Chapter 21

The Sunday dinner at Morinar estate was much more of a success. Count Morinar accepted me as if I were his family—and not in that false manner I had gotten used to at court when they said one thing and meant something entirely different. No, he really had liked my grandfather. During his reign, the Morinar family had been in favor, and Henry Louis Morinar would love nothing more than to gain that influence back—the more, the better. He also wasn’t kissing my rear and kowtowing to me. He simply treated me like a friend of his son—told a few interesting stories, gave good advice, invited me to visit his house at any time.

Meanwhile, Henry’s wife, a pretty-looking, plump blonde woman in her forties, took a shining to Tom and me. For some reason, she had decided that I was a poor orphan who never got any motherly affection and started to feed me and dote on me.

If Martha had seen that, she’d probably have killed her right there. To consider her darling an orphan! Never. Still, I tried to