was there a red mist before his eyes and his hands no longer clenched as if he wished to hit somebody.
He felt instead that Sarah, like England, was far away and, when Ola was talking to him so interestingly, drawing him out on his favourite subjects and listening with a rapt expression in her eyes, which told him she was genuinely entranced by what he was saying, Sarah no longer mattered.
Her power to hurt him had gone, so too had her power to make him feel that he was a fool to have been betrayed.
He told himself firmly that he still distrusted and disliked all women and would never put himself in the same position again.
Equally when the sun was shining and the yacht he had designed was showing how remarkably easy she was to handle, there seemed no point in worrying over what was done and finished with.
Now he was amused by Ola’s insistence that they must climb the cliff, as he was quite certain that she would find it too much.
They both started, with only a few feet between them, to scramble up the rough rocks and onto the tiny twisting paths that led them higher and higher.
The Marquis was remarkably fit, owing not only to the fact that whenever he was in London or in the country he rode one of his spirited horses every morning.
Although he had not bothered to mention it to Ola, he was an experienced pugilist and sparred regularly in the gymnasium, which was patronised by a great number of his friends.
He was also a swordsman and, although duelling with pistols was far more fashionable, fencing was still a hobby the Marquis excelled at.
Altogether he was extremely proud of being so strong and had no intention of becoming flabby through drink and debauchery like so many of the bucks under the last Monarch.
The King had certainly changed the fashion for large meals set by George IV.
He had just saved fourteen thousand pounds a year by dismissing his brother’s German band and replacing them with a British one, a patriotic but less skilful substitute.
He had then sacked the squadron of French chefs who had followed the previous King from residence to residence. This was an economy deplored by a number of those who were habitually at the Royal table.
“I find it detestable and depressing,” one Statesman had complained to the Marquis, while Lord Dudley, who was celebrated for grumbling sotto voce and caused much embarrassment in doing so, had remarked,
“What a change, to be sure! Cold pâté and hot champagne!”
But while the late King’s habitual companions suffered, the public were delighted that William IV had dispensed with the luxurious extravagances of his brother’s way of life.
They cheered when they learned that the Royal yachts had been cut from five to two, the stud reduced to half its original size and that one hundred exotic birds and beasts, which had been the delight of George IV, were presented to the Zoological Society.
The King was applauded wherever he went and actually there were few people, if they were honest, who did not admit that a change was overdue.
As the Marquis climbed steadily up the cliff, he told himself that for the moment it was a relief to be away from London, free from all the complaints and criticisms inevitably voiced amongst those who found the King different in every way from the late Monarch.
For one thing the Marquis, who was extremely diplomatic when he was in an official capacity, found King William’s indiscretions dangerous.
He had winced with the Ministers when William had referred to the King of the French as ‘ an infamous scoundrel !’
The Duke of Wellington had given the King a stiff rebuke, which had kept him quiet for some weeks, but actually he was irrepressible and at another time when angry at the conduct of affairs by the French, he had startled a Military Banquet at Windsor Castle by expressing the hope that if his guests had to draw their swords, it would be against the French, the natural enemies of England.
‘I deserve a
He felt instead that Sarah, like England, was far away and, when Ola was talking to him so interestingly, drawing him out on his favourite subjects and listening with a rapt expression in her eyes, which told him she was genuinely entranced by what he was saying, Sarah no longer mattered.
Her power to hurt him had gone, so too had her power to make him feel that he was a fool to have been betrayed.
He told himself firmly that he still distrusted and disliked all women and would never put himself in the same position again.
Equally when the sun was shining and the yacht he had designed was showing how remarkably easy she was to handle, there seemed no point in worrying over what was done and finished with.
Now he was amused by Ola’s insistence that they must climb the cliff, as he was quite certain that she would find it too much.
They both started, with only a few feet between them, to scramble up the rough rocks and onto the tiny twisting paths that led them higher and higher.
The Marquis was remarkably fit, owing not only to the fact that whenever he was in London or in the country he rode one of his spirited horses every morning.
Although he had not bothered to mention it to Ola, he was an experienced pugilist and sparred regularly in the gymnasium, which was patronised by a great number of his friends.
He was also a swordsman and, although duelling with pistols was far more fashionable, fencing was still a hobby the Marquis excelled at.
Altogether he was extremely proud of being so strong and had no intention of becoming flabby through drink and debauchery like so many of the bucks under the last Monarch.
The King had certainly changed the fashion for large meals set by George IV.
He had just saved fourteen thousand pounds a year by dismissing his brother’s German band and replacing them with a British one, a patriotic but less skilful substitute.
He had then sacked the squadron of French chefs who had followed the previous King from residence to residence. This was an economy deplored by a number of those who were habitually at the Royal table.
“I find it detestable and depressing,” one Statesman had complained to the Marquis, while Lord Dudley, who was celebrated for grumbling sotto voce and caused much embarrassment in doing so, had remarked,
“What a change, to be sure! Cold pâté and hot champagne!”
But while the late King’s habitual companions suffered, the public were delighted that William IV had dispensed with the luxurious extravagances of his brother’s way of life.
They cheered when they learned that the Royal yachts had been cut from five to two, the stud reduced to half its original size and that one hundred exotic birds and beasts, which had been the delight of George IV, were presented to the Zoological Society.
The King was applauded wherever he went and actually there were few people, if they were honest, who did not admit that a change was overdue.
As the Marquis climbed steadily up the cliff, he told himself that for the moment it was a relief to be away from London, free from all the complaints and criticisms inevitably voiced amongst those who found the King different in every way from the late Monarch.
For one thing the Marquis, who was extremely diplomatic when he was in an official capacity, found King William’s indiscretions dangerous.
He had winced with the Ministers when William had referred to the King of the French as ‘ an infamous scoundrel !’
The Duke of Wellington had given the King a stiff rebuke, which had kept him quiet for some weeks, but actually he was irrepressible and at another time when angry at the conduct of affairs by the French, he had startled a Military Banquet at Windsor Castle by expressing the hope that if his guests had to draw their swords, it would be against the French, the natural enemies of England.
‘I deserve a
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