalen von Roohlitz, and as her mother scarcely gave her daughter a moment's peace, instilling into her mind that she had been betrayed by her lover, that she should have, besides everything else her lover had given her, the supreme gift, the title of Electress—even Magdalen was beginning to grow ambitious for that one thing he could not give her, and he grew more and more resentful against his wife.

Caroline very quickly discovered that as the daughter of her

mother she shared the resentment; and this knowledge made the court of Dresden an alarming place for an eight-year-old girl.