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Except for Annie. She glanced behind her, fearful she’d tracked dirt on the floor.
At the end of a long hallway, Mrs. Flanders motioned for her to stop, stuck her head inside double doors, then turned to Annie once more.
“You may go in,” she said, her lips curling downward in a disapproving scowl. “Don’t touch anything.”
Anger sparked in Annie as the woman disappeared down the hall. Certainly, her clothing was soiled. But that was because she’d been working in the garden, doing the job she was hired to do. And, yes, she was a plain and simple young woman. But that made her no less a good person. Regardless of how the housekeeper looked down on her.
Regardless of what the gossips said.
“Miss Martin?” Josh Ingalls’s voice boomed from inside the room.
Annie’s shoulders straightened. The man could fire her if he chose. But she wouldn’t run away like a whipped dog. She’d have the satisfaction of speaking her mind. And maybe, just maybe, she’d come away with a better job.
Annie stepped into the room. Dark carpets covered the floor. Leather-bound books filled one wall. A moose head with antlers hung above the fireplace. A gigantic desk dominated the center of the room. Josh Ingalls sat behind it.
“Come in,” he said impatiently, shuffling papers on the desk.
He’d taken off his hat, and Annie saw that his hair was thick and dark, the same color as the children’s. For once, it seemed, the rumors were true. Josh Ingalls was a handsome man, with a strong jaw, straight nose and clear brown eyes. He looked even bigger seated behind his desk than he had atop his horse.
His white shirt was open at the collar, revealing a slice of deeply tanned skin—like his face—and black, curling chest hair. Even after being in the fields all morning, he looked clean and crisp.
Annie glanced down at her fingernails, then curled her hands behind her.
He made a spinning motion with his hand, urging her closer to his desk as he opened drawers, searching for something.
“When I ask a question, Miss Martin, I expect an answer. A complete answer, not simply what you choose to tell me,” Josh said. “So I’ll ask one last time. What went on out there with those children?”
“Your children, do you mean?” she asked, and stopped in front of his desk.
His gaze came up and he ceased rifling through the drawers. “Yes. My…children.”
“I don’t know what type of nanny you’re used to, Mr. Ingalls, but when I see a situation that needs addressing, I handle it. That’s what happened with your children,” Annie told him. “If I overstepped my boundaries, I apologize. But I see no need for you to concern yourself further. Surely you have more important matters to attend to.”
He blinked at her, taken aback by what she’d said. Apparently, Josh Ingalls wasn’t used to being spoken to in that manner. Annie held her breath.
He shrugged and started going through the drawers again. “That’s for damn sure,” he muttered. “I’ve searched the settlement, written to agencies all the way to the East Coast, everything. Why should it be such a monumental task to get and keep a nanny?”
“Perhaps you’re not looking in the right place,” Annie offered. “Or for the right sort of person.”
He glared at her now, clearly not pleased at her criticism. “For your information, Miss Martin, the women I hire as nannies are quite competent.”
“Including the last one?”
“Of course.”
“The one I saw running from the house two days ago, screaming and tearing at her hair?”
Josh looked away. “She—she took the job for the wrong reason.”
“My point exactly,” Annie said. “I’m aware of what those reasons are, Mr. Ingalls. You’re wealthy. The Ingalls name is to be envied. You, personally, are the talk of the settlement. Women find you attractive and are captivated by the size of your…”
Josh’s brows rose. He leaned forward slightly. “The size of my…?”
“House,” Annie told him.
A tense, awkward moment passed while they simply looked at each other. A strange warmth pooled inside Annie. Josh seemed to look at her—and really see her—for the first time. Then he swallowed hard and yanked open the bottom drawer.
Annie rushed ahead. “Anyway, unlike all the other young women in the settlement, Mr. Ingalls, I’m only interested in the welfare of your children. That’s why I’d make a perfect nanny.”
Josh pulled a ledger from the drawer. “Is that so?”
“Yes,” she declared, standing straighter.
“You’ve had experience as a nanny?”
