Family Secrets Page 7

  Her desk was clear, but only because the bellman had been bringing her mail and messages upstairs. But in two days, a lot of minor problems had arisen around the inn, and Amanda sat down at the registration desk to run through the list with Tricia.

  Thank heaven for a good staff, Amanda thought. If they had called her about every one of these minor episodes, she’d have worn out the stairs as well as her patience. Not that she could have done any more than her employees had in most cases. Even if they had let her know every time Jessamyn Arden complained about the temperature in her suite, what could Amanda have done but send the bellman up again to check and adjust the controls? Somehow she doubted any air conditioning technician could fix the problem to Jessamyn’s satisfaction.

  And as for the tabloid reporter reappearing, with a roll of cash in hand...

  “I thought, under the circumstances,” Tricia said, “that it might be just as well to leave you out of that one, Amanda. If he’d gotten a hint of why you weren’t around...”

  Amanda shrugged. “If they have nothing better than Nicky’s chicken pox to put on the front page of next week’s edition, the whole publication is in trouble. Still, I’m glad you took care of it without me.”

  “It wasn’t difficult, though it must be the first time the law against loitering has been put to use in Springhill.”

  “I always wondered why the City Council bothered with that one. Oh, when you have a chance, will you check the bathroom in 412 and make sure the leak in the hot water pipe is fixed? The plumber’s bill was in this morning’s mail.”

  “I already have. It’s fine.” Tricia stood up as footsteps approached the desk. “Good morning, Miss Arden. May I help you?”

  “I’m just picking up my messages.” Jessamyn Arden’s voice seemed to float across the lobby. Her slightly-affected accent made it sound as if she intended to burst into song at any moment.

  The clerk retrieved a stack of pink slips from the row of small mailboxes behind the desk.

  Jessamyn paged through them, then crumpled the stack into a loose ball and dropped it over the counter. Messages fluttered like autumn leaves over the floor.

  “You can throw them away,” Jessamyn ordered. She moved to one side in order to use one of the mirrors set into the woodwork behind the desk to readjust her wide-brimmed hat, and caught sight of Amanda. “Oh, does this mean Nicky’s better?” she cooed. “Perhaps I’ll come and visit him after work.”

  “I think he’d like a visitor,” Amanda said, and hoped it was the truth. Despite what Jessamyn had said about Nicky, perhaps he hadn’t taken an active dislike to her on the trip from Los Angeles. How well did he know her, anyway? “A guest would break the monotony and make it easier for him to stay in for another couple of days.”

  Jessamyn paused. “A couple of days? You don’t mean he’s still contagious, do you?”

  “Probably, until the last of his spots dry up a bit more. But surely you’ve had chicken pox?”

  Jessamyn shivered. “I haven’t the vaguest idea, but I simply couldn’t take the chance. With the whole production depending on me...”

  Amanda didn’t think it would be prudent to point out that Jessamyn had no doubt been exposed on the trip from Los Angeles. “In that case,” she said calmly, “I’ll give Nicky your best wishes.”

  “Please do. The precious little darling, I feel so badly for him.” Jessamyn went out. The heels of her delicate shoes were so tall that she had to take tiny, mincing steps which made her whole body sway enticingly.

  “The precious little darling,” Tricia repeated under her breath. She stooped to pick up the messages Jessamyn had scattered. “I’ll bet she’s already forgotten him! How is the poor kid, anyway?”

  “Having a rough time today. His patience is entirely worn out with this itching and he’s afraid he’ll never get better.” Amanda nodded at the wad of pink paper the clerk held. “Did all those messages come in this morning since she went to work?”

  “Oh, no, she’s just headed for the set now. She’s given orders that her telephone isn’t to ring from midnight to nine in the morning – no matter what. So we’ve disabled it.”

  “At that rate we’ll need an extra clerk on the night shift just to handle telephones.”

  “Not a bad idea.”

  “And what do you plan to do if the director wants to call her with a change in shooting schedule?”

  Tricia smiled. “I intend to thank heaven that I work days – so it isn’t my problem.”

  Stephanie Kendall breezed in, cool and professional in a white linen suit, and picked up the house telephone before she saw Amanda. She put it down and leaned across the desk. “I thought you were still in quarantine with the terror.”

  “He’s not a terror.”

  Tricia answered the telephone and turned to Amanda. “It’s the maid. He’s awake, and –”

  Amanda could hear Nicky wailing in the background, even though she was four feet from the telephone. “Tell her I’ll be right there.”

  “That,” Stephanie said, “does not sound like Prince Charming.”

  “Oh, come on, Steph. How delightful would Zack be, under the same circumstances? Away from everything he knows, miserably sick, and locked up with a stranger –”

  Stephanie drew herself up straight. “My perfect Zack would never –” Then she gave up the pose and burst into delighted laughter as she imagined what the unstoppable Zack might actually do under those conditions. “Oh, all right. You’ve made your point, Mandy.” She followed Amanda up the service stairs.

