“Do you want to get married, or do you plan to have the child out of wedlock?” she asked them, shaking at the thought. “A legitimate baby fathered by the son of an earl might be considerably more palatable to your parents than an illegitimate child after the war.”
“Can we get married, Mama?” Henry looked shocked. It hadn’t occurred to him since they were both underage. “Do we have to go to Scotland?” It was still where most people went to elope.
“You can get married here, with your father’s permission. You’re almost eighteen. And we have a document giving us the right to make decisions for Charlotte in the event of an emergency, and I’d say this is. We can give her our consent to marry. I think we should do it quickly. You may have to report for duty very soon after your birthday,” which was only weeks away, and then he would be gone, and it would be too late to legitimize the child.
“Will you marry me?” Henry asked her, looking straight at Charlotte, and she nodded, looking stunned. It hadn’t occurred to her either, without her parents’ knowledge or consent, but at least the child would be legitimate when she told them what had happened. They wouldn’t be pleased, but they would be even less so if faced with what they would consider a bastard child. She knew her mother would be hurt that Charlotte hadn’t told her, but she would forgive them if they had done the right thing, and Henry was respectable. They would all avoid disgrace if they married immediately, and it was Henry and Charlotte’s fondest wish anyway for the future. The future had just speeded up at a rapid rate in the form of a baby.
“Yes, I will marry you,” Charlotte said clearly, suddenly sounding very grown up, even though she looked like a child.
“I’ll speak to your father,” Glorianna Hemmings said to her son. “I imagine there will be hell to pay with your parents eventually because I let this happen,” she said to Charlotte, “but I pray they will forgive me. I agree with Charlotte,” she said to her son, “we can’t write them about this kind of thing in a letter. It’s too complicated to call her parents, and they asked us not to. And if you marry, you’ll have done the right thing. It’s the best we can do in this situation, since you’ve both been so foolish. I was afraid of something like this happening. Your father didn’t believe me,” she said to Henry, and he nodded, embarrassed at the mess they had made. Neither of them had expected this to happen, nor knew how to avoid it. They had thrown caution to the winds, and somehow thought they’d get away with it. They realized now that Charlotte must have gotten pregnant immediately, possibly the first time they made love. His mother wasn’t pleased but she felt sorry for them both.
George Hemmings agreed to give his permission for both of them to marry by special license, but he insisted that the marriage be kept secret. If it somehow got out that Princess Charlotte Windsor had gotten married in haste, it would expose the reason for it, and the scandal for sure. And he didn’t want the king and queen hearing it as a rumor or idle gossip that would spread like wildfire, and even wind up in the press. He was adamant that their marriage, and eventually the baby, must be kept secret until after they met with the king and queen, which wasn’t possible now and wouldn’t be for some time. He was calm and sensible about it. And he wasn’t entirely sorry, as he told his wife. Charlotte was an excellent match for his son, to say the least. His wife scolded him for it. They all agreed that both the marriage and the pregnancy had to remain a secret between the four of them. Under no circumstances did they want Charlotte’s parents to find out about it before they had a face-to-face meeting with the Hemmingses, who intended to beg their forgiveness for the foolishness of their son. And until then, no one was to know that anything was afoot. Henry’s father impressed that on both of them, and both young people agreed, with deep remorse for the situation they had created and gratitude for his parents’ help.
They met with the vicar the following afternoon, and he agreed to marry them by special license since Henry would be leaving so soon to join the army. He thought it very touching and romantic. The Hemmingses did not tell him about the pregnancy, or who Charlotte really was. Their special license said only that her name was Charlotte Elizabeth White, which was on her identity papers provided by the Home Office.
The ceremony was conducted in secrecy and privacy at the church, with Henry’s parents standing beside them. Charlotte wore a simple white wool dress that she had brought with her, and carried a bouquet of white flowers from the countess’s garden. Henry looked tall and handsome and suddenly more mature in the role of groom. Then they all went home and had dinner together. Nothing more was said about the marriage. And Lucy knew nothing about their secret wedding, although she knew that Henry spent his nights with Charlotte, but she said nothing to either of them and kept the information to herself for future use.
