Their conversation was interrupted by a soft female voice Nathaniel immediately recognized as Sonia. He couldn’t make out the words, but he could hear two sets of quiet footsteps making their way down the carpeted hallway outside his room. A moment later, Sonia entered his bedroom, shaking her head as she closed the door behind her.
“Please tell me you found a way to make them stop lurking,” Nathaniel pleaded with her.
The older woman smiled. “I informed them that the door outside your personal quarters is a perfectly reasonable vantage point for keeping watch. And that your father’s orders were to keep you safe, not invade every last private space you have left.”
Which meant the bedroom, bathroom, and small library that made up his quarters wouldn’t have the black-suited guards lurking around them. It was a reasonable measure of privacy to weigh against the safety his father was purporting to want. Nathaniel was of the mind that his father was using the excuse to keep Nathaniel under closer watch.
“Thank you,” he told her gratefully.
Her eyes drifted to the shattered remains of the bowl littered about the floor. “If you didn’t like the bowl, we could have always found you another one.”
Nathaniel sighed. “It was an accident. I was a little too vigorous in tossing my book on the table.”
She opened a small panel beside the door, pulling out a broom and dustpan from it. “Apparently, the book wasn’t very good if you had to throw it that hard.”
Nathaniel wrinkled his nose. “It wasn’t the book. It’s me.”
She began sweeping. “Something on your mind?”
As if on cue, his phone buzzed. He hastily pulled the device from his pocket and looked at the message displayed. It was Tyler alright, asking if Nathaniel would be willing to meet sometime later for coffee.
“My, my, that was quick,” Sonia noted as she swept up the little bits of glass remaining. “Have a hot date?”
His cheeks warmed as he stuffed his phone out of sight. “No, nothing like that.”
Never mind the fact that it was amazing Tyler wanted anything to do with him in the first place, Nathaniel wasn’t going to push it by entertaining any ideas about more. Well, and as he’d had to remind himself several times, getting involved with Tyler in even a friendly sense would be inviting trouble. Trying to go any further than that might as well send a written invitation to disaster and then welcome it with open arms when it showed up on his doorstep.
“You seem troubled,” she told him.
He hesitated, not wanting to talk about what was on his mind and knowing that whatever he did say would be kept between him and Sonia. This was a woman who had been more present in his life than his own father. She had practically raised him, and she’d kept his secrets. Hell, she had been the one to cover up his disappearance from the other night, knowing full well where he was going.
“Do you remember…” Nathaniel began, touching the phone in his pocket. “Tyler?”
Sonia paused, cocking her head. “That nice boy you brought over a few times?”
Nathaniel nodded. There had only been a few times where Nathaniel had felt comfortable enough to bring Tyler to his house. To his credit, Tyler had tried his best not to seem overly impressed by the sheer opulence Nathaniel had been raised in. Privately, Nathaniel had thought it was cute, watching Tyler try so hard not to gape at the marble staircases, the crystal chandeliers, or the gold trim that seemed to permeate every room.
Nathaniel cleared his throat. “Right, him.”
Sonia beamed. “I remember him quite clearly. The only friend of yours you ever made that was really yours.”
Tyler hadn’t been part of the circle of Nathaniel’s “peers”, those that were of rich or highborn blood. As a matter of fact, he’d been dirt poor, but unlike his peers, Tyler hadn’t been intimidated or irritated by Nathaniel’s upper-class presence. In fact, he’d seemed happy to simply have a friend, someone he could enjoy being around, without pretense or expectation.
“That’s the one,” Nathaniel repeated.
“What about him?”
“Well, I...may have run into him recently.”
“Oh? Well, that seems like it should be good news.”
Nathaniel winced. “I suppose that depends upon your definition of good news. Considering where I met him and that he wants to meet with me again.”
Sonia hesitated. “Meet?”
His eyes widened. “Ah, um, meet, in the literal sense, not…”
Sonia nodded, turning her attention to the floor to scope out any remaining scraps of glass. “I take it