"It looks like it is going to snow again doesn't it, Mr. Sheffield?"
Was all I heard coming from the loud mouthed squeaky voiced nanny that did not seem to grasp the concept that in order for her to get her paycheck, Maxwell and I had to get our's first. We both may have our own money but his will only go so far considering how he pays for the food that her family constantly consumes.
Like usual, she was perched on his desk while I sat on my green leather sofa next to the door. I mentally count down in my head to when the good for nothing butler will step into the office. But it doesn't happen. He doesn't show. I look up from my work almost nervous. He should be here by now. The tea should be on the serving tray on the desk and he should be pretending to dust while listening in to our conversation. My hands start to sweat and I feel myself start to get anxious. The nanny has long since left the office now and about an hour or so has passed.
Maxwell does not seem to notice Niles' absence. Maybe he knows why Dust Mop is nowhere to be found? Then it hits me. Why do I care? Of course I care. But, why? It should be obvious, any normal person would say it is because I love him and I need him and I can't live without him. But with me nothing is that simple, it never is. As far as I let myself believe, he is my best friend, my best friend, my worst enemy. In other words, my best enemy. Sure we fight and bicker but once I see that sparkle in his bright blue eyes, I know it is just a game and doesn't mean any of the things he says.
Another thirty minutes go by. My feet nervously tap the floor a million miles per minute. Finally, Maxwell looks up at me with confusion etched all over his face. Yeah, like that is something new. He squints his eyes and looks at me skeptically, like I have grown an extra head or something. He opens his mouth about to ask me what is the matter with me but I don't give him the chance. I have had enough of this. Usually by now, I have seen Niles at least a dozen times and even if he knows that he will be out during the day, he still manages to insult me before he leaves. But nothing. Not one single sighting. I make my way to the kitchen only to find that it is empty and lacking his presence. It seems so natural to be in here. I can picture him behind the counter but then I blink and he is gone. The next logical step would be to check his room. Maybe he just hasn't been feeling well.
I knock on the door softly but there is no response. Damn. I open the door anyways. His room hasn't changed. It is still filled with warm rich colors and plenty of photos lining the walls. I can admit that this is partially my doing. When the children were younger and Sarah was still with us, he was constantly taking pictures with the cheap disposable cameras. That Christmas like the few before it, we exchanged gifts. You may not realize it by the way we act but he is and always will be my best enemy. That Christmas, he gave me gorgeous gold earrings and I gave him a top of the line camera. And every year since then, part of my gift from him has been a scrapbook full of a year's worth of memories.
Sitting on the bed, I look at the pictures covering the walls. Most of them were of the children and his family back in England. There were plenty of him and his mother and one that she was sure she had seen somewhere else in one of the desk drawers in the office. In the middle stood his mother, her grey hair pinned back in a bun but her bright blue eyes were shining like there was no tomorrow. One either side of her were what I can only imagine were her boys. Both of them. Niles and Maxwell. I have been around both of them enough to know that while Maxwell was well endowed financially as a child, he lacked the family attention. And knowing Niles like I do, I know that his family had given him all the love in the world and were probably just as eager to love Maxwell all in the same. His mother looked so proud of both of them in the photo. So Niles had become a butler but deep inside she knew that like herself he would do anything for the people that he loves.
There were several of Sarah and some of Nanny Fine and Maxwell. The one that caught my eye was sitting on his night stand beside the bed. It was a picture of me, smiling. I can't remember when it was taking but damn, I looked good. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. My confusion grows as I see something out of the corner of my eye. The door slowly starts to open and Niles solemnly walks in. He doesn't seem to realize that I am sitting five feet in front of him.
I clear my throat, hoping to get his attention but he doesn't respond. What in the hell is wrong with him? I stand slowly and make my way to him. Although he is looking down, I can see that the spirit and spark was lost from his eyes. As I touch his arm to see if he is okay, he just looks up into my eyes and it breaks my heart to pieces.
"What's wrong?"I ask, almost scared to hear what he has to say. He hasn't looked this depressed since Sarah- No! Maxwell was in the office, Nanny Fine was preparing for her date, and the children were in their rooms. If it were one of his parents, Maxwell would have been upset as well, seeing as they were more of a family to him than his own family was. It couldn't be that bad…Could it?
"What are you doing here?" he asks dryly.
"You didn't come into the office earlier, Broomhilda." My eyes sunk to the floor. "I... uh…um..."
"If you want tea or coffee you should just get it yourself." He replied bitterly.
