It was Leo she must focus on. With Lord Godwin’s lawyer due to arrive any day, she needed to treasure the precious time that she had left with the boy. It would break her heart to say good-bye to Audrey’s son, for she had grown to love him as dearly as if he were her own child.

Just then, he and Lady Ellen joined hands and danced around in a circle, while he sang, “Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.”

“Little Leo wants to play,” Lady Ellen chimed in. “Rain, rain, go to Spain. Never show your face again.”

Giggling, they collapsed together on the wood floor. There was still much of the child in the girl, Natalie noticed. By this time next year, would Lady Ellen be a wife with a baby on the way? Would she be Hadrian’s wife?

Natalie drew in a deep breath. She should be glad, for perhaps the two of them would be agreeable to keeping an eye out for Leo’s well-being …

The boy looked up at his aunt. “Why should the rain go to Spain?”

“I don’t know,” Lady Ellen said. “I suppose because the words rhyme.”

The teacher in Natalie demanded a correction to that. “Actually,” she said, arising from the desk to join them, “the song celebrates the British navy defeating the Spanish Armada over two hundred years ago.”

“What’s an armada?” Leo asked.

“It’s a very large fleet of ships. The Spanish were the rulers of the sea at the time.” Natalie pointed out the location of the countries on the globe. “Spain wanted to conquer England, so they sent over a hundred galleons outfitted with cannons. The British had a much smaller fleet. But a terrible storm blew up and scattered the Spanish Armada, sinking many of the galleons so England could easily defeat the rest.”

Leo listened with rapt attention. “When I grow up, I want to fight the Spanish Armada. I’ll be the captain and order my sailors to fire the cannons. Boom!”

“You can be Admiral Bellingham,” Lady Ellen declared. “Then you would command the entire fleet.”

“Admiral Bellingham,” Leo repeated as if cherishing the title. He fetched his toy ship, making it sail over imaginary waves along the windowsill.

Watching him, Natalie wondered wistfully what sort of man he would become someday, and if she would ever even know. Impulsively, she turned to Lady Ellen and took her dainty hands. “I do hope that when I leave here, you’ll write to me and let me know how Leo is doing.”

“Leave?” the girl asked naïvely. “But why can’t you stay?”

Natalie drew back her hands. “My home is in America. I plan to found a school in Philadelphia. I’m here only until the earl’s solicitor arrives, and they can sort out all the legalities in regard to Leo.”

Natalie’s troubled gaze lingered on the boy before a tug on her arm pulled her attention back to Lady Ellen. Her china-blue eyes were wide with surprise.