"Wolf—wolf pup, you mean like…a werewolf pup?"
"That's exactly what I mean."
Talia reached through her mind to dredge up whatever she could remember on werewolves.
Sadly, there wasn't much. Her training was on real wolves (well, mostly dogs), not werewolves which she had always thought was fictional.
"How is that possible? Isn't he a little young to be a werewolf? I mean, don't you have to be a little older to get exposed or something?"
Cedric's dark blond eyebrows rose. So this girl did know a thing or two about werewolves.
"His mother was infected. She passed it onto him."
Talia's eyes moistened. Poor Devin. This was why he didn't have a mother.
She looked away to hide the tell-tale moisture that suddenly sprang from her eyes but of course, nothing escaped the Duke's sharp gaze.
He saw her focus her attention on Devin for a few minutes as she helped him peel a tangerine.
"What—what of his father? If Hubert hadn't told me you were his uncle, I would have thought you were the father." She turned and smiled at him.
"What makes you think that?"
"You and Devin are like peas in a pod." She laughed. "Well, you would be the Big Pea and he would be the Little Pea."
The Duke smiled at her description of the two of them.
"I have a twin sister. Devin is her son."
"And his father?"
"We are here in New Orleans because she is looking for the boy's father."
Talia mouth opened in an O shape.
"So you really only need me to help out with Devin until your sister returns with her husband."
The Duke nodded. "Something like that."
Talia gazed out into the distance. The poor motherless child truly needed someone to care for him until his mother returned.
And anyway, it was going to be a temporary situation. She would be helping out for awhile, and when his family was reunited, she could go back to her own life.
She turned back and absently rubbed Devin's blond head. At that moment, he looked up at her with his bright golden eyes and smiled such a brilliant adoring smile that her heart melted.
How could she say no to taking care of such an amazing child?
"Okay, I'll do it." She spoke up.
Before she had a chance to even take a breath, the manservant who had been standing there waiting for her decision had slid a pen onto the table in front of her.
"Please sign right here." He indicated on the line at the back of the document.
"But I haven't read through it all yet."
"It is all mostly non-disclosures whereby you agree to keep the Duke's personal matters to remain confidential, and also to agree to arbitration should there be a need for lawsuits. Mostly normal legalese."
She nodded and flipped through much of the document. Not seeing anything that seemed out of the ordinary, Talia signed the document and looked up.
"When do I start?"
The manservant took the document from her with a careful gloved hand.
"It is retroactive as of the moment you picked up the little boy."
"What? Why?"
Hubert smiled a stiff small smile.
"It has to do with your non-disclosure agreement. You are to keep the boy's double identity confidential from the moment you saw him until forever."
Talia's eyes widened. What the hell was a confidential agreement that lasted until forever? Was that even legit?
But then she shrugged.
No good would ever come from the wrong people finding out about Devin's strange ability. If her silence meant he would be protected from those who would seek to harm him then it was very much worth it.
Besides, who would she tell? She had few family and even fewer friends.
"I will not breathe about his transformation to a single soul." She promised.
Hubert smiled again. This time, his smile was much wider and less stiff. He extended his hand and placed an envelop in front of her.
"This is your sign-on bonus. It is also printed on tear-proof paper so you don't, ahem, accidentally tear it."
She reached out and pulled the content from the envelope. It was another check for the exact same amount that she had rejected that morning.
"I told you. I did not kidnap him for extortion. I don't want this money." She shoved it back into the envelop and pushed it away from her.
The Duke looked away. "Consider it a bonus sign-on."
Talia blinked. If everyone else got it, then she couldn't refuse it either or it would make her look like miss goody-two-shoes.
"It seems awfully generous for a sign-on bonus, but thank you."
The Duke nodded.
Truth be told, most of his employees' sign-on bonuses were a tiny fraction of the sum that was printed on the check, but he did not care. Talia was holding the most important job at this moment.
She was keeping Devin safe.
As dinner commenced, she ate what she could of the steak and greens and began feeding Devin from her own plate. She noticed the boy ate fruits and some vegetables, but he definitely preferred meat.
She began slicing tiny pieces of rare steak from her plate and putting them on his plate, and he was picking them up with his fingers and stuffing them into his mouth.
"Be careful about giving him too much rare meat." The Duke mentioned lightly, even as he cut his own meat.
"If he starts to get a taste for bloody meat, he might go into the back yard and hunt down squirrels and rabbits."
Talia's eyes widened. She stuck a quarter of a roasted Brussels sprout on his plate which he promptly picked up between his fingers and threw to the floor.
A housemaid standing behind his chair picked up his dropped Brussels sprout and cleaned the floor where it splattered.
So this was what the Duke meant when he said she would get assistance in the caring and feeding of Devin. It was not going to be as challenging as Talia thought it would be.
She might just make it all the way until Devin's mother returned.
"Oh so you don't like Brussel sprouts, eh? How about carrots?" She placed a piece on his plate.
He looked at her and lowered his head onto the plate, mouthing it and pushing it around as if he was a dog eating off a plate.
She laughed. "Eat with your spoon." She pointed to the utensil that he had mostly ignored.
Devin picked it up and began banging it onto his plate and making a racket.
As she tried to teach him the conventional way of eating with a spoon, Cedric continued to observe her mannerisms and methodology of teaching a young child.
He was amazed at the amount of patience she was exhibiting and was encouraged by the brilliance of her smile.
She laughed a lot, which made Devin laugh a lot. It was a sound that Cedric found to be uniquely pleasing. He hadn't heard the boy laugh very much if at all.
In fact, Cedric had begun to worry about the fact that Devin was devolving into a wild child, with little of the civility that should have been taught to him by a patient mother.
This woman seemed to be good for the boy. Perhaps it was a disguised blessing that she and Devin had found each other.
At the conclusion of their meal, Talia picked up the child and carried him upstairs to clean him up. Her entourage, the two housemaids Anne and Portia followed her upstairs.
"Your Royal Highness." Hubert murmured as he watched the group disappear up the staircase. "The woman has been bitten by the boy."
Cedric nodded.
"Do you think—"
"Let's not borrow trouble, but do keep a close eye on her."
"Yes Sir."