out with age,” came the dry observation. He offered a crooked smile. “And you are very beautiful.”
Maggie was not mollified. She knew perfectly well that beauty was a learnt skill. Vivian had taught her that. He’d seen the raw potential in her and taken pride in developing it. However, beauty was not really the point at issue here. Beau Prescott was horribly mistaken in his judgment and he had to be corrected. She eyed him with searing determination as she spoke.
“Even if Vivian had felt...that way...about me, and he didn’t...”
“Maggie, you exude sex. No man would be proof against it, not even an octogenarian.”
“Oh!” Her face started heating up again. “You’re terribly wrong.” It was Beau himself who exuded sex, not her. No other man had ever made her feel so sexually aware of herself. It wasn’t fair of him to transfer what had happened between them to anyone else. She tried to explain. “Vivian liked me. He was proud of me...”
“I have no doubt he adored you. From your feet up.”
“He didn’t want me like that!” she cried in exasperation, barely holding back the burning fact that Vivian had wanted her to want him! And the terrible truth was she did. Except he wasn’t turning out as nice as she’d first thought him.
Blatant scepticism looked back at her.
“Your grandfather was a gentleman,” she declared emphatically. Which was more than she could say for him, the way he was going.
“My grandfather enjoyed flirting with young women,” he countered. “He insisted they kept him young. He boasted he’d live to a hundred. He brings you into his home and he dies at eighty-six. From a heart attack. Having met you, what am I supposed to think, Maggie?”
Her stomach revolted at the image he conjured up. Her eyes flashed fierce resentment at his offensive line of logic. “A man of any sense might have made some discreet inquiries before leaping to unwarranted conclusions,” she threw at him.
“Hardly unwarranted. It wouldn’t be the first time a beautiful young woman connected with an elderly millionaire. Power and wealth are well-known aphrodisiacs.”
“Right!” Maggie snapped, furious with his cynical view of a relationship which had been precious to her. “I suppose you envisage me just lying back, closing my eyes and thinking of Rosecliff!”
“And all that goes with it.”
Her heart lurched. Hearing Vivian’s own words, though they had applied to a possible marriage to his grandson, touched a very raw place. The whole idea of giving it a chance with Beau Prescott suddenly became intensely repugnant to her. Mutual attraction did not suffice. He would see her as a gold-digger even if he was panting after her.
The cleaning brigade came in, two of the daily maids whose job it was to keep every room in a pristine state. Maggie greeted them and introduced them to their new employer. Apart from those few words she waited in seething silence while the mess was attended to. Beau Prescott also held his tongue, which was just as well, because she felt like biting it off.
Of course, Vivian’s wealth had made life easy for her, and Rosecliff was the most beautiful place in the world to live in, but she wouldn’t have come here if she hadn’t liked Vivian Prescott, genuinely liked him, and she certainly wouldn’t have stayed if he’d tried to come on to her. No way! She would have been out of here like greased lightning!
The maids left, their efficiency truly admirable. Probably the thick atmosphere in the room had hastened their work. Maggie braced herself for the task of setting Beau Prescott straight. In no uncertain terms!
He spoke first. “I like to know what I’m dealing with, Maggie.”
“My title is Nanny Stowe.” And she hadn’t given him permission to call her Maggie.
“Nannies do tuck their charges into bed,” he dryly pointed out.
“Not...this one,” she retorted in high indignation.
He shrugged. “It seemed best to be direct. Your relationship with my grandfather...”
He stopped as Sedgewick stepped into the room, bearing another coffeepot.
Maggie was so incensed with Beau Prescott’s directness she swung around in her chair and impulsively appealed for backup. “Sedgewick, Mr. Prescott wants to know if I was sleeping with his grandfather. Would you be so kind as to...”
The butler halted in horror. The hand holding the coffeepot shook alarmingly. Maggie held her breath, silently cursing herself for shocking the poor man again.
“Steady, Sedgewick,” Beau Prescott gently advised.
The elderly butler stared at the treacherous hand until it performed as it was supposed to, holding firmly. Then he raised his eyes to the ceiling, as though appealing to the heavens beyond it. The expression on his face was easily read. What was the world coming to?
“I’m sorry for upsetting you, Sedgewick,” Maggie said remorsefully.
“Not at all,” he said with lofty dignity. He carried the pot to the sideboard, set it on the hotplate with due ceremony, then swung around to face the wild child with a look of pained reproof. “Sir, Mr. Vivian did not have an illicit liaison with Nanny Stowe,” he stated unequivocally.
“Thank you, Sedgewick,” Maggie leapt in before Beau Prescott could open his big mouth. “Did you ever see him kiss me other than on the cheek or on the forehead, or, in a moment of pure old-world gallantry, on the hand?”
“Never!” came the emphatic reply.
“Did you ever observe him fondle me in what could be called an intimate manner?”
“Certainly not!”
“Did he ever display any sign of being a randy old man around me?”
Sedgewick looked affronted, as well he might. “Mr. Vivian was a gentleman.” Which, to Sedgewick, was the definitive reply, delivered in ringing tones.
However, since a similar declaration by her had not cleared Beau Prescott’s prejudice, Maggie continued to have the situation spelled out, her eyes glittering a proud challenge at her accuser at the other end of the table.
“In your own words, Sedgewick, what was Mr. Vivian’s manner towards me?”
“I believe he thought of you as his adopted daughter whose company was always a delight to him.”
“And my manner towards Mr. Vivian?”
“You wish me to be frank, Nanny Stowe?”
“Ruthlessly frank, Sedgewick.”
“I believe you thought of Mr. Vivian as a benevolent godfather who made beautiful things happen. You saw it as your job to make them even more beautiful for him.”
The truth. The simple truth. And it had been beautiful. It was wicked and destructive of Beau Prescott to soil it with his revolting and insulting interpretations. A rush of tears blurred her eyes and clogged her throat. “Thank you, Sedgewick,” she managed huskily.
