Chapter 7: A Safer Place to Wait
At seven the next morning, Mara called Adrien from the kitchen doorway.
“I’m using the paid emergency day today. I don’t have care for Sophie, and I need the day to arrange it.”
“All right,” he said. “You’re not expected to work.”
The answer came so quickly that she had prepared another sentence for nothing.
“I’ll send Teresa the provider’s written quote once I have one.”
“Send it when you’re ready. The agreement says what happens next.”
Mara ended the call and looked at Sophie, who was building a crooked tower from wooden blocks on the kitchen floor. The day was still a problem, but it was a problem she could work on without worrying that a missed shift would cost her the job.
By noon, she had spoken to three childcare providers. One had no openings. Another could take Sophie the following week, not this one. The third, a caregiver named Mrs. Alvarez, offered in-home care and had a short-term opening for the rest of the week.
Mara checked the references Mrs. Alvarez provided, asked about her schedule and fees, and arranged to meet her that afternoon. She did not ask Adrien to choose for her. She did not let the promise of compensation hurry her into an answer.
At the meeting, Mrs. Alvarez sat on the floor with Sophie and let her show off a block tower that leaned so far to one side it seemed to defy gravity. Sophie explained that it was a castle with a very windy roof.
Mrs. Alvarez listened as if the roof mattered.
Mara watched them together. She asked about meals, naps, emergency contacts, and what would happen if either of them needed to cancel. She read the written schedule twice. By the time they finished, Sophie had offered the caregiver a block as a present.
“I like her,” Sophie said when Mrs. Alvarez had gone.
“That’s good,” Mara said. “I still have to make sure the details work.”
The details did work. Mrs. Alvarez could come to the Vale house for the rest of the week, supervise Sophie in a room Mara approved, and give notice if she could not make a scheduled day. The fee was within the range Mara had budgeted. She sent the written quote to Teresa, who confirmed that the added compensation would appear on Mara’s next pay statement.
On Wednesday morning, Mrs. Alvarez arrived ten minutes early. Mara introduced her to Teresa, showed her the small family room beside the kitchen, and pointed out the phone and emergency information on the counter. Sophie brought over a coloring book.
“This room is fine,” Mara told Mrs. Alvarez. “Please keep the door open. And Sophie doesn’t go into the west wing or Mr. Vale’s office.”
“I understand,” Mrs. Alvarez said.
Mara knelt beside her daughter.
“I’ll be working nearby. Mrs. Alvarez is staying with you. If you need me, you can ask her to come get me.”
Sophie looked up from the coloring book.
“Can I draw a windy castle?”
“You can draw anything you like.”
It wasn’t a perfect solution. It was a clear one: Sophie had a responsible adult with her, Mara knew where they were, and the rules were understood by everyone who needed to follow them.
Mara started her duties. She finished the morning’s laundry and moved on to the dining room, listening for trouble out of habit. Instead, she heard Sophie explaining the proper color for a dragon’s socks.
Adrien came down the hall on his way to the office. He paused at the open family-room door. Sophie was at the table, crayons spread in a careful fan. Mrs. Alvarez sat beside her, watching without directing.
Adrien stayed in the doorway.
“Is this arrangement working?” he asked Mara.
“So far. We’ll see how the week goes.”
He nodded, accepting the answer without asking Sophie whether she was happy, or telling Mara what she ought to feel.
Sophie glanced up.
“Mr. Vale, dragons have socks.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said.
He continued down the hall. He did not go to his office by way of the west wing, and Sophie did not follow him.
The first test came just before lunch. Teresa brought Mara a note: Adrien wanted the upstairs guest room prepared for an overnight visitor. It had not been on the morning schedule. The extra work would push Mara past the time Mrs. Alvarez had agreed to stay.
Mara read the note, then looked at the clock. A year ago, she might have hurried through the job and dealt with the consequences afterward. Now she knew what the agreement said—and that using it was not the same as breaking it.
She went to Adrien’s office and knocked.
“Come in.”
“I can prepare the guest room,” she said. “But it would take me past Mrs. Alvarez’s scheduled end time. She can’t stay later today.”
Adrien looked up from the papers in front of him.
“How much time do you need?”
“About an hour.”
“Then it can wait until tomorrow.”
“If the visitor needs it tonight, I can ask Mrs. Alvarez whether she’s available longer. But I won’t assume she is, and I’d need to confirm the added cost first.”
“Don’t ask her to stay. The room can wait.”
“All right.”
He wrote something on the top sheet and returned to his work. Mara went back to the family room. There was no argument, no implication that she had failed him. The request changed; the schedule held.
At the end of the day, Mrs. Alvarez helped Sophie put the crayons away. Mara thanked her, checked tomorrow’s hours with her, and walked her to the front entrance. Sophie waved from the family room.
When Mara returned, Adrien was standing in the hall. His gaze had settled on the family-room door, where Sophie’s drawing of the dragon and its sock-covered feet was propped against a stack of books.
“She seems settled,” he said.
“She is. Mrs. Alvarez is good with her.”
“Would you keep using this arrangement?”
“If the provider remains available and the hours stay workable. I’ll decide week by week.”
“Of course.”
Mara picked up the drawing before it could slide off the books. “Did you need something?”
Adrien’s attention moved to the far end of the hall, toward the west wing.
“I’ve been thinking about the room.”
She knew which one. The room he had kept still, with Nora’s books and the drawing he could not look at. The last time they had entered it, he had promised the next visit would not be a test.
“What about it?” she asked.
“I don’t think it should stay closed forever.”
“That doesn’t mean it has to open tomorrow.”
“No.” He paused. “It doesn’t.”
Mara tucked the drawing under her arm. “What would you want it to be?”
His eyes went again to the west wing. The question seemed to hold him in place longer than it should have.
“A music room, perhaps,” he said. “Somewhere children could—”
He stopped.
Mara waited. She didn’t fill the silence for him, or tell him what Nora might have wanted. Sophie’s picture rested between them, a crooked castle dragon smiling above its bright, uneven socks.
Adrien looked at it, then toward the closed wing.
“Would you help me plan it?” he asked.
Mara studied his face.
May you like
“Plan what, exactly?”
He opened his mouth. For a moment, the answer seemed close. Then he looked past her, toward the door he had not yet decided how to open.
