“I will help you in every way I can,” the Count said. “I am prepared to dedicate my whole life not only to keeping you safe but keeping you happy.”
“That is a lovely thing to say!” Tarena exclaimed. “If everyone in Karlova is as kind as you have been to me, then I will be very happy and will not feel homesick for England.”
“You must promise me one thing.”
“What is that?” she asked.
“If you want anything, however difficult, however strange, you will ask me. Somehow, in some way, I will find it for you, even if it will mean climbing the highest mountain or diving to the very bottom of the sea.”
Tarena clapped her hands together.
“Now you are being poetic. We will, I feel sure, thwart the Russians together. When they see your soldiers and my crown, they will all run away!”
She was maki
