The Royal Nanny Read Free Page A

Out came a square-jawed woman with her hair parted in the middle and pulled so hard back that it looked painted on beneath her lace and linen cap. Under her thick raven brows, her dark eyes looked me over.
    â€œYou’ll be called by your first name, Charlotte, like my other workers,” she told me, “since I hardly need an undernurse called Bill. You and I shall talk after I tuck up the children tonight, about rules and regulations, timing, behaviors. I am the boys’ head nurse. Besides the nursery footman, Cranston, I have two nursemaids. But couldn’t see promoting the likes of them to undernurse, and Her Ladyship Mrs. Dugdale says you come recommended.”
    Though surprised by her cold manner, I knew I had to manage a proper reply. “I tended two girls for five years as head nurse and was nursemaid before that.”
    â€œWell, then, the demands will soon be much greater as we’re about to have a third child. The baby will need close watching by you, while I tend my boys, especially the heir, a delicate, darling child. Poor duchess,” she said, lowering her voice to a whisper, “doesn’t like pregnancies any more than, they say, the queen herself did, but that will be over soon, and you’ll be very busy. I’d best get back in to my boys, prepare them to meet their parents at tea, for which I hear you are to tag along. I usually take a nursemaid to keep an eye on Bertie, but you can do that now, and when the new baby arrives, you’ll carry him or her.”
    â€œI’m sure it will be a special time for the lads with their parents.”
    â€œWe’ll see,” Mrs. Peters said and, without further ado, went back into the day nursery and closed the door.
    I felt crestfallen, and I’m sure Mrs. Wentworth knew it.
    â€œShe becomes overtired,” she told me, patting my shoulder. “Poor thing works so hard and never agrees to take even a short holiday, so it’s good you are here. And she’s so protective and concerned that all goes well with the boys, especially David, but both lads have problems.”
    â€œProblems? Such as what, Mrs. Wentworth?”
    â€œI’d best let her tell you. How about you come down and have a spot of tea with me in my room to buck you up after your journey? Of course, you won’t take tea with Their Graces, just stand back to tend to the children lest they roil their father and have to be removed.”
    Removed? Presented and then removed? I had been so certain that royal children would be well behaved and that the nurse who tended them would at least be welcoming. Suddenly, I missed my Lockwood charges terribly and, for the first time in years, was homesick for my own family too.

Chapter 2
    T eatime was fast approaching, and I was on pins and needles. Soon I would have my first real glimpse of royalty, because when I’d tried to see Queen Victoria during her Golden Jubilee ten years ago, the crowds were so huge near the Abbey that all I saw was her gilded carriage and six cream-colored horses. The press of people, that’s what I remember from that day. But to see members of the royal family close, to speak to them and hear their voices . . . well!
    At least I was to meet little David and Bertie before “being presented” to their parents in the queen’s boudoir, as was evidently customary before the elders dressed to dine each night. I knocked on the day nursery door. Would I ever learn the twists and turns of this place with all its corridors and corners? I’d lost my way twice between my attic chamber and this hall.
    â€œEnter,” came Mrs. Peters’s crisp voice. Of course, I was to call her Mrs. Peters or Nurse Peters, however closely we would work together, not by her given name of Mary.
    I went in to find two sweet-faced boys who greatly resembled each other, the youngest in a white dress with lots of flounces and lace, the older in a sailor suit. To my dismay, it