I learned quickly from my mistakes with the other governesses who suddenly quit under similar circumstances. I didn’t like to make the same mistake twice.
The new development gave the old crone pause for thought.
“Perhaps I was a little hasty—” she said.
Oh no! I wasn’t about to let her get away with insulting my nephew like that—even if he did deserve it sometimes. You didn’t talk down to children, not at the age when they were more impressionable and such things could have a lasting effect.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I’ll use your payment to find your replacement. If there’s any leftover, I’ll pass it along to you.”
The old crone screwed up her mouth and jammed her ugly hat on her square head.
“Fine,” she said. “I wouldn’t stay here another minute if you paid me!”
“Which I’m not,” I said calmly.
I ushered her out the door and slammed it in her face. I leaned my back against the door and pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache coming on. It was dull and pulsed deep in my skull, working its way up to the back of my eye socket.
It was the kind of headache only Cleb was capable of giving me.
“She forgot to take her possessions,” Waev said, well used to this show by now. “What do you wish to do with them?”
“Forward them to her new address,” I said. “If she doesn’t want it, donate everything to a children’s charity.”
“Very good, sir,” Waev said.
He bowed stiffly. It wasn’t his shoes or his starched uniform that creaked when he leaned forward. It was his body. The man was nothing but a collection of old rules and regulations. He ruled the household with an iron fist.
Now I needed to find another governess. I thought hiring someone similar to the one I’d had when I grew up would straighten Cleb out. Every child had their teething problems but this was beyond a joke.
Three governesses in as many months. I was beginning to think Cleb really was a demon.
“Post the governess position on the message boards again,” I said.
“I never took them down, sir,” Waev said.
“Good,” I said. “Maybe next time we’ll find someone he’ll like.”
“Chances are excellent, sir,” Waev said.
No doubt he felt as sure of that as I did.
I felt tired. Dog tired.
“What am I going to do with him, Waev?” I said. “I try to give him everything a boy his age needs—access to all the things I never had when I was a kid—and he keeps acting up.”
“You’re doing everything you can, sir,” Waev said. “No one could demand more from you. What with your workload, it’s difficult to spend more time with Cleb. Many children would kill for the same advantages he has.”
“But not all kids have been through the same terrible experience,” I reminded him.
Waev nodded and his body creaked.
It was difficult for me to lose my sister, so what was it like for a boy of Cleb’s age to lose both parents? I couldn’t even imagine.
Waev coughed politely behind his hand that spoke volumes.
I turned to find Cleb standing in the doorway to the front room. He was a little man that liked to wear smart suits. When he first came to live with me, he wore trendy clothes his parents had bought for him. I supposed wearing black suits was his way of mourning his parents.
“Has she gone?” he said.
He knew she was. The whole household knew. The whole street knew. And soon, the rumors would swirl through the upper classes once again about my poor parenting skills. What did they expect? I never married, never had children. And now I’d been left to take charge of my sister’s only son.
Still, it was a better subject for rumors than those concerning how my sister and her husband lost their lives. I’d taken special pains to ensure no one ever learned the truth. It’d been surprisingly difficult to discover. I doubted any of them—as much as they might make the attempt—would put in half as much effort as I had.
The truth had shocked me. It’d cost a small fortune to solve that particular problem and ensure neither Cleb nor the family name suffered from the fallout.
Cleb was under my protection now and would be for the rest of his life.
It wasn’t like I had much choice in the matter. Not only was I Cleb’s uncle, I was his godfather. My sister promised it was a ceremonial title, that I would never have to do any actual caring for the child.
Familiar with contracts and legal loopholes, I said I’d prefer not to have the title and just be Cleb’s uncle.
But my dear sister had insisted.
Had she known even then how she would die?
I didn’t believe in coincidences.
They died in that terrible accident and I got a knock on my door. A late-night delivery of a large trunk of Cleb’s things and the boy himself.
I got in contact with other family members—cousins, aunts, uncles on both sides of the family… and none would take him. It wasn’t that they weren’t open to the idea. It was just that I was Cleb’s godfather and they figured my sister chose me to take care of him for a reason.
No one ever told me what that reason was.
I let Cleb choose his bedroom. He decided on the one furthest from my own and for the longest time, he refused to come out. I invited friends’ children over to play with him, signed him up to various sports teams and meeting groups…
All for nothing.
He never played with the others and always sat by himself.
The worst part was, I wasn’t even sure if that was normal for him. I’d never exactly been the most… attentive uncle.
I hired a live-in governess to watch over and educate him. The one request my sister had ever given me was that he should be homeschooled.
“Let’s sit down and talk,” I said, leading Cleb into the front room.
He
