Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own any of these characters (wistful thought of Joseph), since the Eloise movies are the property of Disney and Kay Thompson and the Princess Diaries 1 & 2 movies are the property of Disney, Buena Vista, and Meg Cabot. I make no money from this work of fiction.

The idea for this story came about when my friend Sue tried to come up with an 'unlikely couple', and picked Joseph and Nanny. Sue has been heavily involved in the writing of this story from the beginning, so I'd say this is another joint effort!

Now In a Mirror Dimly

Part 1

"Welcome back, Nanny!"

"Thank you, Charlie," Nanny smiled at the doorman as he helped her out of the taxi. Eloise was dancing around, waving across the street to her friend, Margaret, then coming back to solicitously take Nanny's arm. Eloise's mother took Nanny's other arm.

"Nanny, I'm so glad to see you back!" Mr. Salamone materialized by the front door as they came into the hotel lobby.

"Thank you, Mr. Salamone!" Nanny was almost overcome by the hearty welcomes she was receiving. She had only been gone for a week! Had Eloise been THAT much trouble for her own mother to handle?

"Nanny!" Miss Thompson hurried from behind the counter, beaming at her. "You're looking so much better than when you left us ..."

Not wanting to think of the shame of being taken out on a stretcher in the middle of the day to an ambulance, still in her nightgown, for Lord's sake, Nanny smiled rather wanly. "I'm feeling much better, too, Miss Thompson."

The small party made its way to the bank of elevators, and Eloise marched into Max's elevator first. "Hold the door open for Nanny, Max! She's coming through! Top floor, Max! Yup, Maman and I got Nanny away from the doctors at last! They wanted to keep her longer, probably for horrible experiments that would cause her hair and maybe even her TEETH to fall out ..."

"Hello, Max," Nanny broke in on the little girl's ghoulish story.

Max's expression didn't change, but he winked at Nanny before resuming his position at the elevator buttons. Eloise sighed, and looked over at her mother. "It's not nice to not be believed," she said, "almost as bad as being ignored! I absolutely HATE being ignored, Maman! And Max is very, very good at it."

"Perhaps that's just as well," her mother said gently.

They got out on the sixteenth floor and started down the hall. Nanny tried not to look in the direction of Sir Wilkes' suite, but she couldn't help it. She had missed seeing him for the last while. Not, of course, that she had any REASON to miss him, since they were not exactly, well, FRIENDS, as such ... Her face flushed slightly.

"Aren't you feeling well again, Nanny?" Eloise asked plaintively.

Nanny pulled herself out of her reverie. "Aoww, I'm fine, fine, fine, pet!" she said, sliding her hand over Eloise's shoulders affectionately.

"You DO look a little flushed, Nanny," Eloise's mother said, unlocking the door to their suite and ushering the older woman inside first. "Perhaps you should rest on the sofa for a bit. Would you like some tea or ...?"

"I'll order your drink!" Eloise piped up, running over to the telephone. When room service answered, she said rapidly, "Hello, this is me, Eloise. Could you please send up some rawther hot coffee? Nanny's home now and needs a pick-me-up. Top floor! Charge it, please! Thank you very much!" She hung up the phone and grinned at her mother. "Nanny doesn't like tea too early in the day," she explained earnestly. "She says she needs the coffee to get her started. Isn't that right, Nanny?"

"For sure, sure, sure, love." Nanny nodded. She settled onto the couch with a sigh. Pneumonia certainly could take the starch out of a body! She resisted the urge to lie back and close her eyes. She had done enough of that in the last week! She should be up, reassuring Eloise's mother that she was fine and able to take care of her charge once more ... but she just needed a few more minutes ... Then she became aware of Eloise staring rather fixedly at her. "What is it?" she asked.

"You look skinnier," Eloise said promptly. "Or else your clothes suddenly got really, really, REALLY big on you!"

"Eloise!" the little girl's mother gasped. "You shouldn't talk like that!"

"Well, she does!" Eloise shrugged. "I always say what's on my mind, don't I, Nanny?"

Nanny's face creased into a smile. "That you do, pet, that you do." Inwardly, she acknowledged that Eloise was quite right. She HAD lost weight. Her clothes were hanging on her now! She had had to roll her skirt over at the waist to keep it from sliding down and off, for Lord's sake!

A knock came at the door, and Eloise darted across, shouting, "That's Bill!"

Sure enough, it was Bill, bringing a tray with a pot of coffee, some lemonade, and, he produced with a flourish, a bottle of beer. "The beer's for this evening, Nanny, when the fights are on." he whispered to her. "We're all glad you're back, Nanny!"

