Stella nodded. "And your weaknesses?"
"The buying," she said without hesitation. "I'd just want to buy everything if it was up to me. I had to keep reminding myself whose money I was spending. But sometimes I didn't hear myself."
"We're in the process of reorganizing, and some expanding. I could use some help getting the new
system in place. There's still a lot of computer inputting—some of it very tedious—to deal with."
"I can handle a keyboard. PC and Mac."
"We'll go for the two weeks," Roz decided. "You'll get paid, but we'll consider the two weeks a trial balloon for all of us. If it doesn't work out, I'll do what I can to help you find another job."
"Can't say fairer than that. Thanks, Cousin Rosalind."
"Just Roz. We've got some gas out in the shed. I'll go get it, and we'll get your car up here so you can
get your things in."
"In? In here?" Shaking her head, Hayley set her cup aside. "I said I wasn't after a handout. I appreciate the job, the chance at the job. I don't expect you to put me up."
"Family, even distant-through-marriage family, is welcome here. And it'll give us all a chance to get to know each other, to see if we're going to suit"
"You live here?" Hayley asked Stella.
"Yes. And my boys—eight and six. They're upstairs asleep."
"Are we cousins?"
"No."
"I'll get the gas." Roz got to her feet and started out.
"I'll pay rent" Hayley rose as well, instinctively laying a hand on her belly. "I pay my way."
"We'll adjust your salary to compensate for it."
When she was alone with Stella, Hayley let out a long, slow bream. "I thought she'd be older. And
scarier. Though I bet she can be plenty scary when she needs to. You can't have what she has, and
keep it, grow it, without knowing how to be scary."
"You're right. I can be scary, too, when it comes to work."
"I'll remember. Ah, you're from up north?"
"Yes. Michigan."
"That's a long way. Is it just you and your boys?"
"My husband died about two and a half years ago."
"That's hard. It's hard to lose somebody you love. I guess all three of us know about that. I think it can make you hard if you don't have something, someone else to love. I've got the baby."
"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"
"No. Baby had its back turned during the sonogram." She started to chew on her thumbnail, then tucked the thumb in her fist and lowered it. "I guess I should go out, take the gas Roz is getting."
"I'll go with you. We'll take care of it together."
* * *
In an hour they had Hayley settled in one of the guest rooms in the west wing. She knew she gawked. She knew she babbled. But she'd never seen a more beautiful room, had never expected to be in one. Much less to be able to call it her own, even temporarily.
She put away her things, running her fingers over the gleaming wood of the bureau, the armoire, the etched-glass lampshades, the carving of the headboard.
She would earn this. That was a promise she made to herself, and her child, as she indulged in a long, warm bath. She would earn the chance she'd been given and would pay Roz back in labor and in loyalty.
She was good at both.
She dried off, then rubbed oil over her belly, her breasts. She wasn't afraid of childbirth—she knew how to work hard toward a goal. But she was really hoping she could avoid stretch marks.
She felt a little chill and slipped hurriedly into her nightshirt. Just at the edge of the mirror, just at the corner of her vision, she caught a shadow, a movement.
Rubbing her arms warm, she stepped through to the bedroom. There was nothing, and the door was closed, as she'd left it. -
Dog-tired, she told herself and rubbed her eyes. It had been a long trip from the past to the verge of the future.
She took one of the books she'd had in her suitcase—the rest, ones she hadn't been able to bring herself to sell, were still packed in the trunk of her car—and slipped into bed.
She opened it to where she'd left it bookmarked, prepared to settle herself down, as she did most nights, with an hour of reading.
And was asleep with the light burning before she'd finished the first page.
* * *
At Roz's request, Stella once again went into her sitting room and sat. Roz poured them each a glass of wine.
"Honest impression?" she asked.
"Young, bright, proud. Honest. She could have spun us a sob story about being betrayed by the baby's father, begged for a place to stay, used her pregnancy as an excuse for all manner of things. Instead she took responsibility and asked to work. I'll still check her references."
"Of course. She seemed fearless about the baby."
"It's after you have them you learn to be afraid of everything."
"Isn't that the truth?" Roz scooped her fingers through her hair twice. "I'll make a few calls, find out a little more about that part of the Ashby family. I honestly don't remember very well. We never had much contact, even when he was alive. I do remember the scandal when the wife took off, left him with the baby. From the impression she made on me, and you, apparently he managed very well."