‘Of course. What do you take me for? I’d never do anything to wrong this family, you know that.’
‘Tell me about her.’
She wiped her hands on a nearby cloth. ‘There’s not much to tell. She came to the shelter a few times, and then I’d see her huddled in the doorway of a derelict townhouse not far from here. She’s been sleeping on the streets for a while and I don’t know her story, I just want to help.’
Jack rubbed his face. ‘Nicole, you can’t take in every waif and stray.’
‘I’m not an idiot. But this woman is different. Something in me wouldn’t let me leave her there, I couldn’t. I told her this address and told her if she wouldn’t come home with me or go to one of the shelters, then she should come here at nine o’clock after family dinner time and I’d give her a hot meal.’ She hesitated. ‘I’ve been doing that for three weeks now. And when your father told me to get rid of your mother’s red blanket, it was in my arms ready to do just that, but instead of putting it into the bin as he’d asked, I thought right away of Becky.’
‘So that’s her name.’
‘I doubt it. It’s unlikely she’d give me her real name. She’s no doubt in some kind of trouble. Goodness knows where she bunks down every night. I know the townhouse is no longer an option with the owners renovating, but at least I can think of her as fed and warm now. Or I could until your father chased her away.’ She smiled kindly at him as though confirming she knew he wouldn’t have behaved in the same way as his father. ‘You’d better get back to the party.’
Jack reluctantly returned to the dining room where he was seated next to Fern, and even though she was draped all over Braydon, she still instantly rested her thigh against Jack’s beneath the table. The woman was incorrigible, and what had happened tonight with Nicole had made Jack less tolerant of everyone in this room. He looked around at each of their guests in turn, most of them pleasant enough. On the surface it looked like it was a gathering of a close-knit circle. But Jack knew the truth and tonight, the reality had hit. Nicole, the housekeeper, meant more to him than anyone else sitting at this table, and his father’s behaviour had been out of character and inexcusable.
The rest of the evening passed slowly. All Jack wanted to do was escape to Reese’s apartment, feel her legs wrapped around him and forget about everything else. When the guests had finally gone and Jack took the remaining glasses out to the kitchen ready to be washed, the storm that had been brewing since the altercation on the patio was about to unleash.
‘I trust we won’t be seeing the young woman again.’ Kent stood at the side of the kitchen, cummerbund slightly crooked, bow tie undone no doubt as soon as he’d shut the front door to the last guest.
‘She’s gone,’ Nicole confirmed, rinsing the last of the cutlery that was too delicate to put in the dishwasher. ‘I’m sorry if you feel I’d acted inappropriately, but—’
‘There’s no question!’ Kent bellowed and even Jack took a step away from his father. ‘These people have no morals. They’ll lie, beg, steal—’ His voice broke. ‘They’re not to be trusted. Any of them.’
Nicole reached for a tea towel and began drying the cutlery. Jack wanted to get the hell out of there to Reese’s place but he couldn’t leave them like this. The atmosphere was usually jovial after a party, when all the hard work had finished and it was time to relax. Quite often Nicole and Kent would share a whiskey nightcap in the kitchen before she made her way home, but Jack doubted the top would come off the decanter tonight, let alone make it into the crystal glasses.
‘I believe in giving people a chance, Kent.’ Nicole didn’t look at either of them as she busied herself with her tasks. ‘She wasn’t doing anyone any harm. I don’t know her story, but I think she’s one of the good ones.’
Jack was wrong. The top came off the whiskey decanter in the corner of the kitchen, but only one crystal glass came down from the cupboard. Kent knocked back the double measure almost as quickly as it had been poured.
‘I will not have her type around my house, you hear me?’ Kent looked into the now empty glass. ‘I want your word you won’t give her any more handouts, you will tell her to leave if she ever comes here again.’
Nicole was no pushover and usually it was a quality Jack admired, but tonight when she spoke he cringed because he knew this wouldn’t be a happy ending.
‘I won’t give her anything that belongs to you, Kent, and I doubt she’ll even want to come back here after the way you were tonight. But I will give her my help, outside of the time I spend at this house, when and if she ever asks for it again.’
‘Then you leave me no choice.’ Kent decanted a second double whiskey as Jack and Nicole exchanged glances. ‘I want you to leave, Nicole. I won’t have someone in this house helping someone like her. I won’t have it. I’ll send you a cheque with the last of your wages, paid till the end of the week. And I’ll speak to the agency about any other payments owed to you.’ He left the kitchen with his whiskey and without looking back at either of them.
Jack looked at Nicole, the Sicilian American who had worked with the family for so long she felt a part of it and his heart all but snapped in two, not only for him but for his father.
‘He’ll come around,’ he told her when Nicole snatched her coat from the hook by the back door and put it on.
She calmly fastened the buttons, and tied her scarf, and only then did she look Jack in the eye. ‘I’ve always thought he was a good man.’ Her eyes and wobbly voice showed she wasn’t as calm on the inside as she was trying to make out. ‘But tonight, he’s gone one step too far.’
‘Let me talk to him. I know he can be a dreadful snob, and maybe he was embarrassed that this was a party and someone could’ve seen the young woman, but the way he acted tonight was out of character. I’ve never seen him like that.’ In his father’s eyes tonight he’d seen anger, hate, misery and even fear. And he had no idea why.
‘No, Jackson.’ She put a hand against his cheek. ‘This is the end, it really is. I’ve loved being a part of your life. You were my family, all of you, and I’ll miss you. But whatever Kent has going on, whatever issues drove him to behave the way he did tonight, without the basic act of human kindness, those issues are beyond what I can understand.’
Her mind was made up, and with only one glance behind her and a raise of her hand to bid him farewell, Nicole left the house, crossed the patio and disappeared into the night.
Jack stood at the back door, watching her go. He dared the icy air to bite at him, sting his lips, nip at his fingers. He was already so numb he wouldn’t feel it anyway. When he’d pulled on his tux this evening, ready for another Churchill gathering, he’d had no idea the evening would unfold like this. The father he’d once known hadn’t been present since the day his mother died. From that day, Kent Churchill had been withdrawn, too busy to do anything apart from run the business, and Jack had no idea, without Nicole, the glue that had held them together, where they’d go from here. Now they were simply two men, linked by biology. And Nicole was gone from their lives for good.
