Millionaire's Secret Love

Chapter Two

Fresh cut grass filled Elizabeth’s nostrils when she walked up the gravel drive of the large five-bedroom cottage and rang the doorbell. The driveway was lined with tall shrubs that were verdant from days of rainfall but then it always rained in England she thought as she scanned the well-manicured lawn, and black Range Rover that was parked in front of a double garage.

The cottage was in one of the greener parts of North London and was two miles from the main road, yet the whining of motors, and tyres screeching on tarmac were audible and she wondered where people were going in such a hurry even at such an early hour.

Sunlight cast shadows through the dense leaves of the shrubs and a few loose stones crushed under her boots as she stepped back from the front door of the house and waited for someone to open it. Seconds later, the door opened, and a rotund woman dressed in black gave her a warm smile.

 “Are you Elizabeth?” she asked, her sallow face giving her the once over.

Automatically, she nodded but did not lose her smile. “The agency sent me.”

“You’re here early,” she said, opening the door wider. “Everyone is waiting for you in the conservatory.”

Elizabeth entered the house and wiped her feet. “Should I take my shoes off?”

“If you don’t mind,” she replied.

Her mother always told her not to enter people’s houses with her shoes, and she had always remembered that. The agency gave her a bit of freedom on how to build a good first impression, but often it was little things like taking your shoes off, which made people get a good idea of what she was like.

She placed her bag with all her equipment down on the floor and began unzipping her knee-high boots.

“I’m Margaret, but you can call me Maggie. I am the housekeeper. If you need anything, all you have to do is ask me.”

“And you can call me Lizzie, everyone does,” she replied, smiling at the housekeeper.

She took off her coat and handed it to Maggie. Once Maggie had secured it in the coat closet, she directed her to a part of the house to meet the family.

Following the shapely hips of the woman, Elizabeth admired the walls covered with pale green wallpaper. Pictures of pastoral settings, which looked expensive, lined them and for a moment she wished she could stop and admire them.

The house was warm; it gave her a good impression when she walked into the conservatory and saw the welcoming faces of her new employers.  The older couple smiled at her as she entered the room. But her smile disappeared the second her eyes came to rest on George who was sat apart from them.

She had thought the names were a mere coincidence when the agency had told her, her boss, Rose had told her that she was specially requested. At the time, she had believed it was by one of her other clients who had given her a recommendation. But seeing the smirk on George’s face she knew it was him. He was the one who asked for her. She was not sure if she should be pleased or upset over it.

She had thought she saw the last of him for a while. Stifling a reluctant sigh, she forced a smile and met the warm gaze of his parents. Whilst, she was having a staring match with George his mother had been inspecting her.

“Elizabeth...? Lizzie Wilson?” she said, mulling over the name as if she recognised it but couldn’t place it, but her confusion did not last long.

Recognising her, George’s mother stood up and came towards her and enveloped her in a warm hug.

“I cannot believe it’s you,” Rumer Douglas said when she released her.

Elizabeth scanned the older woman’s face, noting her wrinkled skin for a woman in her early fifties. Youthfulness must run in the family.

She glanced at George briefly over his mother’s shoulder. It had been a few months since she had seen him, he appeared fit and healthy she thought shifting her gaze back to his parents.

Mrs Douglas took Elizabeth’s hand and tugged her towards an empty rattan chair which was next to George. When she sat down, she turned slightly in the chair to avoid seeing him from her peripheral. The deliberate shaking of his newspaper was her only indication that her actions bothered him. Good, she thought, let him think what he wanted. Did he think getting her a job was going to make up for scaring her? In the back of her mind, she scoffed and told herself not to be sucked in by him.

Once she was sitting comfortably, she focused all her attention on his parents and pretended he was not making her self-conscious whenever she felt his gaze on her.

 “Hayden, this is the young lady I was speaking about last week,” Rumer was saying to her husband.

Turning to Elizabeth, Rumer smiled. “I was telling Hayden what a good friend your mum was to me when you children were all going to school. It has been a long time since I have seen Samantha. How is your mother?”

