by Carol Grace
Sabrina forced herself to go back to her book but she couldn’t help turning her head to steal glances at her employer. Strictly against the nanny rules, she knew, but the rules weren’t written to cover an employer quite so attractive as the prince.
She kept thinking of his childhood compared to hers and his children’s life as it was now. “I keep wondering what I can do to make your daughters’ lives better besides preparing them for boarding school?”
“That’s quite enough,” he said.
But she knew it wasn’t. She should get their father more interested in them. Or at least teach them what she could and be prepared to step out of their lives in a few months.
Right now what she wanted to do was to take a swim and work off some of her frustration and anxiety about her job, her employer and the twins.
Leaving her boss either asleep or in a reverie, she slipped into the clean, cool clear water where she swam slowly back and forth, enjoying the exercise and the feeling of the refreshing water on her overheated body.
After a half hour she looked up to see the prince standing at the edge of the pool poised to dive in once again. If she’d thought he was handsome from her sideways position at the poolside, now he looked like a classic Greek statue in his swim shorts. Awestruck, her mouth fell open and she inhaled some water then choked as he hit the water in a smooth dive.
So this is what I’ve been missing, Vittorio thought as he swam back and forth. The tension in his body eased as he found his rhythm. He hadn’t realized how stressful and how fast-paced his life had become. Today he’d taken a break for a long lunch and stimulating conversation with his new nanny and now this. Not that every day could be like this. He had a bank to run that required his complete attention.
When he stopped and came up for air, he saw Sabrina was treading water with one arm on the edge of the pool. He didn’t know what had happened to him to make him behave so strangely today. First using her to help him form a merger, now treating her like a guest or someone even more important. After years of thinking of his house as a prison to escape from and not a home, avoiding the once known pleasures of the villa, from entertaining to swimming in his pool to regarding the view of the lake, he was seeing it as if for the first time.
He could blame or credit his nanny for that. From his first glimpse of her on the ferry he’d felt a magnetic attraction to her, almost a kinship. It made no sense at all. She was from a different country with a totally different background, and yet there was something in her face, an expression that he recognized, that he somehow knew…and yet…How could that be?
“It feels good, doesn’t it?” she asked, tossing her hair out of her eyes. “At home I have a membership in the YMCA. It’s an indoor pool, nothing like this.” She waved her arm at the tables and chairs, the umbrellas and the flowering shrubs around the pool. “You’re very lucky.”
“Lucky?” He spread his arms out along the tiles that faced the edge of the pool and observed her closely. Her modest wet suit clung to her body like a second skin which made his heart pound so loudly he was afraid she would hear it. Italian women wore bikinis at the beach showing more skin than Sabrina, but not one of them ever made him feel this way, the heart-stopping effect she had on him was startling. All that in her modest one-piece maillot. What had happened to him?
“Have you ever been married, Ms West?”
“No,” she said. She looked puzzled. Of course she did. She had no idea what he meant. Or how it related to the pool or the grounds or his fortunate birth-right to all this. “You’re the one who’s lucky. No ties, no broken promises, no disappointments, no betrayals, no mother-less children.”
“You’re right,” she said. “I’m lucky I get to take care of other people’s children. It’s the best job in the world, making a difference in a child’s life.”
He stared at her. She meant it, she really did. How different from all the previous nannies, the ones who took one look at the twins and decided no lakeside villa or extravagant salary could compensate for girls who refused to cooperate, and made their displeasure evident in various ways including snakes, spiders and other disagreeable life forms. Sabrina was a different sort of nanny. A different sort of woman. Just when he was thinking about his nanny in a way that was dangerous to his sense of discipline and distracting as well, the maid came to the pool and waved to him with an important message from one of the bank’s directors.
He pulled himself out of the pool, grabbed his towel and went directly to his office, his mind turning over the possible reasons for the call. Bad loans, personnel problems, government intervention. It turned out the director of their branch bank in Rome had left and with him a large amount of money. Vittorio was needed immediately to cooperate with the investigation and quiet the rumors of embezzlement.
He was back into his suit in minutes. He felt the adrenaline pumping. This is what he lived for, the thrill of making money, and protecting the money others had given his bank. They could simply not afford a scandal at this point or the merger would be in danger.
He picked up his brief case and glanced out the window. His nanny was still at the pool. It seemed like another day when he’d been there too, enjoying himself in a way he hadn’t since he could remember. Perhaps this call, this emergency was for the best. Letting down his guard around a woman no matter how appealing she was, could only mean possible trouble. He of all people should know that.
He walked out to the pool. She was back in a chaise lounge and looked even more stunning than before in her lycra one-piece swim suit in the late afternoon sun. He asked himself again why did Sabrina look so much sexier than anyone in a bikini? Maybe because he was undressing her in his mind. Picturing her in the nude, uplifted pink-tipped breasts, flat stomach, long lean legs and…
She was more startled to see him there than she had been before. She stood up so fast that one strap of her bathing suit fell across her arm. He dragged his gaze from her breasts. Yes, it was good he was leaving. She was entirely too tempting a distraction to a man like him who had buried all emotions and hidden behind a mask these past seven years. He didn’t want to feel anything, especially a sexual attraction to a foreigner, didn’t want to care too much for anyone. That was a clear path to more pain than he could face.
