Chapter 84
That evening the group at The White Hart consisted of Hayley, Cathi, Michelle, and Sarah. Amy had pleaded a headache. Madeleine was accompanying her employers to a performance at The Ogunquit Playhouse, and Elizabeth had given no reason for her absence. That wasn’t unusual. She kept to herself most of the time.
Hayley wasn’t really in the mood to socialize, but her mother had told her that Eddie Franklin had invited a buddy over to the apartment for dinner, and though a part of Hayley felt she should stay to help her mother cook and serve the men, who would no doubt be entirely ungrateful, another, ever so slightly stronger part of her allowed her to walk away from a situation for which her mother was largely responsible. If Nora Franklin could learn to say no to her husband, even once.... Hayley picked up the menu. As long as she was here she was determined to enjoy herself as best she could.
But before Hayley could scan the menu to see what caught her fancy, some instinct made her look over her shoulder. Taking a seat at the far end of the bar was Ethan Whitby. Her heart beat more quickly. She hadn’t seen him since he had left the beach the day before. By the time she got back to the house with the girls, he had gone off to an event at the Portland Museum of Art. When she had arrived at the Whitby house that morning there had been no sign of him. She had felt disappointed but had ruthlessly pushed the feeling away. Ethan had a full life that had nothing to do with his sisters’ summer nanny. The nanny who had hoped to catch his attentions for her own selfish purposes. The nanny who, in spite of her best laid plans, had developed an affection for him.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Hayley said to the others at the table. She got up and walked toward the bar. “Hi,” she said when she was standing at Ethan’s side.
Ethan looked up from the menu he was studying and smiled. “Hey! This is a nice surprise. What are you doing here?”
Hayley gestured toward the large table at the back of the room. “Hanging out with some of the other summer nannies. What about you?”
Ethan shrugged. “Marisa invited a few of her colleagues from the college for dinner, and I didn’t want to be in the way.”
“You’ve come to the right place if you want sports talk.”
“Good. I can hold my own when it comes to the Red Sox.”
“The Red Sox pretty much rule around here.”
“Okay. Good.”
An awkward silence followed this awkward exchange. Ethan held Hayley’s gaze. She held his. She felt slightly sick to her stomach. This was what she wanted, wasn’t it, to capture Ethan’s interest? But no. Not like this. Not like—
“I should get back to the others,” Hayley blurted.
Ethan cleared his throat and nodded. “Right. See you tomorrow.”
Hayley hurried back to the table.
“So, who was that?” Cathi asked when Hayley had slipped into her seat. “He’s very attractive.”
“He looks like that guy from Grantchester,” Michelle said. “The one who plays the vicar. Swoon! Or, wait, maybe that guy from Outlander, the one who plays Jamie! Double swoon!”
“He’s the son of my boss,” Hayley explained. “He lives in Connecticut, but he comes to visit his sisters. Well, his half sisters.”
“Does this person have a name?” Cathi asked.
Hayley took a sip of her beer before answering. “Ethan,” she told them.
Michelle leaned in. “Are you . . .”
“Absolutely not!” Hayley declared.
“Wise,” Cathi said. “It’s never a good idea to get too close to an employer—or his handsome son.”
Sarah nodded. “It’s always an abuse of power when someone in charge allows himself to get sexually involved with an underling.”
“Did I ever tell you guys about my friend Jessica?” Michelle asked. “About three years ago she fell hard for the son of the family for whom she was working. His parents found out and threatened to cut him off without a dime if he didn’t drop Jessica, and of course he did. She was heartbroken.”
Hayley took another sip of her beer; her throat suddenly felt parched. Back when she had decided on her so-called plan to ensnare Ethan into marriage she hadn’t considered the possibility that opposition from the Whitbys might prevent anything at all from happening. God, how stupid she had been!
“It’s like we’re servants really, not employees,” Sarah was saying. “And we’re certainly not members of the family no matter how much we kid ourselves that we matter.”
Michelle nodded. “And yet sometimes they act like we’re part of the family. Don’t spread it around, but both Mr. and Mrs. Morris walk around in their underwear. At first I was like, what? And then I realized it’s just what they do when they’re home.”
