David smiled at him. “I’m glad to meet you, Eric.” The solemn-faced little boy only nodded slightly.
“Richie, say hello to Mr. Ardell,” Melissa said, but a black glass fountain in the middle of the spacious foyer had already caught the little boy’s attention.
Ignoring everyone, Richie bounding over to it, squatted down and stared into the pool of water. Then he looked up at David with a frown. “No fish?”
“No fish,” David echoed.
“Did you already eat them?”
The humor in the innocent question was tempered by the child’s honest bewilderment, and David held back a laugh as he shook his head. “No. I don’t think real fish would like a little pond like that.”
“Not like a big, big lake,” Richie agreed solemnly, and then, before Melissa could react, his little hand picked up one of the colorful pebbles decorating the fountain display. He threw the rock so hard that it made a resounding splash in the water against the glass bottom.
“Richie!” Melissa gasped.
Dear God, no. They had been in the house less than five minutes, and already…disaster.
David grabbed Richie’s arm before he could pick up another pebble. He jerked the boy back from the fountain and said harshly, “No! Don’t throw rocks. Understand?”
Richie let out a frightened whimper, and Eric’s normal passiveness shattered. Fiery color rose in his freckled face, and he threw himself at David. His little fists pounded David. “Let my brother go!”
“Eric! Eric, stop it.” Melissa pulled him back and held his arms firmly. “No one’s going to hurt Richie.”
At that moment, she felt cold water easing into her open-toed summer sandals and knew her worst fear was realized. The rock had cracked the glass pool, and water was leaking out on the foyer floor.
She heard someone in the doorway behind her draw in a breath. Melissa turned and saw a large-boned woman with a round face, yellow hair braided in a coronet around the top of her head and blue eyes widened in disbelief. “What is going on?” she demanded with a slight Swedish accent.
Richie wiggled away from David and ran to Melissa. She stood there with both boys hugging her, not knowing what to say to David or the housekeeper.
“The fountain is leaking,” David said shortly. “Get Hans.”
The woman nodded, gave one last look at the growing pool of water in the middle of the foyer, turned on her heel and left, muttering something under her breath.
“I am so sorry,” Melissa said. “Richie didn’t mean any harm.”
David started to say something, but seeing her standing there, defensive and ready to meet his anger with the protectiveness of a mother bear defending her cubs, and two boys glaring at him as if he were some kind of ogre, he couldn’t find the right words. He swallowed back the urge to launch into a lecture about proper behavior while under his roof. At the moment, he would rather have addressed a belligerent jury than his houseguests. He finally settled for a brisk, “We’ll talk tonight.”
Melissa nodded, and her hands tightened on the boys’ shoulders in a reassuring squeeze. She could feel the tremors in their little bodies as they hugged her sides.
“Inga will help you get settled. She’s prepared two adjoining bedrooms on the second floor, and there’s a small lady’s parlor off the breakfast room that you can use as a working office. If the arrangements are not satisfactory, let me know and we’ll work out something else.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” she answered in the same businesslike tone, trying to ignore the widening spread of water about to reach his expensive, polished shoes.
“Well, then, I have to get to the office.” He glanced once more at the draining pool, wondering how many more catastrophes two little boys could create in the space of a few days.
Melissa saw his frown. “I’ll keep a close rein on the boys,” she promised.
As he nodded and turned toward the door, his shoes squeaked wetly with each step, and she wondered if the governor’s counselor was going to work with damp socks. Melissa put a hand up to her mouth and suppressed a giggle.
When Inga returned with Hans and his mopping equipment, she indicated that they were to follow her, and led the way into a spacious front hall. It was obvious that the house was a decorator’s dream, a fact that Inga didn’t hesitate to point out. “This house is filled with nice things. Very nice things.”
“It is lovely,” Melissa agreed as she glimpsed beautifully furnished rooms opening off the main corridor. She felt as if she were someone viewing a showcase home, instead of someone who was about to be a resident in such luxurious surroundings.
Holding tightly to the boys’ hands, she followed the housekeeper up a wide central staircase. A massive grandfather clock on the landing chimed the hour just as they passed it. Startled, both Eric and Richie missed the next step, stopped and stared at the clock in wonder.
Melissa smiled at their wide, rounded eyes. Obviously the boys had never heard anything like the resonant Westminster chimes. They begged to wait and hear the clock again, but Melissa shook her head, promising that it would chime many more times while they were there.
“Mr. David said to put you in the front bedrooms,” Inga said in a tone that indicated it wouldn’t have been her choice for the temporary houseguests.
Nor mine, Melissa thought as they accompanied Inga down the hall to the front of the house. The size and fashionable decor of the two front bedrooms made ready for her and the boys was unbelievable. Her room alone had more living space than her small studio apartment, and the boys’ bedroom was only slightly smaller. Even Eric and Richie were subdued by surroundings that were completely alien to their experience. Both boys stayed close to Melissa as if she were some kind of life preserver, as they walked through the bedrooms and peeked into the large adjoining bathroom.
“Very nice,” Melissa said, nodding her approval. She wasn’t about to show any uneasiness or awkwardness, but she knew that Inga was wondering why a temporary nanny was being given one of the best rooms in the house. Melissa couldn’t help but wonder the same thing. She would have been much more comfortable with accommodations in line with those of Inga and Hans.
The housekeeper’s manners had softened when she realized the little boys weren’t going to turn into hooligans. “Mr. David said you are to use his mother’s sitting room for your work,” Inga told Melissa. “He didn’t say what kind of work.”
“I’m a writer for a magazine, and I can set up my small computer anywhere. I really don’t need a special room.” She glanced around the bedroom and failed to see anything that might serve as a desk, but she wasn’t about to ask Inga or Hans to start moving in furniture. “Thank you, Mrs. Erickson, for your help—”
“Inga,” she corrected.
Melissa held out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Inga. And I’m Melissa.”
A softness touched the woman’s blue eyes. “Melissa. Pretty name. Mr. David says it is a nice thing you are doing, taking care of the children. You are a good lady.” Then she eyed Richie and Eric. “And they are good boys, ya?”
“Yes, they are very good boys,” Melissa echoed, smiling at the obvious combination of question and warning in Inga’s tone.
Just then, her husband came in with the small suitcases and Melissa’s computer. Hans Erickson was a broad-faced man with huge shoulders, thick arms and brown hair lightly highlighted with gray. He just nodded at Melissa when she thanked him for bringing up the luggage.
“I’m sorry about the fountain,” she told him. “It was just an accident. Richie didn’t mean to break it.”
“I