“Mummy is doing well. She’s in Jamaica visiting the family.”

At the mention of Jamaica, she threw George a disgusted glance, and he raised an arrogant brow. How could he pretend as if nothing had happened between them? There was no remorse on his face. He stared at her in the eye as if he had nothing to be ashamed of.

She should feel scared to be in the same room with him, but somehow, she did not.

Maybe it was the familiarity of his parents which put her in two minds about whether she should give him a wide berth.

“Does your mum still go every year?” Rumer asked, jolting her back to the present.

“My mum likes the weather there, and my grandparents are elderly now, so she sees them, and it makes her happy.”

“I’m glad, I wouldn’t mind having some of that sunshine myself, but Hayden is very reluctant to travel all that way.” She gave her husband a cute pout, which looked funny on a woman her mature age. “It’s an eight-hour flight, isn’t it?” she asked, watching Elizabeth for her reaction.

“It’s almost nine, if you count the time to land and leave the plane,” Elizabeth confirmed with a small smile she hoped would make her new clients be at ease with her. Any nervousness she felt about her new role as their nurse left her, but she could not help her stomach from knotting she felt George watching her.

            The instant she had seen him, she had wanted to punch him in his smug face. He must have seen her expression because the entire time he kept a close watch on her face as if he did not want to miss any of her thoughts.

For a while Elizabeth answered questions about her family and what they were doing. After a few minutes of catching up, Maggie brought tea and coffee. She sat them on the coffee table and left. The smell of coffee filled the air, reminding her she had not eaten breakfast. She had been too nervous about her meeting to eat anything. Often, this was the way she got when she met new clients.

“All this talking has made me parched,” Rumer commented, checking the contents of the teapots, and nodding with approval. “What would you like, dear?” she said, staring at her.

“She takes her coffee black. Two sugars,” George answered before she could.

Surprised, his mother stared at him, then met Elizabeth’s eyes for confirmation. “Is this how you take it?” she asked.

Elizabeth nodded. She wished she could have said that she did not like it like that, but then the thought of drinking the coffee without sugar made her throat tighten.

She slipped George a curious glance. How did he know? She did not think he paid that much attention to her to learn how she liked her coffee. Ross must have told him; how else would he know. She was going have words with her brother about sharing her business with his friend.

Rumer poured the coffee for her and handed it to her on a saucer.

Once she took the saucer, she gave him a quick glance, but he had ducked behind his newspaper.

The pungent scent of the coffee filled the room as everyone settled into their chairs and took their first sip of liquid. For a minute, the delicate slurps of liquid punctuated the clink of cups and saucers. It was not uncomfortable, but Elizabeth wondered when they would get to the reason she was there. As if he heard her thoughts, Hayden cleared his throat.

A small, relieved sigh escaped her when he placed his cup down and met her gaze.

“So, young lady, the agency said you were one of its best nurses, is this true?”

Swallowing the sip of coffee in her mouth. Elizabeth gave him a warm and open smile, then she set her coffee cup back on the table. “I don’t know about being their best, but I have a few years of experience,” she replied.

Hayden appeared to be a person who liked to call people out on their fibs. He gave her a small smile. “Come on, you’re being too modest. I have seen your resume. You have worked abroad and have only returned a few months ago. We’ve checked your references and they all say you’re a wonderful nurse.”

Smiling, Elizabeth avoided Hayden’s eyes and stared at the table.  She recalled her time in Jamaica at the small community hospital she had worked with its limited resources and she pinned him with her eyes. “My last role was challenging, but I enjoyed working with a variety of people,” she replied.

“I heard she’s a passable nurse,” George chimed in and she gave him a frosty glare. He had no business commenting about her skills she thought, George was beginning to be like one of those labels that keeps scratching you until you must cut it out or continue to live with it.

“George don’t be so mean,” his mother scolded, giving her an apologetic glance. “I’m sorry, dear, George forgets his manners sometimes.”

