Stranger in the Home

Andrea continued as Jock considered her statement.

“You think about it Mr. Geldard. I’ll wait to bathe the children until you come to the nursery after your supper tomorrow evening, and you can observe me in action. If you forget after considering all your important work assignments, I’ll come and remind you. Very important for you to learn to be a father.”

Her audacity surprised him, so he just shrugged. He’d go as usual to his office, and this woman would learn to do her job without interfering in his life if he held his ground long enough. It was a battle of wills. In some ways he was beginning to find her interesting though as she had an obvious commitment to his twins, and he found that appealing. So, he did go to his office the next evening and before long looked up to see her standing in front of him. This time he laughed.

“Andrea, I really don’t understand you, but you are persistent, aren’t you? I know you have my children’s interests at heart. What business is your father in to raise such a daughter?”

Andrea shrugged and rolled her eyes.

“And I don’t understand you, Mr. Geldard. The only fathers I know are with their children as often as they can right from birth and there is a bond established within the family from birth. My father has a very successful import and export business facilitating trade between this country and South American countries. We are not in need of money, Mr. Geldard, so the threat of sacking me as your children’s nurse doesn’t impress me at all.  While our father is always travelling, he showers attention to us when he returns home after each trip. He’d die for us and we for him. There is love for all in our family. I don’t understand this environment you choose to live in, but I can see your children need love and I’ll give it to them, but you must cooperate. Now please come with me as I don’t like to be away from them for too long. Steven in particular needs careful attention to see he is safe.”

Jock sighed and got up to follow her and she smiled at her victory. She didn’t like him, but it was important the children knew him and felt his love as their father. They reached her room and went through to the nursery. She turned to Jock and spoke.

“Tonight, you will watch everything I do and tomorrow you will take instructions as I watch you bathe and change the twins. And you’ll talk to the children as you handle them, so they are intimately connected with your voice!”

Jock watched the procedures sullenly and marveled at her speed and experience as she handled the children in constant conversation with each one in turn as she worked. She took Jennifer and dried and oiled her putting on protective clothing deftly then turned and placed the child in Jock’s arms, and he began to rock the child as he’d done the previous evening.

“Speak to her, Mr. Geldard. This is your daughter, and you need to communicate to her vocally you love her and will always be there for her. This must be done repeatedly as the child grows. Never try to lock this child out of your office when she wants to see you as you tried to do with me!”

She turned and repeated the procedure again with Steven ignoring Jock while she worked. Then took Jennifer from Jock and placed her in her cot while she took Steven and placed him in his father’s arms.

“Now tell your son you love him too and you will do this every evening from now on.”

She picked up Jennifer again and went to the deck to fetch a bottle containing formula out of warm water. Jennifer attached the bottle greedily and Andrea placed her carefully in the cot resting the bottle on neatly arranged towels temporarily so the child could continue to feed.

She then returned to Jock who was looking quite out of place, nothing in his childhood had prepared him for this. His nurse effectively was his mother as he grew up and he didn’t understand why things should change. He tried to hand the child back and mumbled he needed to get back to work. Andrea laughed and put up her hand.

“One more thing Mr. Geldard. I want you to feed your son while I talk with you.”

She swiftly took the other bottle of formula and indicated he should sit. Then placed the bottle in Steven’s mouth as his father held him.

“Now Mr. Geldard I took the trouble to show you this tonight as I know you’ll be looking for my replacement tomorrow and I won’t be around to nurture these babies. I’m quite happy about that though I’ll miss these babies very much. When I first met you, I understood you are a man who has never experienced love and my heart went out to these children knowing this would be passed on to them as you repeated your own bringing up experience with them. I was hoping when you held your children and spoke to them, you’d begin to feel affection for them. You failed that test in my estimation, and I feel sorry for you and the babies. I desperately want these children to know what a father is.”

Jock was shocked. But he had felt something stir inside him which he didn’t understand as he held his children, and it had made him feel happy.

“Andrea I’m not going to look for someone to replace you. I was but you’ve convinced me no one else could possibly give my children the attention they need. However, you must understand with my work I have to focus day and night to satisfy the requirements of my job and it’s stressful enough without you making my life miserable by guilt tripping me every day. I’m going to get less sleep tonight because of this diversion.

Andrea smiled and spoke.

“Thank you for appreciating my work, Mr. Geldard. I don’t need this job, but I am happy to stay for a while now as a favor to the doctor who is my friend. I just want to have you bond with your children as my parents did with us. The twins should feel a father’s love as they grow. I’ll not put any pressure on you again, but I hope you’ll use every opportunity possible to spend time with your children when you can do that without jeopardizing your work. They need to be held and spoken to by their father. They need to learn love.”

“Perhaps you are in the wrong job to be thinking of bringing up a family and there is always the option of adopting the children out before they get much older you not having a wife.  When you marry, please consider finding a woman who wants to stay at home and bring them up so they can experience love. I’ll not be visiting your office again unless there is an emergency. If you do decide you can’t cope and be a father to these children, I’ll be very happy to take them out of your hands and adopt them both. Our family is quite rich, and it would be no trouble for us to do that.”

She smiled at him and took Steven to put him to bed waving Jock out of the room.