"Thank you, William!" she beamed back at him. They were all such dear people, here at the Plaza! Could a woman ever be happier? Well, perhaps if she had the constant company of that certain special someone ...

"Sir Wilkes is coming later," Eloise announced, making Nanny jump and wonder if she had been thinking out loud. "He had to go get some things arranged for his trip in a couple of days. You should pick out something really pretty to wear when he comes, Nanny."

Nanny flushed again, when Eloise's mother arched an eyebrow. "Aoww, now, Eloise, I don't need to dress up for the man ..."

"But you'd LIKE to, wouldn't you?" Eloise's smile was knowing. She turned to her mother. "You remember meeting him at Christmastime, don't you? Nanny likes him," she confided in a loud whisper.

Groaning faintly, Nanny leaned back and closed her eyes. How embarrassing! To have a six-year-old talking about your fantasies as if you were not even in the room!

"If she likes him, then by all means Nanny should dress up for Sir Wilkes!" Eloise's mother sounded slightly amused.

"Come on, Nanny!" Eloise grabbed her hand and almost pulled Nanny off the couch, "We have to choose something pretty!"

"Can't I finish my coffee, Eloise?" Nanny protested feebly, trying to keep the coffee from sloshing out of the mug as she struggled to her feet with Eloise's 'help'.

"Oh my Lord, Nanny, you don't want him to see you looking like THAT, do you?" Eloise was still tugging on Nanny's hand as she spoke.

"No. No, I suppose not." Nanny sighed.

A while later, after having tried on everything Eloise had put on the bed and wistfully eying some of her starched white blouses and sensible navy skirts that Eloise had disdainfully discarded, Nanny sighed again, looking at herself in the mirror and plucking at the overlarge light blue blouse that hung on her. "I'm afraid it's no use, pet. Nothing fits anymore. Except my shoes."

Eloise's mother barely suppressed her grimace when she glanced at Nanny's 'sensible' black granny shoes. "We'll go shopping," she announced.

"Oh, no need," Nanny said quickly, "I can just ... eat, and these'll fit in no time."

"We haven't GOT time for that!" Eloise almost wailed. "Sir Wilkes will be here any time!"

Just then a knock came at the door.

"See?" Eloise said. "Come on, Nanny. Leave that alone. It looks all right, doesn't it, Maman?"

"Yes," Eloise's mother said, rather reluctantly. Nanny knew the other woman loved shopping and was disappointed that she wasn't going to be allowed to shop for clothes, even if they weren't for herself.

Nanny submitted to being pushed back down on the sofa, then Eloise darted over to the door and threw it open.

Sir Wilkes, half-turned away, swung back. "You ARE home! I thought I was perhaps a little early ..."

"Come in, Sir Wilkes! Yes, Nanny's home now. Doesn't she look better than she did before she went into that simply DREADFUL place?"

Sir Wilkes flushed a little, as did Nanny, and neither could look the other in the eye. He mumbled something, and meekly accepted the chair Eloise pushed forward. Then, at Eloise's encouragement, Sir Wilkes spoke about the trip he was planning. "I'm going to a small country in Europe to visit a childhood friend. We met while she was visiting her grandparents on the neighbouring estate to where I grew up."

As he continued to speak, answering Eloise's eager questions, Nanny was rawther horrified to find that she was feeling some jealousy and even a bit of dismay, knowing she could never compete with this friend from his past. The woman might have married and had two sons, but the affection in Sir Wilkes' voice was obvious. "Sadly, her husband died about six years ago, and one son not even a year after that. Yes, poor, dear Clarisse has known a great deal of sorrow in her life. I'm going to see her now, as she has been inviting me for a long time. But I haven't been back since, well, since her husband died, actually. We've been in touch, of course, but, well, letters aren't quite the same as seeing one another in person, are they?"

"Oh, for sure, sure, sure," Nanny murmured tiredly, wishing he would just go.

Instead, Sir Wilkes continued speaking about his dear friend. He spoke about how beautiful he remembered the gardens to be around her grandparents' place, and that her home ever since had been filled with lots of flowers, "Well, flowers of every kind, but she especially loves roses. Her gardens are spectacular even now."

Eloise's eyes lit up when she saw Nanny's interest in the flowers, although Nanny tried to act nonchalant. The little girl confided to Sir Wilkes, "Nanny absolutely loves gardens and flowers, too. If only she was well enough to walk outside now. Of course, usually New York City is cold and rainy in March, isn't it? What's it like where your friend lives?"

"The weather is simply beautiful there, I'm told," Sir Wilkes said. "Clarisse said spring had come last month."

"I bet Nanny would be better in no time being able to walk in the gardens there, in the warm spring air," Eloise said, meditatively. Then she jumped up and stood directly in front of Sir Wilkes. "Oh, Sir Wilkes, don't you think Nanny could go with you? Just think how much better she would feel, being able to sit or walk around beautiful gardens in the spring! Can't she please go?"

