He would crash at his mother’s house until he found someplace better.
A few minutes later, he climbed into his car and drove away without looking back at the ruined duplex.
“Oh my gosh!”
Jacqui Handy was accustomed to fourteen-year-old Alice Llewellyn’s dramatic appearances, so she wasn’t overly concerned late Friday morning when Alice burst into the kitchen with the exclamation. “What’s wrong, Alice?”
“My uncle Mitch’s house burned down last night! To the ground!”
Startled by the legitimate reason for her young charge’s agitation, Jacqui set down the copper watering pot she’d been filling at the sink and turned quickly.
“Is he all right?”
“He’s okay. He wasn’t home. He was at the hospital.”
Jacqui drew a relieved breath. She didn’t know Mitch well, but she’d always liked him. She was glad he hadn’t been hurt—but then, she’d have felt the same way about anyone, she assured herself.
“He lost everything, though,” Alice added, her somber brown eyes a striking contrast to her mop of cheery light-brown curls.
“I’m very sorry to hear that. How did you find out about it?”
“I called Mimi to tell her about Waldo’s new trick and she told me. Mitch spent the night with her last night.”
Mitch’s sister, Dr. Meagan Baker, had married Jacqui’s employer, attorney Seth Llewellyn, three months ago. Seth had full custody of his teenage daughter. His ex-wife Colleen, Alice’s mother, was a high-powered attorney at an international law firm based in Hong Kong. Seth had a distantly amicable relationship with his ex, who stayed in almost daily telephone contact with their daughter. Jacqui worked as full-time housekeeper and occasional cook and personal assistant for Seth and Meagan. In addition, she kept an eye on Alice and served as her daytime chauffeur when necessary. Alice considered herself too old to need a nanny, so they were all careful not to refer to Jacqui by that title.
“Mimi was pretty upset about the fire,” Alice confided, pushing a hand absently through her tousled curls.
“I’m sure she was.”
LaDonna Baker, widowed mother to Meagan, Mitch and Madison, was very close to her three offspring, all of whom had chosen to stay in Little Rock to practice medicine. She had embraced her new teenage step-granddaughter into the family with affection and eagerness, and she and Alice had already grown very close.
Alice was the one who had given LaDonna the whimsical nickname of “Mimi,” saying it fit in with the rest of the M names in the family. LaDonna had accepted the name with delight. Jacqui suspected having young Alice in her life had eased LaDonna’s grief somewhat at the loss of her elderly mother at the end of last year.
“So, anyway,” Alice continued, “Mimi’s expecting company for the next week, so she doesn’t really have a place for Mitch to stay until he finds a new place. And Madison has a one-bedroom apartment, so she doesn’t have room for him, either. So I said why doesn’t he stay here with us? We’ve got an extra guest room. I know Dad and Meagan would offer if they were here. So Mimi said that was a really good idea, if you and I don’t mind, and she was going to call Meagan and tell her everything that happened and make sure it’s okay.”
“He’s going to stay here?” Jacqui asked, following the rambling account with an effort. That was the part that stood out most to her.
She pictured Dr. Mitchell Baker, a tall, sandy-haired man with kind blue eyes and a warm smile that transformed his pleasantly homely face into full-out attractive. He was thirty-one, two years older than Jacqui. She had met him several times during the past fourteen months, although she could count on one hand the number of times she’d actually had a conversation with him. Those conversations had been brief and slightly awkward, at least on her part. For some reason she always became uncharacteristically tongue-tied around Mitch.
“I knew you wouldn’t mind—you don’t, do you?” Alice asked, suddenly aware, apparently, that she was making assumptions on Jacqui’s behalf.
There seemed to be nothing gracious to say except, “Of course not.”
Alice smiled with a flash of braces. “I knew you wouldn’t.”
Normally, Jacqui wouldn’t be staying at the house herself. She had her own apartment across town. But Seth and Meagan had left only two days ago for a two-week trip to Europe on a belated honeymoon. They had asked Jacqui to stay with Alice, a request she had been happy to accept—and not just for the extra pay that would go into her savings for a down payment for her own house someday.
She told herself there was really no reason to be concerned about having a houseguest. She suspected that Mitch, a surgeon like his sister, would be at the hospital quite a bit. When he was here, Alice would keep him entertained. Jacqui would perform her usual role, staying quietly in the background. She was good at being a housekeeper, and she knew exactly how to play that part.
“Mimi’s going to call you as soon as she talks to Meagan,” Alice said on her way out of the kitchen. “I’m going upstairs to pack for the sleepover at Tiff’s tonight.”
Alice and her friends loved sleepover parties and were always looking for an excuse to have one. Because Tiffany was on the same swim team as Alice, they had decided to stay at Tiffany’s house tonight and have her mother take them to a scheduled meet the next afternoon. Alice had assured Jacqui there was no need for her to attend this particular event, so Jacqui planned to use the time to catch up on some overdue chores including grocery shopping. She figured she might as well stay at her place tonight to dust and vacuum and grab a few extra things she needed here.
The phone rang only a few minutes later. She wasn’t surprised that it was Meagan, calling to make sure there was no problem with her brother staying at the house for a few days.
“No problem at all,” Jacqui assured her employer. “I’m glad to be able to help. Enjoy your vacation. Your brother will be fine.”
“I’m so glad to know you’re taking care of things there,” Meagan said fervently. “I don’t know what we would do without you, Jacqui.”
Meagan’s mother said much the same words when she called a few minutes later to discuss her son’s plans with Jacqui. “He’ll probably spend another night here with me and then come over there sometime tomorrow. You’re sure you don’t mind having an extra person in the house?”
“Not at all. I’ll be cooking and doing laundry for Alice and me anyway. One extra houseguest will be no trouble at all. Neither Alice nor I will be here tonight, but I’ll be back tomorrow morning, so he can come whenever he’s ready.”
“You’re a jewel, Jacqui,” LaDonna said warmly. “We’re all so lucky to have found you.”
During the past year or so, Jacqui had made a deliberate effort to make herself indispensable to the Llewellyn/Baker family. She liked this job, and she wanted to keep it. In return, they had all been nothing but kind and generous to her. Maybe they even considered her an honorary member of the family.
She wasn’t that presumptuous. Besides which, she had learned long ago that “family” was a word frequently used without real meaning. Family members—honorary or otherwise—were all too often expendable, in her experience.
Mitch’s steps dragged as he climbed the steps to the front door of his sister’s house Friday night. His mother had given him detailed instructions for letting himself in and disarming the alarm system. As tired as he was, he hoped he remembered her directives correctly. The last thing he needed tonight was to be arrested for breaking and entering.
It was after 11:00 p.m. He’d had a very long day of surgeries, meetings and a pretty-much mandatory appearance at a retirement party for one of the surgical department heads, followed by yet another couple hours of paperwork in his office. His amazing and efficient secretary had