Pregnant on the Earl's Doorstep, page 6
* * *
Heather’s eyes were gritty with sleep when she awoke late the next morning. After the pre-dawn antics with Daisy, and that disturbing conversation with Cal, it had taken her an age to get back to sleep again. And when she finally had her dreams had been restless—filled with a strange sense of longing, desperation and the remembrance of a body against hers. She’d assumed it to be Ross—until her eyes had flashed open and she’d realised it was Cal.
Added to her general pregnancy tiredness, the disturbed night meant that she was totally exhausted. And she still had to go into battle today—with and for Daisy and Ryan.
She showered quickly in the chilly bathroom down the corridor, then dressed in the same sundress and cardigan she’d worn for dinner. Until Cal came good on his clothes-shopping promise her wardrobe was severely limited. Thank goodness she always packed extra underwear in case of emergency.
Being properly prepared was important. Which was why she practised all her arguments and approaches towards Cal as she got ready to face the day.
The periodic nausea that had plagued her for weeks seemed to be abating at last, which was something. In every other way she felt totally unprepared for the day ahead.
She was missing something about Cal, she decided as she brushed her teeth, grateful that the toothpaste didn’t make her gag for the first time in weeks. He seemed like a good guy, genuinely trying to help his niece and nephew—but in all the wrong ways. Could she show him the right ones in the next six weeks?
She hoped so.
‘Ah, Miss Reid. So good of you to join us.’
Mrs Peterson nodded pointedly to the table, already laid with breakfast, as Heather entered the dining room. Daisy and Ryan were in their seats, and Cal was reading a newspaper on his tablet at the head of the table. A slight heat rose to Heather’s cheeks as she remembered him as she’d seen him last—half-naked in the dark, his arms around her waist.
Damn her pregnancy hormones. They’d had her body in a spin just at the closeness of him—at least as soon as her initial terror had worn off and she’d realised who it was that held her.
Not that the ‘who’ made it any better. Next to Ross Bryce, the second most inappropriate person for her to be fantasising about had to be his brother.
With an apologetic smile Heather slipped into her seat as the others started to help themselves to toast, eggs, fruit and pastries.
First order of business, Heather decided as she poured herself a cup of tea, was to figure out the rules and traditions of Lengroth Castle. If she wanted to achieve anything here it would be a hundred times easier with Mrs Peterson on her side, and Mrs Peterson seemed to value things being done the right way.
Heather dreaded to think what Mrs Peterson would say when she discovered the real reason she’d come to Lengroth...
Secondly, she needed to remind Cal about the laptops, and money for school supplies. And clothes—much as she hated to rely on him for those. It felt too much like being paid off after sleeping with Ross.
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.
He was just contemplating a pain au chocolat to round off his breakfast before he got to work when Heather’s face brightened even more, and Cal was filled with a strange sense of foreboding.
‘I know! Uncle Cal can take us down to the village—it’s too far to walk there and back, I think. Maybe we can all have some lunch together as a treat. What do you think?’
Daisy and Ryan looked as uncertain as he felt about Heather’s suggestion, and Mrs Peterson was definitely smiling now.
But Heather ignored them all and clapped her hands together. ‘Brilliant! It’s a plan, then. Let’s all meet at the front door in thirty minutes, ready to go.’
And with that she snatched up the last pain au chocolat and walked out with his breakfast, his credit card and his free morning.
Perfect.
‘That’s two to Miss Reid,’ Mrs Peterson murmured as she cleared away his empty plate.
Cal ignored her, and went to get ready to drive down to the village.
* * *
Cal felt a strange sensation of lightening as he drove out through the front gates of Lengroth Castle, Heather in the passenger seat beside him and the children suspiciously quiet in the back seat. He was almost certain that Daisy and Ryan were plotting something, but since he had no idea what he decided to go with the flow and enjoy the day.
He was away from the castle, the sun was shining and he had a beautiful if untouchable woman at his side. Life could be much worse.
