Читать книгу A Nanny In The Family - Catherine Spencer - Страница 8

CHAPTER THREE

NICOLE had long believed women were more intuitive than men, and Louise proved herself no exception. Her built-in radar started picking up danger signals almost as soon as Nicole herself realized the direction in which things were headed, and her cordiality shrank proportionately.

At first, she tried to direct her attack through Pierce. “Grief, sweets,” she trilled, the Saturday she arrived unexpectedly and found him sharing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by the pool with Nicole and Tommy, “what a good thing I decided to stop by and let you take me out to lunch.”

“Why don’t you join us instead?” Pierce suggested, pulling up a chair for her. “We’ve got plenty of food and iced tea.”

Louise inspected the sandwiches as if she expected to find roach tracks in the peanut butter, and shuddered. “They’re serving fresh Dungeness crab salad and chardonnay at the yacht club, Pierce.”

“Sorry, Louise,” he said. “I promised Tommy I’d give him a swimming lesson this afternoon.”

She swept a glance over the scene, her eyes beneath the brim of her black straw hat coldly assessing. Nicole could imagine what sort of tableau the three of them made, lounging at leisure amid an assortment of towels, sunscreen lotion and inflatable water toys. To the uninitiated, they might have been the perfect, close-knit family, with Louise the interloper. And that clearly was not a picture the visitor relished.

“Why you, Pierce?” she inquired.

He shrugged his decidedly splendid shoulders. “Why not me?”

“Because,” she said peevishly, “I fail to see the point in hiring a dog if you have to bark yourself.”

It was a calculated insult made all the more offensive by her studied appraisal of Nicole, which Pierce didn’t miss. The family man image refocused to reveal his other persona, the naval officer unused to having his decisions questioned.

He put down the sandwich he was about to bite into, fixed her in a stare that only a fool would have perceived as anything other than highly dangerous, then brought his gaze to bear on Nicole. “Dog, Louise?”

The August afternoon crackled with unspoken hostility. Feeling suddenly and indecently exposed beneath the scrutiny, Nicole found herself reaching surreptitiously for her cotton cover-up, even though her one-piece swimsuit was modestly cut.

Tommy shattered the tension. “Where’s a dog?” he asked hopefully, looking around.

“It’s just a figure of speech, Thomas,” Louise said. “There isn’t really a dog here.”

But although she laughed merrily, the glint in her eyes was every bit as steely as that in Pierce’s, leaving Nicole in no doubt that the woman who’d started out as her ally no longer regarded her with favor.

The hint of a smile relaxed the stern line of Pierce’s mouth. “Well, perhaps there should be,” he said. “How would you feel, Nicole, about our taking on a puppy?”

“I think that would be wonderful,” she said, unable to quell her pleasure at the way he phrased the question, as if he, too, was beginning to think of her as part of the family. “I’m game for anything that helps Tommy get through the next few months.”

Louise looked as if she might explode, though whether that was because she objected to dogs in general or only those she perceived as invading her territory was a moot point. “Oh, Pierce!” she exclaimed. “Do you really think that’s wise? I mean, sweetie, think about it. Dog hair all over everything, and muddy paw prints.” She wrinkled her nose fastidiously. “Not to mention accidents on the carpets.”

Tommy’s ears perked up again, less enthusiastically this time. “Mommy and Daddy had an accident,” he said worriedly, leaning against Nicole’s knee. “They aren’t coming home ever again.”

“Oh, Tommy,” Nicole said, drawing him onto her lap, “that was a different kind of accident. If we got a puppy, nothing bad would happen to it. Uncle Pierce and I would make sure of that.”

“I’m talking about the sort of accident where an animal goes to the toilet in inappropriate places, Thomas,” Louise cut in, sending Nicole the sort of killing glare meant to stunt any other promises she might feel disposed to make.

But Tommy clung to Nicole, winding his arms so anxiously around her neck that she felt constrained to point out, “You’re confusing him, Miss Trent. He’s only just turned four and is having a tough enough time coping with the upheaval in his life. We need to be careful that we don’t inadvertently increase his apprehensions.”

“Thank you for your input, Miss Bennett,” came the sarcastic reply. “I can’t imagine how we’ve managed without it this long. Pierce, are you sure you won’t let me coax you into lunch at the club?”

“Not today, Louise,” he said, hoisting Tommy off Nicole’s lap and onto his shoulder. “A promise is a promise, and it’s time for that swimming lesson. But you go ahead.”

“I will,” she said, smiling fixedly. “I’ll just visit with Miss Bennett for a few minutes first, and watch the swimming lesson.” She blew him a kiss. “See you later, around six?”

“Sure.”

The second he was out of earshot, she launched her offensive. “So tell me,” she purred, “do you always take such a personal interest in your patients, Miss Bennett?”

“Yes,” Nicole said. “Although I don’t exactly see Tommy as a patient.”

“No? Then how do you see him?” Louise crossed her elegant legs and swung a negligent ankle.

“I’m not sure I follow you.”

