Episode 10 – The Nanny-In-Law
"Hey, now … what's the matter, Rochester?" said CC. "Any more of that and you'll bust out of your apron."
Niles, who had been contemplating a large bowl of custard pudding in silent abstraction, rolled his eyes at her, ignoring the odd, quiet tone of her voice – which, from anyone but CC, might have been called kind.
"You're what's the matter, Babcock. A man can't even eat his pudding in peace?"
He scooped up another spoonful, watching the pale creamy substance catch the light from the kitchen window. Clara Müller's earthy laugh echoed in his mind: We've earned it, haven't we, Liebster? Sharing sweets after making love had been a tradition of theirs from the beginning, since he was sixteen and she was thirty. They had romped and chased each other like children, Clara smiling and telling him he made her feel young again. Her recent visit had repaid that favor rwice over, but now that she was gone – his mentor, his first love, his friend – had left all his forty-five years to fall back on his shoulders with a crushing weight.
As he was thinking this, however, CC did a most surprising thing. She grabbed a spoon from the open drawer, sat down opposite him, and dug into the bowl with unladylike enthusiasm. About to protest, he saw her clearly for the first time and realized how pale she was.
"I miss her too, you know," was all she said. "It was so nice to have a proper nanny in Maxwell's house for once."
Of course. CC's own nanny had been German too, and of a similar nature – strict, no-nonsense, but with a heart of gold. Reading between the lines of CC's rare mentions of her family, "Nanny Bobo" had probably cared more for her than her own mother. Add that to the fact that stout, middle-aged Clara would never compete with CC for Mr. Sheffield (Niles' employer, for all his fine qualities, was somewhat shallow when it came to a woman's looks), and it was quite understandable that CC would be in need of some high-calorie comfort.
"Now give me that," she added gruffly, snagging the edge of the bowl to pull it closer. "Even you couldn't finish it all alone."