Chapter 6
Mia
THE NIGHTMARES WEREN’T THE worst part of sleeping at Jameson Knight’s estate that evening. For me, it was the unknown.
While sleeping, I couldn’t control what thoughts raced through my mind, but when I was awake, I wondered about the man who’d dragged me here. Was he keeping me here to protect himself or me? Was he actually a good dad and man? He couldn’t be when he’d killed others.
And that’s where my nightmares took me. To the killing. To the blood. To the school.
I woke to my own screams and a swift knock at my door.
I glanced at the clock and grumbled about it being only seven in the morning.
If it was Archer, he was a whole hour early.
So, I wasn’t feeling great about answering the door in pajamas, which I’d found in the dresser—in my size.
They were black silk and not at all what I would normally wear, and so I’d dug in my duffel for my tried-and-true cactus pajamas.
Padding over to the door, I cracked it open.
And there stood Archer with Franny, her grandmother, and another man.
I remembered her haughty stare and how she’d looked completely put together even in the midst of an attack on the school.
Now, she looked down her nose at me, her wool suit pressed perfectly and her makeup not a touch out of place.
“Ms. Darling? Are you okay?” Franny wrung her hands while she stared at me with worried eyes.
Grandmother Knight added, “You were screaming.” Her tone wasn’t at all concerned like her granddaughter’s, but rather annoyed.
“Oh, of course.” I patted Franny’s shoulder as I assessed the man next to them.
He was tall like Jameson but had almost completely black hair, so dark it was almost a hue of blue.
His eyes were all shadows, an onyx color as he stood there with his arms crossed like he was perturbed with my presence already. “I was having a bad dream is all.”
“I get those too.” Franny nodded as if this were all completely normal. “I can check your room though.” She lifted pink little binoculars from her neck and ran in to look out the window. “Sometimes I can see if there’s a threat from afar.”
“No threats, Franny,” the formidable man responded immediately. “I’m here to make sure of it.”
She dropped the binoculars and smiled over her shoulder, her curls swaying wildly.
“Hades, I had to double check the perimeter just in case. It’s all clear.
” She smoothed her maroon dress with a black bow down before she got to the next matter she felt needed to be discussed.
“Now, Ms. Darling, have you met Hades and Grandma? Archer gets to play with us all day, too, he said.”
I smiled at Archer, and he winked at me. “Seems I’ve been called to duty.”
“Thank goodness. Mr. Bos and Ms. Prim were missing you already.” I pointed behind me at the foliage on my dresser.
The sigh that fell from his lips was like an old melody to my ears. “Those flowers don’t care one iota about anything.”
“Then why is their color off today, Archer?”
He took a second to narrow his eyes at them. He’d see the environmental change affected them. It was so completely obvious. “They look the same, Ms. Darling.”
Botany wasn’t Archer’s strong suit. “I’ll show you what’s different later.” I waved away his frown, and then I folded my hands together as I turned to the others, not sure how to approach any of them.
I tried not to shrink under their assessment, but I was still in my pajamas and my hair probably looked like a bird had made a nest of it.
“I’m only Grandma to Franny. To everyone else, I’m Mrs. Knight.” The older woman smoothed the tight dark bun on her head and pointed to Hades. “Hades is head of security and is trained in combat. He will protect Franny at all costs.”
“He would have been very good at protecting us at the school with Archer, Ms. Darling. Hades is even better than my daddy at hide-and-seek.”
Franny’s tone was grave, and I saw how her grandmother’s facade broke for just a moment. The one line between her brows deepened as she patted Franny on the shoulder. “You’re always protected, Fran.”
“I know, Grandma.” The little girl sighed.
“But Ms. Darling was scared. So, we have to make sure she understands how good Hades is at his job.” Although the man’s gray eyes didn’t seem to change at all, I saw how one corner of his mouth lifted.
“And where is Malek? He should be watching over Ms. Darling’s door if she’s having nightmares. Malek!”
In just a few short moments, a Doberman more than half my size came bounding into my room. Mrs. Knight scoffed, but Hades stepped aside like he knew the dog was on a mission. It halted right in front of Franny and sat, tongue hanging out.
“Good boy,” Franny praised. “Now, make sure you watch over Ms. Darling too. Do you see her there?” She pointed to me and then motioned as if aggravated with my hesitation to come over.
