ing grunt after, a middle-aged woman of average height and poised physique, walked in briskly. Her face was devoid of any emotion: not anger, not disgust, not anxiety, no

d morning, Mr. Galanis." Her eye

resence. His head was bent over some paperwork, and a ballpoint pen positioned between his right index a

never once looking up at her

nance stolid. He stared at her, as though she had been the one who'd called him into her office and not the other way round. Her face remained on his forehead. He cleared hi

ex towards the imminent acquisition of a smaller Tech firm, he'd had lunch with his mother and sister, golfed at the country club with three of his associate, visited miss Ivan

possible. "I apologize for mailing today's schedule later than usual. I ha

d his gaze disparaging. Gladys replied with a curt nod. She was used to his rather charming ways-unwittingly forthright, incredibly rude, wel

d wicked charm, his features were edgy and rough but combined in a way that gave a godlike appeal. Everything about him was beautifully chaotic; where his hair was as dark as night, his eyes were as blue and bright as the morning sky; where his jaw was chiselled, he had dimples as beguiling as the song of a siren to seamen; where

paid his attention fully to the docume

agencies are quite weary wi

Gladys? Weary' that is" sti

cable ..." She chipped in quickly before continuing, "...but constant rejection has seemed to make the agencies quite

tearing his eyes away from the document, finally, and gl

e they know wh

ve her call as many agencies as there a

rown at him, and the fact that she'd maintained quite vehemently that it didn't matter if there were a hundred available nannies, not that there were, she was sick and tired of assigning and reassigning nannies only to have every one of them returned. Not even o

sister, and when Leon's daughter Anastasia was born she resumed her work as a nanny. Nanny Bertha was more a governess than a nanny-her method was strict and austere and so was she; prim and her physique statuesque, the model of proprietary and discipline, class and sophistication. However, Nanny Bertha had become too old to keep up with the effervescence of a toddler and had begun to

smile unless it was extremely necessary and in such circumstances, a ghost of a smile was the only right kind, one had not to engage in playful activity and trivialities with the child, one had only to feed the child wholesome

anny Bertha. Not even Nanny Bertha could be a Nanny Bertha had she been born anytime betwee

the house manager distracted with having to care for Anastasia, a

ee to t

." She nodded and rose to her fe

on not to mention the trip to Miss Ivanov

pping in her tracks, she

oo

These documents had sensitive information and as scrupulous and leery as he was he had to personally work through them,