Abigail's Cousin (31 page)

"Chit-chat
from the Kit-Cat!" Her ladyship was dismissive turning to
Maynwaring. What about you, Arthur. You have the latest news,
surely."

Maynwaring
delighted in helping the duchess slight this snobbish peer, her
son-in-law, and said:

"He was in the
House yesterday, and I'm told." He had placed a slight stress on
the definite article to indicate where the action was, but also he
had another choice piece of gossip. He looked at Spencer's
discomfort enjoying the moment, and said:

"He has been
seen leaving St James by the back stairs."

"Indeed!"
exploded the duchess, adding: "Even as we speak Harley could be
sitting with that strumpet - or with the queen, herself."

She had
stopped pacing and now stood by the table where both Spencer and
Maynwaring having exchanged looks listened to what she would say
next and her next remark had them on the edge of their seat:

"Gentlemen! We must be rid of Abigail. Do
you know Charles that her majesty has even issued an official
summons to his grace."

Spencer was
nonplussed. What could he say to mollify her and fell back to
repeating her previous charge:

"To give Essex
regiment to Mrs Masham's brother, as you said earlier,
mother-in-law. It is an insult. Nobody could fail to understand
your anger."

The duchess
seemed mollified and Spencer heaved an inward sigh of relief. He
said: "Jack Hill to be colonel, eh. That will put colonel Masham's
nose out of joint. Someone at the Kit-Cat likened their rivalry to
two ferrets in a sack."

The duchess
suddenly gave a peal of laughter. Maynwaring followed suit and soon
all three were chortling uproariously at the simile. Maynwaring
looked at Spencer appreciatively. A son of the soil, he knew all
about ferrets and wondered how much his lordship knew of the
subject. Still it had lightened the temper of the meeting.

Spencer
emboldened by one bravura remark, looked quickly at Sarah
Churchill, his mother-in-law, then back at Maynwaring and said
soberly:

"Depend on it
you can expect our Sam to be put forward as brigadier."

Sarah sat down
on the edge of the day-bed cum lounger staring at her son-in-law in
disbelief. She looked at Maynwaring who was scribbling then back at
Spencer who felt a sudden premonition that he had said the wrong
thing. She rasped:

"Sam be it,
and when did a Spencer start becoming familiar with the lower
classes."

For a moment
Spencer was struck dumb. He stared at Sarah thinking of her lowly
origins, the daughter of an importer, but thought better of it.
Instead he said: "He is lionized at the Kit-Cat, mother-in-law. You
might call him a fixture." He stared at Maynwaring who refused to
raise his head as Spencer added: "You should hear his tales from
the battlefield."

The duchess
however ignored his explanation, saying: "Heaven help the nobility
when that jade's offspring demand also preferments. Check your
title to Sunderland, Charles!" She looked at him scornfully: "The
jade might ask for it - and get it."

Spencer was
annoyed and now threw caution to the winds, saying defiantly:

"I notice the
woman never asks for anything for herself."

Incomprehensibly to Sunderland, Sarah got up from the day-bed and
came over to stare at Spencer, saying:

"Perhaps
Charles, you would prefer that woman as your mother-in-law that you
take her side. Lord me! Beset by ill-wishers, and mine own
son-in-law."

"Not so,
mother-in-law," Spencer protested then suddenly getting an idea
spoke to Maynwaring:

"Tell her
ladyship, Arthur about your idea for an early day motion in the
House."

She looked at
Spencer then at Maynwaring, clearly mystified and the latter told
her:

“Members of
the House of Commons ma'am are entitled to ask for a debate at the
close of normal business. It is a means of bringing to the
attention of the House a matter of outstanding importance."

She still
looked sceptical saying: And what good will that do?"

In answer
Maynwaring took a sheet of paper from his valise handing it to her
saying: "I've jotted something down you might care to read, your
ladyship."

"It might be
an idea to read it out, mother-in-law."

The duchess
looked briefly at Spencer then declaimed:

"..that this
House demands that Mrs Abigail Masham being a pernicious influence
upon her majesty the queen to the detriment of her loyal servants,
be dismissed forthwith from the queen's household."

