She cringed, looking away. He was actually counting the number of times she had looped that extremely crude song. How embarrassing.
"That settles it then. Let us have dinner." Hubert announced.
"Wait! I haven't agreed yet!" Talia held up a hand in protest.
The Duke snapped his fingers.
Another manservant came forward with a silver tray upon which a folder rested. He made a grand gesture with his gloved hand and placed the folder in front of Talia.
The Duke gestured at the folder.
"Please look over the contract and sign once you are satisfied with the terms of the agreement." He took a deep breath. "And don't bother trying to tear this one up. It's printed on tear-proof laminated paper."
Talia blushed. He had obviously seen the torn check she had left behind. What in the world did this man not know???
Talia reached out and touched the leather portfolio. With hesitant fingers, she opened the file.
"Oh my God!" She gasped.
The salary that was listed in large bold numbers and highlighted with a marker was four times what she was making at the animal hospital as a vet tech.
Of course, everyone knew vet techs made starving wages, but to see that the salary of a nanny was quadrupled that of working long hard hours in an animal hospital brought tears to her eyes. She was making more than her veterinarian!
"If that is not enough, we can negotiate your salary."
"No, no. That's not it. I'm just—" Talia sighed. "I just—"
What was it that she just needed to do?
"I—I need to inform my employer—"
"There is no need." Hubert informed her. "We will take care of all the details. The only thing you need to do is remain here and take care of the Young Lord."
"This is so sudden. I really need time to think about this."
They had all the answers to each of her protests. She needed to figure out how to stall for time.
"What is there to think about?" The Duke eyed her coldly.
She pointed to the contract with vague fingers.
"It says I have to live here with Devin. What about my home? What about my family?"
The Duke shrugged, as if that was a trivial situation.
"The boy lives here. If you are to be his hugger and singer of 'It's Raining Men', you will also need to live here."
"And besides," Hubert smiled. "You're single and you live alone. What few family members you do have live in another state and rarely ever make contact with you."
How did they know that???
"But I still have things at my apartment. I've got a live plant that needs to be cared for."
Hubert waved a dismissive hand.
"We can help you pack your things and store them. Everything else you need can be provided here."
"But I get no off days." She tapped at the folder. "You want me to work twenty-four hours a day?"
Cedric sighed. "Of course not. When he sleeps, you can sleep, as long as he sleeps with you so you'll know if he awakens and tries to run off into the forest."
She gave him a dry unamused look. Was he trying to hire a mom? Because it sounded like a mom's job more than a nanny's job.
"He also has several maids who will be taking care of his more mundane needs such as bathing and cleaning so you don't need to do any of that."
Well at least there was that. It sounded like she would be given a small staff to take care of one little boy.
It sounded like such a cushy job except for the fact that two caregivers had been fired in the space of two days, both for the exact same reason.
They had lost the little boy who seemed to be a highly proficient escape artist, a point that was not lost on the Duke.
The Duke leaned forward and fixed his gaze on her.
"Your only job is to make sure he does not run out of the house and get lost, like he did before."
Talia bit her lip. This was going to be trickier than it sounded for a very simple reason.
"A—about that—I need to tell you something important."
The Duke inclined his head, as if waiting to hear what she had to say.
Talia looked at all the servants standing around them.
She wasn't about to go run over to his side and whisper this in his ear, but this was something that perhaps should not be shared with anyone other than the Duke.
"You can speak in front of them. They are my trusted personal staff." Duke Cedric said.
She inhaled a sharp breath and leaned forward.
"Yesterday, when I picked him up from the road," her voice dropped to a whisper. "You're not going to believe this, but I swear to God."
She glanced back at Devin who was humming to himself and chewing on some crackers.
"He was a dog." She managed to choke out.
Oh Lord, please don't take this the wrong way. She wasn't calling Devin a dog because she was insulting him. She was calling him a dog because, oh my God, he really was a dog!
She looked down at her arm.
"I know I wasn't hallucinating because he actually bit me. See?"
She held out her arm and pointed to a small bruised area on her arm with a series of puncture wounds that were still healing.
"It was bleeding a bit so I had a bandage over it, but it needed to be aired so I took the bandage off, but you can clearly see this."
She turned her head and looked up at him with earnest eyes.
"I'm a vet tech. I know what puppy teeth marks look like." She tapped her arm. "These are puppy teeth that bit me."
The Duke's face was stoic. It was as if he was barely even listening to her.
"Once he fell asleep, he changed into a boy, and he's been a boy ever since." She glanced at Devin who was sitting there playing with his apple slices without a care in the world.
"But if he changes back into a dog and you blame it on me, what the heck am I supposed to do? I can't be responsible for his…changes."
She turned her eyes back to the Duke. He was staring at her again in that strange inscrutable manner.
"I know it sounds crazy and you probably think I'm making all this up. But I promise you, I'm telling you the truth. I know what I saw."
He sat there, unmoving. His amber eyes fixed on her.
"Wolf."
"Pardon?"
"He's not a dog. He's a wolf pup."