Jock returned to his office a troubled man. But he had to focus on the issue he was looking at to present as a possible approach to government for the Carter Enterprises proposals. It was another huge oil company that wanted special treatment in environmental study. He knew it was not in public interest, but a legal firm represented the client not the public interest. He thought about that as he finished the project and headed for a few hours’ sleep. It was not right. Perhaps he was not in the right job. The thought of that made him feel depressed.

Next day at the office Jock had completed several interviews and was preparing to do some lobby work with prominent politicians who’d been cooperating with them in the past for their financial gain. The phone rang as he was completing his latest interview. Only Rudy Meyers would be permitted to interrupt an interview so he knew his secretary would be passing on a call from the boss.  He picked up the desk phone apologizing to the one being interviewed and listened. Rudy spoke at the other end of the line.

“Sorry to interrupt Jock but it’s important I speak to you before you head out for your lobbying appointment. When can I see you?”

“If it’s a quick one can I come in fifteen minutes then?”

The answer was affirmative, so he replaced the phone to wrap up the interview quickly. He saw this important client out and went back to make quick notes on his Dictaphone, then rushed to Rudy’s office glancing at his watch. Rudy welcomed his son-in-law.

“Looked over the Carter Enterprises proposal. Brilliant! We should meet their President over a dinner meeting tonight. He’ll have his wife with him, and so will I. You could bring my daughter Stella so the women would have something to talk about while we did business in that Carol is no longer with us.”

Jock sensed entrapment. Was Rudy trying to palm another one of his daughters off onto him? He knew Stella and she was as hard driving as her father. While Carol had been easy to live with, Stella was quite different and Jock knew there’d be conflict, and this would affect his work.

“Rudy that’s nice of you to include me but count me out as I have so much work to do, I’m not getting much sleep. You usually handle all these top clients and it’s hard enough to keep up with the work you delegate. Nice of you to offer me the privilege of meeting them at top level but I’m going to have to give this a pass.”

Rudy laughed.

“It’s Stella, isn’t it? OK I understand and you really do have a heavy load but sometimes you are going to have to meet these guys at the top if you want to promote a political career.”

Jock chuckled. Rudy was very perceptive and obviously knew Stella was a handful. She was also a political aspirant. He wished his father-in-law goodbye and headed out to meet some politicians for a luncheon meeting.

That evening, as soon as he reached home, he went to Andrea’s room and knocked on the door. The door opened and Jock stood back in shock.

The woman at the door called Andrea from the nursery, and she came carrying Steven the look on Andrea’s face looked equally shocked. She laughed and talked to the other woman in Spanish and the other woman nodded and headed for the nursery. Andrea switched to English.

“That was my mother. Her name is Elisa, and she comes in the afternoons sometimes to help me. She is very experienced in dealing with children so if I must go out to get supplies for the children, I can confidently leave them with her, and she enjoys mothering again.”

Elisa appeared with Jennifer in her arms crooning to her and she nodded in greeting Jock. She said something to her daughter in Spanish which caused Andrea to explode in laughter and Jock looked at them both inquiringly. Jock felt uncomfortable and decided to leave muttering his apologies, but Elisa thrust Jennifer into his arms, and he stood there feeling out of place. Andrea spoke.

“My mother says you don’t look as fierce as your reputation and likes you.”

Jock was tempted to be upset at that remark. What kind of reputation was she referring to and what had Andrea been telling her mother. But suddenly, he began to see the humor in having such a wide cultural gap between them. He studied Elisa while he stood and noted she was not of peasant stock. She was stylishly dressed and obviously well off. Elisa smiled at him winningly as she handed the child over and spoke in cultured English.

“You will have to forgive my Andrea. I hear she’s been giving you quite a difficult time and I apologize for that. She doesn’t have to do this job, and we tried to talk her out of taking it, but she is a rescuer personality type and decided to be a change agent here. If she’s too much to handle, we’ll gladly have her home again. I probably need to return home now that you are here.”

Jock was quick to reply.

“Elisa you are welcome in this house any time you care to come. I don’t know how it’s possible with the two young babies to look after but if you and Andrea wish to have your meals in the dining room in the evenings, I’d welcome that and would arrange it with my housekeeper. I’ll not always be here of an evening having clients to entertain downtown some evenings but even without me being here you are welcome to use the dining room.”

Elisa was deeply moved.

“You are a good man Mr. Jock but that would be impractical with the babies at this age we’ll continue to eat here in the room as Andrea has been doing and don’t worry because she buys from her own money. It was very nice of you to supply a small kitchen in this spacious room; it’s like a luxury motel.”

Jock was appalled. He’d given instructions to the housekeeper to see Andrea was supplied with all her meals as part of the agreement to work there. And quickly apologized.

Elisa laughed and reached out to take back Jennifer.

“Time for the baths. You can stay if you wish. Your housekeeper did approach Andrea telling her meals would be supplied and she’d have a choice of anything she desired but Andrea preferred to prepare her own food Spanish style, and we are both very happy with that arrangement. But we will approach the housekeeper should Andrea find looking after the children makes it difficult for her to cook her own meals. Thank you for your kindness in offering again.”

Jock was beginning to feel comfortable with the situation and followed the women inside to watch. He looked at Andrea in a new light. After the children were bathed and fed Elisa said farewell and headed home. Her own children would be arriving home soon from their day’s activities, and she wanted to be there to receive them.

To be continued.

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