“Mrs. Fuller has been so excited ever since the letter came to say that you would pay a visit to Lebanon House,” the nurse stopped to tell Nancy at the head of the stairs, before showing the way along the landing to the old lady’s room.
“Are we going to see more aunts, muvver?” Letizia anxiously inquired.
“No, darling, you’re going to see dear father’s grannie whom he loved very much; and he would like you to love her very much too.”
“Well, I will love her,” Letizia promised.
“You must remember that your name is Letizia and that her name is Letizia. You were christened Letizia because father loved his grannie. And remember she is very old and that’s why you’ll find her in bed.”
“Will she be like Red Riding Hood’s grannie?” Letizia asked.
“Perhaps she will be a little.”
“But a naughty wolf won’t come and eat her?” Letizia pressed on a note of faint apprehension.
“Oh, no,” her mother assured her. “There are no wolves in this house.”
Was it a trick of the gathering dusk, or did the bright-eyed young woman raise her eyebrows and smile to herself at this confident reply?