Page 38 of A Queen's Match
Striped curtains lifted in the breeze, revealing that a table had been set for tea, with solid-gold flatware and monogrammed napkins. May waited until the queen was seated before tentatively taking the other chair.
“Are you enjoying Cowes thus far?” Queen Victoria asked, immediately reaching for a scone and the clotted cream.
“Very much so, Your Majesty. What a joy it is, falling asleep to the scent of roses and magnolia, listening to the sounds of the ocean.”
“Osborne is at its best in the summer. The colors are so vibrant,” Victoria said, as if she didn’t live her own life wearing nothing but black. “You know, Albert and I built this house together. He called it our little Naples on the English Channel.”
May had been to Naples, and didn’t see the resemblance, though she wisely refrained from saying so.
“You and His Royal Highness built a beautiful home,” she replied instead.
“The children always loved it here,” Victoria mused. “I have such fond memories of watching George learning to ride on the lawn—a sweet little cream-colored pony that I gave him one summer. I wanted George to have something of his own, since Eddy always overshadows him.”
Victoria was watching May as she said this. Did she have a purpose in bringing up George, the brother whose heart May once thought she knew? Bewildered, May simply said, “How lovely.”
The queen’s eyes were still fixed on May, inquisitive and sharp as an owl’s. “George has always been the steadier of the two Wales brothers. Unlike flighty and impulsive Eddy. Which is why it came as such a surprise this morning, when Eddy asked to speak with me about his future.”
May knew she should say something, but all she could manage was “Oh?”
Victoria seemed to think this was sufficient, and continued. “You have known Eddy his whole life, so you are aware how stubborn and willful he can be. It might not surprise you to learn that he recently asked my permission to marry a young woman—a foreign princess, as it happens. I granted it, to my own regret.” She meant Hélène, of course.
“I congratulate His Royal Highness,” May began, but Victoria waved away her words.
“That young woman was a complete disappointment. Promised to convert and then went back on her word. Eddy was devastated!” Victoria seemed surprisingly protective of her grandson. “He persisted in thinking she might change hermind a second time, but I don’t share his confidence. So I told him that he has two choices,” the queen said crisply. “He can leave for an extended tour of the colonies, a grueling round-the-world trip through all our dominions overseas. To India, Burma, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. It would be a tour full of public events, with little opportunity for adventure. No hunting tigers or climbing temples.”
May poured tea into her cup simply to have something to do with her hands. She was far too nervous to take a sip.
“Or he can be married next spring.”
May sensed that it was in her best interest to remain silent, so she merely nodded. Below in the grounds, a gardener was cutting one of the hedges. His shears made a slicing sound in the warm afternoon air.
“I had several young women selected as prospective brides, but Eddy informed me that he is not interested in any of them. He kept insisting that he would wait for the princess he loved, however long it took.” Victoria set down her spoon with a definitive clang and looked across the table. “Until this morning, when he declared that he wanted to marry you.”
So it had worked.
May hadn’t formulated a specific plan when she invited herself on Eddy’s excursion this morning. She wouldn’t have dared to do it if Alix wasn’t already joining—May knew better than to be alone again with Eddy, after she’d asked him to marry her and he’d said no—but a group outing felt safe enough. May hadn’t even known they would see Hélène. She’d merely wanted to stay close to Eddy in case something transpired.
And how it had.
It had been an unexpected stroke of luck, catching Hélène and Nicholas in that embrace. All May had done was gently point out that those two had left together the previous evening, and remark that they would probably get engaged. Now Eddy finally realized that Hélène had left him for good.
It was really happening, May thought, twisting her napkin in her lap. After all her scheming, after wounding Alix and negotiating with Ducky, after her endless feud with Hélène, she had finally made it.
“I am humbled,” May said softly, “and fully sensible of the honor that Eddy does me.”
“You speak of the position. Not of the man,” Victoria noted.
May went still. She was not at the finish line, not yet. “I didn’t mean—”
“Eddy does not claim to love you,” the queen cut in. “But he prefers you to the other options, and claims that you are well suited to the role of queen. Do you agree?”
Prefers you to the other options.May wondered how much Victoria knew about the morning’s events, whether she guessed that Eddy was proposing to May out of spite. She weighed her reply with excruciating care. “His Royal Highness pays me a high compliment. I hope to live up to his expectations.”
“So you do not love him?”
Would Victoria believe her if May pretended that she had shyly loved Eddy all these years, afraid to admit the truth of her feelings out of fear of rejection? Was that the right answer?
May suspected not.
