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“Hello, do you remember me from yesterday?” She held her hand out, and Leanne barely grasped it before letting go. “I was watching the babies while Wilhelm was at work. I have some paperwork for him.”
Leanne held her hand out. “I’m happy to give—”
“I’d really like to give it to him personally.” Juliette breathed deeply, and wondered why Leanne had such an acrid scent seeping from her. It was almost as if she felt panic or anger at seeing Juliette at her door. So Juliette did something out of character, and casually moved past Leanne. “Can you tell him I’m here please?” Juliette wasn’t pushy or bossy, but she could assert herself when necessary. “I’m sure he won’t mind.”
Leanne didn’t close the door, but held it open and spoke in an exasperated tone. “Mr. Sorenson has already left for the office this morning. He couldn’t sleep he said. Perhaps you can give him the paperwork there?”
It seemed Leanne wanted to get rid of her. It could be that she wasn’t a people person or had tasks to take care of that Juliette was delaying. But her scent, the way she kept shifting her eyes to the side, led Juliette to think that something was wrong. “I’ll just go see the babies before I leave,” she said as sweetly as she could. “I’ll stay out of your way.”
“Ma’am, I was just about to feed the twins their breakfast, so if—”
“I’ll do it for you,” Juliette said, and headed directly for the stairs and the nursery. “You can tend to whatever else you need to, or put your feet up and relax, how about that?”
Leanne hurried ahead of her, not trying to stop her physically, but practically pleading for her to change her mind. “It’s my job, ma’am, and I’m sure Mr. Sorenson expects me to do it.”
As they reached the nursery, she saw the bottles already prepared and the babies squirming and snuffling in their cribs. A warm feeling grew behind her breastbone, and she ached to feed them one at a time so she could hold them in her arms again. “Oh, I’m sure it’s fine, Leanne. If you’re worried, we can call Wilhelm and ask. He won’t mind.”
Leanne considered that for a moment, then shook her head. “No, that’s all right. You … you go ahead. If you need anything, just use the baby monitor to let me know. I’ll be in the kitchen.”
Leanne glanced over the cribs and left the room a little too quickly, the sharp smell of fear left in her wake. Was she really that worried about her routine being upended or that she’d get in some kind of trouble for letting Juliette feed the twins?
She picked up Thomas first and settled in the rocking chair with a burp cloth on her shoulder. She wasn’t sure at what point Leanne had been when she’d knocked, so for good measure she squirted a little of the formula onto the back of her hand to make sure it wasn’t too hot.
Tears welled in her eyes at doing what she’d always dreamed of, just not with her own babies, with someone else’s orphaned children. It still felt magical, though, and it pained her to realize that this life that she’d wanted, to be a mother, would have suited her as well as she’d always imagined.
She wiped the drop of formula onto the burp cloth on her shoulder, and wiped tears from her eyes.
A new scent caught her attention, now that the sour panic smell had faded from the room. She sniffed the cloth and the little dot of formula, and curled her nose. A tiny growl escaped her throat, and Thomas made the sweetest coo in response.
She squirted formula onto her hand, a bigger drop this time that ran down to her wrist and dripped onto the baby blanket. She sniffed it carefully, then dipped her tongue into it and shook her head.
“I’m so glad I stopped by,” she whispered to the baby in her arms. “This has gone bad. We need to get you some fresh food, don’t we?” she said softly. Surely Leanne was human, and might have not realized something was wrong until the babies ended up with sour stomachs, or worse.
She carefully put Thomas into his crib and went to find Leanne in the kitchen.
“This formula’s gone bad.”
Leanne was washing bottles in the sink, and kept her back turned. “I’m sure it’s fine, ma’am. I mixed it up no more than a minute before you knocked on the door.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that, but something’s really off about it.” She unscrewed the nipple and moved to the counter next to Leanne to hold it out for her to smell. “See?”
Leanne reluctantly sniffed it and shook her head. “You’re right. Thank you for catching that. I’ll open a new can, and I’ll double-check the expiration date.”
“Thank you.”
Leanne took the bottle, dumped it, and got a clean one from a cabinet. “I’ll bring it to you, ma’am, there’s no need to wait while I heat it.”
After a moment, Leanne left the kitchen but stopped outside the doorway. Leanne’s scent could be caused by anything, but her strange monotone voice when she took the bottle, and the way she wouldn’t look Juliette in the eye told Juliette something was very wrong.
Juliette stood outside the doorway and moved her head enough so that she could just watch Leanne at the sink. It felt ridiculous to spy on her like this, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that came over her. Maybe she was paranoid, or simply didn’t like Leanne and therefore didn’t trust her, but all her instincts told her this situation was not right. The hair on the back of her neck stood up, and the tiger inside her struggled to get out, but she managed to control herself.
As she watched Leanne dump liquid Benadryl into the fresh bottle of formula, her tiger got her wish. Juliette lurched and snatched the bottle out of Leanne’s hand. The nanny started to protest, then realized she was caught and tried to push past her, Juliette drew back her arm and whacked Leanne hard enough to send her flying backward. Leanne sailed across the kitchen and crashed against the refrigerator. She blinked in shock. She opened and closed her mouth, but no sound came out. Her eyes skittered up to Juliette and widened in fear.
Bitch tried to hurt those babies, Juliette fumed. How dare she?
“What do you think you’re doing, Leanne?” Juliette’s voice was sugary-sweet but unraveled at the end as her beast slipped over. A ghostly growl reverberated in each syllable. “I knew something was amiss when I smelled that sour stench. Thomas and Leah also had stomachaches yesterday and they were too agitated to be put to bed. Now I know you’ve been drugging them with Benadryl. Do you realize what you’ve done? Werecubs and pups are sensitive to antihistamine. It’s toxic in a large dose. You could’ve killed them!” Juliette snarled savagely. A tigress growl reverberated to the kitchen ceilings. Slowly, the mask of her humanity vanished as her inner beast surfaced. Juliette felt her face tighten, her mouth and chin elongated and her feline fangs burst out from her gums.
Leanne squealed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I just want them to sleep a little longer. My mom used Benadryl on us when we were little and we’ve turned out okay.” She shrank in the corner, cowering in fear.