The village of Lengroth was small, mostly filled with grey stone terraced houses that echoed the castle’s forbidding walls. The streets were narrow, winding up and down each side of the valley the village sat in. From every spot in the village the castle of Lengroth, up on the hill, was visible, looming over them.
Cal purposefully kept his back to it as they got out of the car.
‘So, where shall we start?’ Heather asked, sounding unreasonably excited about the outing, in Cal’s opinion.
‘The sweet shop?’ Ryan suggested hopefully.
Heather smiled. ‘Maybe let’s save that until after lunch. But a stroll along the high street sounds like a great idea.’
‘The high street?’ Cal asked, with a hint of incredulity in his voice. ‘I think that title is a little grand for what Lengroth has to offer.’ At most, it was a low street. It barely even qualified as a road.
Still, Heather seemed charmed as they strolled past the Mountain Ram pub and across the road by the chip shop, the corner shop—and the long-suffering Mr Reynolds’ sweet shop. In fact, for just a moment Cal could almost let himself believe that they were a real family, doing real family things—not a patchwork of relatives and strangers who hardly even knew each other.
But the kids were behaving, Heather seemed relaxed and happy, and no one was demanding anything much from him, so Cal decided to relax and enjoy the rare Scottish sunshine for a change.
At least until Ryan darted across the road—narrowly missing being hit by a passing cyclist—and ran away from them down an alley.
Cal froze, just for a moment, then moved to chase him—only to find that Heather had beaten him to it. She was already across the road, disappearing through the same gap in the buildings that Ryan had, leaving him with Daisy.
He wanted to follow them, but that would mean dragging Daisy along, too—he could hardly leave her behind.
‘Where would your brother be running to?’ he asked, still staring after Heather.
No reply.
Annoyed, Cal turned to face Daisy—only to find her gone, too.
‘Dammit.’ Cal bit back a stronger curse as he spun around to check the street for his wayward niece. Nothing.
Except... A flash of movement in the distance, past the pub and behind the trees, made Cal realise he knew exactly where Daisy had gone.
He didn’t want to go there. He’d been avoiding it ever since he came back to Lengroth. But apparently his niece wasn’t giving him that option.
With a sigh, Cal followed her.
CHAPTER SIX
HEATHER SLIPPED DOWN the narrow alleyway, her eyes constantly moving as she searched the shadows for Ryan. What kind of nanny was she, losing one of her charges on her second day? Cal must be fuming. Or probably grilling Daisy on what Ryan thought he was playing at.
What did Ryan think he was playing at? It wasn’t as if there were a lot of places to run away to in Lengroth, and he’d run in the opposite direction to the sweet shop so it couldn’t even be that. It didn’t make any sense.
Maybe he was just one of those boys who needed to run. She’d had one of those in the last school she worked at—he’d needed to escape over the fence at least once a day. The caretaker would chase him down and he’d come back, docilely enough, and go to class. But the next day it would be exactly the same.
But Ryan hadn’t run yesterday. And Cal hadn’t mentioned his escaping act as one of the many problems he’d experienced with the children. Was this something new? Was he running away from her?
The alleyway took another turn, and Heather sighed as she rounded it—then stopped as she realised it led to a dead end.
A dead end with Ryan at the end of it, sitting calmly upon an upturned wooden crate.
He grinned impishly at her, then the smile faded. ‘Where’s Uncle Cal?’
‘With Daisy, I hope.’ Heather moved to sit on another crate opposite him, trying to make sense of exactly what was going on.
Ryan shook his head, his dark hair waving from side to side as he did so. ‘No. No, no, no. Daisy is going to be so cross. I was supposed to lead both of you away. Why didn’t he follow?’ he asked plaintively. Then his face darkened and he answered his own question. ‘It’s because he can’t be bothered with me and Daisy, isn’t it?’
‘That’s not it, Ryan,’ Heather said soothingly. ‘One of us needed to stay with Daisy, and I was quicker than Uncle Cal, that’s all.’ At least she hoped that was what had happened. She hadn’t dared look back to check for fear of losing Ryan’s trail.