Lucy had started eating dinner in the kitchen with the two elderly servants a while back, and barely spoke to Charlotte anymore. Her eyes burned with the fury of a scorned woman anytime she saw Henry, and he paid no attention to her. He had bigger things on his mind. And he had no patience with Lucy’s fantasies about him, and her petty jealousies of Charlotte. Charlotte was his wife now. It changed everything in his eyes. He was her protector, and had vowed to be forever. His parents were relieved that they had done the right thing for the child Charlotte was carrying, even if it meant facing the ire of Their Majesties at some point once they knew. Hopefully they would forgive them, although it seemed inevitable that they would be angry at first, with their daughter getting pregnant at seventeen and rushing into a hasty marriage, no matter how respectable the Hemmingses were.
The one thing Henry didn’t understand was why it was impossible to call them.
“You don’t tell people something like this on the phone,” his father said and refused to explain it further, much to Charlotte’s relief. Henry still had no idea who she was.
Henry and Charlotte retired early on their wedding day, and she slept in his room discreetly that night with his parents’ permission. They had to do something to acknowledge their wedding night. Charlotte was still feeling ill, but she looked happy as she sat next to him on the bed, and he smiled at her. She had tiptoed down the stairs after Lucy went to bed and she felt sure she was asleep.
“So, my darling, we are now secretly married, and are having a secret baby. Do you think your parents will forgive us?”
“Eventually, though it won’t be easy at first.” She knew her father’s temper but also his spirit of forgiveness. And they loved her, and would ultimately accept him and the baby. They had no other choice.
“I don’t know why it has to remain such a dark secret. We’re married now, our child will be respectable,” Henry said, looking pleased.
“It has to remain secret because my parents don’t know about it yet.” His parents understood it better than he did. “It’s a matter of being respectful of them, we don’t want a rumor to get back to them before we can see them in person and can tell them ourselves, about the baby and our marriage.”
“Why would it become a rumor? It’s not so remarkable really. Charlotte White married Henry Hemmings, son of the Earl of Ainsleigh. I should think they’d be pleased. The daughter of a civil servant will be a countess one day.” He acted as though it was a gift he had given her. But she had a far more important title of her own.
“Not exactly. It’s not quite as simple as that,” Charlotte said quietly, looking at her husband, who was half man and half boy. She felt like a woman now. She had grown up overnight, faced with the surprise pregnancy, and it meant a great deal to her that she was now his wife. She took their marriage very seriously, no matter how it had started.
“Why isn’t it that simple? Are they anti-monarchists?” Henry was surprised, thinking about his father’s title.
“On the contrary.” She smiled at him. “It’s about who my parents are.”
“A civil servant and a secretary. You still haven’t told me
what branch of the government your father works for,” he said casually, as he leaned over and kissed her.
“Your mother and father know who my parents are,” Charlotte said mysteriously.
“Then why can’t I know too?” He looked petulant. He hated secrets that didn’t include him. And she could think of no way to break it to him other than just tell him. It was time that he knew who they were, and who she was, even if they didn’t know about him.
She took a breath and said it simply and directly. “My father is the King of England, King Frederick, my mother is the queen consort, Queen Anne.” There was dead silence in Henry’s bedroom after she said it and he stared at her, and then started to laugh.
“Very funny. All right. Now tell me the truth. Are they communists or spies?” He couldn’t stop laughing at the joke she was playing on him, but she looked oddly serious.
“That is the truth,” she said in a quiet voice.
