CHAPTER 22
Emma
My first duty in the house was to check the schedules. Call me old school, but all the training I’d had on my new Mac couldn’t compensate for some good old-fashioned wall charts. As soon as I took Mia to school, and set Liam up with his lesson plan for the day, I was in the house piecing it all together. I checked my watch and calculated that I should have enough time to finish organizing before Liam was ready for his next lesson.
After organizing and color coding, I logged on to the Mac, to see if Mom or Sis had sent me an email or something. Instead, I had a nice surprise to find one from Mason.
Emma,
1. I will have you only call me Mason. I want you to be as comfortable as we are in our home.
2. Do not let Sis bully you. She is good at that. I am not saying you should not respect her, but please do what you feel you are comfortable doing in and out of our home.
3. I am flying in, in the afternoon as you probably know, and will be there Monday night. I expect you to be at the house at seven for dinner. Mia and Liam will be eating in another room together.
Yours sincerely,
Mason
I read it, and all I could think about was what I was going to wear. It was almost like I was going on a date. I shook my head at the thought. I was at work. I wondered why he wanted Mia and Liam to eat in a different room.
I glanced at my watch, I couldn’t believe it was only ten. I felt that I had achieved so much, yet so little in that time. I had just enough time to give Liam his next lesson and wait for his piano teacher to arrive at one. Then I needed to go and check on the penthouse—the crystal was being cleaned and there was a new maid starting and I needed to make sure she did it perfectly. Or so Ms. Johnson had described in her instructions. All new staff should be monitored their first month and thereafter once a week to keep them in line.
What did I know about cleaning crystal? Apart from what I’d learned the first day on the course: the material that should be used, no smudges should be present, and everything should look like it just came out of a box. With only two people officially living in the house, it was hard to be certain who would be using the crystal. Yet, instructions were instructions.
As Elizabeth had said, what they wanted, the Johnsons got. I should keep my personal opinions to myself. I wished I could, but it felt so hard, especially when I felt like Liam was lonely. I wanted to bridge that gap. He didn’t have a mother, and with the old tutor gone, he probably felt more lost than usual.
My phone beeped and I checked my pocket. It was time for Liam to receive his next lesson. I grabbed my laptop and quickly ran up to Liam’s study. It was a room filled with books and a table in the middle with two chairs. Liam sat there, quietly waiting for me, and I was forever thankful that he was well-behaved.
“You ready for your next lesson?”
Liam slowly nodded. I sat down next to him and opened up my laptop. Earlier we had been working on math, and now we were starting geography. I paused as I pulled up the assignment. I was expecting a map key assignment, or maybe directions one. However, in front of me was a complete worksheet covering all fifty states and their capitals. I pursed my lips together in thought and I heard Liam wiggle a bit in his chair beside me.
“Liam, have you learned all fifty states?”
“Of course, I have. With my last tutor, I was just learning the capitals.”
I racked my brain trying to figure out if Mia was working on the states and their capitals yet. The last few of her homework assignments in public school had never looked like this. A small knot formed in my stomach as I worried that Mia wasn’t prepared for her new, prestigious private school. Liam cleared his throat and I was brought back from my train of thought.
I printed out the worksheets from the printer on the opposite counter and placed them in front of Liam. He grabbed the papers in front of him and quickly started to read. The first worksheet would help him fill out the larger map of each state and the capital associated with it. As he worked on the assignment, I couldn’t help but stare in amazement at how smart he truly was.
As I worked with Liam on the assignment, the hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stood up. I felt a familiar strong presence behind me and I knew right away that it could be none other than Mason. I slowly turned in my chair to face the door, but as the doorframe came into view, there was no one there.