Elizabeth gave George a dirty eye, then turned to his mother with a sincere smile. “Don’t worry Mrs Douglas, I recognize what George is like, I won’t take it to heart.”

Of course, she took it to heart. Elizabeth always did.

Turning to her husband, Rumer laid a manicured hand on his knee. “You see, Hayden, George has always been quite cruel to Elizabeth. If I did not know better, I would say George has a little liking for her.”

Getting embarrassed, Elizabeth took up her coffee and took a sip. She wondered if there was some truth to what Mrs Douglas said. She did not think so.

Ever since their school days, George had always made her life hell. And the worst of it, she had had a crush on him.  First crush always sucked she thought especially when it was one sided.

“Rumer dear, stop embarrassing the children and let’s get down to business,” Hayden chastised his wife.

Hayden’s words made her think of the reason she was there.

“Are you alright, dear?” Rumer enquired, staring at her as if she noticed her thoughts. She gave Elizabeth a reassuring smile, then took a sip of her tea.

Mesmerised by her practiced movements, she watched George’s mother and waited for her to begin. When Rumer sat her teacup on the saucer and turned wizened blue eyes on Elizabeth shifted and tried not to let her thoughts wander to anything other than what the woman was going to tell her.

Those eyes catalogued her physical features and for a moment she got uneasy, as if she were being judged, but she refrained from showing any outward nervousness.

It was always best to show clients she was confident about what to do. And then having George sitting there and observing her every move and every response was nerve wracking. It seemed as if she was sitting for an exam that she had not prepared for, and she hated the way her stomach twisted with anxiety.

Besides, why should it matter what he thought of her? She was going to be working for his parents, not him.

“I don’t know if you have seen the medical charts for my daughter. She is the one you will look after. Do you remember her? Or maybe, you were too young to recall her,” Rumer said, with a frown.

Elizabeth searched her memory until she had a vague recollection of a faceless child with braids. “I remember her, but I’ve only met her, maybe, once or twice before when mummy dropped Ross off for the occasional sleepover when we were still in high school.”

Rumer nodded. “Ah, yes. Ross was always here in those days,” she admitted with a smile. “Such a shame we see little of him since his promotion.”

“He’s busy mum,” George chimed in, always one to look out for his friend.  “He always visits whenever he can.”

His mother nodded as if she knew this but could not help complaining about it. “He’s such a lovely boy,” she muttered as if Ross was still a teenager in her eyes. She bowed her head and stared at her hand. Looking up she forced a smile.

            It was difficult for families when they had to face the reality that their loved ones would not be perfect. Yet, in some ways, the differences which made up society and made people so unique and interesting, she thought.

Still, she was fortunate than most. Her job allowed her to see both the strength and the weakness within people and families, and often she was thankful she could do the job she did.

“If Christine is anything like you, I bet she’s a fun person,” Elizabeth smiled, trying to put Rumer at ease.

 It was clear she struggled with what happened to her daughter.

Pinching her eyes shut, Rumer let out a loud sigh. “I expected nothing like this to happen to my family,” she admitted. “But God never gives us more than we can handle.”

Elizabeth smiled, this was a familiar sentiment her mother liked to repeat and for a split second she wondered if her mother was doing well.

“A few years ago, Christine was in a car accident,” Rumer began.

Focusing on Rumer’s face, she arranged herself in the chair, so she had the woman’s undivided attention.

“Christine was coming home from school and a drunk driver climbed the curb and mowed her and her friends down. No one died, but my daughter got the worst of it,” she said, tears shimmering in her eyes.

Elizabeth wanted to give Rumer a hug, but she figured out it was better to let her finish her story.

“Can you understand it?” she said, pausing. “Out of everyone, my daughter was the only one who was injured,” she carried on. Her words climbed higher as if after all the time had passed it was still incredulous to her what had happened.

Hayden patted her hand, and she carried on. “When the doctors told me, the accident paralyzed her from the waist down, I fainted in the hospital. When I came to my senses, the doctors told me that in time she could have some movements in her lower body, but she would need a lot of care and therapy. It seems so long since then.” Her voice wobbled.

