Undercover Princess Read online

  But although her hand was soft, her nails were short, some of them bitten. Whoever heard of a queen who bit her fingernails?

  She had a solid, warm handshake, and although it was absurd to base such things on gut reactions, he liked her even more for it.

  “Where are you from?” he asked, releasing her hand.

  She had to crane her neck to look up at him, and he sat down on the edge of his desk to put them slightly more on the same level.

  She had a very direct way of looking steadily into his eyes, and he liked that about her, too.

  “I’m from the country of Wynborough,” she told him in her Mary Poppins accent. “It’s a small island not far from England.”

  “So what brings you all the way out here to the American Southwest?”

  “I have…family…in Aspen. Colorado,” she added in that earnest way she had, as if he might not know where Aspen was.

  Yeah, Trey liked her. And that was a damn good thing, because, as Anita had let him know, Kathy Wind was the only surviving candidate for the position of nanny. The others had either been scared off by the size of the estate, or by the dark rumors that surrounded both this place and its master.

  He gazed into Kathy’s wide gray eyes, wondering what she’d heard about him, and wondering, if she had heard something, why it didn’t matter to her. Of course, this interview was only just starting. She still had time to bring the subject up.

  “Ever been arrested?” he asked. It was amazing the variety of answers he’d received to that question when interviewing potential child care providers for his two kids.

  Kathy laughed, a sudden burst of startled surprise. “I should hope not!”

  “I should, too,” Trey said dryly. “But have you?”

  She flushed slightly. That was the second time she’d done that. The effect was completely sweet and totally charming. “No!”

  “Good. Neither have I,” he told her.

  Something nearly imperceptible shifted in her eyes, and he knew that she had heard something about him. But she didn’t take the opportunity to question him about it. She was either too nervous or too polite.

  Too polite, he decided. Despite the chewed-on fingernails and an undercurrent of some kind of emotional energy, Kathy Wind wasn’t afraid of him. God, he would sure love it if some of those quiet manners rubbed off on Stacy. His daughter had become completely wild since Helena’s death. And as for Dougie—the kid had completely stopped talking. All Trey wanted was to hear his son’s voice again. At this point, he wouldn’t even care if the boy used it to tell him to go to hell.

  “How long have you worked as a nanny?” he asked her, moving behind his desk to shuffle through the meager pile of résumés the agency had sent him. “The agency hasn’t sent me your references.”

  “No?” Kathy blinked at him. “Well, I’m…new. But I’ll…have them faxed to you.” She shifted in her seat. “Actually, Mr. Sutherland, I’ve got to be honest. I’m not from the agency. I heard about this position through an, um—” she cleared her throat “—an acquaintance. But I’ll see that you receive a full list of references later today. However…”

  Trey watched her closely, aware that something still wasn’t quite kosher—as his college friends at NYU would have said—despite her honest admission.

  She drew in a deep breath and steadily met his gaze. “I’m afraid you might find me slightly underqualified for this position. I’ve never actually been a nanny before.” She gave him the sweetest, most crookedly hopeful smile. “But everyone’s got to start somewhere, right?”

  She was adorable. She warmed him in a way he couldn’t quite remember being warmed before. It wasn’t that he found her attractive. Not sexually attractive, that is. Sure, she had a great pair of legs, and her figure—at least what he could see beneath that incredibly non-feminine wool suit—was slender and rather well-proportioned and…Okay, so she was attractive. She was outrageously attractive, but in a fresh-faced, sweet little sister sort of way. Not that he’d ever had a little sister. But if he had, this warmth might be what he would feel toward her.

  She was quietly pretty with a slightly round face, innocently free of makeup, that made her look closer to fifteen than twenty-five. Her features were even, almost delicate—small, straight nose, slightly pointed chin. Her mouth was full and friendly, but her eyes were what he liked the best—gray and wide with thick dark lashes. She played at being cool and remote, but she couldn’t hide the very appealing mix of intelligence, interest and innocence that lingered there.