To tell him the truth would end all chances of her getting the job—and the increase in her pay.
“Certainly,” Annie said. Surely having two younger sisters and tending an endless number of nieces, nephews and cousins qualified her to look after small children—even the unruly Ingalls children.
He sank further into his chair, studying her at his leisure. Annie felt her skin heat and tried desperately to think of something else to say.
“Tell me about yourself, Miss Martin,” Josh said at long last. “You and your family.”
A cold chill passed through Annie. Her and her family. Why hadn’t she thought ahead enough to realize he’d want this information? Why had she even come in here and asked for the job?
Then it occurred to Annie that if he was asking, that meant he didn’t already know. But how could that be? How could he not have heard about her and her family? Was it possible the gossip hadn’t spread to the Ingalls farm?
Apparently, it hadn’t.
“My mother was widowed several years ago,” Annie said, choosing her words carefully. “We moved here a few weeks ago to live with my cousin. My cousin is Angus Martin. He owns the farm that adjoins your property just down the road. Have…have you heard of my family, Mr. Ingalls?”
Josh simply waved his hand, anxious, it seemed, to get on to other matters. No, apparently, he didn’t know about her family—or at least, what was being said about them. Annie heaved a quiet sigh of relief.
“I know Angus Martin. Good man,” Josh said, as if that were enough. He considered her again. “And you have no interest here but that of the children?”
“Just your children,” Annie said. The children and the salary that came with them.
“All right, you’re the new nanny.”
Annie’s eyes widened. Had he just declared her the children’s nanny? Had she heard him correctly?
“You start immediately. Go find Mrs. Flanders and tell her I said so.” Josh flipped the ledger open, sparing her a glance. “That’s all.”
She’d come here thinking she was about to be fired, and somehow she’d ended up the nanny—to the worst-behaved children in the settlement.
“If I could ask, Mr. Ingalls, about the wages?”
He scribbled in his ledger, then flipped it around for her to see. “I trust this will be adequate compensation, Miss Martin?”
Annie’s knees nearly gave out as she gazed at the salary he’d written beside her name. More money than she’d ever imagined!
The future opened up to her, full and blessed. Now she could help her mother with expenses. And her youngest sister—she’d make everything happen for her.
All that money, for simply taking care of children. True, Annie didn’t know much about children, but it couldn’t be very difficult. Even the wild Ingalls brood.
“Provided, of course, that you do a good job,” Josh told her.
Annie’s enthusiasm cooled a little. “No need to concern yourself, Mr. Ingalls.”
“So, we have a deal?”
Annie opened her mouth to agree, but the words wouldn’t come out. At that moment, gazing at Josh, something inside her warned her away. It was dangerous here in the Ingalls home…with Josh Ingalls. Not on a physical level. It was something different. Something deeper. Something she couldn’t reason out, could only sense.
Josh rubbed his forehead. “Miss Martin, I don’t have all day to wait around for your answer.”
Would she be a fool to turn down such a generous offer? Or a fool to accept?
Annie didn’t know for sure. Thoughts, odd feelings, ricocheted through her. But in the end, her family—her sister—made up her mind.
“Very well, Mr. Ingalls,” she said. “I’ll accept the position as nanny.”
Josh rose from his desk and waved his hand at her vaguely. “Go home and get whatever you need. I’ll send a wagon with you for your things.”
“My things?”
“Of course. You’ll be living here from now on.”
“Living here?” A hot surge shot through Annie. “Here?”
“Is that a problem?” The tiniest hint of a grin tugged at Josh’s lips. “Does the size of my…house…frighten you?”
Heat crept up Annie’s neck and bloomed in her cheeks. Josh seemed as stunned as she by what he’d said. He turned abruptly and left the room.
Annie sagged against his desk. Leave her home? Her family? Move here? With Josh Ingalls? And all those unruly children?
Good gracious, what had she gotten herself into?
Chapter Three
“You’re going to live there? Really? Oh, how exciting!”
