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Carrying Angelina into the bathroom adjoining the bedroom, she quickly started to prepare a bath for her, all the time holding her securely in one arm, sensing her fear and need to be held.
It astonished her when the conte suddenly appeared at her side, instructing her, ‘Give her to me.’
The baby started to cry again, a small, thin, grizzling cry of exhaustion, pain and misery. Dubiously Alice looked at her unwanted employer, but before she could say anything the baby turned her head and looked at the conte and suddenly she stopped crying, her eyes widening in recognition and delight as she held out her arms towards the man watching her.
To her own furious outrage, Alice actually felt sharp, emotional tears start to prick her eyes at this evidence of the baby’s love for her father. But what really shocked her was the easy way in which the conte had held his small daughter; whilst she prepared a bath for her, cradling her lovingly in his arms, soothing her with soft murmurs of reassurance until Alice was ready to take Angelina off him and gently remove her soiled clothes.
‘I think that she may only be suffering from a bad bout of colic,’ she told the conte as she gently lowered the baby into the water, keeping her attention on her all the time to ensure that she was not becoming in any way distressed, ‘but of course I would advise that she is checked over by a doctor.’
What she did not want to say was that she thought that it could be the inexpert handling of the baby by her nurse that was responsible for her agitated state. How could anyone leave such a young child with someone who was quite plainly not qualified to look after her?
Surely, having lost his wife, the conte would want to do everything he could to protect and nurture her child? A child who, it was already obvious to Alice, was looking helplessly to her father for love and security.
The arrival of the doctor interrupted her private thoughts, and whilst he was looking at the baby the conte had dismissed the nursemaid to go downstairs and have her supper, an act of apparent kindness, which for some reason only added to Alice’s resentment of him. He had shown no concern at all for the fact that she had not eaten in hours. Not that she wanted to eat particularly; she still felt slightly nauseous and suspected that she might still be suffering from shock. But just whether that shock had been caused by the accident or by the conte himself, Alice was not prepared to consider.
The doctor quickly confirmed Alice’s own diagnosis that the baby was suffering from colic and was probably also slightly dehydrated. Surprisingly he openly admonished the conte for allowing such an obviously inexperienced girl to have charge of Angelina.
‘I understand what you are saying, Doctor,’ the conte had accepted, ‘but I have had no real choice in the matter. The girl was chosen to take charge of Angelina by her mother. She has been with her since the first weeks of her birth, and I have been reluctant to remove her from the care of someone so familiar, although I have now taken steps to rectify the situation since, like you, I have been concerned about the girl’s ability to be responsible for the needs of such a small child.
‘Miss Walsingham here has been employed by me to take over full charge of the nursery and of Angelina,’ he told the doctor, turning to indicate Alice. ‘She is English, as Angelina’s mother was, and a fully qualified na
The doctor looked at Alice appraisingly, before turning to say with very Italian male appreciation, to Alice, ‘May I say how fortunate I consider Angelina to be to have such a pretty companion.’ The avuncular smile he gave her before turning back to the conte, along with the twinkle in his eye, reassured Alice that he was simply being gallant.
‘You will have trouble on your hands, I’m afraid, my friend,’ he continued to the conte.
‘I do not know whether to commiserate with you or envy you for having so much distracting temptation beneath your roof.’
Alice felt her face starting to burn. What on earth was the doctor trying to imply…? That the conte might be tempted. By her?
However, before she was able to formulate her own thoughts, the conte himself responded to the doctor, telling him with razor-sharp crispness, ‘I have employed Miss Walsingham for her professional qualities as a na
The hard-eyed look he gave her scorched Alice’s skin.
‘And since she has already foolishly exhibited to me just how irresistible she finds temptation, I fully intend to ensure that her will-power gets all the support it might need, and in whatever form she might need it.’
Alice gasped. How dared he take such a high-handed attitude with her, and in front of someone else? She was acutely aware of the interested way in which the doctor was now studying both of them, his dark eyes twinkling as though he found something amusing in the situation. Well, he might do so, but Alice most certainly did not.
However, before she was able to speak the conte continued almost brusquely, ‘It is essential that Angelina has stability in her life. She has already lost far too much…’ His voice had become so sober that immediately Alice felt unable to take issue with him regarding the statement he had just made.
‘Ah, yes, that was a terrible tragedy indeed,’ the doctor agreed gravely as he finished his examination of the baby and handed her back to Alice.
To her astonishment, as she reached out to take the baby the conte forestalled her, taking hold of his daughter himself and saying over Alice’s head to the doctor, ‘Miss Walsingham was involved in a thankfully minor accident earlier today, and I think it would be a good idea if you were to check her over…’
‘No. There’s no need. I’m fine,’ Alice responded immediately, bridling at the conte’s inference that she was almost as incapable of making her own decisions as the baby he was cradling against his shoulder with fatherly expertise.
At some point he had removed his jacket, and the fine white cotton of his shirt did very little to conceal the dark muscularity of the torso that lay beneath it. Alice could even see the shadowing of his body hair. And she actually felt her muscles threaten to go weak. Fortunately she was able to tense them against such betrayal as she forced herself to focus on the waiting doctor and not her employer.
‘I am perfectly all right,’ she insisted.
And it was, after all, the truth. That nauseous headache she was still suffering had simply been caused by the heat and her own intense emotions. The minute bruise she had sustained was luckily concealed by her hair, and there really hadn’t been any need for the conte to draw attention to her health!
Quite why she felt so resentful and hostile towards his apparent concern for her health, she didn’t know. Perhaps it had something to do with the anger she felt towards him that he could actually employ a woman he considered to be guilty of attempted theft to look after his daughter—who surely should matter far, far more to him than any mere material possession!
Reflecting now in the middle of the night on what had been said then, Alice reminded herself that the agency had told her before she’d left London that her prospective employer was looking for her to make a long-term commitment to her charge, and that she would be asked to sign a contract to that effect, but she had overlooked that fact in the turmoil of the accident and its aftermath. Now, however…
Quickly she got out of her bed and walked across to Angelina’s cot. She was the reason that Alice was now awake, her instincts alert to the baby’s distress even in her sleep. Angelina was lying awake, whimpering softly. Gently Alice lifted her out, checking her temperature and her nappy.