Sofy said, ‘I expect provision is made for them. I’m sure places are found for them.’
But what places? What work could a man do if he had no limbs?
I said, ‘I wish you would ask the King, Sofy. I should like to know what’s done for them.’
‘Oh, but I couldn’t,’ she said. ‘The King is not at all well, Nellie. He’s not to be troubled. We hope the sea bathing will set him up.’
And Minny said, ‘Yes, if we can only get through tomorrow without a squall.’
By which she meant, that the Prince of Wales should come to Spithead at the appointed hour, launch the ship that was being named for him and go away again without disturbing the Majesties’ peace. And so it transpired. He arrived only half an hour late, with a companion who had brought to bear his own soldierly insistence on punctuality.
The King and Queen and Royal and Augusta had lodged overnight at the Governor’s House but we were in Portsmouth town with the rest of the suite, in whatever rooms could be found for us. Elizabeth and Minny and Amelia had been watching all morning for the Prince of Wales’s carriage. There was a commotion in the street and Minny said, ‘He’s here. So far so good.’
Then Amelia said, ‘Who’s that with him?’
Sofy and I joined them at the window. The Prince looked up at once and waved. His face was pink and shiny, as though it had been polished, and he seemed so squeezed into his blue coat I wondered he could breathe. The man beside him was taller and much leaner. He had a patch over his left eye and a scarlet dolman coat slung around his shoulders because his arm was in a sling.
Elizabeth cried, ‘It’s Ernie! Ernie is home!’
And that was the first time I ever saw Prince Ernest.
13
Prince Ernie had been winged by a cannon ball at the Battle of Tourcoing but was expected to recover the use of his arm. It was, as Minny said, just the right kind of injury: not life-threatening, but visible enough to allow the Royalties their own little bit of glory. His eye, well, that depended on who you asked. Ernest said it was a sabre wound, sustained in close combat, but Mrs Chevely said he had always had a bad eye as long as she could remember.
Whatever the truth, he was quite the war hero, with his sisters falling over themselves to minister to him. He came on with us to Weymouth and the King seemed to relish his company. They rode together every morning after the sea bathing, and in the evenings Ernie would sit with him and listen to Mr Handel’s music. The Princesses were grateful for that. Every day he stayed was one recital less for them to endure and when there was a ball he always accompanied us to the Assembly Rooms and danced with every one of them. He was the perfect partner. A lightly wounded soldier with a pedigree the Majesties couldn’t possibly object to.
His hair was tawny, his face was gaunt and his bearing very military, with his chest puffed out. He made me think of a bird I’d seen in a picture book, a golden eagle presiding over his eyrie of sisterly chicks. I disliked him from the first. He was sharp with the servants and made me nervous that I might receive the same treatment from him, but he chose to ignore me instead. I’d have enjoyed Weymouth a deal better without him in the party but I was glad enough to be out of the heat of London and the confines of Jack’s shop. As people left the city to spend the summer in their country houses there was little trade but Jack would never think to close his door. Work was all he knew.
We made many excursions from Weymouth that summer. We went to Durdle Door, and to Sandsfoot to see the ruins of the castle, and to Chesil Beach to collect pretty pebbles. Then one day, at Ernest’s instigation, it was proposed to drive out to Ilsington House.
Minny said, ‘But surely Old Garth is away from home?’
‘Makes no difference,’ he said. ‘They’ll put on a good luncheon for us anyway, I dare say.’
Sofy said, ‘Oh yes, do let’s go, then Nellie may see her ardent admirer. The Major’s groom was very taken with her last year.’
‘Nellie?’ he said. ‘An admirer?’
‘And she has a suitor, too. Nellie’s going to marry Jack Buzzard.’
He snorted.
‘Buzzard, eh?’ he said. ‘What is he, a blind buzzard?’
Prince Ernie thought himself quite a wit.
So we set off for Piddletown and descended on poor Mrs Chaffey, a party of eight expecting to be fed and watered. Tom Garth was not at home, neither was he a Major any more. He was promoted Colonel and was on manoeuvres with the Sussex Fencibles and then was going back to Flanders directly. I was both sorry and glad. I would have liked to see him but was afraid my feelings would make me tongue-tied in his company. Bashful silence may add to a beautiful girl’s attractions but it would have been a calamity for me.
Sofy, who had entirely misread the situation, conspired with Ernie to have me sent to the stables on a needless errand. She said she believed her horse might have sustained a stone bruise. The turning points in life rarely come announced by a fanfare. Little chance events are what set us on one path instead of another. For King Louis and his queen you might say it was a face glimpsed by a rush light, and then a broken carriage wheel. For me it was an empty tack room and my peculiar way of remembering people, not by their face or their voice, but by their smell.
A worn wool coat hung from a peg, full-skirted, deep-cuffed, old-fashioned. I knew it was Tom Garth’s and I, pathetic creature that I was, buried my face in it to try and catch the essence of him. It was wood smoke and bay rum. Then I heard a low laugh and I thought my heart would leap out of my chest. Enoch Heppenstall had been watching me. ‘Wiping your snout?’ he said. ‘Colonel won’t like that.
He’s right particular.’
I said, ‘I was only smelling it. The coat reminded me of someone.’
He laughed again.
‘Smelling it? What are you then, a hunting dog? I remember you. You’re not quite right in the head, are you? You’re not quite all there.’
His insult didn’t bother me. All I cared about was that Garth shouldn’t hear of what I’d done.
He said, ‘Never worry, I won’t let on. You let me see what you’ve got under your petticoats and we’ll say no more.’
I fled before he could touch me. Well, I thought, be calm. He’s only a stable hand, and after this moment I need never see him again. But I didn’t allow for Sofy who was eager for me to have a romance and whispered most insistently in Ernie’s ear.
He said, ‘That was speedily done. Did the lad look at the horse?’
‘He will.’
‘But you didn’t see him do it? Damnation, I was clear enough. Now go and see to it, and don’t come back until you’re satisfied.’
He winked at Sofy.
I said, ‘I’d rather not.’
‘Rather not!’ he said. ‘Rather not!’ I said, ‘I feel a little faint.’
