Taking a deep breath, I dove in. “Elyse… I know you don’t feel comfortable talking to me, and that’s okay. You don’t have to talk to anyone you don’t want to. But… I’d like to speak to you, and it would make me so happy if you would listen. You don’t have to respond, you just have to listen. Would you please do that?”
After a few seconds, she nodded.
“Thank you.” I took a moment to gather my thoughts. “I never told you this, but my mother died when I was a little girl, too. I was a little older than you, but… it was hard. It was the hardest thing I ever faced. I loved her so much, and then she was just gone.”
Elyse was staring at the table, her hands trembling slightly.
“I was lucky. I had my sister to help me through it. Nothing made the pain go away completely, but talking about it helped.”
I sighed. “You have a lot of people you can talk to, Elyse. Your dad. Your brother. Gretchen. Your grandmother. It doesn’t have to be me, but it should be somebody. Some things in life are just too hard to handle on your own. And if you don’t talk about them, those feelings get stuck inside you, and sometimes they make you sick.”
Bringing my bag with me, I moved over to the table, balancing on a child-sized chair across from her. Elyse’s head was bowed, her gorgeous hair in a sophisticated topknot. “Please, Elyse, please talk to someone. Everyone here loves you and wants what’s best for you. Please try.”
Her silence was expected, but thought I saw her give a tiny nod.
“I’m not qualified to tell you how to feel better. I think there isn’t just one specific way. But I do remember that when I was a little girl, sometimes it helped to focus on things I enjoyed. Like when my sister took me for ice cream. For a few minutes, I could think about something else instead of how much it hurt. You don’t have to forget the pain, but maybe sometimes you can try to let it fade in the background for a short time. Like the background of a movie.”
“Another thing that helped was knowing there were people around who cared about me. There are so many people here who care about you and who want to help you. One of those people is me. I know I can’t take away your pain, but I thought of something that might help you push it in the background for a while. So I got you this.”
I opened the bag and pulled out a toy bow. Elyse’s eyes widened as I placed it and a quiver of toy arrows on the table in front of her. Instantly, she picked the bow up, running her fingers over it. She held it in both hands and closed one eye, pretending to take aim as she drew back the string.
I handed her an arrow with a suction cup on the tip. “Just one thing to remember. It’s a toy, but don’t ever point it at someone’s face.” Elyse nodded. “And whatever you do, please don’t use it to hunt Derrick’s birds.”
She giggled which almost made me drop the other arrows. Then she shocked me further by asking a question. “Where did you get this?”
Five words—she’d actually said five words in a row to me. “My sister found it at a toy store in California.”
“California?”
“Yes. See? I told you people cared about you—even ones who don’t know you. They want you to be happy.”
I put the tote bag on the table. “And this was sent to you from London.”
Elyse looked up at me, briefly making eye contact before opening the bag and reaching in. Her mouth dropped open—likely surprised by the springy texture she encountered. Then a grin split her face as she pulled out a massive amount of red curls.
She held the wig up to her head and stared at the way the corkscrew curls cascaded over her arms. “Princess Merida!” she exclaimed.
I’d sent my friend Frankie many pictures of the Disney Princess from the movie Brave, and he’d more than exceeded my expectations. The wig was high quality and small enough to fit Elyse’s head—that couldn’t have been easy to find. “There’s a dress, too.”
With wonder, Elyse pulled out the full-length, teal gown with gold trim. Her mouth open, she stared at it, running her fingers across the fabric. I couldn’t wait to tell Frankie how much the little girl liked it.
Elyse carefully laid the dress on the table, unfolding and smoothing it out. Once that was done, she placed the wig above the neckline and put the bow by one of the sleeves.
“Would you like me to help you put it on?”
She didn’t answer, seeming content to stare at the costume.
“That’s fine if you just want to look at it for a while. But if you’d like to put it on, let me know. I can help you with the wig.” I folded up the empty tote bag and stood up, unable to resist smiling at the way the princess was fixated on the costume. “I’m going to see if Derrick’s back. We’ll be in the playroom if you want to join us.”
With one last glance at the joy on her face, I turned away. However, I stopped at the door when I heard a noise behind me. It sounded like a chair scraping on the floor.
And then I heard it: “Thank you… Cara.”
“You’re welcome, Elyse.”
I grinned as I exited the room.
Back in the playroom, I found Derrick talking animatedly with the retired groundskeeper, Wilhelm. Insisting I sit down, Derrick regaled me with what he’d learned about his new friend. “He used to train falcons! They landed on his arm and hunted and everything!”
“That’s impressive,” I said, smiling at the old man. “Nico showed me the old mews when we were walking on the grounds.”
Wilhelm smiled back. “I worked in that building for many years, miss. The prince and his grandfather were very good with the birds.”
We talked for a few minutes more and then I finally convinced Derrick that it was time to let our visitor go. “Thank you so much for coming today, Wilhelm.”
“It was my pleasure, miss. There’s not a lot to do now that I’m retired.”
“You can come back,” Derrick exclaimed, and the groundskeeper and I exchanged a smile over the little boy’s head.
