House of Storms by Violet Winspear Read Free Book Online Page B

that the cross-currents of sensuality that drew people together and then swept them apart were truly related to the mysterious emotion called love.
    'I'm not smart enough to puzzle it out,' Nanny Rose retorted. 'I was a nursery-maid when I was fourteen and trained in the ways of being a nanny by the time I was twenty, and in those days a nanny was expected to stay single. The only young men in my life have been this sort.' She patted young Dean on the head. 'The only time they break my heart is when the time comes for them to go off to school. But over the years they go on writing to me and sending snapshots of themselves, and sometimes that's more than real sons bother to do.'
    'Have you always looked after little boys?' Debra looked intrigued.
    Nanny nodded as she took a flannel to Dean's face and hands. 'I'm good with lads so I select to nanny them. I had five sisters, you see, and by the time I left home to go and be a nursery-maid I'd seen enough of female tricks to last me a lifetime. I left the Welsh valleys with my suitcase in my hand and took a train to Somerset where I began my first job. A big grand house it was and I was so overwhelmed.'
    'Didn't you ever want to fall in love and get married?' Debra asked.
    'I suppose it crossed my mind when I was a romantic girl, but once I found out that I enjoyed being a nanny I stopped thinking about it. The best jobs in the best houses go to single nannies and I preferred that to chancing my arm with some young smart-alec who might make a drudge of me—I saw that happen to three of my sisters. Marriage can be a chancy business and no mistake.'
    'It seems to be a mistake Rodare Salvador doesn't intend to make.'
    'He's more like his mother's people than his father's, so he'll make sure he's got the right girl before putting a ring on her finger.' There was a dry note in Nanny Rose's voice, as if her years as a nanny to boys had given her quite a bit of insight into their ways. 'And I expect you can judge for yourself, Debra, that he won't be easily satisfied. He's got Spanish pride in him and he'll be a right challenge for the girl he settles on, and the Lord help her if she ever goes astray!'
    'You sound like a Welsh soothsayer,' Debra laughed.
    'I know how to read the tea leaves, my girl, so any time you want to know your fate I'll take a look at what lies at the bottom of your teacup.'
    'I'm not so sure that I want to know my fate.' Debra rose to her feet and gave little Dean a cuddle. In response he laid his head against her breast and blinked his dark lashes at her, already showing signs of being quite a charmer.
    'You're my boy-friend, aren't you?' she smiled at him, and Dean smiled in solemn response.
    Some time later Debra was busily at work in the den when the door suddenly opened . . . she glanced up from the typewriter, taking off her horn-rims in order to see who had entered.
    'Hi there.' Stuart Coltan closed the door behind him and strolled to her desk, wearing navy slacks and a sky-blue shirt that matched his eyes. Debra felt a flash of surprise at seeing him, and felt again that there was something disruptive in his personality.
    'I'm very busy, Mr Coltan,' she said firmly.
    'I really go for that crisp and efficient manner of British secretaries,' he drawled. 'It makes me wonder what it may be hiding.'
    'All it's hiding, Mr Coltan, is the desire to get on with the job,' she retorted.
    'On a Sunday?' He lounged against her desk and studied her hair in a ray of sunlight through the mullioned windows behind her shoulders. 'What a little glutton you are for work—is it all you live for?'
    'When the work's enjoyable.' She had to admit to herself that close like this he was every bit as good-looking as on television, with thick dark hair that peaked above his eyes, a deep dimple in his chin, and a lean, agile body that gave every indication of his dancing ability.
    'You really mean to say that you enjoy pounding that machine most of the day?' he quizzed her.
    'I'm