'Certainly... certainly. There will be difficulties. Your mother had decided on a German Princess for you.'

'What I have discovered today is what has reduced me to this state. She has gone.'

'Gone... Gone where?'

'That I do not know. I went to visit her and I found the house empty... I found her disappeared. Everything is gone... The children... herself... There is nothing there. It is an empty house. Yet... how could they have gone without telling me.'

'Are you sure?'

'I went through the house... every room... the nursery, the kitchen... everywhere. There is no one there at all. And the picture has gone.'

'Picture?'

'Reynolds painted it. I wanted a picture of her.'

'So you sent Reynolds to... er... this... er... house to paint her?'

The Prince nodded. So there is another in the secret, thought Bute uneasily.

'You... told him who she was?'

'No, no. I merely arranged that he should be commissioned to paint a picture of Mrs Axford.'

'I see.'

'But what can I do. Where is she? Can you explain?'

'There is an explanation, obviously.'

'But what? I can think of none.'

'Nor I just at present. But if Your Highness will give me every detail of this affair I will do my best to find it.'

'Oh, please do. I shall not rest until Hannah is safe.'

'You said she was ill, did you not? That was the reason for the marriage?'

'Yes, there was a change in her. After the birth of our boy she was not so well and before the second boy was born she grew very frail. It was then...'

'Ah yes, Your Highness told me. Now you will give me leave to set about this matter in the way I think fit?'

'Oh yes, please do.'

'First Your Highness must tell me everything... everything remember. And then I will see what can be done.'

In a few days time Lord Bute solemnly presented himself to the Prince of Wales.

'Your Highness should prepare himself for a shock.'

The Prince grew pale, his lips sagged and his blue eyes looked as though they would fall out of his head.

'It is very sad. Your fair Quakeress is dead.'

'It cannot be.'

'Alas, it is so. You know that she was ill... it was for this reason that you married.'

'Yes, she had a premonition... but I thought she recovered a little after the birth of the child.'

'Perhaps knowing how anxious you were she kept the truth from you. She allowed you to marry her which perhaps had she not known she was going to die, she would not have done.'

'Why? Why?' George beat his fist on the table and his blue eyes were full of tears.

'Because she loved you and she knew how difficult marriage with her would make your life. She knew you would be King of England soon and she knew that she could have no place in public life. She knew she would always have to live in the shadows as she had been doing all these years. Do you think that if she had not known she was going to die she would have allowed you to marry her?'

'She was so happy when we were married. She said she knew how Christian felt when his burden of sin fell from his shoulders. She seemed so happy.'

'That was because you had done the right thing by her... and she by you.'

George covered his face with his hands and Bute allowed him a few minutes of silence.

Then George said: 'The children... ?'

'I have discovered where they are. They are being well cared for.'

'But who... who has done this?'

'She had an uncle. Did she never speak to you of him?'

'Was it someone named Pearne?'

'Why yes... I believe it was.'

'I had heard her mention an uncle. He left her a little money some years ago. Forty pounds a year it was...'

'It must be a member of his family.'

'You have seen him?'

'No, but I have seen a man whom I can trust. A priest a chaplain to the King at one time: Zachary Brooke.'

'Zachary Brooke. I do not know him.'

'He has a living at Islington. Apparently his help was called and he was present at Hannah's death. He has buried her in his churchyard.'

'But why...'

'He cannot tell me details, he says. He has been sworn to secrecy. Presumably the lady's relations made these arrangements.'

'And the children? What of the children?'

'They are safe in the household of a very worthy gentleman in Surrey. John and Sarah MacKelcan will take good care of them and bring them up as their own. Your Highness can visit them whenever you wish. You can watch over them in the future. The only thing, of course, is that they will be known as MacKelcan, and it will be wise, of course, if they remain so.'

'Everything seems to have been so efficiently taken care of,' stammered George.

'I doubt not this is due to that relative of the lady's. This uncle must have had her good at heart to leave her this money.'

'It seems so strange... I cannot believe it. Hannah to die like that... and myself not to be there.'

Lord Bute laid his hand on the Prince's arm. 'This is a strange affair from beginning to end. You must try to forget it.'

'I shall never forget her. I can't take this in. I can't believe it. I shall never believe it. It's so strange. Why did she not send for me? A message would have brought me to her bedside. I should have arranged these matters... not this relation.'

'She had her reasons.'

'I can't understand.'

'I can,' said Lord Bute softly.

'I feel bewildered. There is so much I want to know.'

'There is one thing of which Your Highness can have no doubt. That is my affection for you, my. desire to protect you from trouble.'

'Oh yes... yes, I know.'

'Then this is my advice. Plead, a little sickness. I will have the doctor prepare a sedative for you... something which will make you sleep. You have had a terrible shock. When you awake tomorrow you will feel refreshed and you will be able to see these things in a new light.'

'I shall never see Hannah's loss in any other way than the bitterest misfortune of my life.'

'My dear Highness, believe me, time helps. In a few months time the pain will be less acute. I can a.s.sure you of this. Pray do as I tell you. Rest now... and rely on me. I shall be with you. And when you are in any dilemma, any need of help... I beg of you trust me.'

George nodded blindly and allowed Lord Bute to send for the doctor. His lords.h.i.+p explained that a mild sedative was all the Prince needed and when it was administered he helped the Prince to bed and sat in his room until he slept.

'How did he take it?' asked the Princess Dowager.

'As I expected. He can't grasp it, of course.'

'At times I think he is such a fool.'

'Poor boy! He is too innocent for this world.'

'When I think of what this could have led to, I s.h.i.+ver with fear and shudder with mortification.'

'Let us be grateful that we learned of it in time.'

'Do you think this will be an end of the matter?'

Lord Bute shrugged his shoulders and looked melancholy.

'At least,' he said, 'now we are out of the dark. We can take care of him now.'

'It's clearly time he married.'

'Clearly time. But this will mean that there must necessarily be some delay. He has to recover from his broken heart.'

The Princess made an impatient sound.

'Poor George!' sighed Bute. 'But the sooner we have found a suitable wife for him the more comfortable we shall feel.'

The Princess grimaced. And what would be the effect of a wife on George? If a simple little Quakeress could lead him to such heights of folly what could a Princess, probably brought up to be a Queen, do?

Whatever happened they must keep a firm grip on their young Prince; and it was shattering to both to know that such a calamity could have occurred without their knowledge.

George should be carefully watched in future.

It was clearly very necessary with such a simple honest young man.

George could not believe that Hannah was dead. The more he thought of the extraordinary story Lord Bute had discovered, the more incredible it seemed.

'Why,' he cried again and again, 'I am sure she would have sent for me. She would have wanted to say goodbye. She would have wanted to hand the children to me; she would have wanted a.s.surances that I would care for them.'

'She knew you would care for them,' Bute pointed out.

And George at least agreed that that was so.

'I must see this man... what is his name? This priest...'

'This... er... Zachary Brooke.'

'Yes. You have seen him. I must do the same. I must hear the story from his lips.'

'Your Highness cannot doubt my word?'

'Oh... no... no! But I must see him. I want to hear how it happened. I want to see her tomb. I want to pray there. Don't you understand?'

'Certainly I understand.'

'Well, then, I will go and see him.'

'Would Your Highness like me to accompany you?'

'Oh yes, please. And today...'