The Reluctant Au Pair

by Melinda Barron

  “The police had more than fifty thousand euros. I’m sure that was all of it.”

  “You wish. The bitch took more than a hundred and fifty thousand from our cottage. She told me it was payback.”

  Michelle’s stomach churned. “For what?”

  “For blackmailing her, when I found out Antoine wasn’t Alex’s father.”

  This time, Michelle’s stomach dropped to the floor. “What?”

  “Oh don’t worry,” Mrs. Thaxton said in disgust. “It turns out she was wrong, and Antoine was the father. But there was the chance he wasn’t, and I played that chance to the hilt, taking as much money as I could from her.”

  “You are so evil.”

  “It wasn’t my fault she spread her legs for someone else. Of course, when Antoine started to question her about money missing from the accounts, she confessed all to him. They had the blood test done, and it turned out her fears were for naught. Still, they argued quite a bit.”

  “They were probably arguing the night of the accident. You drove them to their deaths.”

  There was a flicker of regret on the woman’s face, and then her eyes narrowed. “Nonsense. If she’d only cooperated and done as I asked, everything would have been fine. Instead, she broke into my cottage and took my money. All of it. I want it back.”

  “Why are you back now?”

  Mrs. Thaxton shook her head in disgust. “You really are an idiot. Your friend is gone down the way, and Alliot is gone. I knew you’d be all alone, and cooperate because of the baby. Now, tell me where you’ve searched and in what rooms the money was found in.”

  “Part of it in my bedroom. Alliot searched and found the rest. I don’t know where.”

  “Don’t lie to me.” The venom behind the woman’s voice made Michelle shiver.

  “I’m not lying.” Michelle ought the urge to take a step backward when the woman advanced on her.

  “Then call him, and ask him.”

  “He’ll be suspicious. He won’t tell me anything.”

  “Charm him. After all, he’s already been between your thighs, so he’s enticed. Be nice and promise him fun things the next time the two of you are in bed together.”

  Michelle’s hands balled into fists. She wanted to charge the woman and ram that same fist down her throat. But her husband stood nearby, his gun at the ready.

  “I’ll have to go to the office. I don’t know the number.”

  They all went upstairs, where Michelle found the number to Alliot’s office and dialed. She asked the receptionist, in a halting mixture of French and English, where Alliot was. The woman replied in perfect English that he wasn’t coming in that day.

  “This is his Au Pair,” Michelle said. “I need to find him. Quickly.”

  “Oh, Alex,” the woman said. “Is he all right?”

  “For now, yes. Where is Alliot?”

  The woman said he’d called to say he had business at home, and wouldn’t be back until the next day. The idea confused Michelle, who knew he’d left early that morning. She dialed his mobile number, and he picked up immediately.

  “Where are you?”

  “In the village,” he replied. “I’m looking at a vehicle for you, that’s an automatic so you don’t have to worry about shifting. The man called right before I left this morning, and I decided to stay here and take care of it. How are you, and Alex?”

  “I want to talk to you about the money.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m bored, and I want to search for more. Tell me where you’re searched already.” She turned to Mrs. Thaxton, who nodded her approval at her reasoning.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “That’s right, just bored.”

  “Is someone there?”

  “Yes, Alliot, please just tell me.”

  “I’m calling Luc, and then the police. They can probably get there before me.”

  “The attic? I can search in there while Alex is sleeping. He just went down for an early nap, but I have the monitor so I can hear him if he wakes up.”

  “I’ll tell Luc to get him out of the house, and to make sure he turns off the monitor in case he makes any noise. Take them to the attic, and make it convincing. Don’t antagonize them. Be careful.” He whispered in French that he would soon be there to help her, or at least that’s what she thought he said, and the line disconnected.

  “The attic,” she said, turning to Mrs. Thaxton. “You know how to get up there?”

  “Yes. Through a room just down the hall,” the woman said. “It’s not really an attic, just a storage room, but they always called it the attic. Let’s go.”

  Michelle considered turning the baby monitor off, but then worried that Alex would start to fuss before Luc could get to him. If that happened, how would the Thaxtons react? Would they want to bring him up in the attic with them? If they did, then Alex would be in considerable danger.

  Mr. Thaxton pushed open the doorway and they climbed the four short stairs into the room, which was loaded with boxes.

  “Yes,” Mrs. Thaxton said. “This makes sense. I worked hard for that money, and we’re going to find it.”

  “You stole it,” Michelle said. “You call that working hard, being a thief? A blackmailer?”

  “Don’t go moralistic on me. I know about you and your boss stealing money while you were in the States.”

  “I didn’t do it, he did.”

