as my fianc

sery, and for a moment Ivy could

ing lightly on the frame, smiling the smile of someone who a

. The truth is the only thi

evel. "Milo was crying loudly. He had a little fever, an

fev

ine, and he phoned back and spoke to Mr. Vanderbilt direct

again: the bowl of water, the chewed teething ring, the armcha

til Milo was

know, in two months, Alexander hasn't once spent time in this nursery after nin

er. "Perhaps because

something flickered behind Vanessa's lashes, and Ivy realize

r hands to her chest an

? Oh, my

rubbed his hot little forehead with the back of her hand. "Oh, my

eep, did

her eyes so hard she ne

embers she'

feel that she had performed enough. Then she straightened,

night,

t. The room

and stood still, li

lies. She had sa

ough she had just handed

=

ed too early

rm, easing a bottle between his lips, when th

resh, his tie perfectly knotted, but there were shad

is

t a question, quick and low, from a man

ld see. "His temperature's normal. He was restless for a part

side the rocker, one hand hovering near Milo's chee

murmured. "He

is whole body eased. Milo blinked up at him, milk bubbling at the corner of his lips, and Al

not looking at her.

at I'm h

eady. We're taking hi

inked.

She'll be there all day." His tone was neutral, almost careful. "Milo

her tongue. I'm only the nanny.

Mr. Vanderbi

d once a

ingers, her heart beating strangely. He h

e told herself. That's all

mber that when she

self was a calm, silver-haired man with round glasses and the unhurried m

lowered Milo gently onto the examination ta

chest, pressed a cool stethoscope to his hea

xpect." He turned to Alexander. "Keep doing what you were doing last night. Cool teething rings, lots of flu

od," Alex

ed. That should hav

is desk and pulled up

A few routine questions about his birth." He glanced over his g

losed it. Opened it again, "I

m, was he? Do you recal

. A lon

w tightened. "I wo

delivery? Did he need an

on't

sto

t. It wasn't even annoyance. It was something quieter and much worse. A m

by had cried straightaway or needed help to breathe. He did not know any of the things a father should know about th

as clearly as it had been written on the plastic bracelet in her shoeb

of it. She had been t

the screen. "That's what the hospital summary shows,

ne weeks,"

e words just came, the way a ha

ed. "Good. Any breathin

ut him under the warming lamp for a f

m went silent that she r

reen, pleasantly surprised. Al

looking

linking attention of a man who had just noticed somet

w all that?" he

outh we

k. T

uld manage. "When I started. She showed me some of

housekeeper would not usually carry a b

His gray eyes narrowed, searching her fac

he said

trange. He simply turned back to the doctor, and the

. "Wonderful. Mrs. Hale sounds very

s and did not look up again u

e home w

's car seat, one hand resting on the baby's tiny sock, w

sleep with

the car was a

s on the road. "Mrs. Hale told you

the records,

not usually hand

ould help me l

r of them looked away. In the mirror, she could see only his eyes, gray and unreada

g her. He was not

ack to the road.

thought, and then,

fully around his shoulders as if the task needed every bit of her attention. Afte

e against the leather. And she knew, with

it somewhere he co

=

stepped out of the house and

white roses glowed against the dark hedges. She did not

Sinc

o had Alexander's reasons for staying in that nurser

d

ed him. The easy way she had said perhaps because his son was teething.

a very long time. She knew exactly what it loo

t her phone

nected after

ok into someone f

ief

out her. Her background, her family, her pr

ze fixed on the dark

t it by tomo

and slipped the pho

tly still in the dark garden. Then

you really are,