“That sort of behavior isn’t about considering you part of the family,” Sarah contradicted. “That’s about their not acknowledging that you’re a person. Take my bosses. They talk about all sorts of personal things right in front of me. It’s as if they think I’m just part of the furniture. It never seems to occur to them that if I was an unscrupulous sort I could very easily tell the entire town their personal business or use the information to my advantage.”
“So, Hayley,” Michelle asked, “tell us what oddities you’ve been subject to under the Whitby roof?”
“None, actually,” Hayley said.
Cathi laughed. “Oh, come on. Don’t tell me that like Amy you’re in awe of your employer?”
“Not at all,” Hayley assured the others. “I’m sure Mr. and Mrs. Whitby have their quirks and their quarrels but never when I’m around. They treat me as a professional. They treat me with respect.” And how, Hayley wondered, had she repaid that respect? By scheming and lying and . . .
Sarah frowned. “Lucky you.”
“I wonder if Elizabeth deludes herself into thinking she’s part of the Buchanan family,” Cathi mused.
Sarah shook her head. “More’s the pity if she does. And I bet Madeleine believes her perfect employers consider her indispensable. She’s so complacent about her position with them. It drives me nuts when she goes on about all the perks she gets. Like going to the theatre tonight.”
“I wouldn’t want to spend my free time socializing with my boss!” Michelle shuddered.
“Hey, Hayley,” Cathi said, “what’s with Amy and the Priors? What do they really need her for?”
Hayley shrugged. She didn’t feel comfortable giving an opinion on Amy’s unusual arrangement with the Priors, especially when Amy wasn’t present. “I have no idea,” she said.
Michelle laughed. “It’s not Will Prior who wants her around. It’s Cressida who needs Amy at her beck and call.”
“It kind of gives me the creeps,” Sarah admitted. “Something about the way Amy talks about her boss seems wrong.”
Cathi leaned in, her eyes wide. “Do you think there’s something sexual going on?”
“No,” Hayley said firmly. “It’s not sexual.”
“What we do is so, I don’t know, so boring,” Sarah pronounced.
“I hardly think caring for someone else’s children counts as boring,” Cathi argued. “I think it’s pretty important. Okay, even when it’s boring.”
Michelle grinned. “I love those psycho nannies from the movies. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle always freaks me out, no matter how often I see it.”
“Ugh,” Cathi said with a grimace. “I hate horror stories. Give me Jane Eyre any day. I love how Jane Eyre stands up to Rochester, knowing he could fire her and she’d be nowhere. And then when she comes back to him in the end, knowing she’s facing social ruin but willing to do so just to be with him. Sigh. So romantic.”
Sarah shuddered. “So sickening, you mean. Jane Eyre is a horror story! Rochester is a monster! Keeping his insane wife locked up like an animal and trying to trick Jane into marrying him, which would totally ruin her if the truth that he was already married ever came out. Selfish bastard.”
“Yeah, but Rochester says he was tricked into the marriage to Bertha,” Cathi argued. “He married her for her money without knowing she was mad. What choice did he have once he discovered the truth but to lock her up to keep her from harming anyone? Insane asylums of the time couldn’t have been much better than an old attic.”
Tricking someone into marriage.... Hayley smiled vaguely while the talk flowed on around her. She was acutely aware that Ethan was only yards away. . . .
“Would you ever hire a manny?” Michelle asked the group.
Sarah shook her head. “Absolutely not. I would only hire a woman to watch my kids.”
“Men are nurturing, too,” Cathi pointed out. “I’d rather hire a nice guy than a bitchy girl.”
That comment evoked laughter and agreement. Hayley thought of how good Ethan was with his sisters. He would make a fine father one day. A fine father and a . . . Hayley could no longer resist the desire to turn toward the bar. Ethan was looking directly at her. He smiled, got up from his seat, and lifted a hand in a gesture of farewell. Hayley lifted her own hand in return. She felt a terrible urge to leave with him, to walk along the darkened beach at his side, to feel the warmth of his hand in hers....
Hastily, Hayley turned back to her companions. Each one of the women was eying her with an inquisitive, penetrating look.
“Hey,” Hayley said brightly. “Should we get an order of nachos?”