  “Tell that to someone who believes it.” She pushed Michelle in the back, and she stumbled forward. “Start looking. And don’t even think about trying to get away from us, because, although it would hurt me, I would hurt the child.”

  Fire flashed through Michelle’s heart. She wanted to rip this woman’s eyes out and shove them down her throat.

  “Don’t you dare hurt that baby.”

  “Then behave, it’s as simple as that.”

  Michelle started to search, opening boxes and looking in drawers. She wasn’t about to tell Mrs. Thaxton that they’d found the other money hidden under floorboards. There was too much chance it could be hidden under floorboards up here, and then, if they found something, what would happen.

  In an effort to stall, she stood and stretched. “I’m curious about something. Did you get all that money from people here?”

  “We’ve been here a while, yes. But some of the money was from before we came here.”

  “It’s still money you took from others.”

  “Still money I earned,” the woman replied. “Blackmail is hard work. You have to find out people’s secrets, then find out what they’re worth, and how much money they’ll part with. It’s harder than you would think.”

  There was a soft click on the baby monitor, and Michelle knew that meant Luc was downstairs, taking Alex from the house. She prayed the baby didn’t cry, as he was wont to do when someone other than herself or Bea picked him up. No noise reached her ear from the hallway, and then she decided that if he did cry, they were far enough away they wouldn’t hear him.

  Now that the threat against Alex was over, Michelle turned the full force of her anger on Mrs. Thaxton. Alliot had told her not to provoke them, but she was sick of her. Michelle remembered the woman’s reaction when Michelle had accused her in Antoine and Luca’s death. She’d felt regret. The key to catching her off guard, and maybe taking her down before the police came here, was playing on her feelings about that. She took a deep breath, and mentally said she was sorry to Alliot for going against what he’d said.

  Then, she wheeled on Mrs. Thaxton. “You disgust me. You might as well have killed Antoine and Luca. They were arguing because of you. You should be tried for murder.”

  “Close your mouth and get back to work.”

  “Why? There’s no car around for you to shove me into. Or perhaps your husband’s going to shoot me. Are they the first people you killed, or were there more?”

  “I said get back to work.”

  “And you know what I say? Go to hell.” Michelle kicked a box and d
ust filled the air. She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. “Screw you.”

  For a moment, Michelle was afraid Mrs. Thaxton would order her husband to shoot her. Instead, the woman returned her angry gaze, and then an evil glare came over her face.

  “Darling, go and get the child, but leave me the gun.”

  Michelle couldn’t believe her luck. Separating the two of them was a dream come true. Once the gun was gone, she would attack Mrs. Thaxton full force. She could take the woman, and by now the police were downstairs, right? Alex was safe with Luc, and this was almost over.

  Mr. Thaxton gave his wife the gun, then left. Michelle narrowed her eyes at his wife.

  “If Alex gets hurt, it’s your fault,” the woman said. “You should have thought of that. I have the advantage here. You would do well to keep searching.”

  “And you would do well to kiss my ass.”

  When the woman screamed in frustration, and pointed the gun at the floor, Michelle struck. The gunshot took her completely by surprise, but that was fine with her. The noise filled the room, and scared Mrs. Thaxton more than it did Michelle. She dropped the gun, and then turned toward the door. Michelle tackled her just as Alliot came up the stairs, dismay and shock written on his face.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Yes. She shot a whole in the floor, though. I hope no one was downstairs.”

  “No, Alex is down at Bea’s, and the police have Mr. Thaxton in custody.”

  The woman in question screamed in frustration again, and Michelle bounced on her back. “Too bad, bitch. Try and blackmail your way out of this one.”

  She smiled at Alliot, who shook his head. “You just had to provoke her, didn’t you?”

  “It worked, didn’t it?”

  For an answer he shook his head, and then his frown turned into a smile. “Thank the heavens it did.”

  *****

  One year later

  Alliot led Michelle up the four steps into the attic. The room was clean, and boxes had been searched for the missing money, to no avail. During the past year they’d searched almost every room in the house, and always came up empty handed.

  “Why are we here?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “We’ve already searched here.”

  “I realize that, wife, but you do know what today is, don’t you?”

  Michelle’s stomach flipped at his use of the term wife. They’d only been married for a few months, and it was still all so new to her.

  “It’s not my birthday.”

  “No.”

  “Or our anniversary.”

  “No.”

  “Or your birthday, or Alex’s birthday.”

  He shook his head, a smile slowly appearing, and then disappearing. “Try again.”

  A confused look crossed her face, and then realization dawned. “One year ago today, we captured the witch. And she’s in jail for a long time.”