“Yes…exciting.” Annie managed to put some enthusiasm into her words for the benefit of her younger sister. At age thirteen, Camille still viewed life as an adventure, of sorts, even after all their family had been through these past few years.
Camille perched on the edge of the feather mattress in the small bedroom all three sisters shared in their cousin’s house.
“Tell me what it’s like,” she said. “The Ingalls house, I mean. Is it as beautiful as everyone says? I’ll bet there’s a library.”
Scooping clothes from the bureau and placing them in her trunk, Annie smiled. “Oh, Camille, you should see.”
She sprang from the bed. “Could I? Do you think? Could I come over sometime?”
Annie considered it for a moment. As an employee in the Ingalls house, she would be allowed to have a guest occasionally, wouldn’t she? She wasn’t sure. She’d never worked at this sort of job before, never known anyone who had.
“I don’t see why not,” Annie finally told her.
“What did Mama say about your job?” Camille asked. “Did you tell her?”
“I tried,” Annie said, glancing away.
Camille eased onto the bed again. “She’s having another of her bad days.”
Bad days for Sophia Martin came more and more frequently as time went on. Annie’s mother had never been a strong woman, but she’d held up well enough until their father died. Shortly thereafter, the money he’d left them had run out, forcing them from the home she’d loved so much, leaving them to move from relative to relative, to anyone who would take them in, and Sophia had bounced from good to ill health regularly.
Angus Martin, a widower, their father’s cousin, had taken them into his home just weeks ago, after corresponding with Sophia. He’d been agreeable enough with the arrangement—free room and board for the four of them in exchange for cooking, cleaning and running his house while he tended his farm.
All of that had changed the minute they arrived and he got a look at Willa, Sophia’s middle daughter. Now he barely spoke to any of them, and Sophia had taken to her bed more and more often.
“You’re only taking one dress?” Camille asked.
Annie eyed the blue gingham gown she’d pulled from the wardrobe cupboard. She only owned three, and this was her favorite, though she seldom wore any of them.
“For church on Sunday,” Annie said.
“Won’t you wear a dress all the time in your new job?” Camille asked.
Annie glanced down at the clean trousers and shirt she’d just changed into. Josh Ingalls had hired her in these clothes, so surely it was all right if she wore them.
“Here, take all of them, just in case.” Camille pulled the other two from the wardrobe cupboard, then glanced at those left behind. “You could try to alter Willa’s dresses and take them, too. She won’t be needing them for a while still.”
Annie shook her head. Willa’s dresses didn’t have enough hem to accommodate Annie’s height, but that wasn’t the reason she wouldn’t take her sister’s clothes.
“It will just make her cry,” Annie said.
“Again,” Camille said, not unkindly. “Everything makes her cry.”
Annie couldn’t blame her sister for crying all the time. She was pregnant, after all. Pregnant, sixteen years old and not married.
Willa would have been married, probably, if Evan Keller’s parents hadn’t turned up their noses at the idea of their son being interested in someone with such limited financial resources. They had bigger and better things planned for their boy, and had whisked him away on an extended trip in the East.
Two months later, when Willa realized she was pregnant, there had still been no word from Evan. Shocked and humiliated, Sophia had arranged for them to move here with their cousin Angus, far away from the scandal. They hadn’t escaped it, though. The talk had started soon after their arrival. Whispers, at first, then rumors. Angus’s attitude hadn’t helped anything.
“I’ll miss you, Annie,” Camille said.
Annie threw her arms around her little sister. She hated leaving her behind, leaving her alone to manage the house, their mother, their sister and their cousin. But, even at so young an age, Camille was a strong girl, with the ability to let most of life’s problems roll off her. She found escape in endless hours of reading.
“I have a surprise for you,” Annie said, stepping back. “I wasn’t going to tell you for a while yet, until I was positive I could manage. But now that I have this new job and I’m making more money, well, I don’t see a reason to wait.”
Annie dropped to her knees beside the chest in the corner. It contained the few family treasures they hadn’t sold off or bartered away. She dug to the bottom and pulled out a pamphlet.