She looked at her secretary still
puzzled:
"Send you this
to ...whom, not to the queen."

Maynwaring
told her no but that her ladyship might empower him to enter it as
a candidate for a debate in the House and she put her reaction into
words: "Lord! Then everybody will know what we are about."

"Precisely
ma'am. We shall discover thereby our supporters in the House. What
is more, rumours of it will find their way to the palace. Her
majesty and her servant will soon discover how much opposition they
have."

Sarah was
enamoured by the whole idea and said: "Excellent!"

Spencer said:
"Would his grace care to write to her majesty demanding her removal
as the price for his continuation in office?"

She replied
that he had already put a blunt proposal to lord Godolphin for him
to suggest that her majesty retires her captain-general or her
servant on the occasion when she countermanded his proposal for the
Constable. Spencer told her that he doubted whether Godolphin or
Lord Cowper would put such a blunt proposal whereas the early day
motion had more chance of success.

Maynwaring
agreed with Spencer as the proposal must not sound like an
ultimatum. His ally in this matter was the duchess and his next
remarks were aimed for her ears. Spencer sat back bemused as
Maynwaring developed the argument:

"It should
suffice ma'am if the gentleman press the matter with confidence.
After everything is said, it doth seem perfidious that men in
leading positions in government are not able to remove such a slut
as this from her post."

Maynwaring
noticed Spencer's anguished features but the duchess was clearly
delighted. She clapped her hands like a schoolgirl crying:

"I like this
idea. What did you call it, ah, an early day motion."

Spencer said:
"It would be unprecedented, is that not so, Maynwaring? For
Parliament to demand to remove a dresser from the queen's
household!"

"Not so, my
lord," retorted Maynwaring, "in the fourteenth century Parliament
demanded of Edward the second that his lover Piers Gaveston be
exiled back to his native France."

"Bravo,
Arthur!" cried Sarah anxious to win back Anne's favour supplanted
lately by her cousin. She continued: "Lord, me! You have hit the
nail on the head since the matter seems the same. Abigail has
entire dominion over her majesty. Such a thing can proceed from
nothing but an unnatural and extravagant passion."

The two men
looked at each other as Sarah waxed lyrical over her hatred for the
woman she saw as supplanting her in the queen's affections. She
went on in like vein: "I shall be revenged upon someone who has
robbed me of the queen's affection."

She pondered a
moment in silence then said: "That jade has lured away other
friends of mine."

Spencer
glanced at Maynwaring but his head was down busy writing as he
asked: "Other friends, mother-in-law?"

"Indeed, my
lord," she replied, "the duke of Shrewsbury no longer visits me. He
was a regular caller at St Albans and, later, when I moved to
Woodstock. Now I do not see him, at all. It is that jade who has
poisoned him against me."

It was
Maynwaring who now sought Spencer's eyes. They both understood the
reason, but how to frame it. It was up to Spencer, who said:

"He is neither
a Tory nor yet a Whig ma'am, and I am informed his advice is sought
by the queen because he is neither the one nor the other."

Maynwaring
confirmed it: "He is neutral. A rare bird these days."

Her ladyship
was silent as Spencer made eye contact with the MP and, choosing
his words, said to her: "If I can make a suggestion mother-in-law,
one that might bring him into our fold."

He paused, and
her ladyship, saying nothing, seemed eager to know what the
suggestion was. He went on: "If you could be kind to the signorina,
his grace's wife. He dotes on her and you will assuredly find his
favour and friendship if you would but speak to her one kind
word."

Spencer had
gone on too long. He knew it but he had noticed the gleam in the
duchess' eyes which now was converted to scorn as she thundered:
"The Duchess of Shrewsbury is not one of us. She is an upstart, a
foreign upstart. The one kind thing she can do, for me, for us, for
the duke, for the country is to return to Italy. He may be the king
of hearts but she be no queen. I do not understand you Charles for
such an outrageous notion."

