style="font-size:15px;"> She hoped they couldn’t see her nervousness as they unloaded the trunk and set the luggage on the front step. The pile included only two small suitcases, her laptop computer and a brown sack containing a book and old baseball that Eric wouldn’t let out of his sight.
The boys had few clothes, and they were wearing the one new outfit of jeans and summer shirts that Melissa had bought them. She’d return to her place to pick up things for herself if their stay lasted more than a week.
When she’d talked to David last night and arranged to arrive about ten o’clock in the morning, he told her that Inga and Hans Erickson would help them settle in. He also assured her that an excellent investigator in Denver had agreed to conduct a search. The man expected to have something to report within ten days.
Ten days.
As they stood at the elegant front door and waited for someone to answer the bell, Melissa had the feeling that ten days could be a lifetime.
“Maybe nobody’s home,” Eric said with his usual worried expression. Before Melissa could stop Richie, he reached up and pushed the button a half-dozen times.
“Don’t, Richie.” She pulled his hand away, just as the door swung open. David stood there, a slight frown on his handsome face.
“The doorbell works,” he said wryly.
“I’m sorry, Richie got carried away,” she apologized. Great, she thought. Off to a great start. David was obviously on his way out, in a beige business suit that did great things for his dark blond hair and tanned complexion.
“Usually Inga answers the door, but she’s busy in the kitchen and I was just leaving,” he explained. “Come on in. Hans will bring your luggage.” He opened the door wide and stepped back.
Melissa motioned the boys to go in ahead of her. Richie bounced through the door with his usual childish eagerness, and Eric followed more slowly, hugging a brown paper sack as if it were his only anchor in a threatening world.
“Say hello to Mr. Ardell, boys,” Melissa prompted, but when neither responded, she said quickly, “This is Eric.”
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,
