The Prince's Nanny (23 page)

Her step-mother sent this surprising note.

Sabrina, I broke my leg while hot-air ballooning in the Napa Valley last weekend and the doctor says I can’t move without help for weeks, maybe months.  The only person who can run the office is you.  Naturally you will get a substantial raise as well as a commission on each nanny you place.  Your sisters have gone to Mexico to study Spanish, don’t ask me why.  I expect you can find a replacement for the prince, but there is no one else to run the office.  The business will be yours one day soon so it is a good thing that you take over for me now.

Sincerely yours,  Bettina.

Sabrina almost laughed out loud with shock and amazement.  She also felt a wave of relief.  It was almost as if she’d gotten a reprieve from heaven and a reason to leave other than falling in love with her employer, although her stepmother was far from angelic.  Bettina obviously hated giving up the job and hated giving it to Sabrina, but had no choice since her useless daughters had taken off leaving their mother to manage life on crutches and the business.

Back with Vittorio on the terrace, Sabrina couldn’t bring herself to tell him she was leaving.  He’d be persuasive.  He’d offer her everything but the one and only thing she wanted – him.  She dreaded telling him and even more dreaded telling the girls.  For once in her life she was thinking of herself first.  She had to protect her heart from being broken again.  That much was clear.  One more time and she’d never heal again.  She was leaving and not a moment too soon.  She had Bettina to thank for giving her an out.

The fireworks were even more spectacular than last night.  Maybe it was because Sabrina knew she’d never see them again, not here, not from this terrace.  They held hands, they drank coffee from small cups that she made from the Espresso machine in the kitchen and they watched the sky light up with huge flowers bursting into bloom, rockets and showers of stars overhead, and listened to the booming sounds that drowned out her worries, at least for a little while.

“I hope the girls are seeing this display,” she said.

“I’m sure they are.  The family will be down at the lake where the children run around playing games.  I know, I was once one of those children.  Angelo the cook always took us.  Our parents stayed right here on this terrace enjoying adult pleasures like coffee.”

“Your parents, are they still alive?”

“Alive and living in Sicily where the climate suits them better.”

What she meant was are they still in love?  Were they ever in love?  Did he know anyone who is happily married?  If so, why did he doubt he could be too?

Later she went to bed with him.  She knew she should resist.  She knew she should tell him.  Tell him now.  But how could she deny herself one last night with Vittorio.  She couldn’t.  She wasn’t that strong.  She was weak.  She wanted him.

She’d never seen his room before he carried her up the stairs.  He didn’t ask, he just swept her up and took the stairs two at a time.  When he finally put her down on the huge bed, she saw his room was done in earth tones, from the polished wood of the bedframe to the handwoven carpets in Berber design.  The sheets were soft and cool on her over-heated body.  After he’d undressed her in haste, her shorts, her shirt, her sweater and finally her mere wisps of fragile underwear as if he couldn’t wait another moment, she was so hot she felt feverish.

The only light was the fireworks, still booming and lighting the night sky with their brilliant colors.  The wind blew the curtains aside and she remembered the flickering candlelight of last night.  This was the last time.  She made love to him as if there was no tomorrow and for them there wasn’t.  He didn’t know it.  She felt guilty about that.  Not guilty enough to deny herself one last night of bliss.

They slept together, his leg wrapped around hers, his arms around her shoulders.

“In fact we don’t need a large bed,” he muttered.  “Maybe we should just take over the tower.”

She smiled, but it was a sad smile because she knew what he didn’t know.  They would not sleep together anywhere again.  Tomorrow she would tell him.

The next day the girls came home, sunburned, excited, full of energy and surprised to find them out of their prison.

“What happened?” Caterina asked, hopping up and down, on one foot and then the other.

“How did you get out?” Gianna asked.

“We escaped,” Sabrina said. “Thanks to a delivery man.”  She couldn’t help smiling at them, at their expressions of dismay and shock.  Of course they shouldn’t get away with what they’d done, but she was in no mood to punish them.

“You deserve to be punished,” Vittorio said. But even he wasn’t able to be as stern as he wished.  He’d never felt this way, that his life had turned around.  He had Sabrina and the girls should be happy about that.

“Are you getting married?  Will you be our mama?” Caterina asked, biting her lip, her eyes wide.

Vittorio met Sabrina’s gaze.  What would she say?  She would have an answer, she must.

“I can’t stay,” she said.

Vittorio stood and looked at her.  She didn’t mean that.  She couldn’t.  Not after what they had.  Not after this weekend.

“What do you mean?” he asked in a voice he scarcely recognized as his own. He was in a state of shock. He sent her a silent message.  Tell me you don’t mean it, he telegraphed to her.  Don’t let us down.  We need you.  We want you to stay.

“I must return to California.  My step-mother needs me to run the nanny agency.  I was never supposed to be your permanent nanny, just until we could find the right one.”

