Day Care Dragon by Zoe Chant

Author:Zoe Chant [Chant, Zoe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-10-27T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen: Loretta

Darius hadn't reappeared since they had returned to the mansion. Loretta knew he'd come out of his office when he was ready, and she had already decided that she intended to drag him out of there for dinner, no matter what was going on with his Rodan Sharpe situation by that point.

But in the meantime, she figured the best thing she could do to help was leave him alone, so she wandered out to the pink-and-yellow rose garden. She checked in with Becky via phone, reassured her co-worker that she was dealing with her family situation, and was reassured in turn that the children had done no damage to the ballroom and were all being packed off back to their parents.

Loretta put her phone away and explored the paths in the garden. It was hard to believe Darius was in the middle of a crisis back in the mansion; everything seemed so peaceful and calm. The world was still damp from the earlier rains, making the air heavy and damp now that the sun had come out. Puddles steamed and every scent was heightened. Loretta pulled down a yellow blossom to smell it.

"You like the yellow ones, don't you?"

Loretta jumped and turned. There was a strange woman in the garden, a tall woman in a green dress with a long red-gold braid. Loretta instinctively distrusted her.

"Do you work here?" she asked. She didn't think the woman was one of Darius's servants. There was too much of an air of command to her for that. This woman looked like someone who was used to being obeyed.

"Oh, no. I'm Esmerelda. I don't suppose he's mentioned me?"

"Not even once." Loretta wasn't sure what it was about this woman that put her hackles up.

"Probably best. I just wanted to meet you." Esmerelda smiled. It was a warm smile, not unfriendly. "I wanted to find out a little more about the woman who has enthralled the unflappable Darius Keegan."

"If you're here to hurt him—" Loretta began, bristling.

"Oh, goodness no. Hurting him is the last thing on my mind. I just wanted to meet you, and to tell you that he could probably use you right now."

"Because of you?"

"Because of the past," Esmerelda said, and her eyes were suddenly sad. "He's in his office. Inside the garden door, up a flight of stairs, down the hall past the marble statues and the fountain. Sometimes he needs someone to shake some sense into him. I never could ... but I was not his mate."

"Are you his ex-wife?" Loretta asked cautiously. Jealousy surged in her, but in a strangely attenuated way. She could imagine Darius with this tall, elegant woman, but the way Esmerelda spoke of him was not in the way of a woman who had come to try to steal him. It was too wistful for that, the bittersweet nostalgia for something that had vanished long ago.

"Something like that, but I was never what you are, and could never have been," Esmerelda said. She gestured to the house with a graceful hand.

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