“He doesn’t bite, Ms. Darling. At least not the people I don’t want him to.
Put your hand out and let him get to know you. ”
Franny was always confident in her commands and impressed me with how she acted well above her age. Even still, I wasn’t too sure about the dog. He stood only a couple inches shorter than her and sat at her side as if he were guarding his favorite treasure.
A wrong move with a powerful animal like that could be disastrous.
“Ms. Darling, heart-in-pinkie promise.” Her eyes held mine, and that’s when I stepped forward without a second thought.
“Franny, honestly, the dog in bedrooms is uncouth.”
“Grandma,” she said, mimicking her tone, “don’t get crabby over a house pet who only wants to protect us.”
Both the girl and the woman stared one another down, but the younger generation had the advantage. She must have learned from the best and then studied to become better than the best. Her grandmother tsked and then waved them on. “Are you seeing me out before I leave?”
I pet the dog, not sure the question was directed at me. Instead, I was finding comfort in how he leaned into my touch and didn’t bite me, because I wasn’t sure if Hades or the grandmother would.
“Are you ready for a tour, Ms. Darling? Daddy said you need one.”
“Yes, well, it’s quite early.” I glanced at Hades and Archer. “Are you both normally up this early?”
Hades shrugged. “I’m up at five every day. Franny wakes at around six thirty for breakfast with her father and Mrs. Knight.”
So, she was here every morning completely done up? And I stood there in cartoon pajamas. Great.
“Okay.” I dragged out the word because I wasn’t sure what to do next. “Well, we should start lessons earlier then. I can be ready at seven tomorrow.”
“You can come to breakfast too,” Franny offered.
Her grandmother was quick to jump in, though. “Franny, Ms. Darling obviously needs extra rest. She can eat with Rosy later.”
The tension in my shoulders unwound with the out she gave me. “Right. I’ll just eat with Rosy.” Away from this woman and her cold son. I didn’t belong at that table, not at all.
“Should we get on with the tour now?” I glanced at the imposing man standing in a black suit, and then at Archer. There was no way he’d gotten dressed like that for a tour. “You must have other things to do today.”
Mrs. Knight gave me a thin smile and nodded.
“Well, I do, and I don’t need a tour of my son’s home.
It was quite nice to meet you, even if you were much too loud for waking hours this morning.
I intend to have Franny for tea with our friend, Valerie, on Wednesdays and Fridays at four p.m. Please make note of that in your schedule. ”
She gave Franny a hug and told her she’d be there for breakfast again in the morning. Then she turned to Hades and murmured, “Leash that dog outside, would you?”
“No, ma’am,” he said back, and she walked off with a tsk like she dealt with Hades’s insubordination all the time.
She disappeared down the hall without so much as a goodbye to me. “You must be trained in combat because I would never tell that woman no,” I muttered, breathing out a sigh of relief now that she had disappeared.
The corner of his lips raised at my comment, but that was all.
Like a British soldier standing guard, he wasn’t giving much away.
“If you’re ready, we can make the kitchen the first stop on the tour so you can grab something to eat.
” He spun on a heel and started down the hall so quickly that I stumbled to keep up with him.
“You two know each other?” I fell into step with Archer, and he nodded.
“Well enough. Jameson brought a lot more of us on when everything changed.”
I hummed, trying to remember that it wasn’t my place to ask questions, that I was a teacher and a nanny, not anything more. Even still, the question bubbled up. “What changed?”
“We moved here after Grandpa died,” Franny announced, and then she sprinted all the way down the hall, her pink binoculars bouncing over her shoulder the whole way.
Her words took a second to digest as I pieced together the timeline of her losing her mom and then her grandpa, Jameson losing his wife and then his father.
Moving on might have been survival for him after two pillars of his life disappeared suddenly. His statement made more sense now, made my heart ache for him.
“My room is over here,” Franny yelled in excitement, but the hallway seemed to go on forever with doors on each side before opening to large wood banisters that overlooked a beautiful living area.
There were expansive windows on one side with a view of a lush forest area, and on the other side of the walkway, there was a foyer of sorts with a large crystal chandelier.
Hades didn’t say a word about the closed doors or the living spaces down below, nor did Archer. Instead, Archer hinted at the fact that I should avoid them. “Jameson doesn’t talk about his father. We don’t either. Franny’s the exception.” I met his gaze and saw the warning there.