  And while Trey would have preferred hiring an experienced nanny, everyone did have to start somewhere.

  “You’ll need a driver’s license,” he said. “Do you have one?”

  “Of course.” Blink, blink. “Why?”

  “You’ll be in charge of getting the kids to and from school,” he said. “They both attend a private school about four miles from here. And then there’ll be parties and things they’ll need rides for.” At least, he hoped there would be. Even though Stacy was in eighth grade this year, her social calendar remained rather empty. “And Stace has clarinet lessons several times a week.”

  “So basically, you’d be hiring me as a chauffeur,” Kathy noted, one eyebrow elegantly lifted.

  “No, believe me, there’s supervision involved,” Trey told her. “A lot of it, actually. You’d put in long days. You’d have the hours off that the kids are in school, but I’d need you available in the evenings. And during school vacations, I’d need you twenty-four/seven.”

  She blinked at him again. “Twenty-four…?”

  “Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,” he explained. What rock had she been hiding under, that she hadn’t heard that expression before? “You’d be compensated for the overtime, of course.”

  “Of course, but…” Her eyes were innocently wide. “When do you see them?”

  “My time’s going to be really tight between now and the New Year,” he said as if that answered her question. He stood up abruptly. “Before we go any further, you need to meet them. Anastacia’s thirteen and Douglas is six. Neither of them are easy to get along with.” He forced a tight smile. “But that shouldn’t be surprising considering who their father is.”

  She studied him seriously. “You seem all right to me.”

  Yeah, well he wasn’t. “Their mother died three years ago and neither of them have adjusted very well.”

  “That doesn’t seem like something any child would adjust to—at least not well.”

  That was a good point, but Stacy and Doug’s lack of adjustment sometimes seemed off the map. Of course, Trey was a fine one to talk. He hadn’t adjusted particularly well to Helena’s death, either.

  “Stacy’s pretty hostile,” he told Kathy. Understatement of the year. “Her grades are abysmal, she’s actually left home a few times—sometimes in the middle of the night. She hasn’t gotten far, not enough to call it running away, but still it’s…”

  “Frightening,” she supplied the word. “I can imagine. You must have been terrified.”

  “She needs…something that I don’t seem to be able to give her,” Trey said honestly. “And as for Doug…” He shook his head. His son had chosen a different way to escape the realities of life after his mother’s death. Trey gestured toward the door. “Now would probably be a good time for you to meet them—that is, if you’re still interested in the job.”

  Kathy didn’t stand up. Not a good sign. She sighed. “Mr. Sutherland.”

  “Trey,” he said. “Please. We don’t stand on ceremony in this house.”

  “Trey.” She looked up at him. “Please would you mind sitting down for just a moment? You’re quite relentlessly tall and I’m afraid that what I have to say to you is an eye to eye sort of thing.”

  Trey smiled. This woman was a riot. Only she hadn’t intended any of what she’d said to be funny. But since she was probably going to tell him she didn’t want the job, it no longer seemed very funny to him, either. He
sat obediently in the chair next to hers, resigned to what she was about to say.

  She turned slightly to face him. “As much as I’d love this position—and I truly would—I’m not sure I’m the right woman for the job,” she told him earnestly, her eyes so serious. “You see, I’m not looking for long-term employment, and it seems to me, sir, that you and Stacy and Doug would be best served by hiring a nanny who would be prepared to stay until the children are grown. It seems to me that they—and you—have had enough upheaval in your lives.”

  This was too much. She wanted the job, but here she was, trying to talk him out of hiring her—for the sake of his children.

  “I suppose it’s too much to hope I could change your mind,” he wondered aloud. “Talk you into staying on for, say, ten years?”

  She smiled at that. She had the cutest dimples when she smiled. “Ten years of twenty-four/seven?” She shook her head. “No, thank you.”

