She opened her trunk to retrieve her suitcases, and he gently but firmly took them from her, ignoring her protests that she could carry her own bags. She was at least able to hold onto her laptop and handbag.
“Are these all your cars?” she asked, waving at the garage.
“Not at all—most belong to the staff here. Matt has a car, as does Williams, the butler, and Mrs. Smith, the housekeeper, who you’ll meet. Also Mrs. Phillips, the cook. Some of the staff also carpool together. Only five of the vehicles belong to me.”
“Oh, only five,” she said, amused. When he arched a brow at her she just grinned cheekily at him, and a crooked half-smile broke across his face, delighting her. He was even more incredibly good-looking when he smiled, she thought wistfully and then mentally shook her head. Only one week, she reminded herself sternly.
“So not all your staff lives here then?” she asked, wanting to distract herself, but truly curious about how such a large household ran.
“No, most of them live in town or nearby, but they also keep rooms here for situations like this with the blizzard. I don’t want anyone going out and risking their lives unnecessarily,” he said grimly, and Maria remembered that his wife had died in a car accident. She wondered if it had been in weather like this.
“If they need to leave, and some do, they have their own family to get home to, I always let them leave as early as possible. So right now the house is only partially staffed. Don’t worry about the power going out—I have my own generator and a back-up generator in case that one goes out. So we’ll ride out the storm in relative comfort and security.”
Maria laughed softly. “Oh, I had no worries there. So when do I get to meet the children?”
“I thought you’d like to settle in first and unpack. How about in an hour? I’ll show you to your room and then come and get you when it’s time.”
“Oh you don’t have to go out of the way—just tell me where to meet you and I’ll go there,” Maria insisted.
“Maria, it’s no bother at all. Besides, I’m afraid you’ll get lost, the house and the grounds are quite extensive—I’ve sometimes felt that we should hand out maps to guests when they arrive,” he said dryly.
Maria giggled. “It is very grand, isn’t it? I thought it looked more like an English manor house than anything else!”
“I’m glad to hear that, since it actually is an English manor house.”
Maria gasped in surprise. “Really? Did you bring it over?”
“It was my great-grandfather—the house belonged to an earl who had lost his money after World War I. My great-grandfather fell in love with it and the earl’s daughter and he married her in England. As a wedding present for his bride, he bought the house and then dismantled it and reassembled it here, brick by brick. He did have the foresight to do some much needed modernizing, thankfully, and both my grandfather and my father also made additional renovations as have I, so it’s not nearly as expensive to maintain as the house in its original state would be.”
Maria was impressed despite herself. She was right—Gabriel was old money, but he obviously didn’t rest on his fortune, since he seemed to work a lot as well.
They entered the main house via the large gourmet kitchen, where Gabriel introduced her to Mrs. Phillips, the cook, who was excellent at her job if the delicious smells wafting through the kitchen were anything to go by.
Mrs. Smith, the housekeeper, entered the kitchen a moment later, and Gabriel introduced her to Maria as well. She liked her immediately—Mrs. Smith had a warm, efficient air about her that reminded Maria of the nuns at the convent, especially the Mother Superior. Mrs. Smith offered to show Maria to her room instead of Gabriel but he declined, saying he wanted to show her around the house.
“Oh, and Mrs. Smith? I’ll be taking Maria to the Blue Room.” Gabriel could see confusion on Mrs. Smith’s face for a moment before she smiled and nodded, saying nothing. He soon led Maria back to the main hall, where Williams was stationed.
Proving that he indeed was the perfect butler, Williams didn’t even blink at the sight of Maria back in the house after leaving it in such dramatic fashion a short time earlier. And of course Gabriel made no mention of it as well.
“Williams, I’m showing Miss Berger to her room. Will you inform Matt that I will be down in my office shortly, and can he confirm that my flight has been cancelled? I’m not looking into rebooking right now—just have Matt call Chicago and let them know that I won’t be able to make my meetings due to the weather, and perhaps we can schedule a video conference instead.”
Williams nodded. “Of course, sir. How many shall I tell Cook for dinner tonight?”
“We just saw her in the kitchen so no need to tell her, but it’ll be seven tonight. Thank you, Williams.”
Gabriel led Maria to the second floor, to the east side of the house. “This is the family wing of the house. The nanny traditionally has a room near the children’s rooms, but I promise, the children are generally well-behaved and noise shouldn’t be an issue.”
The room he was giving to her was actually not the room the nanny usually had, although it was close by. It was a room typically reserved for family, and it was definitely more luxurious. Gabriel just wanted Maria to be as comfortable as possible and to give her every incentive to stay, not that he thought luxury was particularly important to her. It also had the added benefit of being closer to the master suite, although Gabriel firmly reminded himself that he couldn’t touch Maria—at least, not yet.
Maria laughed. “Don’t worry, nothing short of a nuclear blast can usually get me awake once I’m asleep. The nuns used to sigh because I was always running late in the mornings—another sign that I wasn’t meant for convent life.”
At that Gabriel arched a brow, a wicked gleam in his eye, and Maria blushed hotly—she remembered that he had actually woken her up in the middle of the night by sliding into her sleeping body and fucking her into a shuddering orgasm—the fourth and final time they’d made love that night, before exhaustion had claimed them both.
They arrived at her room and Maria gasped when she saw the sheer size and elegance of the room. It was a room fit for royalty, with the centerpiece being the large half-canopy bed, draped in royal blue velvet curtains. This was a far cry from the basement bedroom she had at the Scotts, which had been a major improvement over her spartan room at the convent and her cramped studio apartment. There was even an attached, decadent looking bathroom, which Maria glimpsed through the connecting door.