“Oh, I think you do, my dear.” She rooted in her bag, withdrew a mirrored compact and proceeded to touch up her already flawless mouth with a carmine lip pencil. “Your attachment to Thomas is unnatural. No one walks into a house and takes to a child as you apparently have to him—instantaneously, as it were—unless she has a hidden agenda.” Sunlight dazzled briefly in the reflection from the compact mirror as she snapped it closed. “Just between us women, Nicole, what is it you really want from this job?”

Despite the sun, Nicole went cold, afraid she’d somehow tipped her hand and that the other woman had guessed her secret. But then common sense prevailed. Louise wasn’t interested in Tommy; Pierce was her only concern. “There’s no hidden agenda, Miss Trent. I’m merely bringing to this position the same dedication I’ve brought to others I’ve held.”

“So the child is the drawing card?”

“Yes.”

“And Pierce?”

Certainly no one could ever accuse Louise Trent of skirting an issue! She delivered the question in the form of a challenge, her attractive hazel eyes laser sharp as they tracked Nicole’s face where the beginnings of a blush threatened.

Quickly, before it gave her away completely, Nicole sprang to her feet and began stacking the lunch dishes. “The Commander is merely my employer.”

It was true. He’d done nothing, said nothing, to lead her to believe otherwise. His primary consideration was making a home for Tommy and she was merely an accessory to that end. An entirely disposable accessory, should she not perform satisfactorily.

In the clear light of day, her nighttime thoughts about him showed up for what they were: ridiculous fantasies of the kind that junior nurses often harbored about doctors and which she liked to think she’d outgrown years ago. Louise Trent need fear nothing from her. “I love children,” she said. “I have devoted my entire adult life to them.”

“Very noble of you, I’m sure,” Louise replied silkily. “And very clever, too.”

“Clever?”

“Well, my dear, Pierce would have a difficult time justifying your presence here if Thomas shrieked every time he set eyes on you, now wouldn’t he? As it is, he’s indebted to you.” There followed a small, calculated pause. “As am L Your competence and dedication allow Pierce and me to pursue our private relationship without fear that Thomas is being neglected. We are both very grateful. I’m sure you understand what I’m saying?”

“Perfectly.” Nicole held the stare directed her way without flinching. “Three’s a crowd.”

Louise Trent’s smile was about as subtle as a tiger drawing back its lips to reveal its teeth. “Very good, dear! I so dislike having to belabor a point. You’re a perceptive woman, Nicole.”

I’m a liar, Nicole thought, watching Louise walk away. I’m lying to everyone, including myself. And I can’t afford to make an enemy of a woman who, if she ever uncovered my deceit, would cut me up in little pieces and serve me to Pierce on a platter.

“Hey, Nicole!” Pierce waved from the shallow end of the pool, his dark hair slicked down and gleaming with water. Tommy bobbed at his side, squealing with glee. “Somebody here wants your company.”

Temptation beckoned. Where was the harm, after all? And wasn’t this what she’d been hired to do: stand in as the mother figure for a little boy who’d lost both parents?

Yes, the voice of common sense agreed. But not if, in the process, you forget that Pierce Warner’s role stops short of being your mate. He’s seeing another woman. He’ll be spending the evening with her—maybe the whole night. Three isn’t really a crowd here. It’s just that, job description notwithstanding, you’re not the third member of the party. Louise Trent is, and she won’t willingly abdicate the spot.

“Come on, Nicole. What’s keeping you?”

Although the effort made her teeth ache, she smiled and picked up the lunch dishes. “I promised to help Janet pick raspberries for dessert tonight. I’ll take over later while you get ready to go out.”

He shrugged the broad, tanned shoulders which recently had occupied far too much of her attention. “If that’s what you want.”

It wasn’t. But what she wanted wasn’t hers to have.

He didn’t come home until after one the next morning. Not that Nicole spent the entire time clock watching, but Tommy had woken up crying and she just happened to be on her way to his room when Pierce appeared at the top of the stairs.

“What is it?” he asked in a low voice, striding down the hall toward her. “Is Tom sick or something?”

“I think he’s having one of his bad dreams. The monitor picked up the sound of him crying out.”

“Poor kid,” Pierce murmured sympathetically. “Want me to lend a hand getting him settled?”

“I can manage on my own.”

“I’m sure you can, Nicole, but he might feel better having both of us there to reassure him.”

Hunching her shoulders, she said, “Suit yourself,” and couldn’t resist adding, “if you’re not too tired, that is.”

He could hardly have missed the sarcasm in her voice but she didn’t give him time to take issue with it. Slipping past him, she hurried into Tommy’s room.

He lay in a tangle of covers, with his face flushed and damp with tears. “It’s too dark,” he sobbed. “I want my mommy.”

Nicole swept him into her arms and rocked him. “Tommy, darling, wake up. You were dreaming again, but I’m here now.”

“Mommy forgot me,” he wailed. “She left me by myself.”

“You’re not by yourself, darling. Uncle Pierce is here and so am I.” The tears were dribbling down her face, too; tears of grief and tears of helplessness. How could anyone hope to fill the awful gaping hole left in a child’s life when neither of his parents would ever come home to him again?