Sir Christopher stiffened.
“What are you saying?”
“She has begged me to be her Lady-in-Waiting. She refuses categorically to take the Baroness and she has to have somebody.”
“But why you?”
“She trusts me – and I think she loves me.”
There was a faraway look in Sir Christopher’s eyes as he said,
“This is certainly something I did not expect.”
“Neither did I,” Paulina agreed. “I could not imagine why the Princess was sending so urgently for me when I was at The Palace only yesterday.”
There was silence.
Then after a moment she went on,
“You know I have no wish to leave you, Papa, but the Princess is very insistent that she will not go without me, although of course, she can be forced to do so. But I think it would hardly augur well to arrive in St. Petersburg in chains!”
“I agree,
