CHAPTER 9

After they changed their clothes with beautiful pajamas, Isabelle accompanied Marie and the girls to the kitchen where they chose what they wanted for dinner. Marie asked the cook to prepare dinner for two more people and then joined Isabelle at the table. While Frannie and Diana finished eating, the two women were drinking iced tea waiting for them. The little ones kept talking, making Isabelle smile.

"I'm so glad you agreed to stay for dinner, my dear," Marie said, putting the dirty dishes in the sink.

           Isabelle got up from her chair with the intention of washing them, but stopped immediately and sat down again, totally surprised by the amused stare of Marie. She realized that this wasn’t her house, that she didn't have to clean the kitchen or wash the dishes.

"Excuse me... I always do this at home..." she replied looking down.

"Don't worry," Marie replied and all four went to the living room for a few more minutes before putting the girls to bed.

         Frannie and Diana started talking to Isabelle in French, asking her something that Marie didn't immediately understand. She answered quickly and all three started laughing. Marie looked at her. A few moments ago, in the kitchen, she was so quiet... There was something about this young girl that nobody, not even her, could understand. From time to time, some kind of restlessness could be noticed in Isabelle's eyes. One could see that she was acting differently when her father wasn’t present.

“Listen, dear, Chris and I have this beautiful routine that consists of going to see at least once a week, a nice musical at the Golden Gate Theater. This weekend we're going to see ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. Would you like to come with us? I could ask Billy to come along. Maybe we all can have dinner in the city...”

“I've always liked musicals, and this is one of my favorites. As a child, I often went with my father to see all the shows possible. The last show I remember seeing with him was ‘Annie’. After seeing it, I sang ‘Tomorrow’ the whole day long,” Isabelle answered with great enthusiasm.

          Then, thinking of her poor wardrobe, she realized that it wouldn’t be possible to accompany the Graysons to the theater. She couldn't go to the Golden Gate Theater dressed in jeans, a shirt, and white sneakers. But seeing the show, hearing those beautiful songs… that would’ve been so wonderful…

"Oh, I don't know if my father will let me go out and stay away all these hours."

"Don't you worry, I'll talk to him. You will see, when I’ll tell him that Billy will be your plus one for the evening, he will say yes right away. Maybe your presence along with us will finally convince my son to start seeing musicals again. Lately, he only thinks about work. Besides, I saw the way he looked at you earlier…"

"Please, Mrs. Grayson, don’t say that..." Isabelle whispered and her cheeks turned red as fire. “I'm convinced that Billy has other things to do and to think about... Besides, I'm not interested in certain things. I'm here to take care of the girls.”

“Well... that will remain to be seen,” Marie added, smiling at Isabelle who looked quite embarrassed by her last words.

                Isabelle looked at the girls who were laughing and chatting while they were flipping with curiosity through a photo album that they had found under the coffee table. Marie stood up, took the album from their little hands, and placed it on the table. The little ones understood that it was time to go to bed and started running towards their room.

“I love them so much! They are wonderful, intelligent, so well educated. They are my own fountain of youth!” Marie exclaimed proudly.

                When Isabelle and Marie joined them, the girls were finishing to brush their teeth.

“Vous êtes si belles, mes chères!” (You two are looking so pretty, my dears!) Isabelle said in French looking at them as they were rushing to their beds. “Vous êtes vraiment adorables!” (You are totally adorable!)

               Marie helped them get under the covers and then kissed them on their foreheads.

“I’ve wanted to read to these two dolls the bedtime story, but I think I'll leave this job to you tonight. Amongst other things, I have to go to the kitchen to see if everything is all right with our dinner and then I have to go upstairs and change. We’ll see you in the living-room, ok?”

"All right, Mrs. Grayson," Isabelle replied. "You go, I’ll take care of the girls and I'll be there shortly," she added.

“What do you think if by the end of this dinner you will start calling me by my name instead of ‘Mrs. Grayson’. I always have the feeling that behind me is my mother-in-law and she always was Mrs. Grayson," Marie added and left the room without listening to her reply.

            Isabelle laid down on Diana's bed with the girls near her and opened a book with fairy tales written in French. She struggled to utter a couple of words, but the girls helped her, and, in the end, everything was just fine. It was a wonderful experience for Isabelle. Speaking in French, taking care of these little girls... Up until this point, she didn't realize it, but she liked children, they were really funny and sweet. They fell asleep very quickly and Isabelle covered them well and then kissed them on the cheeks. She looked at them tenderly, remembering old times, those times when her father adored her when he had the time to read her stories and stay with her until she would fall asleep...

