Count's House
Natalia Alienova Romanova
~~~
Natalia melts away as soon as the car parks outside the counts home, now it's just Natasha. Natasha Alice Roma, a youthful experienced nanny.
Natasha steps from the car and walks to the front door with her suitcase dragging behind her.
Daintily she knocks on the door and puts on a smile. Seconds later it opens to reveal a maid.
"You must be the new nanny, I'm Annie the housekeeper," the dark haired woman greets. She doesn't smile or shake her hand. She just stares firmly and sternly. Behind her a small girl cowers.
"Yes I am, I'm Natasha, it's nice to meet you," Natasha replies keeping her cool. The maid lets her enter and she kneels down to the height of the cowering girl. "Who might you be?"
"I'm Dawn," the girl murmurs and shyly smiles. She has bright green eyes and a smile that reminds Natalia of Nova.
"It's so nice to meet you Dawn, I'm Natasha. We're gonna be great friends," Natasha says with a wide and inviting grin. The girl giggles and takes Natasha's hand.
"I'll show you my room! Your room is right next to it!" the girl squeals and practically drags her up the stairs.
Dawns sudden trust in Natalia makes Natalia dread about this mission. How can she possibly stand to deceive this girl?
~~~
"So how old are you Natasha? Do you know how to braid? Can you sing? Do you know any good stories? How patient are you? Are-"
"Woah there little girl slow down. One question at a time," Natasha chuckles and ruffles the girls hair. Her hair is jet black and straight as a pole. Natasha is sure that Dawn will frequently have her style it.
Natasha is unpacking her suitcase while Dawn looks on from her bed.
"Okay how hold are you?"
"21," Natasha lies. With her looks Natalia can easily pass as over twenty. The Red Room girls never last to be over 19 and if they do they turn into Madams.
"Do you know how to braid?"
"I wouldn't have gotten this job if I didn't sweetie," Natasha answers with a grin. Dawn giggles and claps her hands.
"Can you sing? It's very important that you can. I can't sleep without a lullaby." The little girl puts on a very serious face making Natasha crack a half smile.
"I've been told I have the voice of an angel."
"I'll be the judge of that. How many stories do you know? More importantly how good of a storyteller are you?" This girl is very serious about her business.
"I admit I may not be the best storyteller but I do have the best stories to tell," Natasha replies as she finishes up unpacking. In her mind she is already twisting mission stories into kid friendly tales.
"Very well you'll do," Dawn decides with a straight face. Two seconds later she bursts into giggles.
Her smile makes Natalia miss Nova. Everything makes me her Nova. She just misses her sweet soulmate.
~~~
"And so I defeated the evil monster with just one swipe of my electric sword!" Natasha exclaims with a large hand gesture. Dawn claps her hands and laughs.
"You are good at storytelling," Dawn says with a yawn.
"You'll hear many more stories from me Dawn. For now though you need to sleep," Natasha murmurs and tucks the girl in. Dawn nods and her eyes droop. Natasha carefully extricates herself from the girls bed and leaves quietly.
After her door is shut behind her Natasha's smile melts away and is replaced by Natalia's stony face.
Natalia needs to figure out who this count is and get Intel. She still has not met him or the countess just maids and housekeepers.
With quiet steps Natalia slinks out from her room and through the house.
It's spotless and decorated entirely modern. There are no family photos or photos of any kind.
Natalia raises an eyebrow at the lack of pictures and silently creeps down the stairs.
The first room she comes upon is a living room with a couch, an armchair, and a fireplace without much of anything else. The walls are completely bare and there is absolutely no accent items.
Natalia scans for any cameras or recording devices and upon finding none sticks a recording bug in the fireplace.
Moving on Natalia comes upon an empty kitchen. There is nothing of interest to Natalia there so she keeps moving.
Next she finds a study. Natalia grins at the find and slinks in. A quick scan reveals there is one recording device. Natasha instantly comes out and she pretends to be a lost nanny wandering about confused.
"I swear the housekeeper said there was a bathroom here," Natasha mumbles to herself and pretends to be stumped. "Silly me!" Natasha quickly takes her leave but not before "accidentally" bumping into the deadly and sneakily placing a bug on it.
Playing dumb always fools powerful men.
~~~
She explores the rest of the house before retiring to her room and pulling out her secure laptop. Natalia easily sets up a secure server that can't be detected by whatever security the count has in place. Quickly Natalia logs the days findings and closes the laptop.
Natalia gets up after logging and pulls her sheets off. With a switch blade from her waistband she cuts a square into the mattress and stuffs the laptop inside. After she sews the mattress square back and fixes her sheets.
All her Red Room lessons make her work second nature.
Natalia slides mini pistol under her pillow and lays down facing the door. One hand is under the pillow holding the gun and the other over the blankets. This is the easiest sleeping position to defend and attack from.
It takes an hour for Natalia to get sleep. Her body and mind are used to answering Nova's questions for an hour before rest.
Her heart aches for Nova.
She hopes the girls and James are taking are of her little spider.