Jane by April Lindner Read Free Book Online Page B

Where is she?”
    “In her bedroom. If you could dress her in clean clothes, the nicest ones you can find…” Lucia’s voice trailed off, and she darted toward her office.
    “Consider it done,” I called after her.
    I found Maddy almost as worked up as Lucia, jumping on her bed and shrieking with laughter.
    “Miss Maddy, you’ll hurt yourself like that,” I scolded her. “Put your feet on the floor right now.”
    “Daddy’s here,” she told me, getting in one last bounce for good measure. “He always brings me presents.”
    I made a quick assessment of the closet’s contents. “And you want to look your best for Daddy, don’t you? Let’s see. What color should we choose: pale pink, poodle pink, pig pink, or hot pink?”
    “Hot pink!” she squealed.
    I handed her a flouncy skirt and a polka-dotted T-shirt. “Here, let me help you get that over your pigtails.”
    Once dressed, Maddy paced the room in circles. “When am I going to see Daddy?”
    “Soon.” I tried pressing the intercom to contact Lucia. Should we wait until Maddy was called for, I wanted to ask, or should we just come out? But Lucia seemed to be elsewhere. We waited a few minutes, and I tried again. Nothing.
    This is crazy,
I thought.
He’s her father. She shouldn’t have to wait here like a servant until he summons her
.
    I grabbed Maddy’s hand. “You ready, kid?”
    She held my hand almost all the way downstairs and then tugged free. “Daddy? Daddy?” She broke into a run into the livingroom, where a fire roared in a fireplace big enough to roast a wild boar on a spit.
    “Is that my girl?” The voice came from the high-backed armchair closest to the fire. From behind, I could see the silhouette of a man — my employer — start to rise, but Maddy tackled him and he sat back down, laughing. Of course his voice was familiar; I’d been listening to his music for a month… no, most of my life.
    “You’re here!” Maddy shrieked.
    I stood in the doorway, hands clasped before me, wondering whether I should stay or go. I was still wearing the grubby clothes I’d hiked in — a pine green T-shirt and a pair of jeans. I’d just about decided to slip back to my room when Maddy’s voice rang out again. “Daddy, guess what? I have a new nanny. Her name’s Miss Jane.”
    “Is that right? Is she good to you? Do you like her?”
    “I like her better than Miss Bridget,” Maddy told him.
    “And where is Miss Jane now?” he asked, peeking around the corner of the chair. Behind him, I heard the jangle of dog tags and saw a long shape stretched out on the rug before the fire.
    I took a step forward and froze. It was the man who had swerved to miss me and sideswiped the guardrail. He looked more natural than on his album covers and was younger-looking than I’d expected, but, still, he was unmistakably Nico Rathburn. How had I not recognized his face? In the many photos I’d seen of him, he had always seemed so removed from the world I lived in that now it was hard to believe he was standing a few feet away and looking right back at me.
    Lucia chose that moment to sweep into the room. She glancedat me, quickly registering disapproval of my sweaty and disheveled state before passing me by to address our employer. “I see you’ve met the new nanny,” she said brightly, then slipped back out the door.
    “Not exactly,” Mr. Rathburn said, looking right into my eyes, “not officially.”
    I stepped up to him and extended my hand. He held it a moment and then gave it a brisk shake. “Welcome to Thornfield Park.”
    I wondered again how I had failed to recognize him on the side of the road. True, his dark hair was shorter now than on his album covers. The clothes he was wearing earlier camouflaged his wiry physique and made him look more like a businessman than the front man of a band. And he’d sounded educated, not like I’d imagined Nico Rathburn would sound. But now that he’d taken off that stockbroker’s jacket, I could see