"Eloise!" Nanny cried out.

Sir Wilkes, after a moment of stunned disbelief, agreed. "Why, I ... I don't see any good reason why she could NOT come with me! In fact, I do believe she would get better much faster there."

Nanny, almost terrified at the thought of being somewhere with Sir Wilkes and knowing no one else, tried to change the subject quickly, but Eloise's mother urged her to think about it. "You know, Nanny, it's really a wonderful idea! You know your passport is always up-to-date, just in case you need to bring Eloise somewhere to me ... and as a matter of fact, Eloise and I have an invitation to go to France on Friday. I wasn't going to go, but if you DO go with Sir Wilkes, Eloise and I would be able to go because you wouldn't be alone."

"You WOULD look after Nanny, wouldn't you, Sir Wilkes?" Eloise asked, almost quivering with excitement when she realized she would be able to go to France with her beloved Maman.

"I don't need to be looked ..." Nanny began.

Sir Wilkes interrupted her, assuring Eloise and her mother that of COURSE he would look after Nanny and most certainly Clarisse's people could if he failed, and that he would be DELIGHTED if Nanny would come with him. He stood up. "In fact, I will go and make arrangements for your airline ticket right away, Nanny! I know she won't mind in the slightest, but just to make you happy, I will phone Clarisse and tell her you're coming with me."

Eloise clapped her hands and jumped up and down. "Hurray! Holidays! I absolutely LOVE holidays, don't you?"

Nanny fell back on the couch as Sir Wilkes almost scurried out the door. WHAT had Eloise gotten her into now? Taking a vacation with Sir Wilkes, of all people, and going to see HIS OLD GIRLFRIEND!

The sudden turn in her life still hadn't quite sunk in by the next morning when Nanny found herself being dragged by Eloise and her mother through a number of stores, bullied into trying on and buying new clothes and even a new pair of 'elegant' shoes. Secretly thrilled by her new purchases, Nanny refused to have too much money spent on her, and finally pleaded exhaustion in order to return to the Plaza. Getting back to their suite, Nanny collapsed on her bed and actually fell asleep while Eloise and her mother hung the new outfits in the closet. The following day, the three of them packed their bags for their trips the next day. Nanny and Sir Wilkes were leaving in the morning, Eloise and her mother in the afternoon.

Much of the Plaza staff were in the foyer to bid Nanny goodbye the next morning, and a red-faced Sir Wilkes handed her into the taxi to go to the airport. Eloise waved madly from the steps of the Plaza, shrieking shrilly about having a good time and getting better soon, soon, SOON! At the airport, Sir Wilkes called for a porter to carry their bags, and asked for and received a wheelchair for Nanny.

She gasped in outrage. "I'm not getting in to that thing!" she hissed. "I am not that weak, Sir Wilkes!"

"Please, Nanny," he urged her to sit down, and solicitously tucked a blanket around her.

She felt pampered, but very much a fraud. "Really, I'm all right, Sir Wilkes! There is no need for you to go to such an extent ..." she insisted.

"Oh, tush, tush, tush!" he murmured, patting her shoulder awkwardly. Then he whispered, glancing around to make sure no one could overhear their argument, "If you pretend you're not well, we'll be pampered all the way over, even in first class!"

Nanny sighed, and gave in, rather ungraciously. She did not like being the centre of attention, and was not at all used to it, but she was also strangely shy around Sir Wilkes. He was a complete gentleman as he gallantly assisted her onto the airplane when they were called for pre-boarding, getting pillows and blankets to make her quite comfortable in the seat beside the window. Engrossed in watching the workers outside fuelling and loading the cargo into the plane, she hardly registered the flight attendant's presence until she heard the young woman say, "Does your wife require anything right now, sir?"

Turning, Nanny saw Sir Wilkes eyebrows rise sharply, then his face suffuse with colour again. "My, er, oh, I, uh, Nanny, do you ...?"

"Nothing right now, thank you very much," Nanny tried to speak as elegantly as she could. She might as well get used to speaking that way for the next few days. By the time she realized the flight attendant had thought she was MARRIED to Sir Wilkes, it was too late to correct the girl. Nanny mentally shrugged. If dreams could come true ...

Their meal came after they had been in the air a short time, and wine was served with it. Nanny thought longingly of the beer William often brought up for her the nights boxing came on the television, but quelled her fancy. Wine was definitely more 'upper crust', and she was going to show Sir Wilkes, and herself, that she could be every bit as elegant as any woman in his station, if it killed her ... and she wasn't quite convinced it would NOT kill her!

