Cutlass Keep

The Governess (5)

Anais shows up early her first day, and instead of finding Elsa Kastell at the door, she finds her husband.

Patrick Kastell III is an imposing man in every way but size; he draws attention seemingly without meaning to, and even when she's standing just beside him, it's hard for her mind to reconcile the fact that he's only a few inches taller than her, with the idea that he's much taller. He stands shorter than his wife, and still manages to feel like he towers over everyone else in the room.

The first thing that Anais actually notices about the man is his smile, and how it shines out at her without being blinding or poised like his wife's. The second thing she notices is the fact that he's covered in freckles, millions of dark spots pricking his brown skin. Anais has always considered herself leaning on the heavier end of the freckle spectrum, but Mr. Kastell looks like he stood outside in the rain when he was a child, and some of it just stuck. He manages to be attractive in the honest and average sort of way that most people aren't. Like he could just as easily be found working a minimum wage job at some gas station, as running a billion-dollar international corporation. Like no matter what pair of shoes he tries on, he'll always manage to fit them.

"You must be Mary Poppins!" he crows, obviously delighted, and against her better judgment, Anais likes him immediately.

"Anais Noel," she says, holding out a hand for him to shake. He seems amused by that, but his hand is gentle and warm on hers, his eyes kind, and he welcomes her inside without hesitating.

"I'm sorry that my wife is absent; she's at a luncheon with her book club. She should be back within the hour."

He gives her a tour of the manor, absent-minded and generous with the information he gives out, like footnotes at the bottom of each page. This is the wine-cellar where my great-great grandfather died of a stroke. My father and uncle rode a pony up these stairs once, just to prove they could do it. That balcony is where I proposed to my wife.

Anais' attention snags on their framed wedding portrait and when he notices, Mr. Kastell somehow manages to light up even more, and she finds she likes hearing him wax on poetically about Elsa, the love of his life. He even uses the phrase love of my life three times, that she counts.

He saves the nursery for last, pointing out a special hand-carved chair meant for breastfeeding, which was apparently a surprise for his wife. He's excited to show her.

"So what do you think, Ana?" he asks once he's finished. Anais runs a hand over a baby blanket covered in blue patterns that might be nothing but abstract shapes, or might be dark winged birds. She's having trouble looking away from it. "Feel like home?"

Anais thinks about the farmhouse she left behind in the dust and cornfields of Tornado Alley. She thinks about the running tape recorder she has, hidden in her purse. She looks around the sunlit nursery, bigger than any room from her childhood.

"It could be," she says. "In time."