Crowned with Love

Chapter One ~ 1876-2

“About what?” Giona asked abruptly.

Princess Louise gave a deep sigh before she replied,

“King Ferdinand of Slavonia has applied to the Queen, of course through his Ambassador, for an English wife – to share his Throne with him.”

The way the Princess spoke made both Chloris and Giona stare at their mother open-mouthed.

There was a silence that seemed to leave them both paralysed before Chloris said quickly,

“Her Majesty is aware that – I am engaged?”

“The engagement has not yet been officially announced and at first the Queen thought that it would be in the best interests of everybody if it was conveniently forgotten.”

Chloris gave a cry that seemed to echo round the room.

“Are you saying – Mama – that she is suggesting I should not – marry John?”

“Her Majesty made it very clear to me,” Princess Louise replied, “that it was British policy to keep the small countries in the Balkans independent, and that the Slavonian Ambassador has told her that King Ferdinand will find it very difficult to do so unless he has the support of Great Britain and an English wife to prove it.”

Chloris screamed again.

“But I am to – marry John – she agreed I could marry John! I would rather – die than marry – anybody else!”

Her voice rose as she spoke, and Princess Louise said quickly,

“It’s all right, Chloris! I persuaded Her Majesty in the end that it would be impossible for you to break your word or for her to withhold the permission for your marriage that she has already given, but it was not easy.”

She sighed as if the memory of how difficult it had been was very painful and Giona slipped her hand into her mother’s and held it tightly.

“She was not unkind to you, Mama?”

“Only rather overbearing and I thought for one moment that I had failed to save Chloris.”

“But you have – saved me? I can marry – John?” Chloris insisted.

Her mother nodded.

“Oh, thank you, thank you, Mama! But how could the Queen have thought of anything so cruel – so horrible as to try to separate us?”

“You must be aware,” Princess Louise replied quietly, “that Her Majesty is concerned only with the political situation in Europe.”

“Politics or no politics,” Giona said defiantly, “we are human beings and the Queen has no right to treat us as if we were just puppets to be manipulated at her command!”

Princess Louise, who had been looking at her elder daughter, now looked down at the younger sitting at her feet.

“I know how you feel, darling,” she said, “but you must understand that the privilege of being Royal carries with it the penalty of putting duty before everything else.”

Giona had heard this before and she merely said,

“But you saved Chloris, Mama, and it was very very clever of you!”

“Very clever!” Chloris echoed, wiping away the tears that had run down her cheeks because she was so frightened of what might have happened.

“Yes, you are safe and you can marry John,” Princess Louise said, “and the Queen has promised, dearest, to pay for your Wedding gown and part of your trousseau.”

Chloris now gave a cry of sheer delight and, running to her mother’s side, put her arms around her neck and bent down to kiss her.

“You are brilliant, Mama!” she said. “How could you be so wonderful? I can never thank you enough and I know that John will want to thank you too.”

The Princess did not respond as eagerly as her daughters expected, and it was Giona who asked,

“What is wrong, Mama? I can see something is still troubling you.”

Princess Louise looked down at Giona’s hand holding hers and said gently,

“As you said, I have saved Chloris, but Her Majesty is still intent on saving the independence of Slavonia.”

Again there was a little poignant silence before the Princess went on,

“Her Majesty pointed out to me that she has at the moment no young relative of the right age to be the wife of King Ferdinand except for Chloris, and, of course, you, Giona!”

Chloris made an audible gasp as her mother spoke, but Giona was suddenly very still, her fingers stiff against her mother’s palm.

“Did you say – me, Mama?”

“Yes, dearest. I think you are too young, as I pointed out to Her Majesty, but, as she had conceded, as you might say, that Chloris should not marry King Ferdinand, there was nothing I could do but agree that you should do so.”

“I cannot believe it!” Giona gasped.

She rose from her knees as she spoke and walked to the open window as if she was in need of air.

As she stood silhouetted against the sunlight, the Princess thought how slim and immature she looked and yet it had been impossible to withstand the pressure that had been brought to bear on her by the Queen to agree to the match.

“Giona is much too young, ma’am,” she had objected, “and, although I appreciate how great an honour it is that Your Majesty should even suggest such a match for her, it is really impossible.”

“What do you mean – impossible?” the Queen had asked sharply.

The Princess had chosen her words slowly, as if she realised that every one was of great importance.

“Giona will not be eighteen until next month, ma’am. She has lived a very quiet life and as yet, as Your Majesty is well aware, has taken no part in social affairs.”

Princess Louise had paused for a moment, knowing that the Queen was listening. But the hostile expression on her face had told her she was not in the least sympathetic.

“I was, in fact,” she went on quickly, “about to ask you, ma’am, if you would permit her to attend a first or second Drawing Room and I was hoping that in this way she might be invited to a few of the balls that will be given for other debutantes this Season.”

There was a pause before the Queen replied,

“I would prefer to have sent Chloris to Slavonia, but if, as you have persuaded me, it is impossible for her to break the promise she has given to Lord John Cressington, then Giona must take her place.”

