“I’m sorry. You must be disappointed,” Sabrina said. “Naturally I expect you to terminate my employment.”
He frowned. Was this his chance to fire her? And if so, what would he do with the girls? And what would he do without her?
“As you said, a condition for my staying was that I would help to prepare them for entrance to the school. I’ve failed you. I’m sorry.”
“But you’re not sorry they weren’t accepted.”
“I confess. You know my thoughts on that matter. I still think I’m right, but you are their father. It’s your decision. But according to our agreement, I will tender my resignation. You hired me to prepare them for the Academia. Naturally I’ll stay until the end of the week, but I haven’t done my job, and I understand the consequences.” Sabrina blinked back tears. She hadn’t realized until that moment what it would mean to her if the twins didn’t get accepted. She had to keep her word. He was sure to keep his.
“We’ll discuss this later,” he said briskly.
Sabrina left the room rather than give in and tell the prince she’d stay no matter what. The idea of leaving the girls and this house and yes, leaving their father was enough to make her stomach churn and her knees shake and the tears just seconds away.
That night she ate with Gianna and Caterina in the kitchen as usual, although Vittorio was back. She didn’t know what her place was or where. Either did the twins. Vittorio knew and he’d made it clear by having the cook prepare a tray for him in his study. Obviously he didn’t want her company nor his children’s. “His loss,” she muttered to herself.
“Was Papa very angry?” Caterina asked after pushing the pasta with Bolognese sauce around her plate. “Because we’re not going to the Academia?”
“He was disappointed,” Sabrina said.
“It’s not your fault,” Gianna said with a glance at Sabrina.
“He shouldn’t blame you,” Caterina said. “And make you leave. Now that we’re not going away, we need you to take care of us. To play games and tell us stories.”
Sabrina looked at them and realized they had probably overhead the conversation where she’d offered to resign.
“We don’t need a nanny, we need a mama,” Caterina added.
“I’m afraid that your father’s engagement to Ms Bellasandro has been broken.”
They clapped their hands. There was no mistaking the smiles on their faces. Smiles and applause but no surprise which made Sabrina think they’d planned this breakup or at least hoped for it.
“Do you like our papa?” Caterina asked when they’d finished their pasta and the fruit course had been served.
“Of course. He’s very….” Sabrina struggled to find the right word.
“Rich, he’s very rich. That’s why Aurora wanted to marry him,” Caterina said. “You could have anything you want if you married him.”
“I’m a nanny. I’m not going to marry anyone, least of all your father,” she explained. “We had an agreement that I would coach you for your entrance to the Academia. Now that you’re not going, there’s no reason for me to stay.”
Gianna chewed on her finger nail. “Who will take care of us?” she asked.
Sabrina didn’t have a ready answer for that. She hated to say it, but she assumed Vittorio would look for another boarding school. The Academia wasn’t the only one around.
“He wants to get married,” Caterina said. “That’s why he asked Aurora.”
“Why can’t you marry him?” Gianna looked at Caterina and they both stared at Sabrina, holding their breath, their mouths open, their eyes wide.
“Well, because I don’t belong here. I have my family and a house and a job back in California.” They didn’t need to know anything about her stepmother, step-sisters or the job. “If you don’t need me, I should really leave.”
They frowned. Then they jumped up from the table and ran upstairs. Of all things, Sabrina had not expected this. The girls actually liked her enough to want her to stay and marry their father. If only it was that simple. She’d done what she’d come to do, win the girls over. If only she’d won over Vittorio also. But all he wanted was for her to get them into boarding school. That much was clear now. She had succeeded where the others had failed. Then why didn’t she feel happy? Where was the sense of accomplishment she should feel? Why did she feel like crying?
Fortunately she hadn’t made the same mistake as the last time. She wasn’t in love with the twins’ father. She liked him. She found him attractive. She thought they had forged some kind of bond. But she knew better than to fall in love by herself again. Before she slid down that same dangerous slippery slope, she was better off resigning. Which she’d done.
A few days went by. She drove the girls to the lake each day. She went to the sailboat races and cheered for the twins. Vittorio didn’t come. Vittorio went to work. The girls had an invitation to spend the weekend with a friend from their sailing camp. In the morning she caught Vittorio and asked him if he approved, and he said yes. He looked distracted.
“Is everything all right at the bank?” she asked as he walked past her on his way to his car.
He only nodded. Not even an answer.
That night the girls asked the cook to fill a picnic basket to take with them to their friends’ house where they would spend the holiday weekend. The whole town was celebrating St. Anne’s Day. Everyone but her and Vittorio. Vittorio came home and was on his way to his home office. Sabrina wondered how long she could last. How could she justify a maintaining a nanny position there? A chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce drove up in front of the villa to pick up the girls. But where were they?
Sabrina was eating dinner by herself in the kitchen. What a far cry from dinner with Vittorio last week in the dining room. What had happened? If she had it to do over again, she would pay the price. She had her memories. She got up from the table as Caterina came racing into the kitchen.