“Next time come for lunch,” I said.
At Derrick’s request, I found a website on falconry for him to look at. The language was pretty complex, but there were a lot of pictures and diagrams.
Once he was settled, I went back to check on Elyse. I peeked in her door, but the room was empty. She must’ve gone to see her grandmother. I sighed… I shouldn’t have expected anything else. She’d spoken to me today, and she’d said my name. That was progress. It wasn’t like I’d thought she’d suddenly open up to me. But it was a start.
I’d just turned away when I heard a noise. “Elyse?” Turning on a light, I stepped into her room. Once I’d reached the window, I noticed that the door to the bathroom was slightly ajar. “Elyse, are you in there?”
A small voice say, “Yes.”
“Can I come in?” There was no answer to that, so I knocked on the door and it opened a few more inches. I stepped inside.
Elyse was standing in front of the sink, looking in the mirror. She wore the blue dress I’d gotten her though it wasn’t zipped up all the way in the back. The red wig was on her head, but her dark, glossy hair stuck out from underneath it in several places. She tried to tuck a long strand under the wig, but it popped back out.
“Let me help.” I scooped a handful of red curls over her shoulder so I could raise her zipper. She trembled slightly at my touch, but didn’t object. “There, now it’s all zipped up. It fits well. As for the wig, there’s a trick to getting them to stay on. I learned it back when I did plays and such at school. Why don’t we go out to the vanity in your bedroom?”
She nodded and went to sit on the little stool that she used when Gretchen did her hair in the morning. I moved behind her, looking at her reflection in the mirror. “I’m going to lift this off for just a minute, okay?”
Once the wig was off, I located a jar of bobby pins on the dresser and started pinning her hair close to her scalp. I narrated as I did, explaining what I was doing and expanding on other tricks we sometimes used in the theater. She didn’t say anythi
ng, but I could see in the mirror that she was avidly listening.
When her hair was completely pinned up, I situated the wig on her head, smiling as the red curls cascaded down her back. She looked beautiful, but in a different way than she usually did. The unruly curls made her look younger and somehow more relaxed. The loose curls were definitely a change from her normal, elaborate updo.
“What do you think?”
Elyse stared in the mirror and stroked one hand down a long strand of curls.
“Where’s the bow and arrow? Let’s see how you look with that.”
She quickly fetched the toy weapon. Then she assumed a hunter’s pose, situating an arrow and drawing back the string.
“Stay just like that…” I took out my phone, adjusted it, and snapped a picture. “Perfect. Come see.”
Elyse hurried to my side and looked. She reached out one thin finger, touching the skirt of her dress on the screen.
“You look just like Princess Merida,” I told her.
The little girl tore her eyes away from the picture and looked up at me.
Her smile was priceless.
20
Cara
I was passing Nico in the hallway one afternoon when we both heard a squeal. Elyse ran by, wearing her costume and clutching her bow and arrow. The long red curls from the wig flew behind her as Derrick followed in her wake, shouting something incomprehensible to her.
Nico and I both paused to watch until they disappeared. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. Elyse still seemed thrilled with the costume. She begged me to help her put it on after lunch every day. While pinning up her hair, I kept up a steady monologue, telling her about my life in California and about my days in the theater. She didn’t always respond, but she listened intently.
Nico was smiling, too. “I’ve got to hand it to you, that costume you got Elyse was pure genius. She loves it. I haven’t seen her look this animated in years.”
I giggled. “Good one.”
“Huh?”
The expression on Nico’s face made me laugh more. “She’s dressed like a character from a cartoon, and you said she looked animated.”
He rolled his eyes, but a reluctant grin stole across his face. “I didn’t even realize.”
In spite of my frustration with him lately, it was good to see him smile.
“Thank you for making her so happy,” he said with obvious sincerity.
Aww. “You’re welcome.”
Suddenly, he chuckled. “When my mother saw her in that get-up, she about had a fit. In a queenly way, of course.”
“Of course.”
“I told her to let it go.” There was a gleam in his eye that made my breath hitch.
“Umm, unless she disowned you or whatever it’s called for royals, good for you.”
He thought about it for a moment. “I believe it would be called being barred from succession. But didn’t you get my joke? Let It Go is the song from that movie Elyse loves.”
“That’s from Frozen. Elyse is dressed as Princess Merida from Brave. But points for trying,” I said, unable to hide a grin.
“I just… since you got here, I realized how little I know about what the twins do each day. I’m trying to change that. Maybe I need a crash course on Disney Princesses 101.”
It was even easier to like him when he was in concerned father mode. Even though his behavior recently had hurt my feelings, he was still a good man. In some ways, that made it harder, though, because it made me like him even more.
I sighed. “Actually, that reminds me. There are some things I’d like to talk to you about. Is there a time we could meet?”
His jaw tightened. “Nothing’s changed, Cara. It can’t.”
“Not about us—about the kids. I’m thrilled that Elyse likes the costume, but it’s not a magic cure-all.”
