“Okay!”
He told her about his toys?
Cleb took off at a run into the house.
“No running!” I said feebly.
Cleb slowed down to the fastest walk known to Titan and proceeded up the stairs.
I spun on her.
“How did you do that?” I said. “He’s been here three months and he’s never played like that!”
“He’s a little boy,” she said. “They all play like that, given the chance.”
That rubbed me up the wrong way.
“He’s going to want you to stay now,” I barked. “That was your plan all along, wasn’t it? That might be how other families like their children to be treated, but not here.”
She blinked in surprise at that. A series of lines drew across her face as she frowned at me with incredulity.
“I was outside with Waev, who was showing me the beautiful flowers in your garden when Cleb started talking to me. There was no plan. He spoke to me.”
I ground my teeth, chagrined. I’d flown off the handle. All she’d done was be friendly to Cleb.
“I apologize,” I said. “I didn’t mean anything by it. Sometimes I see ploys where there aren’t any—”
“I understand now why Cleb acted up the way he did before,” Bianca said, ignoring my apology and going on the offense. “You asked me how I got him to play like that. The answer is simple. You have to be in the same room as him to do it. That’s the magic ingredient. And not spy on him from the bathroom.”
If I turned any redder with embarrassment, I would have exploded. Others had beaten me in negotiations before but never so quickly or with apparent ease.
I swallowed my pride.
“I want you to be his governess,” I said. “I’ll give you the same deal I gave the previous one.”
“Oh no,” Bianca said, her eyes meeting mine. “You’re going to do no such thing. You’re going to give me something a lot better than what she got. You can bet your bottom credit on that. And that’s if I decide to accept the position. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some toys to go look at.”
I knew a losing position when I saw one. With Cleb in her back pocket, she held all the cards. I didn’t have a leg to stand on.
She took off up the stairs with the energy of a newborn gazelle.
She was going to cost me, I thought, and cost me big.
And yet, I couldn’t help but smile. There was no such thing as a dead cert in business. Things always came with risks. But I would have staked everything I owned that she would take me to the cleaners.
What frightened me even more was that I wanted her to.
Because then she would be in my house and I could gaze at her every day.
I might lose the battle, but I would win the war.
Bianca
When I left Traes’ office, I was devastated.
I didn’t get the job. Now I didn’t know what I was going to do. I would have been out on the street with nowhere to live. I didn’t have enough money for a room or even food. I’d become too weak to look for work.
I would have been reduced to begging in the streets and relying on others’ generosity. I might get arrested by the local police, who would match me with a report filed on Rang and, before you could say “Icebox,” I would be back in Asshole’s shithole, chained to the wall and routinely beaten and abused in equal measure.
That ran through my mind as Waev led me toward the door. I couldn’t take one step across the threshold or my worst nightmares would come true.
When Traes asked me for references and I had to come up with a reason why I couldn’t provide them, I was quite impressed with my ingenuity. I didn’t know where the rich family story came from. Probably watching too many Empire episodes?
Still, it was a lie. And no, I wasn’t proud of it. But sometimes you had to take a risk to get the things you wanted. Besides, it was only a little white lie. So long as I eventually achieved what I was lying about, it was only retroactive lying. It would come true in a few weeks.
That had to count for something, didn’t it?
Waev opened the door but I didn’t step out.
“Thank you for coming to see us, Bianca,” he said. “If you make it through to the next round, I’ll be sure to contact you soon.”
He smiled at me warmly but I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t tell him the truth either. He was about as likely to take a risk on me as Stinky was of winning the Most Beautiful Creature In The Galaxy Competition.
So, I took him up on his offer.
“I have another interview later,” I lied. Boy, this was really becoming a habit, isn’t it? “Would it be possible for me to stay here and walk around your beautiful garden while I wait?”
Waev looked me over, gauging whether or not I was someone he could trust.
“Of course,” he said, shutting the door and ushering me inside. “We have some of the best flowerbeds in the neighborhood.”
“I’ll bet you do,” I said, relieved.
I’d bought myself time. Not much, but a little.
I’d better make it count.
He prattled on about flowers and shrubs and hedges and things I had no idea about. I smiled and nodded along amiably, focusing my attention on glancing inside each room we passed.
Cleb. I needed to find Cleb.
If I could find him and develop a connection with him, Traes would have no choice but to keep me on as the governess.
We were deep in the third flower patch when I saw Cleb. He floated nearby, occasionally casting a look my way but too shy to come near me. I could see