Gabriel placed her bags on the elegant, blue brocade bench by the queen-sized bed and said with another of his crooked smiles, “I hope you like your room. If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to let Mrs. Smith know. I’ll let the children know that you’re here and that they’ll be meeting you before dinner in an hour. I should mention that we dress for dinner on Sundays—nothing too fancy, don’t worry, but it’s a tradition that their mother started and something that I’ve continued. I’ll see you in an hour, then?”
Maria nodded, glad she’d have some time to compose herself before meeting the children. “Yes, I’ll see you in an hour.” He turned to leave, pausing when Maria called out softly. “Gabriel?”
“Yes, Ria?”
“I just wanted to say…thank you.” And she smiled shyly at him.
Gabriel felt his heart turn over in his chest, filling with an aching tenderness. “No, Ria. It’s I who should be thanking you.” He left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
Maria sank down on the bed with a tremulous sigh, overwhelmed by everything that had happened. Already, she was dreading the end of the week, her self-imposed deadline she’d given for this trial.
She looked out her window at the swirling snow in the rapidly darkening afternoon. She’d always loved snow—as a child she’d been convinced that snow was magical, and even now, the world always seems so much crisper and cleaner when it snowed. She sometimes thought that with its ability to mask and present a blank canvas, snow should be the symbol of renewal and new beginnings, not spring. Even sound travelled different in snow, with fresh snowfall dampening sound waves, creating a sense of intimacy.
It almost seemed as if they were now enclosed in their own little world created by the falling snow, as if the forces of nature were conspiring to give them this precious time together. She nearly laughed out loud—she did tell him it would take an act of God for her to be his nanny. Well, it seemed as if God had now spoken!
She was sure some of the nuns would be outraged at her irreverence, she thought fondly, missing them fiercely. But she knew someone who definitely wouldn’t—digging out her phone, she called Sophie.
“It’s about time you called, Ria! I was getting worried that you hadn’t even gotten there yet, and it’s snowing like the dickens here.” Sophie’s tart, concerned voice was a welcome sound.
Maria had been bunking with Sophie in Boston for the last two weeks since she left the Scotts. Sophie had been after her to find a job in Boston, but when the agency had contacted her for the job as the Trentham nanny, even Sophie had grudgingly admitted that the money was too good to pass up.
“Don’t worry, I got here just in time, right before the snow really started to come down.”
“Well, how is it? I assume that they formally offered you the position right? How are the kids?”
“Yes, I was offered the position. I actually haven’t met the children yet, I’m supposed to meet them in an hour.” Maria hesitated, then said, “Sophie, do you remember the man from the lounge at the Liberty Hotel this summer?”
“Of course I remember him—I was so pissed that you went back there without me, and then to actually sleep with him! Well, pissed and proud and kinda jealous, he was damn hot, and I was thinking you’d be a virgin forever, you were being so picky—wait, holy crap, are you telling me that he’s there? Does he work for your new boss? He’s not the one who interviewed you, you would have told me if it was him!”
Maria gulped. “Yes, he’s here. No, he doesn’t work for Mr. Trentham.”
“Well, why is he there—Maria Lily Berger! Is Trentham—is it HIM?”
Maria braced herself. “Yes, it’s him.”
The scream that came through the phone at Maria’s revelation had her hastily holding it well away from her face. When the screaming died down and she could hear Sophie’s excited voice coming out of the tiny speaker again, she put the phone back to her ear.
“—ohmigod, I can’t believe it! What are the chances? Ohmigod, how awkward! I mean, it is awkward right? I was pissed you’d leave without talking to him in the morning—was he pissed too? Did he remember you from the summer? You have got to tell me everything!”
So Maria recounted everything, from recognizing him immediately to his anger about her running off, to their ugly “interview,” to her storming off and attempting to leave, to him—and the weather—convincing her to stay the week, although she wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to work for someone, even temporarily, with their personal history.
“But it’s only the week, right? And it’s not like I have much of a choice, with the blizzard right on top of us,” she said, glancing out the window ruefully, “and even though he kissed me, I think it was just in the heat of the moment. I mean, he’s now engaged to someone else, and he must love her, right?” She didn’t realize how wistful she sounded, but Sophie picked it up right away of course.
“Maria Berger, I told you you should have at least given him your number! When I think that he spent weeks, months, looking for you, but didn’t even have your full name…argh! He sounds like he was really into you, and heaven knows what little I could pry from you about that night made him sound like a sex god, I’m so jealous. I know how much that night—and him!—meant to you. God, if only…”
Maria sighed. If only had to be the worst, most useless phrase in the English language. If only she hadn’t run off…if only she had given him her full name…if only she hadn’t left for Connecticut the following week…if only he was still free….
“Believe me, that’s all I’ve been thinking about, too. I just have to believe that everything happens for a reason, and maybe it won’t be clear until much later, but it can’t all be just a huge random coincidence, right? I may no longer be a novice, but I still believe in God’s will, even if I can’t make heads or tails of it right now.”
Sophie never had Maria’s faith even though she was a Catholic too, but she was more of a lapsed Catholic now. But despite their different religious convictions, she’d been Maria’s best friend ever since they were roommates their first year at College of the Holy Cross, and although she’d been vehemently opposed to Maria’s decision to become a nun, claiming Maria was making a mistake, she’d been nothing but supportive when her fears had proven true and Maria had left the novitiate. She’d even only said I told you so once. But she’d always respected Maria’s faith.