  Amanda was relentless. “Maybe I should bundle Nicky up and take him out to the lake house to play with Zack, and in a couple of weeks we’ll see how he handles chicken pox!”

  “Not this summer. Please – I don’t have time for it this summer.”

  “Well, I didn’t either, and see what happened.”

  “At least you’re getting a chance to know Chase better,” Stephanie murmured. “What was it you said about the hotel being so big you’d hardly see him at all? Of course, the circumstances aren’t exactly romantic, but...”

  Try as she would, Amanda couldn’t quite keep warm color from creeping into her cheeks. But it wasn’t entirely last night’s kiss she was thinking of, she realized; it was also the way Chase had looked the night before that, sound asleep and sprawled on the couch in her den with the pattern of his sweater sleeve mashed into his face. No, it wasn’t especially romantic, she thought. Stephanie was right about that. But it had been warm, and real, and incredibly exciting, to be close to him...

  Stephanie was looking at her oddly, her head tipped to one side.

  “Are you coming in?” Amanda asked.

  Stephanie shrugged. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  The moment Amanda appeared, Nicky flung himself against her and clung like an octopus. But as she patted his back and murmured to him, his howls died to the occasional sob, and within a minute he was sneaking peaks over her shoulder at Stephanie.

  I was right, Amanda thought. A visitor to break the routine would do wonders for Nicky. Any new face would do... Except, apparently, the chambermaid. Amanda wondered why he had reacted so strongly. She had told him, before he went to sleep, that she might go downstairs for a while, so it couldn’t be that he was afraid when he woke to find a stranger nearby.

  “That is the biggest case of chicken pox I’ve ever seen,” Stephanie said.

  Nicky sniffed one last time and sat up. “The very biggest?” he said doubtfully.

  “Yes, and I’ve seen some championship cases. I think Mandy should have a picture to remember it by, as a matter of fact.” She winked at Amanda. “Shall we draw one for her, or let her get the camera?”

  “Draw,” Nicky decided.

  Amanda got paper and a bucket of crayons, and Nicky settled down on the rug. Stephanie sat beside him, heedless of her white suit. “If there’s something you need to do, Mandy, Nicky and I will keep each other company for half an hour.”

&nb
sp; Nicky stopped drawing and looked wary, but he didn’t make a fuss.

  Amanda shook her head in confusion. “Let me get this straight. Your kids are in day care, and you’re here taking care of Nicky so I can go to work?”

  Stephanie shrugged. “I’m between appointments. Besides, you’ve helped me out more times than I can count. It’s rather pleasant to have a chance to pay you back.”

  Amanda went to make her regular inspection tour. The half-hour was nearly up when she came back to the apartment, to be greeted by the murmur of voices and Nicky’s infectious laugh.

  Stephanie got up and dusted herself off. “I’d love to stick around and play and be late to my appointment,” she said and shook a teasing finger at Nicky. “You are just too funny, my fine friend.”

  Amanda followed her into the hall. “My fine friend?” she repeated. “Whatever happened to the little terror?”

  “All things considered, he’s actually pretty sweet. A bit spoiled, of course. Watch out, Amanda.”

  Stephanie so seldom used her full name that Amanda was surprised. “What do you mean?”

  “Be careful not to get too attached to him.”

  Amanda studied the pattern in the carpet. “I know,” she said quietly.

  “And even more important, don’t let him get too attached to you.”

  “Oh, that’s all right. Nicky knows that I’m not his new nanny, and this is only for a few days, till he’s feeling better.”

  Stephanie murmured something which might have been disapproval, or frustration. “Well, when he’s over the worst, bring him out to the lake to play with Zack.”

  “It’ll be a few days before he’s up to anything like that.”

  “Good. The way he looks now, Zack would probably think Nicky was a connect-the-dots drawing!”

  Stephanie was laughing, but her earlier concern hadn’t left Amanda entirely unmoved. Surely Stephanie had been wrong about Nicky’s attachment to Amanda, though. He had befriended Stephanie easily enough.

  But just in case, Amanda told him once more, as she helped him into his pajamas that evening, that when he was better and could go out again, he’d have a new nanny as well.

  Nicky looked at her for a timeless moment, his hazel eyes big and bright, and Amanda braced herself for questions she didn’t want to answer. But he said nothing, just popped his head through the neck of another of her tee-shirts, picked up his stuffed rabbit, and climbed onto her lap as she sat in the rocking chair in the den. It was the first time she’d ever seen him suck his thumb, and it made her feel sad somehow.

  Five minutes later he’d had enough cuddling, and he slid out of her arms and went out to say goodnight to Floyd.