“But we want you.  We don’t want the right one,” Caterina protested, stamping her foot on the floor.

“You are the right one,” Gianna said.  “For us.”

Vittorio thought he couldn’t have said it better.  She was the right one for all of them.

“You will be fine without me,” she said.  “Now I must go pack.  Maybe you girls can help me.”

Vittorio watched while the three of them walked up the grand staircase.  He’d never felt so deserted in his life, not since Elena left.  It had happened again, the woman he thought he loved was walking out on him.  This time she wasn’t leaving him for another man, she was leaving him for a job.  That was worse!

How could she do this to him and to the girls.  He couldn’t believe it was happening.  It must be a misunderstanding.  Whatever she wanted he’d give it to her.  He paced back and forth in the foyer until the girls came downstairs and went outside, talking to each other urgently and virtually ignoring him.  If they could come up with something that would make their nanny stay, more power to them.  He couldn’t take it another minute.  He rushed up the stairs and burst into her room without knocking.  She was standing next to her bed with a pair of shoes in her hand.  She was wearing the same outfit she’d arrived in.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

“Packing,” she said calmly.  Her eyes were dry.  Her voice was calm.  If she was upset by her decision to leave, she didn’t show it.

“I know you’re packing, I want to know why.”

“Because…”

“Don’t say it’s because your step-mother needs you.  We need you more.”

“Vittorio,” she said, setting the shoes into her suitcase, “we had a deal.  You asked me to prepare the girls for the Academy.  I failed.  I’m honoring my side of the bargain by turning in my resignation.”

“I don’t accept it,” he said, bracing his arm against the door frame.

“You have to.  You can’t lock me up in a tower and force me to stay.”

“I thought we made the best of our stay in the tower.  You didn’t complain at the time.”

He was glad to see a flush creep up her cheeks.  She couldn’t deny she was a partner in their lovemaking.  And what a partner.  She took matters in her own hands.  She was everything he’d ever wanted in a woman, soft, sweet, tempting, and eager.  He’d never forget the look in her eyes as she leaned over him, tasting, touching…

“I thought it meant as much to you as it did to me.”

“Of course it did.  But it’s over.  I didn’t do what you hired me to do.”

“You did more.  You were everything I expected and more.  You can’t just walk out on me, on us.”

She turned her back on him and went to the window.  “I’ll miss you,” she said softly.  “I’ll miss the girls and I’ll miss the lake, the beautiful lake, all one hundred forty-six square kilometers.”

“Then why…?”

“I told you.”

“I don’t believe you.  There’s something else you’re not telling me.  There’s someone else, isn’t there?”

She shook her head but she didn’t meet his gaze.  She couldn’t.

“Very well,” he said stiffly.  “When are you leaving?”

“As soon as I pack and say good-bye to the twins.”

“I’ll drive you to the ferry.”

In the garden Sabrina found the girls picking flowers.  “They’re for you,” Caterina said handing her the bouquet of roses, lilies and sprigs of fragrant lavender.

“You can put the lavender in your underwear and it will smell nice,” Gianna said as she hugged Sabrina.

Sabrina felt tears spring to her eyes.  She mustn’t cry.  She must keep a stiff upper lip so the girls wouldn’t realize how she felt.  She wondered if she could stay on as their nanny and not as Vittorio’s lover.  She’d have to watch while he found other girlfriends.  She’d have to stand by and pretend she didn’t care.  It would never work.  The girls would be all right.  They were bright and full of energy.  Best of all they had each other.

They had their father too.  He’d be there for them, she was sure he would.  Once again she was the nanny, expendable and replaceable.  She’d done her work and now her work was over.  She had a new job waiting for her, one with challenges and rewards.  But never again would she take a nanny position.  She’d pushed her luck just as far as it would go.

 Falling in love with two employers was surely the height of stupidity.  This time she’d really done it.  Last time it had been totally one-sided.  He’d never known how she felt, never even exchanged a single kiss.  This time she’d gone off the deep end.  She had tasted happiness, she had found ecstasy, she had found contentment and sheer joy and now it was over.

“Gianna, Caterina, you must be good girls.  You promise me, won’t you?”

They nodded in unison.  “What about the tower?” Caterina asked.  “Didn’t it work?”

“We had a very nice time.  Thank you for the picnic.  But you must never lock anyone up there or anywhere.”

“But didn’t you fall in love with Papa?” Caterina asked anxiously.

“No,” Sabrina said.  Sometimes a lie was the only way to answer a question like that.

Caterina’s eyes filled with tears.

“Don’t cry,” Sabrina said.  “I’m very fond of your father.  He loves you girls very much.  You’re lucky to have a father like that.”  She could only hope he would not continue to work round the clock and not put them in the care of yet another nanny or a wife who didn’t like them.

“If you won’t marry him, why can’t you still be our nanny?” Gianna asked.

“Because,” she said.  Sometimes there was no answer that a child could understand.