Victoria

by Daisy Goodwin

Victoria pulled her shoulders back and stuck her chin in the air, trying to lift herself from four foot eleven inches to a full five feet—if only she had a few more inches. It was uncommonly hard to be regal when everyone could see the top of your head.

As the Lord Chamberlain readied himself to make the official announcement, she turned to Melbourne. She needed to attend to something most important, and she thought he might understand. “I am called Alexandrina Victoria in the proclamation, I believe?” “Yes, ma’am.” “Yet I do not like the name Alexandrina. From now on I wish to be known only by my second name, Victoria.”

He knew from painful experience that to deny a rumour only served to give it currency. Much better to let the gossips find out for themselves how far off the mark they were.

“You are a long way from Kensington today, ma’am.” “I wish sometimes that I had been better prepared. I know that people expect me to talk to them, but I can never think of anything interesting to say.” “You mustn’t worry on that score, ma’am. Everything a queen says is interesting.”

“Your subjects,” Flora gasped, “are not dolls to be played with.” She stared at Victoria with great intensity. Lifting her head with an agonizing effort, she said, “To be a queen, you have to be more than a little girl with a crown.”

Caro and Victoria were alike in that impulsive need to assert themselves without thinking of the consequences, and he could not resist either of them.

there was the general belief that young unmarried women were susceptible to hysteria, which could only be cured by marriage and motherhood.

Albert looked back at her, and said seriously, “Perhaps. But it is truthful. What would you prefer? Flattery or truth?” As he said this, his glance flickered over to Lord Melbourne, who was watching them from the other side of the room.

OOP

“Do you know what I saw the other day near that fine thoroughfare called Regent Street? A child, maybe three or four years old, selling matches, one at a time. Your Lord Melbourne chooses not to look at these things, but I must. That is the question, Victoria. Do you want to see things as they are, or as you would like them to be?”

In the end to add to the sum of human knowledge is the only thing a man can be truly proud of.”

Victoria bit her lip and then, as if she had learnt the words by heart, said, “Albert, will you do me the honour?” She stopped and shook her head. “No, that sounds wrong.” She looked away and back at him, and then in her clear voice said, “Albert, will you marry me?”

The smell of the flowers, the weight of Victoria against him, the flickering candlelight—Albert felt his heart give way. As he pressed his lips to hers and felt them respond with such eagerness, he knew he had found the piece that had always been missing. He put his hands around her waist and pulled her to him, and they kissed until they had to stop to breathe.