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But he was her employer; he had a responsibility towards her that had nothing to do with his brother. Maybe she could think of it as him providing her with a uniform—that might help.
Before she could get to point three on her to-do list—or to the plate of pastries—Cal looked up and caught her eye briefly before looking away. Was he embarrassed about their middle-of-the-night conversation—argument, really?
‘The laptops you asked for will be arriving this afternoon, Miss Reid. Sorry I couldn’t get them here any sooner.’
So we’re back to Miss Reid, then. That didn’t bode well, even if the laptops did.
‘That’s much sooner than I expected. Thank you...’ She trailed off, unsure of what to call him. Mr Bryce? Cal? My Lord—except he wasn’t the Earl, was he? What was the etiquette here?
Something else to figure out, Heather supposed.
‘And I’ve ordered a credit card for your use. In the meantime...’ He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Removing a card from it, he handed it down the table to her. ‘This should serve to get you started online.’
Mrs Peterson’s eyebrows were so high Heather was half-afraid they might float off into the rafters of the dining hall. Apparently Cal didn’t do this for all his nannies, then.
But she was different. Because he knew she had to stay. Or he was bribing her to stay, to stave off a scandal. Heather wasn’t sure which one it was any more.
Confused, she took the card and tucked it securely into the pocket of her cardigan. Somehow she was going to have to figure all this out, save the children, and then sort out her own future and her baby’s. But definitely not until after breakfast.
Helping herself to pastries, she turned to smile at the children, who stared sullenly back. The shadows under Daisy’s eyes were grey smudges, and made her look paler and more gaunt than she already was. Ryan picked miserably at his bowl of cereal.
Start there, she decided. Everything else can wait a few days at least. The kids need me now.
Did they know about the sort of things their father had got up to? She hoped not. As she also hoped that Cal was right that the family were good at keeping their secrets. Daisy and Ryan didn’t deserve the gossipy taunts and comments that she’d suffered as a child because of her mother’s behaviour.
‘So, kids... If the laptops aren’t arriving until this afternoon we’ve got one last morning of freedom before lessons start. What would you like to spend it doing?’
Daisy and Ryan exchanged one of their secret looks, then turned to smile eerily identical smiles at Heather.
Heather swallowed. Suddenly she was regretting asking.
* * *
Cal looked up in amusement as Heather asked the fateful question. Really, as a teacher, surely she should know better than to give two devil children a choice in what they wanted to do next. Hell, he knew nothing about kids except how to avoid them—and even he knew that much.
At the far end of the table Mrs Peterson was watching, too, and Cal was sure he detected a hint of a smile around her thin lips. Old Peterson had been with the family since before Cal was born, but he could still count the number of times he’d seen her smile on both hands.
She knew all the family secrets, his mother used to say. Which was why she had a job for life. It was impossible to keep anything from Mrs Peterson.
Cal wondered if she’d known about Ross and the sort of man he really was. He almost hoped not. Mrs Peterson had doted on his brother, and he’d hate that to be tainted the way his own relationship with him had.
‘We’d like to show you the village,’ Daisy said, with total innocence in her voice. If a person didn’t know her better, anyway.
But Cal knew. And he was already calculating the number of different ways the children could get into trouble.
He was up to twenty-four before Heather said, ‘Lengroth village? Sure, if you like.’ She sounded surprised. ‘I came through it on my way here yesterday. There didn’t seem to be a lot there, but maybe it’ll look different with you two as my tour guides.’
She smiled warmly—a smile that only faltered slightly as Mrs Peterson said, ‘I dare say it will.’
Well, whatever Daisy’s cunning plan was, this would work wonderfully for Cal. With the children and Heather safely out of the castle and out of his way he could get on with the real work he still had to do. Like making another phone call to his lawyer to see what they’d made of Ross’s contract with the magazine.