“It’s Gianna,” she screamed. “We were playing in the tower and she fell down the stairs.”
“The tower? You know you are not allowed….” Sabrina grabbed Caterina’s hand and they ran to the circular staircase that led up to the crumbling turret. They bumped into Vittorio on the narrow steps way who’d heard Caterina’s cries and was echoing Sabrina’s lecture.
“You have no business…I’ve told you over and over…You know…How many times have I told them not to play there,” he said as he took the steps two at a time. “It’s too dangerous.”
The three of them reached the tower room panting and out of breath after racing up the three stories on uneven steps. The room was small. There was a bed and an attached bathroom, obviously unused for ages. Plaster was peeling from the walls. The narrow windows had views of the lake and the rest of the villa.
“Where is she?” Vittorio demanded. There was no Gianna to be seen. Suddenly Caterina ran out, the door swung shut and there was the sound of a bolt sliding across the ancient wooden door from the outside.
“What’s going on?” Sabrina asked, her voice sounding hollow as it echoed off the brick walls.
“Caterina? Gianna?” Vittorio called loudly.
On the other side of the door were a cascade of giggles.
“This is not funny. Let us out,” he said sternly.
“Not until you promise to marry Sabrina,” Caterina called in a muffled voice.
“Bye-bye, Papa. We’ll be back on Sunday. We left you a picnic basket so you won’t starve.”
The next sound they heard was that of footsteps on the stone stairs. From the window Sabrina watched helplessly as the girls got into a chauffeur-driven car that belonged to the Van Veblan family. She yelled their names but her voice was lost before it reached the street. Before the car pulled away, she saw small hands reach out the window and wave.
She turned to look at Vittorio. His mouth was set in a firm straight line. He rammed his shoulder against the heavy wooden door. It didn’t budge and he rubbed his arm.He didn’t look happy.
“I hope you don’t think I had anything to do with this,” she said.
“Let me just say that if you didn’t, you could have at least stopped them, or somehow prevented them from carrying out this childish scheme.”
“How?” she asked.
“Don’t ask me,” he said. “You’re the nanny. Or you were. You have a degree and a certificate. You’re the expert. You tell me what to do.”
Chapter Eight
“I’m really sorry,” Sabrina said, sitting on the edge of the narrow cot. “I expressly told them as you did, that the tower was dangerous and off-limits. Which I should have known would make it even more irresistible to them. And…” She stopped before she incriminated herself any further. He was already convinced this action was her fault.
He braced one arm against the brick wall and looked at her with narrowed eyes. “Yes. Go on. And what?”
“Well, you are the one who told them the legend of the princess in the tower, locked up because she wouldn’t marry the man her family had chosen for her, isn’t that right?”
“It’s just a story,” he said. “I told it to them so they’d stay clear of the tower. I should have known it would have the opposite effect.”
“They certainly loved the story. They told me about the princess Allesandra and how she disappeared. Maybe they think we will have disappeared by Monday morning when they return.”
“Monday morning?” he said, sounding shocked.
“Unless you can get us out of here. Do you have your phone with you?”
He reached into his pocket and shook his head.
“We won’t starve. They’ve left us a picnic basket,” Sabrina said.
“You sound resigned. We can’t stay here all weekend. I have work to do.”
“I’m resigned because I don’t know what else to be. Unless you have an idea of how to escape, I don’t intend to rappel out of here on sheets tied together.” She glanced out the window and shivered at the many feet to the ground. She felt dizzy just looking down at the sheer drop to the ground. Or was that partly due to the proximity of her angry, brooding employer as he joined her at the window?
Whether irritated or enraged, he was always a dynamic presence. Even more so in this small room. He took up more space than two average men and there was no where to hide to escape his energy or the vibrations that he set off. Suddenly the thought of two long days alone with him caused her to feel a rush of panic in her throat.
“Help,” she called, cupping her hands around her mouth, just in case a gardener should be walking by.
Vittorio pulled her away from the window. “No use shouting, it will just make you hoarse. The servants have the weekend off, it’s Saint Anne’s Day, the patron saint of the town. Take a deep breath and calm down.”
She glared at him. He made it sound so easy. “I wonder how long the girls have planned this,” she murmured folding her arms across her waist. “And what they hope to gain.”
“Isn’t it obvious? You heard what they said. They want us to fall in love and get married. Just as Princess Allesandra’s father planned. He thought the imprisonment would bring her to her senses. It didn’t. If it works this time around they won’t have to go to boarding school, they won’t have to have a nanny because you’ll be their mother. Since they’ve never had a mother, they have some unrealistic, childish notion of how life would be different if they did. They obviously want the life they think they’ve missed, life like some of their friends with a mother and father under the same roof.” He ran his hand through his hair. “You’re the first nanny they’ve considered mother-material. The first nanny they’ve locked up in the tower. You should be flattered.”