Breathe Me Smith and Belle (Royals Saga #11) - Geneva Lee Page 0,51
I saw him alive—the time at which he admitted manipulating me into marrying her. I’d been too furious at that revelation to seek answers. Not because I hadn’t suspected it to be the truth, but because, despite everything, it had shown me how foolish I had been.
Belle had been another of his manipulations, but that had backfired. She had shown me what love truly was and made me willing to fight for ours.
And, it seemed, while she had been unpacking my things, she’d come across this photograph of Margot and placed it here. I couldn’t guess why. Maybe that was a passive way to confront me about finding it amongst my possessions. But I’d rather she had yelled at me, so I could apologize and throw the thing rather than find it shoved in a drawer. Or maybe, and somehow this was worse, she thought I wanted it here and had quietly seen to my wishes. If she’d been truly angry, she would have taken the gun she must have found when she was sorting through my things and hunted me down.
I leaned down, cradling Penny against me carefully so that I wouldn’t wake her as I took the frame up out of the drawer. Laying it on the desk, I looked around and realized there was no rubbish bin for me to toss it in.
There was a light knock on the door and I called out, “Come in.”
“I’m sorry to disturb you.” Nora shuffled into the room, her arms empty. Mrs. Winters must not have done the washing yet. “I’d like to talk to you about something.”
I stood and circled around my desk. “Take her, so we can find somewhere to sit.”
Nora accepted Penny with ease. She looked like a natural holding the baby. Belle had chosen correctly, despite her concerns about Nora’s age.
I dug out a chair from under a few boxes of books and moved it across from my desk. “Have a seat.”
I hesitated, wondering if I should take the baby back, but Nora continued to hold her, sinking in the chair, her teeth chewing on her lower lip. I returned to my chair, a pit opening in my stomach. What could have made her nervous this early into her position with us.
Nora’s eyes were on my desk, and too late, I realized she was staring at the photograph of Margot.
“She’s pretty,” Nora said conversationally. “You sister?”
Margot had been beautiful. Hammond always made sure the women he dangled over my cage were tempting enough to distract me. But everything about Margot had been false. Beneath her beauty, there had been a void. She’d filled it with champagne and drugs and whatever man caught her eye. I’d done the same. We’d lived that life together, and I told myself that was what love was. I was young and stupid enough to believe it. She was beautiful and wild and everything a stupid, reckless boy could want.
"Not exactly,” I said, leaving it at that. I was having a hard enough time explaining to myself why there was a picture of my dead wife in my office. I didn’t really want to get into it with the nanny. “What do you need to talk to me about?”
“I want to tell you that I’m enjoying Penny and being here,” she began. I recognized a preface when I heard one. I’d made enough arguments in front of the courts to know one when someone was about to deliver a carefully crafted speech. Whatever was weighing on Nora, she had some time to think about it. But she’d only been here a few days. What had she seen that I hadn’t? She took a deep breath, before continuing, “I’m concerned about your wife.”
“Belle?” I said.
“Unless you have another one,” she said with a nervous laugh.
I wondered then if she guessed who the woman in the photo really was, and if so what she thought of me: a married man with a new baby looking at pictures of his dead wife. I was beginning to feel out of sorts.
When I didn’t respond, she cleared her throat before pressing forward, “I’m sure you’ve noticed that Belle’s been sad lately.”
She chose the word carefully. I knew by how much emphasis she placed on it.
“The doctor said to expect this,” I told her, wanting to assuage her fears. “Hormonal shifts and whatnot.”
“Yes, I’m sure it can be.” She looked at Penny, who was still sleeping in her arms. “But I’m not sure it’s that simple.”