“But, Your Majesty, she is too young!” Princess Louise said again.

“It is not a question of youth or age, my dear Louise,” the Queen had replied, “but what is best for Slavonia.”

She paused impressively before she added,

“The choice lies between a young Queen or submission to the overwhelming might of Austrian-German ambition, which would add Slavonia to their long and ever-increasing list of dependencies.”

As the Queen spoke, Princess Louise had known that she was defeated and now she said aloud to the two girls watching her,

“There was nothing I could do, nothing except agree.”

“But Mama, how can I go to live in Slavonia when it is so far away from you and be married to a man I have never seen?”

“You may like him when you do meet him,” Chloris said encouragingly. “After all, he will be coming to meet us all and you might fall in love with him. It is not as though you are in love with anybody else.”

Giona knew that Chloris was speaking so optimistically because she was so relieved and happy at not having to marry the King herself.

Princess Louise lay back in her chair as if she were suddenly very tired before she said,

“I am afraid there is no question of the King coming here or of our meeting him at all before the Wedding.”

Giona turned round from the window.

“What are you saying, Mama?”

“Her Majesty has been convinced by the Ambassador of Slavonia that the situation is urgent and must be coped with immediately. She has therefore decided that you should go out to Slavonia as soon as we can collect your trousseau and you will have a State Marriage in their Cathedral so as to make it very clear to the people that the King has the support of Great Britain and, of course, of Queen Victoria herself.”

Giona did not speak, but her eyes were so wide they seemed almost to fill her face.

The Princess gazed at her and said softly,

“I know this is a shock, dearest, but I swear to you that I had to agree to what Her Majesty wanted and I can only pray from the bottom of my heart that you will be happy.”

“How could it ever be possible for me to be happy – in such circumstances?” Giona asked.

“You must try,” the Princess insisted firmly.

“Why should we obey the Queen? Why should she order our lives about as if we had no human feelings and were just made of wood or stone?” Giona asked angrily.

She knew as she spoke that it was all very wrong and that what the Queen had proposed to her mother was inhuman, a nightmare that she was finding it impossible to awake from.

Quite suddenly she stamped her foot.

“I will not do it, Mama! I will run away and you can tell the Queen that you cannot find me.”

The words seemed to ring out round the room.

Then after a long pause Princess Louise said very quietly,

“In that case, Giona, I am quite certain that Her Majesty will insist on Chloris going to Slavonia, as was her original intention.”

*

Having spent a sleepless night, Giona, pale-faced and with dark lines under her eyes, came down to breakfast.

There was only Chloris in the small room leading off the kitchen where they had their meals and the Princess had obviously finished and left.

Yesterday evening, after their mother had said that, if she would not marry the King, Chloris would be obliged to do so, Giona had left the sitting room and run upstairs to her own bedroom.

She had locked herself in and refused to come out, despite pleas both from her mother and her sister.

Now, as Chloris’s anxious eyes went towards her, she felt a little embarrassed and, helping herself to bacon and eggs from the heated dish on the sideboard, she said as she walked to her place at the table,

“I am sorry, Chloris, but I had no wish to talk to anybody last night.”

“Of course, I understand,” Chloris replied, “and, dearest, I am so sorry, desperately sorry for you – but you know I cannot – give up John.”

“No, of course not,” Giona replied.

“Perhaps it will not be as bad as you think,” Chloris went on hopefully, “and, after all, you will be a Queen!”

Her sister did not reply.

“I used to think that we should be buried alive here where we would see nobody but the decrepit old inhabitants of the other houses like our own for the rest of our lives. Then by a miracle I found John for, as he has said so often, he went to that party only because his father was ill and his mother asked him particularly to escort her. Otherwise he would have made every excuse not to be present.”

“I know exactly what you are saying,” Giona said in a low voice, “but I think I would rather be an old maid than married to a man who could easily be my father!”

Chloris looked up sharply.

“What are you saying?”

“I thought it would be unlikely that you would know the King’s age,” Giona replied, “and Mama very skilfully avoided talking about it – but actually he will be fifty-two next birthday!”

“I don’t believe it!” Chloris exclaimed. “Surely he should have a wife by now?”

“He has been married,” Giona answered, “but she died two years ago and that is why they are now able to ask for a Queen who will be of value to the nation.”

Chloris did not speak and after a moment Giona went on,

“And that is what I am to be – a bundle tied up in the Union Jack and handed to him by Queen Victoria like a prize in a cattle show. Like a farmer’s mantelpiece I shall be plonked down on the Throne for all to see!”

Chloris sighed before she said,

“Surely there must be somebody available who is older than you?”

Giona shook her head.

“No, the Queen was speaking the truth when she told Mama that there was no one else. I went downstairs when you were all asleep last night and read Papa’s book Royal Families of Europe and, of course, Debrett’s Peerage.”

She coughed before she continued,

“I went through them with a fine-tooth comb. Every English Princess is either already married or else so decrepit that they would be too old even for King Ferdinand!”

“If he is really as old as that, then he would be too old for me. After all I am only two years older than you are!” Chloris pointed out.