Oh, God!... her father… She recalled that her father had to be there any moment now to have dinner with the Graysons. She went to the door, opened it slowly, and then tiptoed out of the girls' room. She turned and bumped into someone. She stopped breathing when two hands caught her in time before falling on the floor. Isabelle looked up to see who the person was, and she remained speechless. It was him... the stranger she met the other day, that arrogant man who tried to stop her from returning to the ranch. Isabelle wasn’t a violent woman, but at that moment she wanted to hit this man with all her strength.

                She pulled away from his grip and stared at him with great curiosity, wondering what he was doing in the Graysons house. The cowboy outfit was gone, now he was wearing black trousers, a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, and a pair of black shoes. He took the suit jacket that had fallen to the floor and cleaned it very carefully.

“You should be more careful where you’re going!” he said, and the harshness of his tone made her shiver.

              Who was this rude guy and why was he roaming around the Grayson house like he was the absolute master? She wanted to tell him so many things, but the only word that came out of her mouth was ‘sorry’. Isabelle looked down to make sure he didn't realize what she was thinking at that moment and tried to get away from him. But in an instant, his hand tightened around her arm.

“What were you doing in there?” he asked her while he was looking toward the girls' room.

         She raised an eyebrow, quite intrigued about the reasons for his third degree. He spoke with such arrogance that Isabelle wanted to go and find the others and leave him there alone and without explanations.

"I could ask you the same thing," she replied, smiling for the first time.

           His hand tightened even more around his arm and Isabelle tried to break free from him and the pain she was starting to feel.

"Damn it... You have to tell me what you were doing in the girls' room?" he repeated, emphasizing every single word.

"I don't have to tell you anything, but since we're here and you're so curious... I’ve read a bedtime story to the girls, and I put them to bed," she answered almost unwittingly. “I'm their new nanny. Mrs. Gr... Marie hired me to help her with the girls.” She looked at him and she didn’t understand why she was giving him all those explanations. “Who are you? Why do you want to know all these things? How come you walk around in this house and around the ranch as if you were the boss?”

             He began to laugh, the same arrogant and unnerving laugh she had heard the first time she saw him, the same laugh she had heard in her mind over and over again, all night long, after their first meeting. Isabelle didn't know him, but she hated him with all her heart for his behavior towards her.

"You really don't remember me, or are you pretending in order to get my attention even more?"

"‘Get your attention?’" This guy became more presumptuous with every passing moment. Ok, enough with this game! She had to go back to the living room, her father had to arrive, and she wanted to be there, to wait for him.

“For the last time, I’m telling you: I don't know you. I don't know who you are, I've never seen...”

            But she stopped. Her blue eyes grew larger as she realized who the man in front of her was. She raised her hand and involuntarily, her fingers lightly caressed his disheveled blond hair and then followed the line of his face that seemed to be carved in stone. And those eyes... Oh God, it was him! The last time she saw him, the man in front of her was about to finish college and she was only sixteen. All that had happened to her had erased the memory of the boy who, after her mother's funeral, had stared at her all the time with a mocking smile on his lips, the same smug smile she already saw earlier, the same boy that said something to Billy Grayson and they had laughed at her. She immediately stopped caressing his face.

"You're the boy who came with the Graysons at my mother's funeral..." she said softly, almost whispering those words, not paying much attention to the harshness of his touch. “Wow! You didn’t change at all. You were hateful and rude then and you still are...”

“You and your father are so greedy… You sneaked into ‘Silver Spur Ranch’ and you took it, now you're sneaking in this house too?” he asked, getting closer to Isabelle staring at her with his cold blue eyes. “I really can't understand what kind of a… nanny could be someone like you, someone who grew up ‘in captivity’… How can you take care of two little girls who talk half of the time in French?”

“My father and I didn’t take anything from anyone. We are not thieves. It was Mr. Grayson who offered to make the ranch available to us. Had it been for me, I would have stayed in the house where I grew up. Anyway, I don't know what’s your role in this house, and I don't even care, but what I know is that it's not up to you to decide whether or not I'm good at taking care of Francine and Diana. Tu es vraiment un être détestable et j'espère ne te revoir jamais!” (You really are a hateful being and I hope I never see you again.) she finished the sentence in French just to make him understand how right she was for this job.

              He moved his head slightly and Isabelle saw that the expression on his face changed. If he was dead serious up till that point, now he was smiling again.

“Croyez-moi, Belle, on va se revoir... j'en suis sûr!” (Believe me, Belle, we’ll see each other again... I’m sure of it!) he replied also in French.