  “Are you sure this isn’t negotiable?” he asked. “We could rethink the twenty-four/seven thing or—”

  “I’m flattered that you think so highly of me after only one brief meeting,” Kathy told him. “But, no, sir. It’s not negotiable. I’d like to hope that someday I’ll have a family of my own and…well…”

  “Of course,” Trey said, backing down. “I understand. It’s just…I’m kind of in a bind. This isn’t exactly the time of year where people want to change jobs. The agency said I’d have a better selection of candidates in January, but I can’t wait that long. I can barely wait until tomorrow. I need someone starting now.”

  She gazed at him thoughtfully. “I could stay until January, provided I’d have a week off for Christmas,” she told him. “It wouldn’t be the best scenario, but…Maybe if the children knew from the start that I’d only be here temporarily…?”

  “Maybe what you better do is meet them first,” Trey countered, “before you start making such generous offers.”

  Kathy stood up. “Then lead on,” she commanded in that royal manner she had.

  “Right this way, Your Majesty,” he said, leading the way to the door.

  She faltered. “Excuse me?”

  “Bad joke,” he said. “I think it’s probably your accent. Very…regal.”

  “Really?” She looked completely taken aback. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize—”

  “Relax,” Trey told her. “It suits you. It’s very cute.”

  Chapter 2

  Cute.

  Of all the things Princess Katherine of Wynborough had been called in her relatively uneventful life, cute had not been one of them.

  Until now.

  She followed Trey Sutherland down the stairs, down another endless hallway. If she were going to live here, she’d need to take a few hours and go exploring with a map. As far as she could figure, the house was shaped like a square U, with two long wings stretching back from the main building, forming the shelter for the center courtyard. The tower was on one front corner of the building—at the beginning of the opposite wing than the one they were heading down now.

  In fact, if she looked out the window, across the courtyard and up, she could see the windows of Trey’s office, lights still blazing through the late-afternoon dreariness.

  Trey slowed his pace and glanced at her. “I meant what I said,” he told her. “Instead of coming to a definite decision after you meet the kids, you go home and think it over. Fax me your references, and tomorrow, if we still both think this will work—temporarily, of course—we’ll talk again.”

  He was giving her an out.

  “This is the playroom,” he said, taking a deep breath before he opened the door.

  Katherine wasn’t sure exactly what horror she’d expected to find, but the cheerful, brightly lit room, filled with books and games and toys, furnished with two big, overstuffed sofas and a small handful of rocking chairs wasn’t it. There was a huge fireplace. It was cold and dark now, but when lit it would be capable of warming nearly the entire large room. Windows and skylights let in what little light remained of the darkening afternoon. A cabinet was open, revealing a TV and VCR. A Disney tape was playing to the otherwise empty room.

  Trey strode to the VCR and turned both it and the TV off. He then went to an intercom system that was built into the wall. He leaned on one of the buttons, bent close to the microphone. “Stace. I thought I asked you to stay with Doug in the playroom this afternoon.”

  A young girl’s voice came through the speaker, tinny and thin and clearly annoyed. “I was. But then he chewed through his leash….”

  Chewed? Through his leash?

  Trey didn’t look too happy about that, either. “How many times have I told you that if we treat him like a boy, he’ll act like a boy and…” He shook his head, clearly exasperated. “Just come down here,” he ordered. “There’s someone here I want you to meet.”

  “Leash?” Katherine echoed weakly.

  “Imaginary leash,” Trey said quickly. “I may not be father of the year, but I don’t tie my kids up.”

  “Doggie—Dougie—thinks he’s a dog.”

  The girl’s room must have been right next door, because Stacy arrived in no time at all.

  She stood in the doorway, arms across her chest. She was dressed entirely in black. Black leggings, black oversize turtleneck that hung down to her thighs, black lace-up boots with big clunky heels. Her short hair was black, too, although Katherine would have wagered she hadn’t been born with it that extreme color. She wore thick black eyeliner, an extremely pale shade of pancake base, an almost blackish red shade of lipstick, and black nail polish.

  The effect was…striking, but perhaps a little much for a thirteen-year-old.

  “A dog,” Katherine echoed.

