The Count's House

Countess Samburskaya was having breakfast on the small terrace of her personal chambers. The footman stood like a statue beside the table, quietly and carefully moving the teacups and saucers. Her Highness was not in the mood and was seriously thinking about something, stirring her cooling coffee with a silver spoon.

Magda, Countess Samburskaya, Lady Vilnë and Piат, was thinking seriously about the fate of her children. The eldest had fulfilled his duty by marrying the daughter of a count. The young lady proved sensible and ready to wait for her time—so calmly she lived with her husband in the city, where his official duties kept him, while their children were sent for the summer to the estate with his mother-in-law, allowing the future heir to the title and his brother to run through the forests with the sons of the footmen and the stablemen as companions.

The second son, as expected, became an officer and at twenty-eight was making a pretty good career in the regular army. He wasn’t thinking about marriage yet, joking that an officer is permitted to marry only after retirement and only when he has a wealthy mission. Still, the countess believed in his prudence and understood that in something the older son was right—why breed freeloaders? Give the children a proper education and a push in their careers.

The daughters managed to marry quite acceptably, without sacrificing too much to the majesty of the family. The older one, Magnoliya, married a viscount—the heir to the count’s title—and now, too, lived in the capital, taking care of her husband’s career. The younger, Felicia, was engaged to an old family friend, recently widowed, Lord Kilkenny—and it seemed she was also content with her fate.