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sort out some clothes for Mr. Volkov, and draft a letter to his Grace for John to copy.” Again Rebecca was teasing her husband, Kolya realised. How the timid girl had blossomed in the warmth of his love!
    “Beckie was a governess, remember,” said John ruefully as they rose. “And she taught me Russian, too. Sometimes she seems to forget I’m not still one of her pupils.” He watched her slight figure every step of the way to the door.
    Kolya felt a pang of envy. Dunyashka danced through his mind. But his Dunyashenka had doubtless found another protector long since. The merry ballerina’s features faded, and in their place appeared Polly’s intent face.
    She vanished in turn as John interrupted his reverie. “Sit down and tell me what you’ve been up to all these months, old man.”

* * * *
    The back parlour of Ned’s house was a pleasant sitting room with dark oak wainscotting below whitewashed walls on which the African masks Polly was unpacking would look very well. Ned had furnished it with comfortable, overstuffed chairs, unlike the elegant Hepplewhite and Sheraton in the drawing room at the front of the house.
    When he arrived home from Five Oaks, Polly saw him stable Chipper in the nearest of the outbuildings on the north side of the garden. She opened one of the casement windows wide and leaned out.
    What she really wanted to know was how Lord John had received Kolya. What she said was, “The carter is come already. Your house is in chaos, I fear.”
    “Our house.” With a cheerful smile he strode towards her across the lawn. He looked as if a burden had been lifted from his shoulders, and Polly knew he was relieved to be rid of the Russian, one way or another. “Is Mother pleased with it?”
    “Excessively. It was kind in the duke to let you take your pick of the furniture at the manor.”
    “He is refurnishing the place from cellar to attic for Lord John, though there was nothing wrong with the old pieces.”
    “Mama is delighted with your choice. I must warn you that having two parlours has vastly set her up in her own conceit. Papa’s collection has been banished to the sitting room.”
    “I know she displayed them only out of loyalty to his memory.”
    “She always squirmed when visitors commented how interesting they are. Guess what she means to decorate the drawing room with.”
    “That’s easy. Your pictures, I hope.”
    “Yes. I’m certain she has always hoped that if she ignored my painting it would go away. Do you think she is becoming reconciled to having an artist for a daughter?”
    “I should not count on it if I were you, but at least she is acknowledging that your work has merit. Speaking of reconciliation, is Ella resigned to Mrs. Coates yet?”
    “Heavens no, though she has been brought grudgingly to admit that the house is too large for her to cope with by herself. You never told us that it is so much larger than the Tunbridge Wells house.”
    “I feared Mother might feel that I was belittling her house. There is not so great a difference.”
    “Two parlours! And Mama is almost as pleased to have two maidservants. Who takes care of the garden? I’m sure you have not time to keep it so neatly.”
    “Lord John told me to have one of the Loxwood Manor gardeners come over one day a week.”
    His mention of Lord John gave Polly the opening she had awaited. “Did...did you see his lordship just now?”
    “Yes, and he was very grateful that I took Kolya to him. It was a great relief, I can tell you.”
    “He was pleased to see him?” Polly was equally relieved, though for different reasons. She had hated the thought of Kolya’s weary walk to London with no certainty of a welcome when he got there.
    “Pleased! Ecstatic is the word. They fell into each other’s arms, in what I suppose to be the Russian manner. I cannot understand how my lord can be on intimate terms with such a common fellow.”
    “His manner was not in the least common,” said Polly