  The bird sidled back and forth on his perch, his head bent inquisitively to one side, as Nicky coached him to repeat his name. But Floyd only listened, and finally Nicky climbed down and heaved a big sigh. “He’ll never say it, I bet.”

  “It was only yesterday that you started. It takes patience, Nicky.” She picked up the cage cover. “Say your prayers, Floyd.”

  “Bless me,” the parakeet croaked. Then he whistled his abbreviated version of the national anthem, like a television station going off the air, and tucked his head under his wing.

  Nicky stuck his lower lip out. “But he says things for you!”

  “It’s not really for me, I’m afraid. He talks so much because the lady who used to own him worked with him every single day for years. Now how about your prayers, Nicholas? I think your daddy’s working very late tonight.”

  He climbed into bed obediently enough, but he sat up with his arms wrapped around his knees and said, “I’ll wait for him.” There was a note of determination in his voice which couldn’t be ignored.

  “Go to sleep, and I promise to wake you up when he comes.”

  Nicky thought about that. “Cross your heart?”

  She did, and hoped that Chase wouldn’t think it was too late to disturb her. No matter what hour it was, surely he’d want a look at his son, at least. “Now it’s time for prayers.”

  Nicky grinned and in a fair imitation of the parakeet’s voice croaked, “Bless me.”

  “Well, you’re certainly a faster learner than Floyd is. How about Bless Daddy...’”

  He nodded. “And bless Mandy.”

  “That’s very thoughtful, dear.” She guided him through a simple prayer. “Now how about saying thank you for some of the good things today?”

  “Not the itches.”

  “No, of course not. But you had a visitor –”

  “And I got to watch Peter Pan, and eat watermelon...” His list was a lengthy and enthusiastic one, and even though Amanda suspected it was inflated for the purpose of keeping her at his side, she didn’t mind.

  When he finally ran down, she offered a bedtime story. Nicky negotiated her up to two, then chose three picture books from the shelf and sat looking from them to Amanda with such woebegone eyes that she had to laugh.

  He’s a natural little actor, she thought. Just like his father...

  She read all three stories, kissed his heavy eyelids, and tiptoed out.

  Don’t let yourself get too attached to him, Stephanie had said this morning, and Amanda knew what sensible advice it was. In a few days, Nicky would be well. In a few weeks, he would be gone--and she would never see him again. The only prudent thing to do was to keep her heart under lock and key.

  The trouble was, the warning had come a couple of days too late.

  *****

  The knock on her door was scarcely worth the name; it was more like a timid scratch. When she opened it, Chase looked her over as intently if she’d been a fashion model on the runway – though she couldn’t have looked less like one, Amanda thought, with her bare feet, jeans, casual top, and hair loose around her shoulders.

  “I was afraid you’d have given up on me by now.” He smiled and touched a fingertip to the corner of her mouth.

  Every nerve in Amanda’s body shuddered with pleasure. “I almost did. Are you shooting lots of scenes, or having trouble getting through them?”

  “A little of both. We’re using up a lot of film, that’s sure.”

  She led the way into the kitchen and pulled a bottle of wine out of the refrigerator.

  Chase shook his head. “What would really taste good,” he confided, “is a cup of coffee.”

  “At this hour?” But she reached for the pot anyway. “If you insist... and speaking of insisting, you’re to wake Nicky to say goodnight.”

  “Your orders?”

  “Of course not. I wouldn’t dream of telling you what to do.”

  “Oh, really? Then why did Nicky’s suitcase full of toys find its way back to my suite?”

  “Because he didn’t need them.”

  “I see,” Chase said thoughtfully. By the time he came out of the den a few minutes later, Amanda was pouring the coffee. He sniffed the aroma of the dark brew and gave a sigh of satisfaction. “Nicky didn’t want to wake up. In fact, I’m not sure he’ll remember anything at all in the morning.”

  “I’ll tell him you tried. Want to sit on the balcony?”

  “You have one?”

  “Well, it’s more of a fire escape, actually.” She pulled the curtains back from the full length glass in the corner of the sitting room and opened the door to a tiny terrace, just big enough for two chairs and a couple of big clay pots. One held a gigantic tomato plant, heavy green fruit weighing down the branches. The other was filled with an assortment of flowers.

  “It’s beautiful tonight.” Chase stretched and yawned. “Cool and peaceful and a bit of a breeze...Not at all like it was while we were shooting the garden scenes today.”

  “At Stephanie’s house? I’d love to see what it looks like. She was telling me about all the work they’ve done.”

  “Come over anytime. Everyone else in Springhill has, I think.”

  “I told you you’re the most interesting thing in town.”

  He reached out to tug gently
at a lock of her hair. “Am I, Amanda?”

  That was careless, she told herself. What she’d said was more true than she wanted to admit, and she’d let it slip out without thinking. “Of course, that’s not saying much – it’s generally a pretty dull town. Isn’t the crowd interfering with your work?”