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“Yes.” Her cheeks flushed. “I worked for two years for a family in Sydney before deciding to come to London.” It was a slight fudging of the facts, but this man hardly needed to know the ins and outs of that emotionally stressful time in her life.
“And this was your first post in England?”
“No.” She shook her head. “For two months I travelled with the Prime Minister’s family. He had various commitments abroad and I was hired in addition to their usual staff. When they returned, he made certain to help me find a good placement.”
“Hence you came to work for Helena.”
“And Eric, yes.” Her smile was indulgent. “It was actually Eric who hired me. He knows the prime minister, and when he emailed Eric, the response was instant. Helena was …” She lowered her eyes, biting back the words she’d been about to say. Whether that was from loyalty to his sister or out of guilt at backstabbing her to him, Alex couldn’t have said for sure.
“Helena was?” He prompted with the appearance of curiosity.
“Helena had her hands full. The boys are very high-octane, as you know. It’s not unusual for four year olds, especially boys, but the fact they’re twins – they egg one another on.”
“And my sister is not maternal?” He queried, voicing his own private feelings in the form of a question.
“Of course she is!” Sophie contradicted, genuine surprise in her eyes. “She’s a lovely mother, and the boys adore her. One doesn’t need to enjoy going to the park and playing chase and reading stories to be maternal.”
“Or hiding under the sofa?” He prompted, reaching forward and pulling a piece of dust from her hair. She watched as he eyed it and then dropped it to the floor.
“Exactly. I enjoy that stuff. I love playing with the boys.”
“It is your job to enjoy it.”
“It is my job because I enjoy it,” she corrected. “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t.”
“How long will you stay?”
She shrugged. “I haven’t made up my mind yet.” And besides the fact she hardly knew this man, she found herself speaking with honest uncertainty. “One of the hardest things about my job is leaving the children. In order to do this properly, you have to fall in love with them.”
“With only the children?” He prompted, thinking of his brother in law and the suddenly very strong likelihood that he’d formed a crush on this stunning young Australian.
“Well, with the family.” She shrugged; her shoulders were slender and vulnerable somehow. “I love them, but I’ll leave them at some point. And miss them all like crazy.” She flicked a smile at him.
His expression was difficult to interpret. He was someone who kept his feelings perfectly concealed.
“Eric works long hours.”
“He’s making an effort to curtail that.” Another guilty flush. “It’s better for the children that he be around more.”
“Is it? Why?”
Sophie sighed. “It just is. I see this time and time again. Many families who employ nannies have one parent – or both – who is frequently out of the home. I know that’s the demands of jobs, but for the small time when children are young, they benefit enormously from having parents who are present.”
“I see,” he prompted silkily. If she knew him better, she might have detected the dark note to his voice. But she did not. At that stage, Sophie took Alessandros Petrides at face value.
“Yes. As I explained to Eric, he is well-thought of enough to shape his career around his family for a time.”
“And Eric listened to this?” Alex said, disbelief rich in his chest.
“Yes. Well,” she laughed. “He’s trying. He’s a workaholic, you know, but he makes a point of reading to the kids a couple of nights a week, even if he then has to go back to the office.”
“And my sister?”
Sophie’s shoulders squared defensively. But what was she defending? Her right to be alone with Eric? Or his sister? “What about her?”
“She doesn’t join you?”
“Helena spends more time with the children than Eric. She doesn’t need to make such a point to carve out special blocks of time.” She turned away from him and stirred the chicken again, then added some greens to the same pan.
