What the Nanny Saw by Fiona Neill Read Free Book Online Page A

accustomed to such attention.
    The man on his right was gripping his forearm. Ali recognized this face but couldn’t put a name to it. When she took up residence a month later, one of the children told her that it was someone very important from the Bank of England, and asked if Ali agreed that he looked like a character from The Wind in the Willows . For the moment Ali turned her attention back to Nick. His teeth were unnaturally white, she thought, but perhaps it was the contrast with the black dinner jacket. He had dark hair, cut short, sleek as an otter. For a middle-aged man, he was still in good shape. Ali observed the full glass of wine and half-eaten plate of food in front of him and the empty glasses and plates in front of his fellow diners. He was someone who watched what he ate and drank, and felt irritated if he glanced down at another man’s stomach and compared it unfavorably with his own.
    Beside this was a wedding photo. Ali immediately recognized Bryony. She was engulfed by the two physically imposing men on either side of her. The taller one was Nick. The other, Ali guessed, was her father. Each had an arm around Bryony, but she somehow seemed separate from them both, as though she was stepping away from them toward the camera. Bryony was wearing the kind of wedding dress that Ali would choose if she ever got married. Handmade by Vera Wang, she would soon discover. On the end, slightly apart from the group, was a disheveled figure with wild, dark hair, tipping a glass of champagne toward the camera. He was an impostor, decided Ali. Later she discovered from the children that his name was Felix Naylor and he had once been in love with Bryony. “Still in love,” Izzy corrected the twins.
    The door suddenly opened, and Ali was unnerved to find herself still holding the wedding photo and staring at an older version of Nick Skinner. His hairline had receded and there were a few wrinkles around his eyes, but otherwise he was unchanged. These changes were good, decided Ali, because they bestowed a gravitas that wasn’t present in the wedding photo.
    “God, I’ve missed the interview, haven’t I?” he said, holding out a hand, and delivering a winning smile. “Bryony will kill me.”
    It was said in a way that suggested that Bryony was probably so used to such shortcomings that she would barely flinch. Ali clumsily put the photograph back on the table and tried to explain, as she awkwardly shook hands, that the dog wouldn’t let her leave the room.
    “Leicester was an anniversary present from Bryony’s parents,” he said, scratching the dog between the ears. “He most definitely wasn’t on our wish list. He’s so inbred that he’s developed a sort of canine dementia that means he lets people in the house but won’t let them leave. Really he should be dead.”
    “Is there anything you can do?” Ali politely inquired.
    “Well, I suppose we could accelerate the inevitable,” said Nick, curling his fingers into a gun shape and pulling the trigger at Leicester’s head. “We should have done it years ago, but Bryony said it would send the wrong message to her father.”
    “I meant for the psychological problems,” Ali stammered.
    “You’re not going to believe this, but actually, a couple of years ago, Leicester did have his very own head shrinker.” Nick laughed. Ali echoed him with a nervous laugh of her own.
    “It was one of Bryony’s wilder ideas. Leicester had developed a very scatological response to situations that he couldn’t control. He was seen by an animal psychologist for almost a year. He went to the canine equivalent of The Priory for three months and came out completely cured,” explained Nick, as though relieved to find something to talk about. “Although he’s been on antianxiety drugs and a special diet ever since.”
    “What did he do?” Ali asked.
    “Every time Bryony’s father came to visit, he mounted a dirty protest,” Nick said, and laughed. “There was