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“He is,” Xavier confirmed, his eyes searing Ellie with their intensity. “This is Joshua’s mother,” he said smoothly, and confining her to that relationship was so neat and somehow offensive that she almost rebutted him.
After all, he was the one who’d insisted they would marry. Would it kill him to announce her as his fiancé?
Fiancé? She shivered. On second thoughts, ‘Joshua’s mother’ was just fine.
“Hello, madam,” the housekeeper said, tilting her head forward in a deferential greeting.
“Call me Ellie,” Elizabeth insisted.
And Xavier made an involuntary movement. A jerk of his head and then his hand was lifting to his temple, pressing against it, his eyes closed as though there was a blinding light being shoved in his face.
Janice noticed too, and her face was lined with concern. “Sir?”
He blinked and swallowed, a rough convulsive movement of his throat. “I’m fine.”
He didn’t sound fine.
“Elizabeth was asking about dinner for Joshua. I’ll leave the two of you to discuss domestic matters.”
Ellie’s heart sank at the enormity of the life she was about to assume. And ridiculous though it seemed, given that he was clearly public enemy number one, suddenly she craved his support. “You’re not going to stay?”
His eyes sliced through her, mocking her and distancing from her all once. “No, Elizabeth. I have more important things to do than discuss macaroni pasta.” He winced then, and smiled apologetically at Janice who, judging by her surprised expression, had never heard Xavier say anything quite so rude before.
Well, Janice was in for a shock, Ellie thought. With the addition of Elizabeth to this grand home, Xavier’s manners were apparently about to take a turn for the worse.
Anxious to smooth over Janice’s worries, Ellie put her most charming foot forward. Joshua sat at the kitchen bench and then, when Ellie insisted on preparing his dinner herself, Janice chatted about the running of the house, the work she did, and the other staff who helped.
“Mr Salbatore mentioned that he would like to engage a nanny. Ordinarily I would liaise with an agency and prepare a shortlist of suitable candidates for you to interview, but obviously I wished to check with you before taking this step.”
Ellie’s gratitude expressed itself with a smile. She didn’t realise it, but it changed her whole face and Janice found herself staring, for a moment, at this beautiful, authentic, kind woman who’d floated into the middle of the cold house in Kensington. A house that was grand and expensive and very beautiful, but somewhat lacking in the soul department.
“I don’t think we need to rush on that score,” Ellie murmured, mentally wishing she could strangle Xavier for being so high-handed. “There’ll be quite enough for Joshua to adjust to without adding yet another new person into the mix.” She grimaced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you’re …”
“It’s fine,” Janice smiled warmly. “I have two children. I remember what they can be like at this age.” She reached across once more, tousling Joshua’s hair, then straightened. “But I am here to help. As much or as little as you would like.”
An understanding passed between them. An alliance. It was fresh and new but Ellie felt it, and safety and security came with it.
“For dinner, I prepare a meal and leave it laid out in this fridge,” Janice murmured, moving to a large double door refrigerator to the right side of a window. “Mr Salbatore has a large appetite,” Janice murmured, burying her head in the fridge, leaving Ellie to stand there with a bemused look on her face as she inwardly agreed with that assessment. “So I always prepare generous meals. As for preferences, he’s not fussy. So long as it’s tasty and abundant, he’ll eat it. If you, however, have more detailed requirements, I will be very happy to accommodate them. You need only provide me with a list of your favourites so that I might incorporate them into my planning.”
“Oh.” Ellie frowned, a little line forming between her brows. “I’m sure whatever Xavier likes will be fine for me,” she said with a tilt of her head.
Janice nodded. “He takes dinner in the State room,” she continued, but Ellie interrupted.
“The State Room?”
“A frightfully grand name, isn’t it?” Janice agreed with a laugh. “And I suppose the room is somewhat grand. It’s a hangover from when this house served as a diplomatic quarter. The State Room was used to host the President of the United States in the early nineteen eighties,” she said with pride.
“And Xavier eats there even when he’s on his own?”
“He likes it,” Janice said. “When you get to know him you’ll realise he’s quite stuck in his ways.”
And then, realizing what she’d said – the implication that the woman who’d borne Xavier a child barely knew him, brought a flush to Janice’s cheeks. “I don’t mean that you don’t know him, of course…”
“It’s fine,” Ellie rushed to reassure her, reaching for Josh and placing him on her hip. “Obviously nothing about this is conventional. I should say it will take us all a little time to get used to things. There will be many slips of the tongue in the meantime.”
Janice nodded, but she was more reserved as they moved from the kitchen and along the corridor, past the room Josh and Xavier had been in earlier, to another doorway.
Janice strode in first, and then waited so she could see Ellie’s surprise at the sheer size of the place.