“And that means you are Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Windsor.” As he said it, he stopped and stared at her again. “Oh my God, you’re not…are you?” She nodded. “Charlotte, why didn’t you tell me? Your sisters, Alexandra, Victoria, and you. I should have known. Oh my God. How could you not say anything before this? Your father will have me hanged for getting you pregnant.” He looked genuinely terrified at the thought.
“No, he won’t. He’s a very kind man. They’ll be upset at first because of how it happened, and that I didn’t tell them. But we’re married now, and the baby will be legitimate. That will be very important to them,” and it was to her too, and to Henry and his parents.
“Charlotte! You’re a royal princess? I never even guessed. I thought your father was a spy or something. Does anyone else know here?” He looked bowled over by her news. He had thought her sisters’ names were a coincidence. The truth seemed enormous to him now.
“Only your parents know, and now you,” Charlotte said. “It doesn’t change anything, but it complicates things a bit. No one is supposed to know I’m here, which is why I’m using a different name, at the request of the cabinet and the prime minister, to ensure my safety.”
“And you live in Buckingham Palace?” Henry was still staring at her in disbelief, as it all came clear to him.
“Yes, until I came here,” Charlotte said quietly.
“Am I supposed to call you ‘Your Royal Highness’ now?” He looked nervous and she laughed.
“Hopefully not.” She smiled at him. He sat looking into the distance for a moment, trying to absorb what she had just told him. It all felt so unreal, especially when he fell asleep that night with his arms around her, and realized again that his new parents-in-law, whom he’d never met, and knew nothing of his existence, were the King and Queen of England, and his wife was their daughter.
“Good night, Your Royal Highness,” he whispered to her as they fell asleep. She laughed and cuddled closer to him. It was even more shocking to realize that the baby they would have would be fourth in line to the throne. In his wildest dreams, Henry had never imagined anything like this happening to him. He was married to a royal princess, and he was only seventeen. It sounded like a fairytale to him. But all that mattered to both of them was how much they loved each other, for better or worse, and Charlotte was now his wife.
Chapter 3
Two weeks after Charlotte and Henry’s clandestine wedding in the little village church, they celebrated Henry’s eighteenth birthday at dinner. Lucy sat at dinner with them that night, and drank a little too much of the wine the earl had opened for the occasion. Because of the war, it was a bittersweet event.
Charlotte was sleeping in her own room again, after their wedding night in Henry’s room. Henry was spending every night upstairs with her. They tried to be as quiet as possible, so Lucy didn’t hear them, but she was well aware that Henry was in the room next door with Charlotte, and more than once she peeked into the hall in time to see Henry head down the stairs before everyone else got up. Lucy fully understood what was going on, or thought she did. She was sure that Henry and Charlotte were having an affair, and she had guessed that Charlotte was pregnant because she threw up consistently. They had admitted nothing to anyone, and Lucy was biding her time to see what they would do. She had no idea that Henry’s parents were aware of it, or that the two young people had gotten married. And she had no suspicions at all about Charlotte’s royal birth. She thought she was just a fancy London girl, possibly with rich parents, judging by her accent and clothes. It had occurred to her immediately that the information about their affair, and possibly an illegitimate baby, might prove useful to her one day. She had to think of her future and what she would do when the war was over. She had nowhere to go. Maybe they would pay her to keep quiet. And she wondered if Charlotte would give the baby away and have it adopted in secret when it was time for her to go home. Lucy thought she wasn’t likely to keep it at seventeen. Lucy wasn’t normally a conniving girl, but alone in the world now, she had to think of herself. And Henry’s loving Charlotte instead of her still stung. She would have liked to be the one in his arms every night. And she thought she might have been if Charlotte had never come.
* * *
—
Charlotte had given up her morning rides on Pharaoh ever since she realized she was pregnant. She missed riding him, and meeting Henry along the way.