"I don't want tea or coffee, Niles. I want to know why I didn't get my morning, noon, or afternoon dose of insults, zingers and put downs!"
"I'm not really in the mood for this today, C.C"
C.C.? What the hell? We may be best enemies but he never calls me C.C. Of course if it were a formal occasion I would go by Miss Babcock but otherwise it was "Caca", "Ice Princess", or "Babs", "Babsy", anything but C.C.
"O...Kay. Well there is obviously something that has your panties in a wad. Would you like to share?"
No response. Just a simple shake of the head, no.
"Fine then," I say. "I'll talk, you listen."
Again, no response. He just sat on his bed, looking around the room like he was lost in a daze. I took that as the opportunity to sit down next to him.
"Niles," I start. "We may trade insults and barbs but you know that if you need anything or anyone, I'm here right? You can talk to me. It can go off the record. As in by no means will I use it for ammo."
He looks at me quizzically but nodded anyways. I knew this was going to take a while, he is British after all.
"So Niles is there anything that you wish to talk about? Maybe why you look like someone stole your favorite toilet brush?"
After a few minutes he looks up and our eyes meet.
"I uh... I um…" I was about to smack the living daylights out but then he said, "I got a call today, about my mother. She's not well."
My heart dropped and then it felt like it stopped. Air ceased to fill my lungs. Maybe I shouldn't have asked any questions.
"She was admitted to the hospital this evening."
"Is she okay? What did they say?" I grasped his hand and held on for dear life as I rambled off my questions. He was my anchor.
"He seems to think that I have something wrong with her. They believe she may have had a heart attack. "
"How bad?" Somehow the words slip out of my mouth as my eyes search his for a lie in his. Something, anything to tell me that what he was saying wasn't true. They were close. I would catch their phone conversations occasionally and listen to how they communicated. So I have picked up a few tricks of the trade from the master of eaves dropping himself.
The same condition that made me a nervous wreck a few years ago. The difference this time however was that Marie wasn't as young as she used to be. It would be more difficult for her to recover and it would not be easy. Tears gushed from my eyes. I was not even going to try and stop them from falling. I pulled him into my arms as if to never let him go. I don't know how long we stayed that way but I just couldn't let go of him. And he didn't seem to want to let go of me either.
This news was going to tear him apart. I couldn't even think about how it would affect Maxwell even though I knew he was going to be upset as well but this was Niles' mother. She was a kind woman. I had met her on several occasions. Trips to England with the family, weddings, births of Maxwell's and Sarah's children, her visits here. I liked her. It was hard not to. Eventually we leaned back on the bed. Just laying there, holding each other, wallowing in the fact of his terrible news.
It seemed like days later when I finally left his room when in fact it was only a few hours later. We had fallen asleep crying. Honestly it was the first time in a long time that I had cried myself to sleep. I met Nanny Fine in the hallway and she watched me emerge from his room, a pure look of confusion on her face.
"Miss Babcock? Are you alright? Why were you in Niles' room? What's going on? Were you crying? Why is your hair a mess?" Her questions seemed to be endless.
"Not now, Fran." Her eyes grew wide. I could see them while not really looking up. "I need to speak with Maxwell."
I left her standing there while I sped down to the office. I knew she would probably be hot on my heels but I made sure that I locked the office door and turned off the bloody intercom. If I was going to do this, then Maxwell was going to be my only audience.
"Maxwell, I need you to listen to me and I need you to listen well."
"What is it, C.C.? Since you decided to go M.I.A. for the last few hours, I have been very busy."
"Bull shit, Maxwell. I am going to need time off."
"CC, you do realize that we are in the middle of a production don't you?"
"Yes, and I need time off starting now. Don't ask any questions, when it is time to tell you, you will be told."
"Don't you think that I should be told NOW considering how I am your employer?"
The phone rang and before I could pick it up, Maxwell had already answered it. Before I could say anything, I heard Maxwell say "Oh dear God. No he hadn't said anything to me just yet, Joseph. Thank you for calling. Give Marie my sympathies and please tell her that I will have Niles on a plane as soon as possible" He looked at me with sorry eyes as if he knew why I needed the time off. He wasn't going to question it. He knew that things with Niles and I were not always what they seemed even if wasn't the brightest bulb in the bunch.
"C.C. take as much time off as you need and tell Niles the same. He needs you more than I do right now"
With that I nodded and returned to Niles' room, passing Nanny Fine in the hallway once again. I knew that Maxwell was hiding his emotions at this point but he wasn't my main priority, Niles was.