  “Yeah.” Stacy gazed at her, unsmiling, sullen to the point of near rudeness. “You know, arf, arf.” She turned to her father. “If you whistle for him, Trey, he’ll come.”

  Trey looked decidedly displeased, the muscles in the sides of his jaw jumping. “I’m not going to whistle for him because he’s not a dog.”

  Stacy turned to Katherine. “You must be nanny number 4,515.” The girl looked at her critically. “The suit’s cool, the knee-length skirt’s kind of retro, but you should lose the dorky blouse and just go with the jacket with nothing underneath—except maybe one of those black Miracle Bras from the Victoria’s Secret catalog. Trade in the nerd shoes for something with a three and a half inch heel and—”

  “And I don’t think so,” Trey interrupted.

  “Yeah, you wouldn’t,” Stacy said with an exaggerated sigh. “You’re the one who hasn’t gone out with anyone but the awful Ice Queen in years—unless you’ve been getting busy on the sly with someone I don’t know about.”

  Oh, dear.

  For one awful moment, Trey Sutherland looked as if he were going to throttle his daughter. And then for one truly dreadful moment, Katherine was afraid the man might cry. Then everything he was feeling, anger and hurt and embarrassment, was tucked neatly away. And when he spoke, his voice was devoid of all emotion.

  “What did I do to deserve that?” he quietly asked his daughter.

  Stacy knew perfectly well that she had completely overstepped the boundaries of propriety by saying such a thing in front of a stranger. She could apologize, or she could take the defensive route. As Katherine watched, the girl unwisely chose defensive. “It was just a joke. Lighten up, Trey.”

  Oh, dear. He clearly hated that she called him by his first name, and Stacy knew it. Katherine could see that the girl certainly had learned how to push her father’s buttons.

  “If I’m nanny number 4,500 and something,” Katherine said, stepping boldly into the fray, “I can understand how this all might be a little overwhelming for the pair of you—and for Doug, too, poor thing. So why don’t we start again?” She looked at Trey. “Why don’t you give your son a break and whistle for him—obviously that’s what he wants you to do. And as for you—” she turned to Stacy “—let’s d
o this nicely, without embarrassing your father any further, shall we?” She held out her hand as Trey sighed and let out a piercing whistle. “I’m Kathy Wind. How do you do? Shake my hand and say ‘Fine, thanks.’”

  Stacy’s fingers were cold and she had a grip about as firm as a fish. But her mouth twisted into what could almost be called a smile. “Fine, thanks.”

  “Excellent.” Katherine smiled, and squeezed the girl’s hand before letting go. “I think it’s important you’re in the information loop, so you need to know that your father’s only considering hiring me temporarily—until you and he and Doug can find someone that you’d like to hire for the long-term. I’ll be faxing my references and resume as soon as possible. I imagine you’ll want to look them over, too. If you have any questions you’d like to ask me then—or now, for that matter—please go right ahead.”

  “Do you ride horses?”

  A flash of movement near the farthest of the two sofas caught Katherine’s eye. Two very large brown eyes blinked at her and then quickly disappeared. Douglas had appeared. So to speak. Katherine looked back at Stacy. “Not well, I’m afraid. Do you?”

  “I hate horses. Is that hokey accent for real?”

  Trey closed his eyes. “Stacy—”

  “More real than your hair color,” Katherine pointed out.

  Doug was back, peering around the back of the sofa, and this time, Katherine didn’t look directly at him. She simply let him look at her.

  Stacy leaned against the wall, feigning disinterest, but there was a definite spark in her brown eyes. “Don’t you like my hair this way?”

  Katherine didn’t hesitate. “The style? Yes. The color, sorry, no. However, it is your hair and you have the right to dye it whatever color you like.”

  It was the right answer, Katherine noted, because Stacy had to work to prevent her approval from leaking past her facade of boredom. “Do you have any tattoos?”

  Good heavens. “No, I’m tattoo free—and completely un-pierced as well.”