Nephew? This must be the half sister Audrey had once mentioned.

Natalie put down her dust cloth and wiped her palms on her apron. “Please come in. You’re not intruding in the least. We were just sprucing up the place.”

Gliding forward, the girl wrinkled her pert nose as she glanced around. “No one’s used the nursery in ages. My name is Lady Ellen. And you are…?”

“Miss Fanshawe.” Natalie considered offering her hand, but felt loath to soil such pristine beauty with her dusty fingers. And she certainly would not genuflect to a girl who looked to be nearly ten years her junior. “That’s Leo over there by the window.”

Seemingly oblivious to Natalie’s breach of protocol, Lady Ellen breezed on past and headed to Leo. She hovered over him, her slim hands clasped to her bosom. “Oh, what an adorable little boy you are! So very handsome!”

He craned his head back to regard her. “Who are you?”

“I’m your aunt Ellen, your mama’s younger sister. Fancy me being an aunt and I didn’t even know it until today!”

“Mama isn’t here anymore. She’s an angel in heaven now.”

“Indeed, I’ve only just heard.” The girl’s face crumpled, her lower lip quivering. “You poor, dear child. It was so terribly sad—”

“It was many months ago,” Natalie interrupted, unwilling to let him be reminded of that horror, especially since his nightmares had finally faded. “Now, perhaps Leo will show you his battlefield.”

“Oh! Look at that. I remember my brother Richard playing with these very same soldiers. But do come, Leo. You must see all the other toys.”

Natalie went to wash her hands in a basin of water. She watched over her shoulder as the girl motioned Leo to join her at a row of cupboards. There, with all the enthusiasm of a child, she dragged out skipping ropes and building blocks and wooden puzzles, leaving everything scattered in a messy heap. Leo sat down to play with a top, spinning it across the planked floor.

While Natalie dried her hands on a linen towel, Lady Ellen scurried over, saying in an abashed murmur, “I daresay I oughtn’t have mentioned Audrey to him. How thoughtless of me! Papa thinks I’m entirely too impetuous.”

Natalie kept her voice low, too. “It’s just that Leo was inconsolable for a time after his parents died. It’s good to see him contented again.”

Those big blue eyes brimmed with tears. “Yes, I imagine so. And you mustn’t think badly of me for my gown.”

“Your gown?”

“I ought to have donned mourning, of course. But Mama says we needn’t wear weeds since so much time has passed already and Audrey was estranged from us, anyway. I scarcely remember my sister, you see. But I did wish to honor her memory in some way. So I added this.” She indicated the length of narrow black ribbon tied in a bow beneath her bosom.

Natalie was touched by the gesture. At least the girl was friendlier than the rest of her family and exhibited genuine caring for Leo. “How thoughtful. Audrey was my dearest friend, and let me assure you, she was too happy a person to have ever wanted people to drape themselves in black on her account.”