“Do you think she has anything left?” Niall asked.
Willa drew in her breath. She knew he was talking about her.
“I doubt it,” Beatrice said. “When I was there at that decaying Oxley Manor, her motto seemed to be ‘If you pretend to love me, I’ll give you money.’”
“Then she is surely broke,” Niall said and they all laughed.
Willa didn’t want to hear any more. She ran through the house toward the side door. She wanted to get as far from them as possible.
But she didn’t make it. Coming inside was a little boy, about seven, and his pretty, young nanny. Willa had almost forgotten that Nelson had married and produced a son.
The boy ran to a big ceramic bowl set on a marble-topped table and started to pull it off.
“Martin!” the nanny said. “You can’t play with that. It’s eighteenth century.”
“My mother says you are nothing and nobody. I don’t have to obey you.”
The look on the young woman’s face was half rage, half depression.
For a second, her eyes locked with Willa’s, and they shared identical emotions.
When the big bowl teetered on the table, the two women leaped to save it.
Angry, the boy stamped his foot and ran out of the room.
Willa and the nanny put the bowl back into place. “I better go get him,” the nanny said.
“Maybe he’ll go to the library,” Willa said. “Some of the tall shelves aren’t bolted to the wall. They could come crashing down.”
The nanny’s eyes widened in shock, then she smiled as she backed toward the door. “I’m Katrina.”
“I’m Willa the Unwanted.”
The nanny caught her breath for a moment, then laughed. “If they don’t want you, then you must be doing something right.”
There was a crash in the distance and the nanny went running.
The encounter cheered Willa up somewhat. Her siblings usually surrounded themselves with sycophants who were afraid of them. Katrina was certainly different!
Willa slipped around the house so she wouldn’t be seen. Like Puck, she thought, and tears gathered in her eyes. Would she ever see Puck again? See any of them again? When Sean and Diana returned, would anyone tell her?
But it had been months, and no one had contacted her about anything. It did cross her mind that since she’d not told them where she was, it would have hindered them. But they could have asked her family. They could have...
In the next second she remembered Nicky’s words, and the tears gathered again.
She sat down under a big oak tree that she’d always liked, drew her knees up and put her head down. It’s time, she told herself. Time to stop wallowing in misery and do something with her life. She was young; she had money. She...
When Willa heard a noise, she looked up. Katrina was coming toward her. Under her arms were two rolled-up rubber mats.
She didn’t look at Willa, just unrolled the mats on a flat, grassy area. She stood on one, then looked at Willa as though to tell her to take the other one.
“I don’t—I mean, I can’t—” Willa began.
The woman wasn’t a nanny for no reason. She gave Willa a look that almost made her say, “Yes, miss.”
Willa took her place on the other mat.
Katrina put her legs in a wide stance and raised her arms. “We will salute the sun.”
For the next hour, Willa tried her best to follow. It wasn’t easy. She wasn’t used to her newly acquired weight and she had trouble balancing. And the stretching just plain hurt.
But the good part was that for one whole hour she didn’t think of her misery. Didn’t think how she would soon have to face her siblings and father.
Katrina rang a little bell and they were done. She handed Willa a refillable bottle of water. Katrina took another one and for a minute they sat in silence on the mats.
“I despise your family,” Katrina said.
“Me too.”
“They say such terrible things about you that I thought you must be a good human being.”
“I am,” Willa said, and that made her feel better. “So why are you working for them?”
Katrina took a moment to consider before she answered. “I was a yoga instructor. I had my own studio and held classes. I fell madly in love with one of my students and we married. I got pregnant instantly.”
She took a breath and Willa saw her blink back tears. “Six months later, his heart exploded. He was fine one minute and the next he was dead. The shock made me miscarry.”
“Oh,” was all Willa could say.
“I sold my studio. I couldn’t bear people’s pity. I wanted something new and I heard of this job and...” She shrugged. “Your brother thinks sex with me is part of what he’s paying for. I’m handing in my notice right after the funeral. Maybe you’ll give me a ride.”
“To where?”
“Italy? Greece? Wherever.”
Willa gave her first smile in a long time. “Me too. I plan to go down the rabbit hole.”
“Pistol in hand?”
Willa actually laughed. “How do you possibly know about that?”
“It’s a legendary Willa story. One of many that they have. They...” She stopped.
“It’s okay. I know what they say.”
“If you actually did, you might take a shotgun to them.” She stood up. “My break is over. Dear little Martin has probably broken a dozen valuable artifacts and I will be blamed for them all.” She started rolling up her mat, then halted. “They’re planning to do anything they can to get you to give them money. If they’re nice to you, that’s why. Nelson even bought you a gift.” She finished rolling the mat. “Just so you know, the diamonds aren’t real.”
Willa rolled up her mat, put the straps around it and handed it to Katrina. “Thank you for this. It was good to get my mind off my own life for a while. And I’m sorry about your husband and...” She couldn’t finish.
“Me too. I better go.” Mats under her arms, she backed away. “Prepare to be wooed and courted.”
“My checkbook and I will be eagerly awaiting them.”
Laughing, Katrina ran toward the house.
Willa turned to go back to sitting under the tree, but she no longer felt like it. So her siblings were broke. And poor, pitiful, butt-of-all-their-jokes Willa was the only one who had anything left. How interesting.