The Queen's Devotion: The Story of Queen Mary II by Jean Plaidy

know. You suffered, too, but you came to England, to my father, who is good and kind.”
    â€œWilliam is a good man, they say.”
    â€œAnd you were beaten when you did not know the verses of the psalm, whereas I have never known anything but love.”
    â€œOh yes, you have a most affectionate father. He would not let anyone punish either you or Anne, and you were always his favorite. Mary, this hurts him as much as it does you.”
    â€œOh dearest, dearest stepmother, I have to leave you, too, and Anne.”
    She tried to comfort me, but in vain.
    â€œThey are saying that if you have a son, the Prince of Orange will not be so eager to marry me,” I said, looking at her pleadingly, as though it were in her power to save me.
    â€œI think he would want to marry you whatever should be. Your father tells me that he liked very much what he found when he met you.”
    â€œI did not realize then that I was being shown for that purpose.”
    â€œHe would not have wanted to marry you if he did not like you.”
    I was not sure of that and, in any case, I did not like him.
    â€œThink!” I moaned. “I shall have to leave you all.”
    â€œHolland is not far. We shall visit you and you will come to us.”
    I flung myself at her and clung. “I don’t want to go. Pray something will happen to stop it.”
    There was nothing she could say to comfort me.

    ELIZABETH VILLIERS WAS EXCITED .
    She said: “I am so pleased because I shall be accompanying you to Holland.”
    â€œYou!” I cried.
    â€œWell, you will have your attendants and I shall be one of them. You will have familiar faces around you. My mother is to be in charge of the attendants and my sister Anne will be with us, too. Is that not good news?”
    There was only one piece of news which would be good to me at this time—that there would be no marriage. I was not particularly pleased that Elizabeth Villiers was to come with me. I was fond of Lady Frances in a way. She was often stern, but then she had to be responsible for us and I understand now that she was watchful for the advancement of her daughters, which was what one must expect from a mother. I was glad she was coming.
    Anne Trelawny came in then and I could see that she had had news which pleased her.
    â€œYour father has said that you and I are such friends that I should be one of those who are to go to Holland with you,” she cried.
    We embraced warmly.
    â€œI thought that would cheer you a little,” she said emotionally.
    â€œI am so glad you are coming,” I told her. “It makes me slightly less miserable to think of that. There is only one thing that could make me really happy now.”
    â€œI know,” said Anne, “but I shall do what I can to help and we shall be together.”
    So I was cheered a little.
    My sister Anne was very mournful indeed. She looked pale and quite unlike herself. Her cheeks had lost that rosy glow which had made her pretty.
    â€œI do not like this, Mary,” she said. “It makes me feel quite ill. I begged our father to stop it.”
    â€œIt is not in his hands.”
    â€œTo separate us! We have never been separated. And now there is this man, John Churchill. He wants to take Sarah away. I won’t have it.”
    â€œJohn Churchill,” I repeated, and I immediately thought of Arabella Churchill, with the wonderful legs, and what I had heard of her friendship with our father.
    â€œHe is very good-looking, I grant that,” went on Anne. “Sarah is taken with him, though she won’t admit it. He is always hanging around. Arabella Churchill is his sister. John Churchill was a page in our father’s household. You must have seen him. People say that Arabella helped him on. Then he became an ensign in the Foot Guards. He has been abroad already in France and Flanders, even Tangiers. I must say, he is very attractive. Sarah says that if he comes