Chapter Sixteen #2
She turned away from him again to put the copper kettle on the stove.
She didn’t hear anything else from him, so she assumed that he had departed.
She didn’t want him to think that she was looking to see if he was still there, so she glanced over her shoulder as quick as she could.
To her relief, he was no longer in the kitchen.
She exhaled something between a huff and a sigh. She had only a moment to recover before the children came stampeding into the house, all of them talking at once.
“Children!” she called, summoning them to the kitchen.
Though things were not as openly hostile between them and herself as they had been, they still weren’t exactly cordial, either. When the children lined up in the doorway between the hall that led to the sitting room and the kitchen, their faces were uncertain.
“I need your help,” Alexandra said, coming over to stand in front of them. “Aunt Lisa isn’t well, and she needs looking after.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Bella asked, glancing from Alexandra to Lisa.
“Nothing,” Lisa said.
Alexandra rolled her eyes, which made Bella giggle.
“Besides a case of chronic stubbornness, I’m not entirely sure.
She just needs someone to help her about the house, and to make sure that she doesn’t exert herself.
” She turned to Gary. “What do you think, Dr. Gary?” she asked.
“Do you think you can keep the patient still and comfortable on the sofa?”
Gary, his face even more serious than usual, nodded slowly. “You mean it? I get to be the doctor?”
Alexandra nodded, which made his eyes go wide and bright. “Danny, Bella, I’ll need you to help me finish with the rugs, and then in the garden.”
“Why should we?” Danny objected, folding his arms. His face was sullen, his mouth turned down at the corners.
“Because I’m asking you to,” Alexandra replied easily. “Because she’s my aunt.”
“So?” Danny said, tightening his arms over himself.
“So,” Alexandra said, bending over slightly so that she was more at eye-level with Danny, “do you remember how it felt the other day when Bella got hurt? How did it feel, in your heart?”
“I don’t know,” Danny mumbled, suddenly unable to look at Alexandra.
“You were real sorry,” Bella answered for him. “You let me ride on your back all day the next day.”
Danny shot a look at Bella as if she were a traitor of the lowest order. “Didn’t mean nothin’,” he insisted.
“Danny,” Alexandra said gently, “it’s natural to care about your family. Your family in particular is so very precious.”
“We are?” Bella asked.
“Yes,” Alexandra answered, still peering closely into Danny’s face. “You are more rare than diamonds. You are the only siblings that the lot of you will ever have,” she said slowly, softly. “There will never be any more of you. This is why you must take care of each other—you’re a team.”
She waited patiently for the span of a couple of breaths as Danny considered her words. She saw the moment understanding dawned. His blue eyes flicked to hers for an instant, and his face softened. He swallowed hard.
“My aunt is the same for me,” Alexandra continued.
“She is the only family I have left to me. It’s extremely important that she’s taken care of.
Now, I can’t do that today—I have to finish the chores and work in the garden because I have to take care of all of you, too.
It’s my job to keep you all fed, and I can’t do that without the food from the garden. ”
She straightened up, looking at each of the children in turn. “Understand this: I am entrusting you with that which is the most precious to me. Lisa is my greatest treasure. Today, we have to all be on the same team.”
The children regarded her with matching expressions of concern and solemnity. Alexandra wondered if she had gone too far, had perhaps been too forthright or overly emotional. It had been a gamble, but she suspected that they had more than a little experience with large emotions lately.
Gary, with the air of a proper gentleman, came over to Lisa, who sat at the table.
Very seriously, he offered his elbow to her, which amused Lisa to the point that she bit her lip to hide a smile.
She stood slowly (Alexandra noted that her knees wobbled for a moment before she straightened) and took Gary’s elbow with her right hand.
The effect was somewhat spoiled, however, by the simple fact that Lisa was so tall that she had to bend to hold on to his arm, but Gary didn’t seem to notice.
“Is you really Alexandra’s greatest treasure?” he asked as they made their way to the sitting room.
“No,” Alexandra heard Lisa say. “Don’t believe her for a moment. Her greatest treasure is actually a first edition of Wuthering Heights.”
Alexandra pursed her lips, trying not to laugh. She turned to the other two children. “All right,” she said, clapping her hands together. “I’m going to put the pair of you in charge of whipping the rugs.”
Danny’s face fell again. Before he had a chance to complain, Alexandra put her hands gently on his and Bella’s backs, and ushered them toward the door. “Now, I must confess I’m rather jealous of you, because whipping rugs is my favorite chore.”
Danny rolled his eyes.
“I’m completely serious,” Alexandra said. “You get to hit the rug as hard as you want. In fact, I rather hope you do.”
“As hard as I want?” Danny repeated, his eyes sliding in the direction of the back door.
“As hard as you want,” Alexandra confirmed. “It’s even better if you make a game of it. I like to pretend I’m doing battle with a great beast, and I’m thrashing it into submission.”
Bella gave a cheeky glance up at Alexandra. “Or maybe pretending it’s Uncle Aidan when he gives us that cross look of his,” she whispered with a giggle.
Alexandra put her hands on her hips. “Now, don’t you say such a thing about your uncle,” she pretended to scold, trying to hide a smile and failing. “No matter how true it is,” she added. “All right now, off with the pair of you,” she said, shooing them out the door.
She stood at the doorway, watching the children go for a moment.
They weren’t easy to deal with, but finding a way into their hearts was far more rewarding than she’d ever dreamed.
She had to work for their trust and affection, which made these fleeting moments of understanding all the more precious.
Though I doubt I’ll ever understand why Aidan took them on, she thought, frowning. He doesn’t seem the least interested in them. What sort of man takes on a whole posse of children, his brother’s even, and foists them off on a strange woman the first chance he gets?
She sighed and shook her head. When she turned around, she was startled to see that Aidan was standing in the doorway to the sitting room. There was no telling how long he’d been standing there, or how much he’d overheard.
Alexandra started to apologize instinctively, then curbed the impulse.
Instead, she stared at him defiantly, plainly daring him to say something.
He remained silent, just staring at her from the shadow of the doorway.
Though he didn’t look cross with her—a noteworthy occasion all on its own—there was still something unsettling about his expression.
It was too soft, too warm, too… everything.
Her heart beat a little faster, and she clenched her hands into fists without knowing why.
Silently, he withdrew, fading back into the front of the house.
Alexandra could hear the front door open and close again, creating a draft through the house as if to blow away the last traces of his lingering presence.
It was a small victory, but Alexandra savored it nonetheless. It was easier to ruminate on that than Aidan’s dark eyes locked onto her.