The Three Crowns: The Story of William a - By Jean Plaidy Page 0,5
to be with me … and your mother?”
“Anne is coming?”
“Certainly. You do not think we would leave Anne behind?”
She laughed with happiness; and he put his lips to the smooth cheeks. He told himself that he would rather anything happened to him than that that delicate cheek should be raged by plague spots, and a sense of urgency seized him. Every moment might be important. He would not rest until they were far away.
“Where are we going, Papa?”
“To York, my dearest, they are preparing for our departure now.” He called to the nurse: “Is the baggage ready? Then begin to prepare the children. It is a long journey to York.”
“But Papa,” said Mary, “you are York.”
He patted her head; even in his haste marveling at her. What Charles would give for a child like this! he thought. Even though she is a girl.
“My love, York is also a city … our city. And from there I shall be near the fleet and we will watch out for the wicked Dutchmen and keep them from our shores.”
“Tell me about the Dutchmen, Papa.”
“Later,” he said. “When there is time. Now we are leaving at once. See, your nurse is waiting to dress you for the journey. Why, my little one, you and I will have many a talk in the days to come. I want you to know about what is happening to our country. You must never forget that you are my daughter and His Majesty’s niece.”
Mary remembered and believed herself to be the luckiest little girl in England. Her father was the best man in the world; her mother was the best mother; and in addition, she had for an uncle the one to whom everyone must bow and, she was certain although she believed it might be a secret between them, to her he was not a great King at all, only Uncle Charles, who could make her laugh and all the time wished she were his daughter instead of her father’s.
It was a happy family that stayed at York during those months which followed the retreat from Twickenham.
There was reconciliation between the Duke and the Duchess, for the Duke was not near enough to his mistresses to pay court to them, which was a matter of great satisfaction to the Duchess, and since the Duke was ready to concede to her in everything but his affairs with women, the household was harmonious.
They both agreed that it was like returning to those first weeks of marriage when it had seemed the whole world was against them and they had determined to stand together whatever the consequences.
Together now they supervised the education of Mary, who, they believed, was very intelligent. The Duke liked to have her with him when he received officials from the Navy and he would often call attention to her.
“I tell you this,” he said one day to Samuel Pepys, who had come to see him with some Navy estimates, “the Lady Mary of York understands much of what you are saying.”
It was an exaggeration, but Mary always listened attentively, for her greatest joy was in pleasing her father.
She worked hard at her lessons so that she could have his approbation and looked forward to those hours when he came to the nursery to be with her. Often when Anne was with her mother, Mary and her father would be together, and the Duke’s servants said that their master loved his daughter Mary beyond everything in the world.
One day he came to her a little sadly, and lifting her on to his knee and putting his cheek against her hair, told her that he would have to leave her. “But only for a little while,” he consoled.
“Oh, Papa,” she answered blankly and he wept as he kissed her.
“Listen, my little one,” he went on, “Uncle Charles is in Oxford and I have to join him there because that is where the Parliament is. There is much work to do when you are a King and the brother of a King. Do you understand?”
She nodded, lacing her fingers in his and gripping them as though to indicate that she would not let him go without a struggle.
“That is good because you will have to understand the duties of kingship. Why, my love, it could so come about that you might one day be a Queen of England … a Queen in your own right, sweetheart. Think of that.”
“And Anne?”
“Oh, Anne is your little sister. You are before her.