any questions you have about settling in. I’ll take Pamela and Benny downstairs and keep them busy in the library until dinnertime. I’ll see you then.”
As he paused in the doorway and looked back at her, he was struck by the awkward way she was handling the crying baby. Instead of putting the infant over her shoulder and patting his bottom to soothe him, she held him so that he was lying on his back, kicking his feet and waving his arms.
He sighed inwardly. Some nanny. It’s a good thing Pamela and Benny are old enough to manage most things themselves.
As he herded Benny and Pamela downstairs, his thoughts centered on what he was going to tell Hugo when his boss called him that night.
Nobody played Hugo Vandenburg for a fool and got away with it. All that illegal betting money was supposed to come home to him. All along, he’d used Budge to cover his behind-the-scenes involvement in the scam, but the basketball star had double-crossed him. Not only had Budge gotten away with Hugo’s money, but he had the information that could put the wealthy team owner behind bars. The missing Budge was a loaded cannon that could go off at any minute. Hugo needed to get to him before the law did, and the whole story came out.
Thanks to a letter that Budge had written to Jill before he disappeared, Hugo was using Jill as bait to get Hugo. In the letter, Budge had declared his love for his wife and promised not to leave the country without her. Budge had given the letter to one of his player friends to deliver to Jill, but the friend had betrayed him and given the letter to Hugo instead.
Hugo had offered the deserted Jill Gordon a nanny’s job in order to have her under surveillance. He’d put Kyle in charge of keeping close tabs on her. Kyle’s orders were to carefully monitor any contact that Budge might make with his wife so that any plans the couple made to leave the country together could be foiled.
But relating to Jill Gordon was going to be a harder job than Kyle had thought. She was less than competent caring for her own baby and having her handling two more children was likely to result in a fiasco. Unfortunately, there was too much at stake to let her sink or swim on her own. Hugo had really hoodwinked her into thinking that he considered her another one of Budge’s victims and wanted to make it up to her out of the goodness of his heart.
Chapter Two
After she’d diapered Davie and heated the last bottle of formula, Ashley collapsed in a rocking chair with the baby in her arms. Fighting his little fists away from his mouth so she could stick in the bottle, she soothed him and breathed a sigh of relief when he finally recognized the rubber nipple. At first he almost choked on the flow of the warm liquid, but after a moment, he settled into a quiet nursing rhythm.
As she sat there in the quiet room, the silence broken only by Davie’s contented slurping, some of the stiffness went out of her body. She leaned her head back against the chair. I can do this. It’s only for a few days. Jill had always been able to take life at a gallop. She’d probably thrive on all the commotion and excitement of living in a grand southern mansion.
The baby was almost finished with his bottle when Ashley realized someone was standing in the doorway watching her.
“May I come in?” the woman asked briskly.
Ashley nodded. “Please, do.”
“Mr. Stone told me you had arrived, Mrs. Gordon. I’m Ina Borsch, the housekeeper.” Her unsmiling eyes flickered over Ashley and the baby.
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Borsch,” Ashley said politely to the large-boned woman, obviously stiffly corseted under a plain navy blue dress. She recognized her voice; this was the woman who had answered the telephone.
“I trust you have found everything to your satisfaction. Mr. Vandenburg left instructions that you were to be made comfortable. I have done my best to carry out his orders.”
“Thank you for your concern, Mrs. Borsch,” Ashley responded in the same formal tone. The woman’s manner indicated that she didn’t share the same concern about Ashley’s comfort. It was hard to judge the housekeeper’s age—fiftyish, Ashley guessed. Her broad face held an expression of disapproval that reminded Ashley of a general looking over new recruits and finding them wanting. One thing was clear. Ina Borsch expected everyone to acknowledge her position and authority as housekeeper and behave accordingly.
It wasn’t Ashley’s nature to knuckle under anyone, but the whole situation had put her off-balance. At the moment, she had little choice but to play the role that Jill had forced on her.
Mrs. Borsch glanced around the nursery. “I think you’ll find all the supplies you need. Even though it’s been some time since we had a baby in the house, I made sure that all the necessities are here.”
“Yes, I found the diapers and bottle warmer.” Ashley told her, hoping she sounded more motherly than she felt. “I’ll be needing to sterilize some bottles for Davie and make some more formula for his next feeding.”
“Lily will see to those needs,” the housekeeper said with a dismissing wave of her large hand.
“Lily?”
“One of the housemaids. Mr. Vandenburg has left instructions that Lily is to be assigned to the nursery while you are here.”
Once again, Ashley could tell from the woman’s tone that this decision wasn’t hers. Obviously the welcome mat wasn’t out for Jill Gordon as far as Ina Borsch was concerned. Was it a personal prejudice, or was there something deeper at the root of her simmering hostility? Ashley decided to play the innocent and see what she could find out about the household from this martinet housekeeper.
“Mr. Vandenburg is such a nice man,” Ashley said in her sister’s bubbly tone. “He’s always been so good to Budge and me. I just know I’m going to love being here. Benny and Pamela are such darlings. And that nice Mr. Stone, meeting me the way he did and all. Is he related to Hugo, too?” Her chatter sounded so false in her own ears that Ashley was secretly embarrassed by it.
“No, Kyle Stone is an employee like the rest of us. Mr. Vandenburg leaves him in charge when he’s away on business.” Then her heavy chin lifted. “The house and staff are my responsibility, and I handle them as I see fit.”
“It can’t be easy,” Ashley said, sinking so low as to try and soften her up by the use of flattery. “You must have an awfully big staff to run this house.”
“Only when Mr. Vandenburg is in residence, then the staff is doubled. When he’s away, there are two maids, a cook, my husband, Joseph, and Mr. Stone…and now you,” she added. Once again, her disapproval was obvious. “This is the first time the grandchildren have required a nanny. Usually they travel in the summer with their parents.”
Ashley remembered Pamela’s remark that it was their grandfather’s fault that they were spending the summer here. “Then the children are not used to a nanny?”
“Not at their grandfather’s house. You’re the first.” And her tone inferred that she hoped she would be the last.
“Have you been here a long time, Mrs. Borsch?” Ashley prodded. She wanted to relay all the information she could to Jill, so her twin wouldn’t have to start from square one learning about the staff.
Surprisingly enough, Ina Borsch seemed willing to talk about herself. “Up until five years ago we were