Maynwaring and
Spencer exchanged glances but said not one word more on the matter.
Each had become aware of a very pleasant aroma reminding them of
happier hours at the Smyrna and it became much stronger when the
door opened to admit the footman who addressed the duchess:

"Your
ladyship, the senior footman sends his compliments ma'am and
wonders whether the company would care to make their way to the
refectory."

Maynwring
spoke to the duchess: "What is happening at the refectory your
ladyship?"

She turned to
the footman: "Explain it man to his lordship and my secretary."

"The BOWER
Club maam; it is every Friday. The colonel and his lady will be
pleased to entertain your ladyship and your friends. I am sure of
it. It has the blessing of her majesty, ma'am."

Spencer was
intrigued: "What is the BOWER Club, sir? Would you explain it to
me.?"

"It is the
British Officers War and Emergency Relief Club, your lordship. They
meet every Friday." explained the footman.

Maynwaring had
an idea and mischievously said: "It would seem the colonel likes
his coffee, sir. That is the most delicious aroma."

"Ah, yes, sir.
That is the colonel lady's speciality, sir. Masham, by name. You
should make their acquaintance for the lady makes the most
delicious coffee in London, so I'm told."

"Does she
indeed." The duchess spat the words out, "lady she calls herself.
What ever next!"

Spencer was
amused explaining: "That is the usual form of address to the wife
of a British officer, mother-in-law." Then getting up, added: "I
shall bid you adieu ma'am, and you Maynwaring. I am off to sample
the colonel lady's coffee. Besides it will give me the opportunity
to meet her and see whom everybody is talking about."

While
Maynwaring kept his head down trying to suppress a smile and with
the duchess almost fit to explode with indignation, Spencer walked
over to the footman: "Show me where to go, sir footman, if you
please!"

"Just follow
the coffee aroma, my lord. That is your best guide."

Anne sat in
one of her favourite rooms in the whole of Kensington Palace newly
refurbished, partly to complete the work started by her sister
Mary, who had died before her creation was complete though enough
had been done to make it worthwhile for her surviving spouse,
William, to complete it as a memorial to his dearly beloved, but
late wife and queen. Anne now queen herself after his death was
taking advantage of her sister's foresight and choice of
architects, Wren, Hawksmoor, Vanbrugh each having made their
imprint upon the palace. As the queen looked through a tall sash
window with its wide glazing bars, she could just see the corner of
Vanbrugh's new Orangery completed just five years before, its tall
Doric pillars in white reflecting all available light.

After writing contin
uously for hours, she felt the need for
refreshment and as she pulled the ceiling cord, she also looked
forward to the companionship of shared refreshment. Enough of state
business, she had deserved this break and having made hardly a
sound the object of her thoughts stood in the doorway and before
she had a chance to announce her presence, Anne forestalled her
with a loud sigh and spoke:

"So many
papers Masham, so many I scarce have ye time to rest let alone
retire to say my prayers, especially today. Yet I must find ye time
today of all days."

Masham replied
perceptively: "It is not difficult to guess that his late majesty
has been on your mind, ma'am. I do beseech you to forbear a while
especially for the sake of your poor eyes. Remember what Monsieur
Guede recommmended."

"I had quite
forgotten them, both my eyes and monsieur's advice," replied Anne
and Masham came towards her and looking at the queen said:

"That is a
good thing. Forgetting means your eyes are not troubling you ma'am,
but we do not want to strain them overmuch, do we!"

Anne smiled
with warmth and leaned back in her chair and spoke of her
gratitude: "Thanks to him and to you, Masham. I shall not forget
your ministrations to my sore eyes for they are cured, I am sure of
it. Do ask Sir Benjamin to draw a Bank of England note for one
hundred guineas in ye name of monsieur Guede."

Masham sighed
herself before responding:

"It pains me
to tell you ma'am that I am obliged to inform lady Churchill as
keeper of the Privy Purse."

Anne
protested: "Mrs Freeman and I agreed years ago Masham that you are
allowed to mandate small amounts."

Masham was
positive: "Your word is my command, ma'am, whatever the amount, but
you do know how her ladyship creates should she find out."

Anne nodded
gloomily shaking her head in despair musing, almost to herself: