Nanny and the Professor (5 page)

Losing her husband and realizing her desperate economic predicament were more than Cassie's mother could take. Then, finding herself expecting a baby in the midst of such dire circumstances, the woman refused to fight back and simply let the unfortunate situation completely snuff out what little bit of spirit she had left.

Cassie had watched her mother descend deeper and deeper into the bleak pit of anguish and grief until the woman was no longer able to take care of herself, her daughter or the baby boy she had given birth to.

"You're dwelling on it again, aren't you?" Mary's gentle voice pulled Cassie from her bleak reverie. "You're thinking about your decision.
Wondering whether you did the right thing all those years ago."

Suppressed emotion tightened her throat and made it impossible to speak, so Cassie only nodded.

"I can't tell you if what you did was right or not. But someone had to take over," Mary remarked candidly. "You had a mother who stopped being a mother, and you had a baby brother who was going hungry."

Hearing the stark truth spoken aloud only magnified Cassie's response to the memory of her past. She dragged oxygen into her lungs through strangled air passages and she fought the threatening tears by blinking several times, hard.

Mary's voice became whisper soft as she said, "You did the only thing a sixteen-year-old could do. You found a job. And when one job wasn't enough, you found another. Yes, some very unfortunate things happened. Your dad passed away. Your mom was ill. Your education fell by the wayside." Then her tone took on a gruff straightforwardness meant to comfort. "You took the lemons that life gave you and you made lemonade. You did what you had to do to take care of your family." Mary's eyes glittered with pride. "You have spunk, Cassie. You have the courage of three women."

Cassie sighed and forced herself to smile. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up. It's just that... sometimes... when I look at Eric, I feel so badly that he'll never know his mom and dad. All he's got is me.
Someone who'll never be worth looking up to."

"Don't you ever say that
again!
" Mary's admonition was sharp.

Refusing to relent, Cassie said, "Well, look at me. I got fired from my last job. I'm flat broke and–"

"Now, now," Mary crooned, her angry tone quickly replaced by grandmotherly encouragement. "None of that was your fault. You can't be blamed just because a company needs to cut back."

"What's so infuriating about the whole mess is that I had more seniority than some of those other overeducated idiots." Cassie flung her hand up in agitation. "I could work rings around each and every one of them. Why, I produce more... and I did it faster…" Her voice trailed off and she lowered her head. "But they all had something I didn't. And the minute the truth came out, I was history. And it wasn't the first time it happened.
Or the second."

"Now, you look here," Mary said. "There's nothing wrong with you. You've just had a run of bad luck. Stop thinking bad thoughts.
All that's in the past.
You've got a new job now. A job that offers Eric a lovely home to live in and plenty of good, wholesome food, and–"

"But if Professor Kingston finds out..."

"Would you just hush up about it," Mary scolded. "Joshua's not going to find out anything." Her wizened eyes crinkled as she added, "No one would ever guess you'd dropped out of high school. You're so bright. If I didn't think so, I'd never have recommended you to my nephew."

Cassie's eyes softened. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to dredge it all up again."

"Nonsense.
You needn't apologize to me, Cassie Simmons. Why, we're almost family, you and me, and little Eric out there." Mary picked up her knitting needles and pulled more yarn from the skein. "I love you both dearly and I just want to see you happy. That's why I sent you to Joshua. He'll make things right for you, and you'll be helping him out at the same time. It's a perfect arrangement."

Cassie conjured an image of Joshua Kingston as he'd stood at the door to leave. She'd been jolted to the core by his smile– a smile that had transformed his intense handsome features to drop-dead gorgeous. Cassie lifted her eyes to Mary's face as a flicker of doubt crossed her mind.

"I wouldn't say the arrangement is perfect just yet," Cassie said ruefully. "I didn't have a chance to tell the professor about Eric."

"Eric?" Mary paused for a moment. "Why, I'm almost certain I told Joshua about little Eric." Then she cocked her head a fraction. "At least, I think I mentioned Eric. No," she argued with herself, "I'm sure I mentioned him."

Cassie repressed a smile at the old woman's forgetfulness. Cassie knew Mary's heart was in the right place, and that it was made of pure twenty-four karat gold.

"Well, if you did, Joshua didn't seem to remember," Cassie replied gently.

"It's good to know someone else's mind is rusting, besides my own." Mary chuckled, her eyes twinkling as she placed the blame of absentmindedness on Joshua.

"It looks as though I'll just have to remind him when he gets home." Cassie opened the door and called the two boys to come in from where they'd been playing in Mary's backyard. Then she turned back to her friend. "
Mary,
thanks for watching Eric while I went to talk to the Professor. We're going to have to go so I can pick up our things from the apartment. It will take us a while to get settled and I'd like the move to go as smoothly for Eric as possible."

"Oh, he'll do just fine," Mary said. "He's really looking forward to getting to know Andrew. And Joshua will make a wonderful father figure for him."

"I don't know about that," Cassie commented dubiously. She shook her head. "The professor seems so restrictive with Andy. I mean, I understand about the asthma, but..."

"Andrew was such a sickly baby," Mary was quick to answer. Then she pursed her lips in disgust.
"And all those nannies coming and going.
It's been awful for both Joshua and little Andrew. Seems the minute Andrew got used to one or the other, she'd up and quit and Joshua was putting another ad in the newspaper."

"Why did they all leave, one right after the other?" Cassie asked. "Seems odd, don't you think?"

"Who knows? Couldn't follow the rules, I guess."

"But all those rules make it hard for Andy to–"

Cassie was interrupted when Eric came charging into the house.

"Cassie, Cassie! You should see the shot Andy just made!"

Eric's exuberance was infectious. "Andy's good at marbles, is he?"

It had been hard to find a game for the two of them to play, what with all the rules governing Andy's activity. Eric was a sports-minded boy, loving baseball, soccer, football, anything physical, and all these things were off-limits to Andy. But when Mary had mentioned marbles, even producing a small sack full, both Eric and Andy had been quick to agree.

"Yeah!"
Eric clapped his new friend on the back. "Andy has a special thumb flick, and he knocked three of my marbles out of the circle with one shot."

"A special thumb flick, eh?" Cassie ruffled Andy's hair and saw the boy blush with pride over Eric's praise.

"
Aww
, it wasn't anything great, Cassie," Andy mumbled, but it was clear he was enjoying Eric's accolades.

"Sure it was!" Eric turned to Andy. "You'll teach me how you do it, won't 'cha?"

A smile washed over Andy's whole face. "Sure, I will."

"You boys gather up all the marbles, now," Cassie told them. "We need to be scooting home, so Eric and I can get ourselves settled in."

Cassie saw that Mary had returned to the task of knitting the bright yellow square that would soon be part of a large afghan.

"Mary," she said softly, "I can't thank you enough for all that you've done for me and Eric."

"Stuff an' nonsense," the old woman scoffed. "You're perfect for the job."

"It's not just the job." Cassie knelt down by the rocker, lacing her fingers together and draping them over the arm of the chair. "It's everything. The apartment,
your
watching Eric at the drop of a hat, the moral support, the listening ear, the shoulder to lean on. The list of things you've done for me is endless."

"It's been a two-way street, missy. What about
you chauffeuring
me all over town, to the doctor, the bank. And you do all my shopping." Mary's soft, wrinkled hand covered Cassie's. "You've done just as much for me as I ever have for you, so don't feel you owe me any thank-
yous
."

Cassie was about to insist that Mary take the appreciation due her, but remained silent, afraid the emotion she felt would swell her throat and make her cry. "Well, just know I'll do my best to take care of Andy."

"And Joshua," Mary quickly added. "Don't forget to take care of Joshua."

Cassie promised she would, but in her heart she felt Joshua Kingston could easily take care of himself.

~
 
~
 
~

The rays of the Sunday afternoon sun caressed Cassie's skin as she floated on her back in the pool. The boys splashed and laughed in the shallow end. She closed her eyes, letting her muscles relax, as she thought back on her busy, thoroughly enjoyable weekend.

Friday evening had been spent getting settled. Andy wanted Eric to sleep next door to him, which left Cassie with the room adjacent to the master bedroom. She didn't know why that disturbed her, but after several trips back and forth to her new room, she'd noticed that she'd become preoccupied with Professor Kingston's sleeping quarters. So much so, that she'd finally closed his door to shut off any temptation of peeking in. She couldn't fathom why she found the thought of exploring his room so enticing. Maybe she felt that by studying this most personal domain, she would gain some insight into Joshua Kingston, the man. The very idea of her thinking of the professor as a male rather than her employer had startled her so that she'd vowed to stay away from his room. Seeking out his character was not part of her job
here,
her business was strictly to care for the man's son.

But try as she might, Cassie couldn't completely exorcize the disturbing reflections of the intriguing man who seemed to haunt her mind. Joshua's quick, terse telephone calls inquiring as to how things were going came like clockwork and always left Cassie pondering Joshua Kingston's dark temperament. Even now she had to consciously pull herself out of this
daydreamy
state and force herself to concentrate on minding the boys who were paddling in the pool.

Cassie was pleased that she, Eric, and Andy were getting along so famously. They'd spent the entire weekend together with no quarreling or fussing. The boys had behaved, for the most part… boys were boys, and she couldn't hold that against them. They'd gone shopping together because the kitchen cabinets had been bare enough to embarrass Mother Hubbard.

She was learning the kinds of foods Andy enjoyed, and which he was allowed. She felt she knew the list of restrictions by heart now. That dreaded list was her biggest problem. Finding quiet games to occupy the boys had been her toughest task all weekend. Eric suggested over and over that they play outdoors, and Andy had begged to join him. But Cassie had had to stop them from racing around more than once. She felt she'd done an adequate job so far, because she hadn't seen Andy strain to breathe or use his inhaler since she'd helped him from the tree.

When the boys suggested a swim, Cassie had consulted the list and found that the pool wasn't among Andy's restrictions. When questioned, Andy's face was angel-innocent as he swore the pool wasn't off limits. This didn't make sense to Cassie. If keeping Andy calm and unexcited had been the professor's goal, then allowing his son to swim was probably not the best idea. So she'd told the boys they could putter in the water—and puttering meant just that, no diving, racing, chasing, or tossing. They hadn't liked her rule, but they'd resigned themselves to it just the same.