Page 10 of Nigel

Ava was flustered.She had four people off with a virus and was short staffed. That wasputting it mildly. She was out of her depth and floundering.

"What aboutJilly, the new girl?" Her assistant Monica was hovering justinside her doorway. "I know she has not been through the ropes,but desperate measures."

"Even withJilly, there are still a couple of clients that need to be taken careof." She looked at her clipboard. Monica was a trim and sensiblewoman wearing sensible and practical clothing. She had been a maidfor most of her life and knew the ropes. She was also an excellentorganizer.

"We already havesome of the ladies doing more than their fair share." She tappedher clipboard. "The Hallowell's are having a party and need themansion sparkling clean. Then there is Mr. Nigel Hawthorne - he isone of our newest clients and we cannot afford to lose him. Jane isthe one who usually goes around to see to the cleaning-"

"And she is alsodown." Ava felt like screaming. This is something that had neverhappened before and this new uncharted territory was making hercrazy. Mentally shifting things around, she came to a solution. "Iwill take Nigel Hawthorne."

Monica looked at heraskance. "You are going to clean."

Ava huffed out alaugh. "I have done it before Monica. When I was just startingout, I had to demonstrate that I knew what I was about. Assign theothers to the ones with the lighter duties and make it clear thatthere will be a bonus in there. We are going to get through this."

The woman stood therehesitantly.

"What is it?"

"I can take someon."

"No, you cannot.You are almost seventy years old honey and there is no way I am doingthat to you. Like I said, we will get through this. What time is thecleaning at Mr. Hawthorne's?"

"Jane usuallygets there for ten. I understand the gentleman is never there whichis perfect. It's one of those makeover lofts in the uptown area. Iwill give you the address."

Ava glanced at herwatch and saw that it was almost nine. "That gives me enoughtime to finish with the correspondence. You are going to have toreschedule the appointment with the accountant until we are clear."

"Of course."Monica gave her chic pearl gray sweater a critical once over. "Youare going to need to change."

"I always haveextra clothing in the closet." She gestured to the small room atthe back of her office. It was a tiny bedroom, complete with abathroom and a closet. There were times in the past when she had tobunk here, when it was necessary and she always had 'work clothes'handy.

"Good. Let meget back to what I was doing."

"Thanks Monica."

"Of course."The woman stepped back and closed the door. Ava pressed a hand to hertemples and rubbed at the ache brewing there.

She would get throughthis. It was business and owning one meant you had to go throughdifferent phases. And she was not averse to going out there andwiping at rich people's dirt. Her ladies did it and she had done itbefore.

Her mother had spentmost of her life doing it. She was not going to allow the awfulmemories to get hold of her and let her prejudice surface. She wouldgo to this guy's place and get the work done.

She knew who he wasof course. Who didn't? Nigel Anthony Hawthorne, the forty somethingmulti-billionaire who had taken his father's million-dollar companyand turned it into something much more. She had seen his picture inthe papers. He was single, posing with one beautiful woman or theother.

He had been calledeligible and she supposed he was. She had seen some of the things hiscompany had accomplished and was impressed that he could take asimple structure and turn it into a work of art.

She researched herclients before she took them on. There was no way she was going tosend her ladies out where they would be assaulted or molested.

There was a standardcontract they had to sign. Just like there was a non-disclosure hercompany had to sign as well. These people were the upper echelons ofsociety and they would not want their personal businesses beingtalked about here and there.

She would havemeetings with her ladies and emphasize the importance of utmosthonesty. "Nothing is to be touched. We are here to keep theirplaces clean and they are putting their trust in us.

I am putting my trustin you and the company has a reputation to maintain. Theirpossessions are just that - theirs and we have our pride. We arecertainly not going to allow some rich people to accuse us ofstealing."

Blowing out a breath,she stirred herself to finish what she was doing so that she couldleave.

*****

The headache was theworst. It was like someone was gleefully stabbing a hot pokerrepeatedly in his brain and his chest was congested. He did notusually get sick and as a man who was as healthy as the proverbialhorse, this helplessness was pissing him off.

He had meetings linedup and when he had tried to get out of bed before, he had almostfallen on his ass. He had been able to stumble into the bathroom torelieve himself and swallowed down enough pills to try and dull thepain, but it was back. His eyes felt bleary as if he was going blind.

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