Danny must have been unsettled finding himself in a new place. At least he seemed happy to have Rob there.
"Good night. Sleep tight, little guy. I'll see you in the morning," Rob told him.
"Good night," Danny said to him.
It took a while for Danny to fall asleep, but finally his eyes did close. Julian sighed as he slumped into the armchair with the animal book in his lap. As long as he had this book, no one had ever read it to him. Julian didn't have the book while Mrs. Kent, his nanny, was still alive, but she must have read something to him. He wished he could remember. She had a kind, grandmotherly voice.
After he lost her at five, Julian was not allowed to have another nanny. His grandfather had decided that they would baby him and make him soft. He was a small boy with no parents to speak of, only a cold, forbidding figure of his grandfather looming over him disapprovingly. Dogged by a sense of loneliness in every room in this house, Julian never thought of this place as home. It was too big, too quiet, too dark, a place where a young spirit would wither.
Danny didn't seem to feel that way about the house. He had explored and played contentedly with the things Julian hadn't been allowed to touch, and now he was sleeping peacefully.
Since he was likely to stay asleep at least for a while, Julian decided this was a good time to stretch his legs. He went out into the hall just in time to see Rob coming up the stairs with a cup in his hand.
"I was just bringing this to you. You picked this out at the store, so I figured you must like it," Rob said as he handed him the cup of black tea.
"You're off duty now. You didn't need to do this, but thank you. I appreciate it," Julian said as he took the cup from him. He tried not to let their hands touch, but they did briefly. He shivered a little at the quick contact then began speaking again to cover his reaction. "I'll be going back to sit in Danny's room."
"Keeping watch over your little brother," Rob said with a smile.
"So far, he's sleeping peacefully."
"He did well today, wasn't too scared of anything," Rob noted.
"You did well too. I appreciate all your help," Julian told him and looked into his green eyes.
He tried not to stare at Rob, the outline of his body under the jeans and sweater, not to lose himself in the depth of his voice or the lush green of his eyes.
"Can I get you anything else?" Rob asked.
"I just told you that you were off duty," Julian reminded him then he frowned. He did want to get some things from the office, but he didn't want to leave Danny alone that long.
"Anything you need, I'm here," Rob prompted him. He could tell that there was something Julian wanted.
"All right. Could you watch over Danny for a little while? I want to get some work from the office, do some reading," Julian said.
"You should try and sleep as much as you can in that chair," Rob told him.
"There's no chance of that," Julian said.
"OK. I'll stay with Danny until you get back," Rob told him, but he made it clear with a stern look that he wanted him to rest, not work himself to death.
So he was going to be that kind of assistant, Julian thought to himself as he hurried downstairs. Rob wouldn't be the first assistant who tried to boss him around, but he might be the only one who could get away with it.
Back in Danny's room, Julian found Rob sitting in the armchair and leaning forward. Noticing him as he came in, Rob stood up and came over to him. He inclined to whisper to Julian, "He seemed a little restless, but he settled down again soon. He didn't wake up."
Julian nodded and mouthed, "Thank you." It was good to have someone else there to watch over Danny, but Julian was also aware of how close they stood. He had felt Rob's breath warm against his ear, his body only inches away. The feeling of closeness stayed with him even after Rob was gone.
With a silent sigh, Julian settled into the armchair again, but he couldn't focus on the work he had brought with him. Would he be able to work here at all with reminders of his grandfather around every corner?
But that wasn't the problem at the moment. Being back here was clouding his mind, but memories from his gloomy childhood were interrupted by a breathless awareness that Rob was under the same roof with him. Only a few doors down from Julian, he was a lot more real than any shadows of the past.