A week after his birthday, Henry received the notice he’d been expecting for months. He had to report for training in five days, at Catterick Camp in North Yorkshire, the largest training camp of the British Army. He’d already had a physical exam in Leeds, with an A1 designation. His training would last six weeks, and at the beginning of December, he would ship out, and he had no idea where. It was suddenly very real, and Henry and Charlotte spent every night wide awake, making love and talking until nearly dawn. His going to war terrified them both, especially now that they were married and had a baby on the way. The whole house was subdued, with the prospect of Henry leaving for the army. His mother looked panicked, and his father seemed to have aged overnight.
Charlotte’s letters to her parents and sisters were brief during Henry’s last days at home. She explained that the Hemmingses’ son was reporting for duty, as had been expected, and that they were all upset to see him go. Her mother wrote back sympathetically and wished him well. It was the first time Charlotte had mentioned him in any detail and Alexandra commented to their mother that Charlotte sounded sad about his leaving too.
“You don’t suppose Charlotte is in love with him, do you?” Victoria commented to them when they got her most recent letter, which sounded extremely serious. The queen brushed it off as an absurd idea.
“Of course not. He’s just a child, and so is your sister. If she was in love with him, she’d have mentioned it before. She’s barely said two words about him until now. I do feel sorry for his mother, though. It must be very hard to see your only child go to war. They sound like lovely people from the correspondence I’ve had from his mother. Charles said they’re older, and the countess has suggested her husband is in poor health. I do hope Charlotte isn’t a burden to them. Maybe she’ll cheer them up once their boy is away.”
“He may be barely more than a boy, but that’s who’s fighting this war, Mother,” Victoria said tartly, but she decided that her mother was right. Charlotte had hardly ever mentioned him, and she certainly would have if he mattered to her, which made a romance seem unlikely, and Victoria always thought her younger sister childish and overprotected by their mother because of her asthma, which had apparently improved in Yorkshire, or so she said in her letters. Victoria had enjoyed the last four months without her younger sister afoot, although she was starting to miss her, not acutely, but she admitted to Alexandra that she missed arguing with her, which seemed perverse.
* * *
—
The Hemmingses took Henry to the station on the appointed day w
ith the train warrant the army had sent him. Charlotte and Lucy came too, to see him off. Lucy looked longingly at him, and dared to kiss his cheek when she said goodbye to him, and then Henry took Charlotte in his arms and kissed her in front of everyone, as though they had nothing to hide, which made Lucy furious, although she didn’t show it. She would have liked him to kiss her that way, but he never had. She silently blamed Charlotte for stealing her rightful place in his affections. She had caught him by sleeping with him and being a whore.
“Take care of yourself,” he whispered to Charlotte. He was hoping to come home on a brief leave before he shipped out, but he had no idea if they’d allow him to or if there would be time. This might be the last he saw of them for a very long while. He kissed his mother’s cheek, shook hands with his father, wished Lucy well and kissed Charlotte again, and then boarded the train, and stood waving from the compartment. He opened the window so he could lean out and see them until they disappeared from sight.
They were a somber, silent group when they went back to the house, each of them lost in their own thoughts about him. Lucy went into the kitchen as she did every night, with tears in her eyes now, thinking of Henry, and Charlotte went to lie down. All she wanted to do was think about him and keep the image of him in her mind.
His parents retired to their room, and the countess looked red-eyed when they came down to dinner a few minutes late. The earl was subdued and barely talked. Life at Ainsleigh Hall was going to be very different without Henry. The vitality seemed to have slipped out of the place. Everyone went to bed right after dinner that night.
For Lucy, it was a relief not to see Henry hovering over Charlotte, or know that he was next door in her arms at night. She could cherish her fantasies again, now that he was gone, and hoped he missed her. She and Charlotte hardly spoke to each other anymore, just to chat. The rivalry between them, for Henry’s affections, had been too strong. Lucy had never been in that race, no matter how hard she tried, but she chose not to see it that way. She still believed that Henry would have fallen in love with her eventually if Charlotte hadn’t come along. As she saw it, Charlotte had stolen her dreams from her.
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