He cleared his throat and focussed on her face, looking straight into her eyes. “There’s a problem at one of our banks in Rome. I’m leaving for the airport now and I hope to be back the first of next week, but there’s no telling. I have no doubt you will be able to manage the girls?”
“Of course I will. Please don’t worry. I hope you can solve the problem quickly.”
“You have my phone number. Call if you need to.”
She nodded and looked up at him as if she wanted to say something but was waiting…waiting…for something. That’s all it took. He acted out of character for no reason at all except that she was Venus rising from the swimming pool water, at the same time she was Mary Poppins, the ultimate Nanny and above all she was the goddess Sabrina from the poem.
He reached down and did what he’d wanted to do all afternoon, what he’d wanted to do since the first minute he’d seen her. He framed her face with his hands and kissed her. It was good-bye, thank you and another impulse he couldn’t explain. All he could say was that it just seemed right to kiss her there and then. Even though he knew it was wrong. She was his nanny, for God’s sake.
The hell with that. The hell with restraint. He’d been restrained for seven years. Her lips softened under his, molded to his, melted under his and if she was shocked, she got over it quickly. She put her arms around him and kissed him back. With one kiss he felt as if he’d been pardoned. He was free. Free from guilt, from regret and anger. If he’d had time to think he would have known it couldn’t happen that way, all the past erased in a single kiss, but he didn’t think, he only felt. He hadn’t felt this way in a long long time.
She showed restraint before he did. She pulled out of his arms and blin
ked in the afternoon sun as if just awakened from a dream. He knew how that felt.
“I.I’m afraid I got your suit wet,” she said, looking down at the lapels of his suit jacket.
“Good-bye, Sabrina,” he said. Then he turned and walked away before he did something else like grabbing her or slipping the other strap of her suit off her shoulder.
In the driveway he looked into his rear-view mirror for a possible glimpse of Sabrina standing there regretting his absence. A first for Vittorio, he was a man who never looked back, not at the past and definitely not at any place or anyone he was leaving. Ever since his wife’s death, he’d moved ahead with deliberation and drive. He had no choice.
Of course he didn’t see her. She was still at the pool, catching the final rays of the setting sun and reading the school catalog. A kiss is just a kiss, he reminded himself, and that was a highly inappropriate one.
It wouldn't, it shouldn’t happen again. If he hadn’t gotten the call, he might still be there too. The maid would bring out drinks and leave with raised eyebrows at the sight of him and Sabrina still standing there, wrapped up in each others’ arms, exploring new ways of communicating, whether discussing the girls’ education or going inside to continue kissing. He wanted to find out more about her. He wanted to know everything.
It was understandable. She was part of the household. If he’d stayed, they’d have dinner in the dining room, usually used only for big dinners, but why not bring out the good dishes with the royal insignia on them for once? But he got the call and now he was off to Rome to trouble-shoot. He always loved these moments. At least he used to. He’d grab any excuse to leave the villa and his dark memories behind.
He always told himself the girls didn’t miss him. He was still convinced of that. He knew he’d soon get swept up in this current problem and forget everything else. That’s what always happened.
But this time he wasn’t quite so eager to jump into his car and head for the airport. Was it the presence of his new nanny? Or was he simply running out of energy? Now he almost wished he hadn’t called them back. Almost wished he didn’t know about the crisis, at least until Monday. But his orders were always to keep him informed of problems.
Everyone knew he didn’t mind being disturbed at home. In fact, he welcomed it. Or he used to. He forced his gaze away from the rear-view mirror and onto the road ahead. That was the only way to live, move ahead, fill every day with work and never relax, never think of what might have been or what could be.
Back at the pool Sabrina read the catalog backwards and forewords. She thought she had a good idea of how to prepare the girls for entrance to this school. But how could she when she wasn’t convinced it was the best thing for them at their age, considering their background – an absent mother and an almost-absent father. They needed more than year-round sports, math, science and social studies. They needed someone to care about them, to put them to bed at night and put them first in their life.
That person was not their father and it didn’t look like he wanted the job or would be good at it. What could she do about that? He’d turned down her suggestion that he go to the sail boat exhibition, let alone forego the plan to send them away to school. She was afraid to push the issue any further.
When the sun went down and the air cooled, she went in, ate a solitary but delicious dinner in her room that the cook had prepared for her and asked herself what she was doing there and why.
The next day when she picked up the twins at the lake after their sailing lesson, she attacked their former indifference with new energy and to her surprise they didn’t rebuke her efforts.
“We’ll play a game this afternoon,” she said, “and practice your school interviews.”
They were silent for a moment, then exchanged glances.
“If we play your game, will you play beauty salon with us?” Gianna asked.
“All right and please call me Sabrina.” It sounded harmless, as long as they didn’t go out in public with mascara and artificially red cheeks. Every nanny knows all little girls love dressing up and curling their hair.