‘He can’t, though,’ Ryan said, looking up at her with big eyes. ‘He didn’t want to come back to Lengroth in the first place—I heard him tell Mrs Peterson. And when you two were rowing outside our rooms last night—’
Heather winced. She’d thought he was asleep, but maybe they’d woken him up again. Sound carried surprisingly well in Lengroth Castle for a building of its size and with the thickness of its walls. ‘We weren’t rowing. And you weren’t meant to hear that.’
‘Well, I did. And I know he doesn’t love us or want us. He just wants you to get us ready so he can send us away, doesn’t he?’
The boy had a point, but Heather knew she couldn’t concede it. ‘Your uncle wants the best for your education and for your future. He’s very busy with the estate right now—’
‘Dad never spent so much time in his study when he ran the estate.’
Apparently not very well, Heather thought, but didn’t say.
‘Your uncle loves you,’ she said firmly instead. After all, however much trouble they caused him, they were his own flesh and blood. How could he not love them? ‘He’s just not very good at showing it.’ At all. Ever.
Ryan shook his head mulishly. ‘He doesn’t want us. That’s okay. We don’t want him, either. That’s what Daisy says.’
Daisy. There was something else he’d said about Daisy, and in her relief at finding him safe she’d almost missed it. What was it...?
Heather blinked as it came to her. ‘Ryan, what did you mean when you said Daisy would be cross because you were supposed to lead both of us away? Is this a plan you and Daisy made?’
‘Daisy’s plan,’ Ryan corrected. ‘They’re always Daisy’s plans. She just tells me what to do.’
‘And today it was to run away so Cal and I would follow. But why?’
That was the part that didn’t make any sense. Unless Daisy wanted to be left alone... Heather’s eyes widened. Had Daisy wanted the distraction so she could escape, too?
‘Ryan, what did Daisy need to be alone to do?’
He wouldn’t meet her eyes.
Heather took several deep breaths and tried again. ‘Ryan, I promise I won’t be cross. And neither will Daisy.’
‘Yes, she will,’ he muttered, and Heather didn’t try to deny it again. The boy knew his sister better than she did.
Slipping off her crate, Heather crouched in front of Ryan, her hands either side of him, looking up until he couldn’t help but meet her gaze. ‘Ryan, I promise you I am only here to help you. And I’m not going anywhere until you want to leave, okay? So you can trust me.’
Ryan’s eyes were red around the rims, she realised. With unshed tears or lack of sleep? Or just the stress of being an eight-year-old earl whose life didn’t make sense any more?
Probably all three.
‘Everyone goes away—that’s what Daisy says,’ he whispered. ‘Our parents. The nannies. And Uncle Cal will go back to America as soon as he’s sent us away, too.’
The worst part was she couldn’t tell him he was wrong. Shifting to perch beside him on the box, Heather put an arm around Ryan’s shoulders. ‘Sometimes when people go they come back again, you know.’
‘Not when they’re dead,’ Ryan said bluntly. ‘Or when you throw things at them from the nursery window.’
‘Daisy threw a rubber duck at me. I stayed,’ Heather pointed out. ‘Even after you let me fall in the muddy riverbank.’
Ryan sneaked a quick look at her at that, a small smile on his face.
‘Yeah, I guess I must have looked pretty funny,’ Heather said. ‘The thing is, Ryan, I can’t bring your parents back—no one can. And maybe those other nannies weren’t meant to stay. But I will. Until September. I promise you that. And as for Uncle Cal—’
‘Don’t lie to me,’ Ryan said quickly. ‘Don’t tell me he’s staying if he isn’t.’
Heather sighed. ‘You’re right. I can’t promise you anything on Uncle Cal’s behalf—only he can do that. But I can tell you that he’s doing everything he can to make sure you and Daisy have a secure future, okay? He’s looking out for you, even if it doesn’t feel like it.’
It wasn’t enough, though, Heather knew. These kids needed more than that. And they needed more than a detached Uncle Cal tagging along on day trips or new computers to do their schoolwork on.