She looked away from Rumer before she started tearing up too. This part of her job she disliked the most. To see other people’s pain was agony.

Elizabeth’s gaze collided with George’s, ducking her head she took a sip of her drink, hoping it would clear the tears from her throat.

Rumer’s eyes followed her every move and when she placed her cup back on the table, she continued. “In the past, Christine was good at doing the therapy and motivated to show progress, but lately things have changed. For the past few months, there has been a change in my daughter’s personality, and it scares me,” she confessed.

“I’m scared she has given up on everything, therefore we’ve all agreed that we need help. We hope that she will respond to someone else outside the family,” she said, beaming at her with renewed vigour.

There was a spark of hope in Rumer’s eyes, as if she expected some miracle.

Elizabeth suppressed the urge to tell her not to hope too much. Everything depended on how Christine responded to her. The more she understood about Christine, the better it would be when they met.

Giving Rumer a reassuring smile, she held her gaze. “Doesn’t Christine have any friends?”

Mrs Douglas shook her head as her brows furrowed. “She had friends when she was at school. After the accident a few of them came around and saw her occasionally, but once they finished high school all these children stopped coming.” She paused. “One time I asked Christine about them, but she brushed it off and said they were all studying at university.”

Is there someone she confides in then?”

“Not that I know of,” she exhaled. “I’m her mother, but I’m sure there are things she wouldn’t want me to learn and would like to share with a girlfriend,” she admitted.

“I understand.”

“Apart from that, what worries me the most is that Christine spends so much time looking at social media and seeing what all her friends are up to: going off to college, getting into university, finding boyfriends, getting married and having babies. I’m afraid she had all these dreams, but because of her disability she assumes she can’t have any of this.”

“Many people with a disability often think this way, but it’s seldom true. Though life may be harder, there are so many options for young people these days,” Elizabeth said, her voice filled with enthusiasm. “It’s one thing which makes living great,” her voice rose passionately.

An image of her battered face rose within her mind’s eye. She had been lucky to have a place to hide when she had needed it. It was her own need for help why she could see a positivity towards the services which got offered to those in need.

A smile played on Rumer’s lips. “I’m glad to hear you say this. Sometimes I wonder if I too have lost hope,” she said, opening up to her.

It was often this way with her job. People assumed they could tell her their problems. Maybe it made people appear closer to her since she was going to work closely with the family. She was happy to hear what Rumer had to say. A mother’s impression was always important, they could see things others cannot.

“Mother, do you have to be so dramatic?” George chimed in.

Elizabeth threw him a dirty stare.

He raised his brow at her. “What?” he said, watching her.

Arranging the newspaper next to him in the chair, he rose to his feet and came to place a hand on his mother’s shoulder. “Mum, you have us to help, if it’s too hard to shoulder the responsibility, I’m here.”

Raising her head, Rumer rested her head on his hand, then patted it. “I know love, but you’re a man and you’re often busy. I don’t want you to feel burdened.”

Next to his wife, Hayden exhaled. “Stop acting as if the poor girl is dead. She is alive. So, what if her life did not turn out like we hoped? This is what the good Lord gave us to handle,” he said, eyeing his wife with a shrewd but calm stare. “Christine wouldn’t be happy to hear you talk like this, Rumer, chin up dear,” he added, taking one of his wife’s hands and meeting her eyes.

Elizabeth watched the Douglass’s and a pang of emotion made her look away from the scene before her.

George was lucky to be in a family who supported each other. Her parents loved her, she realized, but she wished they seemed half as supportive of her and her choices.

“I think you’re going to run the poor girl off,” Hayden said, looking at her with a brief smile.

Shaking her head, she returned his smile. “I’m used to it. No need to worry about my feelings. It’s natural to think the way you do.”

“I hope we haven’t scared you off,” Rumer said.

“No. All this talk of Christine[1]  makes me want to meet her even more.”