“Molto bene,” Caterina said, clapping her hands.
Sabrina wasn’t sure if they really enjoyed the memory game she’d invented or if they’d remember the answers to the questions she told them might be included in the school interview, but she realized that styling their hair and applying nail polish was exactly the bribe that worked for them.
“Now it’s our turn to paint your nails,” Gianna said.
Sabrina was surprised to find she actually had almost as much fun as the girls. She finished off the evening by telling them a story about two princesses who lived in a castle.
“Did it have a secret tower?” Caterina asked, her eyes glowing.
“Why yes, but I believe it’s locked and no one goes there,” Sabrina said.
“Maybe they have a key,” Gianna said.
Sabrina frowned. She repeated what their father had said about the danger of the crumbling tower. After she wrapped up the story, she turned off their light. She gave them each a hug and quickly left the room.
When they came home from their sailing camp the next day Sabrina suggested they play games in the pool. They seemed to have a good time. Or were they just playing along so she’d relax and forget about studying for boarding school?
No danger of Sabrina forgetting. They practiced interview questions each and every day and then Sabrina told them an episode of the story she made up about the princesses in the castle. They begged for more and they never tired of beauty salon game.
She hadn’t taught them much that day but maybe she’d taken a few steps toward gaining their trust or admiration or both.
The prince called one night from his hotel room in Rome. Sabrina hoped he would ask to speak to the girls, but he didn’t. Maybe he knew he was past their bedtime, but she was afraid that wasn’t the reason. The sound of his voice caused an instant flush of her cheeks, a trembling of her hands and a slight quiver in her voice. That was just from the sound of his voice.
The memory of the last time she’d seen him at the pool when he’d kissed her good-bye in his business suit came back with a rush of heat. It would never happen again, she knew that.
She pictured the restaurant where they’d had lunch on the sunny terrace when he reminisced about his childhood. It was a scene most likely never to be repeated, so she hung onto the vision of her employer relaxed and at ease. Would she ever see him like that again? She had to sit down on the edge of her bed with the portable phone because her knees suddenly went weak.
“The girls have just gone to bed. Shall I get them so you can say goodnight? We’ve had quite an active day.”
“No, don’t bother. I suppose they are getting prepared for their interview?”
Sabrina felt a twinge of guilt. She hadn’t done any preparation that day at all. It was summer. Sabrina much preferred to hear the girls’ laughter when she did cannonballs off the diving board or their rapt expressions when she continued with her made-up fairy tale at night.
“That and other things,” she said vaguely. “We’ve gone over the possible questions and they know what’s expected of them.”
“That’s good to hear. After spending several days with Gianna and Caterina, I’m sure you’ll agree that boarding school is the best place for them at this time.”
She hesitated a moment. Sometimes a nanny must speak her mind, even though it is in direct conflict with her employer’s point of view.
“I believe I already mentioned…”
“That you think they’re too young. But you did offer to help them get accepted at the school.”
“Of course. That’s part of my job. You’re their father and I only want what you want for them. But I can’t guarantee anything.”
“I’m not asking for guarantees,” he said curtly.
Sabrina wondered where was the friendly, outgoing, charming prince she last saw around the pool. The one who confided in her, the one who
relaxed and seemed to forget about work. The one who put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her as if he was reluctant to leave. Maybe he was gone for good, swallowed up by the pressures of the banking business. If so, it was best she take satisfaction in her progress with the twins, which was the reason she was here.
She of all people knew the danger of an attraction to a man who wasn’t available. He was engaged after all. And even if he wasn’t…
“You should know,” he said, “as a member of the household, that my fiancée has broken our engagement.”
“What?” Sabrina almost dropped the phone. Even if the prince was no longer engaged he was unavailable emotionally and always would be as far as she was concerned.
“Do the girls know?” she asked, knowing the answer already.
“You may inform them. I assume they will not be unhappy. In fact, Aurora blames them for ruining our relationship.”
“How can that be?” Sabrina said, with a surge of animosity toward his erstwhile fiancée and a protective feeling for the twins. “What did they do?”
“Come now, Sabrina, you must know by now they are capable of playing tricks and disposing of nannies, so why not future step-mothers? They have been known to blame others and do whatever they can to achieve their own goals. One of which is to avoid any kind of supervision and any kind of structured environment such as a boarding school. Which is why I plan to return on Wednesday to make sure all goes well for their interview.”
“But since your fiancée is no longer involved, perhaps you want to re-think the idea of boarding school,” she said hopefully.
“No, I don’t. It was one of the few things Aurora and I agreed on. Why are you so against boarding school, Sabrina?”
Every time he said her name, Sabrina felt the vibration in his voice strike a chord in her heart. It was the accent, she told herself, and nothing more. How could she feel anything positive for a father who wanted to ship his girls off at age seven? And yet there was something about him that told her she was only seeing the surface. A very attractive surface, but one that covered his true self. Why should she ever hope to know the real Vittorio when no other nanny had and no other person had, except perhaps his wife?