I don’t have to move—I don’t want to move! If you could only wait till I find another place, there’s nothing in the world that I’d like more than to look after Mandy again.”
A car stopped, farther along the street. Its headlights illuminated Jordan’s face, and there was no mistaking his expression of relief. Then the vehicle turned into a driveway and once again his face was shadowed.
“I can’t wait,” he said. “I need you to start tomorrow.”
“But I have the movers coming on Tuesday. And I’ll have to find another place to live—”
“You’ll stay at Deerhaven.”
“At your house?”
“Right.” Impatience snapped in his voice. “You’ll come home with me now, and tomorrow you can change all your moving arrangements.”
Felicity felt her initial exultation give way to indignation. If he thought he could ride rough-shod over her, he had another think coming.
“I have not,” she snapped back, “even finished packing yet!”
“You can do that tomorrow night after I get home from work.” Restlessly, he shoved his hands in his pockets, to a jangling of keys or coins. “Now, if that’s all settled, I’ll give you a couple of minutes to pack a case with your immediate needs, and then we can—”
“I have a cat.”
“Ah, yes.” His tone was mocking. “The handsome beast. I’m not a cat lover myself. I don’t suppose you’d consider giving him up for adoption?”
“I most certainly would not!”
“Then he’ll be part of the package. Just keep him out of my way, or I won’t answer for the consequences.” He leaned back against the car. “Right, I’ll wait here.” He made a big play of looking at his watch. “I’ll give you twenty minutes to get ready.”
Felicity took thirty.
Oh, she was ready in twenty, but she sat in her darkened bedroom for an extra ten, letting her new employer cool his elegant heels outside.
Jordan was well aware that Felicity Fairfax had saved his job for him. And he knew he should be grateful to her. But as he drove his car up the narrow drive leading to his house, all he could feel was resentment—resentment that Fate had put him in the position of being beholden to her.
It made his blood boil.
Had Fate not dealt him a bad enough hand already, throwing his wife and Denny Fairfax together at that charity “do” last Christmas? His wife had always been an outrageous flirt, but at least she’d known which side her very expensive bread was buttered on and so she’d never become involved with anyone outside of their marriage…until she’d met Denny Fairfax—
“Who’s looking after Mandy just now?” Felicity asked.
He pulled to a halt in front of the house. “My sister. I believe you’ve met her.”
“Lacey. Yes, she came to pick up Mandy several times. Couldn’t she look after Mandy tomorrow?”
“No.” He could have told her Lacey was flying off to California in the morning; he chose not to. Felicity Fairfax was going to be his employee and he wanted to keep their relationship as impersonal as possible. “Now let’s get inside.”
He carried her case in from the car, she carried a hold-all in one hand and the cat in a wire cage in the other.
As he opened the front door, Lacey came across the hall from the sitting room. Before she realized he wasn’t alone, she said, eagerly, “How did it go?”
He stood aside to let Felicity step past him, and she walked into the hallway, swinging the cage in front of her.
“Oh, Felicity!” Lacey beamed at her. “I’m so pleased!”
“Hi, Lacey.” Felicity returned the friendly smile. “It’s lovely to see you again.”
“And is that your case? You’re going to stay here? Oh, I guess so,” she chuckled, looking at the cat. “You’ve moved your family with you.” She crouched down and said, “Psst! RJ!” The cat pulled back, pushing its rear end against the cage. Lacey laughed, and straightened. “It’s so good of you to come, Felicity.”
Jordan cleared his throat. “Is Mandy still asleep?”
“Yes. She’s been a bit unsettled but she hasn’t wakened since you left.” Lacey gave Felicity another friendly smile. “I’m leaving now—I have an early start tomorrow, I’m off to California on a shoot.” She swept up her scarlet linen jacket from the deacon’s bench at the door, and swung it over her shoulders. “I’ll be able to leave with an easy mind, knowing Mandy’s in your hands.”
“Thank you, Lacey.”
“’Bye, Jordan.” Lacey gave him her usual hug. “I’ll be in touch when I get back. Probably Friday.”
As the front door clicked shut behind her, Jordan said, “I’ll put you in the room next to Mandy’s so you’ll be able to hear her at night.”
They walked up the stairs and as they did, he saw her looking around.
“I can’t think why,” she said, slowly, “But I feel as if I’ve been here before. It all looks so familiar to me—those Mandori oil paintings, the cream marble floor in the hall, this lapis-blue carpet on the stairs and…this.” She ran a hand lightly over the Benducci grandfather clock in the curve of the stairwell. “Where have I seen this before? I know it’s one of a kind, made for some Italian count…”
“Do you read architectural magazines?”
“My friend Joanne sometimes passes her copy on to me.”
He ushered her on, up to the landing. “Then that is where you may have seen the interior of Deerhaven. There was a spread in—”
He paused as they reached the door to Mandy’s room. They’d spoken quietly, but they must have disturbed her because she’d started to fret. She sounded as if she might be waking up, though her mumbles and whimpers were drowsy.
Felicity had paused beside him. He heard her breathing quicken. “May I see her?” she asked.
“Best not go in. She’ll drop off again.”
But she wasn’t about to drop off again. He heard the creak of her mattress, and pictured her scrambling to her feet. He almost groaned aloud. Another sleepless night lay ahead, not that there was much of the night left.
Now she was crying, the cries becoming louder, more demanding, by the moment. This time, he did groan aloud. He loved his daughter more than anything on this earth, but so help him, if she didn’t let him get some sleep, he was liable to go take a very long walk off a very short pier—
Felicity touched his forearm lightly. “Why don’t you show me where I’m to sleep, and then get yourself off to bed. I’ll take care of Mandy.”
“No, I’ll need to show you the lie of the land. Downstairs, too, because I’ll be out of here before you’re up in the morning. I need to give you a tour—”
“I’ll find my own way around.” She swung the cat cage forward. “Is my room along this way?”
She was bossing him. Taking charge.
Well, okay, but just for tonight. And just because he was bushed. Tomorrow, he’d show her who was head honcho around here.
Fighting a huge yawn, he opened the door next to Mandy’s.
“There you are,” he said. “It’s all yours. En suite included.” Mandy’s crying had taken on a shrill singsong note, which he knew from experience she could keep up for hours.
“Good night, Jordan.”