  That’s right. One year ago today.” He took a step closer to her and Michelle’s heart beat faster. She still couldn’t believe this handsome man was her husband. This dominant man. He’d taught her so many things about herself she couldn’t hardly believe it.

  Chief among them was that she loved him, and she loved submitting to his power, and, truthfully, his punishments, too. The later were always varied, and didn’t always contain spankings.

  “Are we having some sort of part to celebrate this anniversary?”

  “Something with just the two of us,” Alliot replied. “I’m going to punish you for going against my express orders that evening.”

  Her mouth dropped open. When his words finally set in, she shook her head. “That night you said you wouldn’t. You said it was just enough that Alex and I were safe, and that if I ever disobeyed you that way again you’d punish me. This isn’t fair.”

  “Since when do I have to be fair? May I remind you that you are my wife, and when we married, you and I agreed that you would be disciplined whenever it was needed. It’s needed now.”

  Michelle backed up, anger replacing her shock. “No. This just isn’t right. You can’t punish me for something that happened a year ago.”

  He leaned against an old desk, his arms crossed in front of him. Then he started to speak as if she hadn’t even spoken. “There will be two parts to this punishment. First, you will stand in the corner up here, in the room where you made the transgression.”

  She was still shaking her head but she was no long voicing her anger. She knew it would do no good. Once Alliot had made up his mind, then it was done and over with.

  “Then, I will spank you in our bedroom.”

  “Alliot, this is just too much.”

  “Is it? Was it too much for you to put your life in danger? What if something had happened to you?’

  “But it didn’t. If you were going to punish me for what I did, you should have punished me then and there.”

  “Yes, I probably should have, and I realized that at the time. But, things were very hectic, and then there was the wedding, and the paperwork involved with you living here and such to deal with. Now that everything’s done, I started to think about what had happened, and how it could have gone so wrong. So badly wrong.”

  “But it didn’t.”

  “That’s not the point. The point is you disobeyed me, and I allowed it to go unpunished. There is no statute of limitations on a punishment from your husband.”

  Michelle wanted to yell that she hated him, hated his ideas. But she knew it wasn’t true. And, she supposed, being fair had nothing to do with the situation.

  “Fine.” Her voice was devoid of emotion. “Just do it and get it over with.”

  “Not so fast. We have rules where spankings are involved, don’t we?”

  “Yes.”

  “And tell me how they start.”

  “We discuss the reason for it. This time, however, I have to object.”

  “Object all you want.” Alliot cocked his head at her. “What’s the second rule?”

  “Your word is law, and your decisions are final.”

  “That’s right. And I’ve made my decision.” There was silence for a few long minutes, and then he cleared his throat. “You may think it harsh to punish you for something that happened a year ago, but I think it helps to reinforce the fact that you disobeyed, I let you get away with it, and now it’s time to pay the piper.”

  Michelle nodded.

  “Corner. Now.”

  Instead of arguing, Michelle crossed to the corner she knew he’d prepared for her. It was devoid of furniture, and of dust on the floor. When she got there she lowered her panties to her knees and lifted her skirt.

  “I will let you know when your time is up.” As she stood there, Michelle thought about the changes that had taken place in her life the last year. They hadn’t found any more money, but Alliot had always told her it just gave them something to search for.

  They hadn’t quite been married a year now, and they had an adopted son. Both she and Alliot had adopted Alex after the wedding. He’d suggested it for legal reasons, and she hadn’t resisted.

  But she knew there had been more to it than that. Alliot loved Alex, and she’d seen him playing with him, or just going into his room and looking into his crib at night. She knew he saw Alex as an extension of the brother that he’d lost much too early, and had never really gotten to know.

  That wouldn’t happen with Alex and any children she and Alliot had, when and if they decided the time was right. Both of them would see to that.

  She loved living in France, close to Bea, Luc and their children. And she loved her husband, punishments and all. They’d sat down before the wedding and discussed them, and she’d agreed to all of Alliot’s terms, which had been as she’d said, “It will be done my way. Period.”

  Now, standing here in the corner being punished for something that happened a year ago, she wanted to redo that conversation, and put a little more of herself in it.

  “What’s going thro
ugh your mind?”

  “That this is unfair, that sometimes I think you’re a big jerk.”

  “Fair enough. It doesn’t change things, but it’s fair.”

  She knew this spanking was going to be hard. The fun spankings she could live with. She liked those. That hurt, true, but they also released feelings insides her that brought her to places she’d never been before. Tonight’s spanking wouldn’t be like that, she knew. She should have known something was up when he suggested Alex stay at Bea’s house tonight.