Lady Spencer gave no sign that she understood Georgiana’s cry, and in her reply merely agreed, ‘your stopping short of acting so, must be an effect of Indolence and will I hope with a little time be got the better of’.26 It was only many years later, when suffering forced her to acknowledge things she would ordinarily have buried, that Lady Spencer accepted she might have been responsible for fostering a certain weakness in Georgiana’s character. ‘I cannot deceive myself,’ she wrote sadly, ‘that to that easiness of temper and fear of giving pain which they both (the Duchess especially) inherit from me they owe the want of that persevering resolution which would have led them into much good and away from much evil.’27 All Lady Spencer could see in 1782, however, was an interloper who was stealing her own rightful place in Georgiana’s heart. She complained about Bess’s influence:
Those were happy days, my dearest child, when every thought of your innocent heart came rushing out without a wish to disguise it, when my eternal rummages were born with perfect composure without any previous precautions and no little drawers or portefeuille were reserved … I see you on the edge of a thousand precipices, in danger of losing the confidence of those who are dearest to you … I see you running with eagerness to those – must I miscall them friends? – Who tho’ their intentions may not be wrong, are by constantly talking to you on subjects which are always better avoided becoming imperceptibly your most hurtful enemies, all these and more keep me on the rack.28
Lady Spencer spent much of her time thinking up ways to get rid of her rival. She asked Georgiana and the Duke to visit them at Hotwells in Bristol, politely adding that Bess would not be welcome since Lord Spencer was ‘too ill to see a stranger with any comfort’.29 Bess was bitterly disappointed to be called a stranger after all her carefully composed postscripts. ‘Poor little Bess’, as she styled herself, went into hysterics at the thought of being left alone and whipped up the Devonshires into an equally distraught state. Georgiana hurriedly wrote to her mother, ‘Lady Eliz. comes with us, Dst Mama, and poor little soul, it is impossible it should be otherwise.’ She tried to soften the blow by pointing to Bess’s obedient nature: ‘My father need not mind her in the least, she is the quietest little thing and will sit and draw in a corner of the room, or be sent out of the room, or do whatever you please.’30 She ended the letter with the only sentence that brought comfort to Lady Spencer: ‘I hope to see her set out for Nice within the month.’
The two weeks in Bristol were strained and awkward for everyone except Bess. If she was aware of the tensions around her, she gave no sign of it: her smile never dropped and her eagerness to oblige never flagged. Lady Spencer, however, noticed that she ate very little; it almost appeared as if she were deliberately starving herself. Nearly every morning the Duke and Bess left Georgiana with her to go riding together; they returned before supper and joined the group, playing cards or reading, without looking or glancing at each other again. Their behaviour was suspicious enough for anyone to question their relationship, but Georgiana chose to remain ignorant. In only a short space of time she had become so dependent on Bess that the possibility of losing her devotion was too painful to contemplate.
The Duke left after ten days and Bess remained in Bristol with Georgiana and Lady Spencer. His departure enabled Lady Spencer to examine Bess’s relationship with her daughter. When the Duke was not present she appeared to think of nothing but Georgiana’s comfort. She displayed a combination of servility and bossiness, taking a great delight in fussing round her. She hardly ever used ‘I’, Lady Spencer noticed; it was always ‘we’. Her voice, hair and clothes were all arranged in a faithful, if not disconcerting, imitation of Georgiana’s – Lady Spencer was sure that most of her clothes had once belonged to her daughter. Yet Georgiana not only didn’t seem to mind Bess’s behaviour; she encouraged it. They used code words and nicknames for each other which made Lady Spencer feel excluded. The Duke was called Canis, which was obviously a reference to his fondness for dogs. But for reasons which have never been clear Georgiana was Mrs Rat, and Bess, Racky. Lady Spencer feared that Harriet would also become infected by Bess’s charm. ‘I do beg you will comply with my earnest request of letting me know at the very first moment of anything that distresses, vexes, or ails you,’ she wrote anxiously, ‘unless you think any body else has a sincerer affection for you and is from that more worthy of your confidence.’31
Shortly after their return to London Georgiana announced that she was pregnant again. She was healthier than she had been for many years, but her mental state seemed precarious: she was beset by ‘feels’ which made her cry constantly and prevented her from sleeping. ‘I wrote you a letter in very bad spirits this morning,’ Georgiana confessed to her mother on 1 December. ‘It is but justice to tell you how much I am mended now and not all uncomfortable, the feels [are] abated and am not near so nervous.’ But the spectre of Bess loomed: ‘Lady Eliz. desires me to express to you,’ she added, ‘how much she is touch’d and flatter’d by your goodness to her … and how sensible she is of any interest you take in her.’32 Lady Spencer’s response to Bess’s overtures was curt: ‘I hope Lady Eliz does not lose sight of going abroad.’33
Georgiana’s emotional state disturbed Lady Spencer, who feared it might induce a miscarriage. She told Harriet she was sure the ones she herself had suffered as a young woman had been caused by an ‘agitation of spirits’.34 But she had neither the sensitivity nor the imagination to understand that Bess might be the cause of her daughter’s torment, and her advice to Georgiana was limited to the practical. Firstly she suggested that Georgiana should stay at home; otherwise she would be accused of loving parties ‘better than a child’.35 Secondly she recommended laudanum; ‘take a few drops (5 or 6) … if you feel any violent [attacks] or agitation … be assured whatever may happen this time, your health is much improved in the main, that if you can but contrive by any means this winter, to keep your mind and body in a calm and quiet state, I have no doubt of your soon obtaining all you wish … do not make yourself unhappy.’36 Finally, as usual, disturbed by Georgiana’s fear that she was too sinful to take the Sacrament, she urged her to put her trust in God. She enlisted Harriet’s help in persuading Georgiana that it was ‘not necessary to be too scrupulous about what is past – the merits of the Saviour are more than sufficient to atone for the blackest of crimes, of which she certainly has none to reproach herself with’.37
Bess was due to pack her bags and leave for France on 25 December. The Devonshires had officially engaged her to be Charlotte Williams’s governess at £300 a year and she was to take her pupil abroad for the winter. The plan had a neatness to it which pleased everyone. It solved the problem of Charlotte, who had not thrived with Mrs Gardner, offered hope for Bess’s health, and provided her with an income. The Duke was firmly convinced that only the warm conditions of the south of France would cure Bess’s terrible cough. There may have been other reasons for Bess going away.* She begged Georgiana and the Duke to keep her informed