Nico’s eyes softened. He took out his phone and checked his schedule. “I’ve got a conference call with New York tonight after dinner. That’s going to take a few hours. Is ten-thirty too late?”
“Of course not.”
“All right then… my office at ten-thirty. No drinks, no fire, just business.”
“Got it,” I said. “I’ll be there, prepared to be thirsty and cold.”
The corner of his mouth twitched upward. “I’ll see you then.”
At the appropriate time, I knocked a bit nervously on the door to Nico’s office. I couldn’t say exactly why I was nervous. He’d already made it clear that nothing could happen between us, so it wasn’t like I was afraid of getting my hopes dashed. That had already happened.
Maybe I was worried about talking to him about Derrick and Elyse. Sometimes when I tried, he bristled. But… mostly, it was just an undefinable uneasy feeling.
Nico answered the door, and for a moment, my pulse involuntarily sped up. Why did he have to look so damn hot? He had on black jeans and dark boots. A forest-green button-down shirt made his hazel eyes look greener than ever. His hair was pushed back from his face, and a five o’clock shadow lined his jaw.
It was a good look on him.
He held the door open and I stepped past him and paused, staring at the hearth.
Evidently following my gaze, he said, “I relented on the fire. You’re right, it can get pretty cold in here.”
“Then I guess I won’t need these.” I pulled off the mittens I’d been wearing and placed them on an end table by the couch.
He smiled that sexy half-smile of his when he saw that. Nico looked around and then seemed to come to a decision. “I cleared off the table by my desk, but somehow I guess you’d prefer to be nearer the fire.”
“I would, thank you.” I moved past him and sat on the sofa, making sure to face forward, not angled toward the side where he’d be sitting. I had on jeans, a long-sleeve shirt, and a sweater over it. Once I was settled, I pulled my knees up to my chest and stretched my sweater down over them, providing extra warmth—and hopefully showing the prince that I was here to talk business, not seduce him.
Though if I thought there was any chance of him succumbing to the latter, both would’ve been on the agenda. But he’d made his decision.
He sat down. “I meant what I said earlier. I’m really impressed by the way you found something that makes Elyse so happy. I haven’t seen her like this in a long time. Thank you, Cara.”
“You’re welcome—but it’s not enough.”
“I know, but it’s a start.”
I looked into the fire for a moment, trying to think of how to frame my suggestions. “Have the twins always gotten along so well with each other?”
“Always,” he said, and there was pleasure in his voice. “Since the day they were born, they’ve been inseparable.”
“I’m close to my sister, very close. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be a twin. Such a special bond.” I hesitated and then plowed ahead. “But I also think they need to strengthen their bonds with you. I think that you need to do more with them.”
He was silent for a moment, looking forward instead of at me. “I admit, my work keeps me pretty busy, but I do what I can. We have dinner together and usually play games or read afterwards.”
“I know,” I said hurriedly. I hadn’t meant to make him defensive. “That didn’t come out right. I meant that I think perhaps you should try to spend more time with them individually.”
“But that means less time with each one overall,” Nico objected. “If I only get a certain amount of time to spend with them each day, I can maximize it by playing with them together.”
“The problem is, they’re getting older and their interests are not always the same anymore. Derrick has his birds, and Elyse has her new obsession with Disney movies.”
The prince sighed. “Okay, so I’ll make more of an effort to run around the rooftops with Derrick, but as for Elyse, if we’re just watching movies together, why not invite Derrick as well?”
“That’s not quite what I’m suggesting. I was actually thinking about some
ideas for when the weather gets better—it will eventually get warmer here, won’t it?”
He gave a low chuckle at the note of concern in my voice. “It will indeed. The temperature is already higher than it was last week.”
“Good,” I said with genuine relief.
“What’s your idea?” Nico prompted.
“Well, for Derrick… I was thinking maybe you could teach him falconry.”
The prince drew in a quick breath. “That’s quite an intensive hobby, Cara. It’s a lot more involved than a few pigeon coops on the roof.”
“I know. And you’re right, it would be a major undertaking, but think of how much it would mean to him.”
“I’m just not sure you know how much time it takes. It’s not a hobby, it’s more of an art.”
“You wouldn’t have to do it alone, you know. Wilhelm was here the other day.”
“Really? How’s he doing?” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nico’s smile.
“Good, but he seems a bit bored with retirement.”
“He worked here forever. Until a few years ago, I can’t even think of a time when he wasn’t a groundskeeper.”
“So maybe this would make him happy, too. At least think about it.”
“I will. It’s a major commitment, but I will.”
“Thank you. Now for Elyse.”
The prince groaned. “So what are you thinking for her? Should I dress up as Snow White and invite her to a tea party?”
“Sure, that or possibly something slightly less sexist,” I said, my voice icily polite.
“Ouch,” Nico said, and then he scooted around, angling himself toward me. “You have a point. What do you think Elyse and I should do together?”
“Archery.”
“Archery?” he echoed. “But that bow is just a toy.”
“Yes… a toy that she loves. So buy her a real one and teach her how to use it.”
Dashing: A Royal Cinderella Billionaire Story Page 14
