Chapter 16: Epilogue (Buckingham Palace, January 1, 1863)

Along with many others, Vice Admiral of the Blue Squadron Sir Charles Tolliver, Bt, OSML, was waiting his turn at the New Year’s Honours in the Ballroom of Buckingham Palace. Up until a week ago, nobody had known whether the widowed Queen would conduct the ceremony, but apparently, her sense of duty had overcome her deep mourning. A year ago in December, Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, had died unexpectedly of typhoid fever, aged 42, and the New Year’s Honours had been cancelled. Nobody had seen the Queen in public since then, and rumour had it that she was devastated by her loss.

And whilst the rest of the nation had overcome the mourning state, the Queen, as Charles could see over the heads of the waiting honourees, was still wearing her black mourning dress. A little to the left of the Queen and behind her, Charles could see the familiar face of Lady Lambert whom he had last seen only four months ago. She, too, was wearing black in her own right, as one after the other, her mother in law, Lady Harriet Carter, and Sir Anthony Carter himself, her father in law and one of the last living heroes of the Napoleonic Wars, had died within days of each other. Charles himself had been a pall bearer at the Carters’ funeral, and he had felt the loss acutely. Now, Lady Lambert was supporting the Queen, whom she had befriended since her girlhood, and rumour had it that she had persuaded her to perform the ceremony.

At his own side stood Paulina, posing as Lady Tolliver. Suzanne had insisted on this, seeing how Paulina had missed Charles’s induction into the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, when she had to stay behind in Santa Venera. Paulina, like most ladies in presence, was wearing dark colours, a charcoal grey dress in her case, and her hair was in a bun and covered by a hat, in deference to the sombre mood in which the ceremony was held.

One after the other, in the order of their seniorities, the honourees were led forward to where the Queen was standing and performing the simple ritual that for many of the recipients would be the pinnacle of their life.

Ahead of him, Charles saw his former commander in chief, Sir William Martin, about to receive his Grand Cross of the Bath, the order’s highest rank of chivalry. Charles himself would skip the companionship altogether and be made a Knight Commander of the Bath, to outrank his knighthood in the Italian order, but also upon the insistence of the Italian ambassador.

The three years in the Mediterranean Sea had been the best of his life, he mused. Freshly married, enjoying the love of two wonderful women, becoming a father again, and enjoying professional success and recognition, he had enjoyed the command immensely. They had even managed to visit Naples, the Vesuvius volcano and the ancient ruins of Pompeii before returning to England after the end of his tenure, fulfilling one of his childhood dreams.

Now he spent most of his time as Admiral Superintendent of the Portsmouth Naval Yard, a great honour, but a duty that kept him away from home and from his family. He lived in his official quarters there, with Suzanne and Paulina taking turns visiting him for a few days, but he missed being with both of them. He also missed seeing Alice at breakfast, and he missed watching his young children growing up.