Courting Her Highness by Jean Plaidy Page A

given everything she had by Sarah and must therefore be her creature.
    Now there will be trouble, thought Anne.
    She felt so weary that she closed her eyes and rejected Abigail’s suggestion to soothe her forehead with unguents. She felt stricken with misery. Her boy was dead and she had spoken disloyally of a woman who for years she had regarded as her dearest friend. And in the hearing of Abigail Hill who certainly would be obliged to repeat everything she heard to her cousin.
    “Leave me,” said Anne weakly.
    And when she was alone she began to weep silently, partly for the loss of her son and partly for the loss of an illusion.

    The next time Anne saw Sarah she waited for a reference to her disloyalty. It did not come. In fact Sarah behaved as though nothing had happened.
    Was Sarah waiting for a telling moment to let fly her reproaches. No! There was one thing one could be sure of with Sarah; she was as sheherself had said of a frank and free nature. She was unable to curb her feelings, particularly her anger.
    If Sarah did not scold her for the words she had said in Abigail’s hearing there could be only one reason: Abigail had not told her.
    How strange! She could not understand this; and her interest in the softly spoken chambermaid increased.
    “Hill,” she said, some days later, “you must be very grateful to Lady Marlborough.”
    “Oh yes, Madam.”
    “I hear that she found your family in great distress and that she has placed your sister and brothers in good places.”
    “It is true, Madam.”
    “Then I suppose you feel that you must pay her back in some way.”
    “I have nothing with which to pay her, Madam. I can only give her my gratitude.”
    “Perhaps you feel that she is in a sense your mistress?”
    Abigail’s eyes were filled with frank awe and respect. “Oh, Madam,” she said, “I have only one mistress. I do not think it would be possible for me to serve two at the same time.”
    Anne nodded. Her lips framed words which she had used to Abigail several times before: “You are a good creature.”
    But this time she said them with a new sincerity; and afterwards she began to look for Abigail among her women and was very contented that she should be in close attendance.

    Now that her two elder daughters were so advantageously married, Sarah was becoming very interested in politics. She and her husband were often in the company of the Godolphins and she was wooing her rather difficult son-in-law, Charles Spencer. The time was fast approaching, she was sure, when Anne would be Queen of England. William simply could not live much longer; his body was a mass of disease; everyone said it was a miracle that he could have lived so long. But he seemed to have found a new reason for living since Louis XIV, his greatest enemy, had begun his plan to rule the whole of Europe. This had been made a possibility by theappointment of his grandson Philip of Anjou to the throne of Spain. If Philip could rule independently this would not be a major issue, but was le Roi Soleil the man to stand back and let that happen? No, he wanted to rule Spain, through his grandson, as well as France and that meant that the balance of European power would be in favour of the French. It was something William could not tolerate; and he was already preparing, with the aid of Austria to stand with Holland against this.
    William was more at home with his armies than in the council chambers; and so was Marlborough. This war should prove a source of inspiration and profit to John Churchill; and Sarah wanted to see him exploit his talents.
    If William were to die—and any normal man in his physical condition would have been dead years before—then Anne would be ruled by the Marlboroughs, for Sarah would see to that; and with his two influential sons-in-law they would be able to stand firm against any of their political enemies.
    With such a dazzling prospect before her it was difficult for Sarah to listen with patience to the