“I was best friends with Sandra Burnside Key. I want to be sure Lillian and Remi aren’t being… taken advantage of.”
“Is that so?” One thing’s for sure, this woman won’t bully me. “Did someone ask you to do that?”
“Of course not. I consider it my duty as Sandy’s friend.”
“Perhaps this is something you should discuss with Remi. I don’t feel comfortable discussing family matters with strangers.”
Turning on my heel, I square my shoulders and walk with purpose toward the door.
Anita Flagbitch speaks in a whisper loud enough for me to hear. “Looks like a live-in geisha to me.”
“All I know is Phillip better not get any ideas.” Serena’s voice is rude as it ever was. “Ruby Banks is trouble.”
My face tries to get hot, but I fight it. For starters, I’m a nanny, I’m not Japanese, and by definition geishas did not all sell sex. Many of them were artists, musicians, and educated companions…
Whatever. All that explaining would be “casting pearls before swine,” as Ma would say.
Instead, I push through the door and through my feelings of embarrassment. I’m not doing anything wrong, and I’m too old for these women to hurt me.
6
Remi
Hiring Ruby might be the best decision I’ve made all year.
When I walked into the kitchen this morning, I could tell something was up by the way Lillie was dressed. Since she started preschool, Eleanor has had her walking around looking like an escapee fromToddlers and Tiaras, minus all the makeup. And the tiara.
I think my daughter might have liked that part.
Seeing Lillie laughing, brimming with excitement, and looking like a regular little kid this morning, melted my insides. The stress is off, and she’s having fun again.
Don’t get me wrong. If Lillie were the type of kid who wanted to wear smocked dresses and patent leather shoes all the time, I could deal with it. I want my daughter to be happy, but this morning I saw her true personality.
I also saw Eleanor’s attempts to control it, whether it’s because she doesn’t know how to let Lillie express herself or because she sees that expression as a threat. I don’t know.
Ruby, by contrast, lets my daughter shine. She gets on her level and plays with her. She talks to her, but she doesn’t force her to be an adult.
It’s incredible how it affects me. She’s like a gift.
Walking around my office, I toss the stress ball in the air, giving it a squeeze every time I catch it. I stop at the French doors facing the lake in my office.
All three floors have them. They’re lined up parallel to each other, with balconies on the second and third levels.
Ruby’s right, it’s a beautiful home, and the layout works well with my family situation. Each floor has privacy, like its own quarters… I never noticed it before.
I haven’t noticed a lot of things.
Gazing out at the calm waters, the cranes stepping carefully along the banks, I dismiss any second thoughts I might have had about hiring Ruby.
Sure, it was impulsive and seemingly out of the blue, but I’d been researching hiring a nanny for weeks. I had planned to go through a service, but trusting my gut has gotten me this far, and Ruby is clearly the right person for the job.
She’s a smart, independent woman who isn’t afraid of Eleanor and who also happens to be great with Lillie. It’s a stroke of luck I’m not sure a service would have provided.
My mind drifts to the way she took Lillie’s invitation to play that Disney princess scene last night. Ruby didn’t care who saw her. She didn’t care if it was silly. She only cared about getting to know my little girl and making a friend.
Seeing her that way did something more, though. It found a crack in the wall I’d built around my heart. It took all the feelings I’d set aside and stirred them up, twisting them into a new and unexpected emotion.
I realized in that moment… I am different.
