“Will knowing that stop you from asking?”
She considered for a second. “Not really.”
“I will see if funds can be made available.”
Her eyes widened. “Just like that?”
“I have made no promises. But I’m sure a few dollars could be found.”
“That would be great. We’re not working with a big budget over there, so anything would help. Most of the teachers live in, which means the salaries aren’t huge.”
He doubted they would ever be huge. Teachers didn’t choose their profession in an effort to amass a personal fortune. He frowned.
“Why did you become a teacher?” he asked.
“Because I couldn’t be a nun.”
An answer he never would have expected. “Did you want to be a nun?”
Kayleen nodded slowly. “Very much. The orphanage my grandmother took me to was run by nuns. They were wonderful to me. I wanted to be just like them. But I don’t really have the right personality.”
“Too outspoken?”
“Too…everything. I’m opinionated, I have a temper, I have trouble with the rules sometimes.”
She seemed so quiet and mousy in her baggy brown dress, but there was something in her eyes, a spark that told him she was telling the truth. After all, she had attacked Tahir.
He’d never met an almost-nun before. Why would a pretty woman want to lock herself away from the world?
“Our Mother Superior suggested I go into teaching,” Kayleen continued. “It was a great idea. I love it. I love the children. I wanted to take a permanent position there, but she insisted I first see the world. That’s how I ended up here. Eventually, I’ll go back.”
“To the convent school?”
She nodded.
“What about a husband and a family?”
Kayleen ducked her head, but not before he saw her blush. “I don’t really expect that to happen to me. I don’t date. Men are…They don’t think of me that way.”
He recalled his earlier fantasy about seeing her naked. “You would be surprised,” he murmured.
She looked up. “I don’t think so.”
“So there has never been anyone special?”
“A boyfriend?” She shook her head. “No.”
She was in her midtwenties. How was that possible? Did such innocence truly exist? Yet why would she lie about such a thing?
He found himself wanting to show her the world she’d been avoiding. To take her places.
Ridiculous, he told himself. She was nothing to him. Only the children’s nanny.
Chapter Three
K ayleen backed out of the kitchen, her hands up in front of her, palms out. “No really. I mean it. Everything we have is terrific. I love the food. I’ve gained three pounds.”
When she could no longer see the head chef’s furious expression, she turned and hurried to the closest staircase, then ran up to a safer floor.
She’d only been offering to help, she told herself. But her offer of assistance had been taken as an insult.
With the girls gone all day and a kindly worded but clear letter from the orphan school saying it would be too awkward to have her teaching there, now that she was under Prince As’ad’s “protection,” Kayleen had nothing to do with her time. Sitting around was boring. She needed to keep busy with something. She couldn’t clean the suite she and the girls lived in. There wasn’t even a vacuum in the closet.
She wandered down the main hallway, then paused to figure out where she was. The wide doorways looked familiar. Still, what would it hurt to have a few “you are here” maps to guide newcomers?
She turned another corner and recognized the official royal offices. In a matter of minutes she was standing in front of As’ad’s assistant, Neil.
“I really need to see him,” she said.
“You do not have an appointment.”
“I’m his nanny.” It was a bluff. She was staff and she had a feeling that all staff needed an appointment.
“I’m aware of who you are, Ms. James. But Prince As’ad is very particular about his schedule.”
Neil was British, so the word sounded like “shed-ule.”
The door to As’ad’s office opened. “Neil, I need you to find—” He saw Kayleen. “How convenient. You’re the one I’m looking for.”
Guilt flooded her. “Is it the chef? I didn’t mean to insult him. I was only trying to help.”
His gaze narrowed. “What did you do?”
She tucked her hands behind her back. “Nothing.”
“Why don’t I believe you? Come inside, Kayleen. Start at the beginning and leave nothing out.”
She glanced longingly at the exit, but followed As’ad into his office. When they were both seated, he looked at her expectantly.
She sucked in a breath. “I went down to the kitchen. I thought I could maybe help out there. I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m bored. I need to do something.”
She stopped talking and pressed her lips together to hold in a sudden rush of emotion. Need— there was the word that mattered. She had to be needed.
“You have your three charges,” he said. “Many would find that enough.”
“Oh, please. They’re in school for hours at a time. Someone else cooks, cleans and I’m guessing does our laundry. So what do I do the rest of the time?”
“Shop?”