"Translate for Her, She's Only the Nursemaid," the Countess Said — The Ambassador Bowed to Her
Chapter 13
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Lord Stanwick sailed for his post in August with his wife and two eldest daughters, and the three youngest went to the country with Mrs. Bragg and a new nursemaid—because Miss Marlow, the Countess said in her letters, had become quite impossible to keep, what with the Russian Embassy sending its carriage for her and dukes asking after her health.Theodora took lodgings in Half Moon Street with a respectable widow, bought a piano that was not her mother's, and found that a lady's independence was a very quiet thing after a nursery.The Duke called on Tuesdays. He talked to her in French when the widow was in the room, and in Russian when she was not. And the widow, who had no idea what was being said in either, thought it very proper that they should have so much to say about the weather.He brought her, one Tuesday, a copy of the Treasury ledger with the clerk's note struck through, and she cried, and he did not pretend not to notice, which she found she liked better than if he had.On the last Tuesday in August, he did not come to Half Moon Street. He sent a note asking whether she would do him the kindness of coming to Berkeley Square, where the Stanwick children were spending one night on their way to the country, and Natasha with them, because the Count was dining with the Foreign Secretary and wanted his daughter among friends.So she went, and sang because they would not sleep until she had: Perry, Louisa, Natasha with the ring on a ribbon round her neck, Rupert, who was far too old for it, Frances with her candle. Bayu, bayushki, bayu. Hush, little one, hush.And when she went out onto the nursery stairs, he was there, three steps down, where he had been in May."I was shown the wrong staircase," he said."You were shown the right one, Your Grace. You were simply not expected on it.""I have been thinking," said the Duke of Calderwood, "that I would like to be expected on it. Every night, if you can bear it. In a house of my own, with a nursery of my own, and a lady who speaks four languages in it, and chooses, out of all of them, to speak to me." He came up one step. "I am not asking the Count's ward, or the courier's daughter, or the lady with 5,000 pounds. I heard you sing before I knew any of that, and I have not been able to think straight since. Theodora, will you marry me?"