The Shadow of Great Britain

Stockma looked as though he had already been standing there for a while; if Arthur and Conroy had really started quarreling just now, he would most likely have gone in to smooth things over.

Seeing the two of them come out, Stockma merely lifted his chin, indicating that they should go outside and talk.

The three of them walked out of Kensington Palace shoulder to shoulder; before Arthur could take out his cigar case, he heard Stockma say, ”Dealing with Conroy is very difficult, isn’t it?”

Arthur had just taken out the cigar case; hearing this, he casually closed it again and slipped it back into his pocket.

In such a private setting, Lord Chamberlain could not even be bothered to keep up his polished noble demeanor; he spoke bluntly: ”Difficult? That’s putting it far too mildly. He gives one the impression that Victoria isn’t the seventeen-year-old girl—he is.”

Stockma was not in the least surprised by this answer. ”Your view does not differ much from that of His Majesty Leopold. Also, Sir Arthur...”

”Hm?” Arthur raised an eyebrow. ”Do you have some instruction for me?”

Stockma smiled gently. ”I only wished to thank you. His Majesty Leopold wrote from Brussels earlier, saying that in Ramsgate, had you not stepped forward at the time, but instead hung back and failed to expose the entire plot, then heaven alone knows what might have happened in the end. In his letter His Majesty specifically emphasized that I must thank you in person. By the way, I should also give you a reminder: the telegraph construction plans for the remaining railway lines in Belgium were approved just last week. If the England Electromagnetic Telegraph Company is interested in continuing to participate, you may bring me a tender document another day. I can enclose it with my dispatch back to Brussels and spare us all some trouble.”

Arthur’s expression did not change after listening; he only inclined his head slightly.

”The matter of railway telegraphs can be considered another day.” He paused, then drew his brows together. ”For the moment, whether the Belgian tender succeeds or not amounts to nothing more than a few contracts and a few shares of capital. Compared with Her Highness the Princess’s coming-of-age ceremony, all of that can be set aside.”

Stockma nodded slightly. ”The newspapers have been building momentum around this for days; this birthday indeed allows no room for mishap.”

Lord Chamberlain timely asked, ”Has Kensington Palace made any preparations regarding the birthday? His Majesty the King’s inclination is that it would be best to hold Her Highness the Princess’s birthday at Windsor Castle. How confident are you that you can persuade the Duchess of Kent and Conroy? Looking at things as they stand, I fear they would rather turn the Princess’s birthday into a family tea party, would rather have Conroy seated at her side, returning thanks to the guests on her behalf, than allow Her Highness to stand beside His Majesty the King and truly emerge from beneath her mother’s wing.”

Stockma frowned slightly. ”As for the birthday, the Duchess and Conroy indeed began considering it as early as two months ago, and just as you surmised, they lean toward keeping the birthday banquet confined within Kensington Palace, on the grounds that the Princess is frail in health and unsuited to the fatigue of travel.”

Hearing this, Lord Chamberlain immediately felt a headache coming on. Last year Kensington Palace had already fallen out rather unpleasantly with King William IV over the birthday, though that had at least remained limited in scope; only high society knew what had happened, and it had not quite risen to the level of disgracing the Royal Family.

But this year the attention on Victoria’s coming-of-age ceremony could be called unprecedented; all across Britain—the press of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales—was watching. If another scandal were to break out this year, he would have his hands full.

The problem now, however, was that neither King William IV nor the Duchess of Kent was the sort of person to yield easily.

The political implications of this coming-of-age ceremony were extremely heavy. On the surface it was only a question of where the birthday would be held, but in reality it was a struggle between St. James’s Palace and Kensington Palace for control over Victoria. If one were careless in handling such a matter, not only would there be no credit to be gained, it would be all too easy to lose oneself in the process.