Obviously still not completely recovered from her nasty bout with pneumonia, Nanny fell asleep after the meal. When she became aware of things again, she found her face resting on Sir Wilkes' chest, his arm draped loosely around her shoulders as he supported her sleeping body. She blinked, then with a sudden exclamation pushed herself upwards, wincing at the stiffness in her body. "Aoww, Sir Wilkes, forgive me! I didn't mean to ..."

"Eh? What's that?" Startled, Sir Wilkes blinked owlishly back at her, and she realized she had awoken him with her abrupt movements.

Nanny pushed her hair out of her eyes and tried to tuck the stray strands back into the bun on the back of her head. A few hairpins fell out, and the bun collapsed onto her shoulders. "Oh, knickers!" she muttered under her breath. Sir Wilkes caught at the hairpins, and started to hand them back to her, then checked himself and peered closely at them. "What?" Nanny asked, somewhat irritably, still trying to twist her hair back into place, then spearing it with the hairpins she was holding.

"Oh, nothing. No, nothing," he hastily said, his face turning red.

Nanny held out her hand for the hairpins, her other hand still holding up her hair. As she pushed in the last pins, she said, "You were looking at my hairpins for a reason."

"I just, well, I had thought, at Christmas, that perhaps I might, that is, I had seen some special hairpins, Ming Dynasty ..."

"I have lots of hairpins," Nanny said shortly, running her hands over the bun and hoping it looked all right.

"Yes," Sir Wilkes looked faintly crestfallen. "So Eloise said. That's why I didn't buy them."

Considering that for a moment, Nanny raised her eyes to his curiously. "You didn't buy ANYTHING."

"Well, that's not exactly true ..." he muttered. "I bought some exquisite pearl earrings ..."

"I don't ..."

"I know. Eloise told me that too," he sighed. "I ran out of time, I'm afraid. And then, when you gave me your present under the tree that night ..."

Nanny looked surprised. "But I didn't ..." her voice trailed away. Her face turned red as well. "Oh," she said, softly, and smiled faintly. "You overheard what I said to Eloise, about how it's not the presents that come wrapped in ribbons and bows that count as much as the ones that come from the heart."

"That's right. That's when you really reminded me of her."

"Her?" Nanny sat up abruptly. "Her, who?"

"Clarisse," Sir Wilkes said the name almost dreamily.

"Because I kissed you?" Nanny was incredulous. Her kiss reminded him of another woman?

"No!" Sir Wilkes blushed. "No! Of course not! No, it's because, well, what you say matters. You're ... well, you're very wise."

"Wise? Me?"

"Yes. You."

"You're joshing."

"No. You have a way of telling people things that make them think, make them realize ... oh, I don't know. It's just ... you really SAY something when you talk. You and Clarisse, both. You make people listen to you. She could do it even as a child. I have no doubt that you were the same."

"Tell me about her?" Nanny, embarrassed, wanted to change the subject.

"Clarisse? Oh, well, I met her when we were very young. About eight, I believe."

"Her name sounds pretty. She must have been, oh, wearing a frilly dress, with dainty features, every hair in place ..."

Sir Wilkes chuckled. "Actually, she had fallen out of a tree into the stream, so was soaking wet, covered with mud, and as mad as a wet hen. No, Clarisse wasn't exactly pretty. But she was beautiful ... she IS beautiful, now."

Nanny sighed a little. Not only was this childhood friend someone he admired, but he thought her beautiful as well. She remembered her youthful days, and beautiful was not a word that ever could be applied to her, either then or now!

"Her eyes are a glorious blue ... much like yours, now that I look at you," Sir Wilkes studied Nanny momentarily. "You know, it's not just your eyes. There's a similarity in the shape of your face, when you smile ... and you both have a lovely complexion. After your dreadful illness, you, of course, are rather pale ..." he blushed again at her shocked expression. "Oh dear, I AM sorry! I should not be getting so personal ..."

Shifting in her seat, Nanny was actually glad when the flight attendant reappeared to say, "We will be landing in Genovia in approximately half an hour."

Murmuring an apology, Nanny edged past Sir Wilkes and hurried to the tiny washroom, hoping to do something to her hair and face before meeting the beautiful Clarisse. Her lips drooped a little when she tried to see her face in the minuscule mirror over the sink, then she took herself firmly in hand. Nanny was not competing with Clarisse for Sir Wilkes! She was here because Eloise and her mother had practically forced Sir Wilkes to bring her with him, and she fully intended to enjoy the warm sun and lovely gardens she had been promised. Beyond that, she had no other hopes for this time in Genovia ... a country she had never even heard of, for Lord's sake!

O o O o O o

To Be Continued ...