“Good. You seem like a young lady with some backbone,” Hayden told her, and Rumer slapped him on his knee, her sombre mood from before disappearing.

George, who had remained near his mother, gave her a small smile when she met his gaze and she wondered what he was pleased about.

“Elizabeth,” Rumer said, her tone light. “Hayden and I have to dash; we’re going to pick Christine up from the cinema. George will fill you in on anything else you need to learn.”

She bobbed her head.

  The couple rose and left the room together in a beeline.

When they left, George took the seat his mother had vacated. His eyes bored into her and she shifted in the chair.

“Are you taking the job?”

She eyed him with distrust. “I may reconsider,” she muttered, not meaning it, but hoping her words would give her some power over her future.

“Don’t you need the money; it can’t be cheap moving back here to start over?”

“What I do with my life is none of your business!”

He raised a brow. “Are you looking to start an argument with me, this early in the morning?”

She did not want to argue with him, but his presence reminded her of the last time they were alone in the same room together.

Aren’t you going to apologise to me for what happened in Jamaica?”

George relaxed in the chair and examined her features with an arrogant smile, as if he were reflecting about what had happened to them. Then he seemed to sober up and his expression grew cold. She frowned at him and wondered what made him change.

“I’m sorry I got you mixed up in my business before,” he agreed.

Surprised that he had apologised, she blinked at him, utterly lost for words. Could she let the sense of fear she knew in Jamaica go, just like that?

“Is that apology supposed to make what you did better?”

He shook his head. “No. But it was the only thing I could think of,” he admitted.

Elizabeth watched him. “What if I don’t want to forgive you?”

He shrugged, his eyes watching her. “It’s up to you,” he said, his mouth pulling to one side in a grimace. “Just add it to the list you keep of things you hate about me.”

 “It looks like you think you’re important to me,” she muttered. She tilted her head and met his eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

He gave a mirthless laugh. “At least you haven’t lost your lovely sense of humour.”

“Whatever -” she said, dismissing his words. “I don’t want to talk about all that right now, let’s just stick to the job.”

It was a long moment before he nodded, but she had the impression he was still speculating about her words.

“So, tell me, what do your parents want me to do with your sister?”

George rose to his feet. “Give me a moment,” he said. He left the room and was back a few seconds later with a folder in his hands. He handed it to her. “This is a list of the work my parents would like you to complete with her. There is also a dietary list in there too,” he added as she flipped through the folder, barely taking in all the information.

Elizabeth skimmed through the typed pages; her brows furrowed in concentration. “I will need to go through this and make any adjustments,” she told him.

“Fine. If you need any more information, you can ask Maggie,” he responded.

She sensed his gaze on her, lifting her head their eyes met.

 “If my sister needs anything, you come to me. I don’t want my parents burdened with things.”

She placed the folder in her lap. “Did you want me to stay and meet your sister?”

He brushed a strand of hair from his frowning forehead. “I think my parents will speak to her before you meet her. They have mentioned getting her a nurse before, but she was never keen. She will be up to meeting you once she knows your part of our family circle.”

For a moment, she pondered his words, then she nodded. With nothing more to say to him, she stood, but it was at the same time as George, and they bumped into each other.

Automatically, Elizabeth reached out a hand and he put his arms around her.

“If you wanted me to hug you, why didn’t you just say so, instead of throwing yourself at me.”

Her body went still as she shoved him away from her. “In your dreams,” she hissed, giving him a dirty look.

“You want me, admit it,” he cooed, leaning into her, and wiggling his brows at her.

Her heart fluttered as she stepped away from him.

“Don’t be a coward Lizzie,” he said, watching her as she gathered the folder and her bags.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she answered. A flush pricked her skin. Thank God she was brown, because it would be hard to hide, she thought.

“Bye…George,” she muttered as she hurried towards the door. She felt his eyes on her, but she did not look back.  

As she walked back through the house, she wondered why every time she was anywhere near George, it always felt that she needed to be on the defensive. She had a feeling she really liked it when he was cheeky with her. It would do no good to like him, he was not for her.

Christine