Page 10 of Sweet Surrender
“You’re right, it was a question. And it has a good answer too. Rowyn is an Irish name actually, even though it’s not popular here anymore. It means little red one, and I was born with a big mop of this fiery red hair, so my parents thought it fit.”
Rowyn smiled brightly at the kids, and Eliza winced. Rowyn had no idea what she was in for, and Eliza almost felt sorry for her.
“Your hair is orange, though, not red.” Amelia piped up.
Eliza gritted her teeth in frustration at the impression theywere giving already. She loved her kids, wholeheartedly. But the constant pushback, questioning, and attitude about every single thing had worn her patience thin on more than one occasion.
“That’s true, it is technically orange. But we call it red hair, or a redhead, or ginger, you might hear people say. The reason behind that is actually interesting too, if you’re curious.”
Eliza glanced between Rowyn and the kids as they stepped farther into the room. Rowyn moved to sit at the table and waited, as if allowing them to decide whether they wanted to engage further or not.
“What is it?” Elliot said as he moved toward the table.
Amelia followed closely behind.
“Well, the word for orange as a colour didn’t exist until the sixteenth century. Before that, the colour orange was categorised as a shade of red. The colour orange was named after the fruit orange. But people with hair like mine have existed for far longer than that. The term red-haired is from the fifteenth century, so before the colour was called orange. Language evolves and words change, but there is almost always a reason why something is named what it is.”
The kids stared, engrossed in the little history lesson that Rowyn was giving them. Eliza was captivated too. She had no idea about any of that, and it was interesting, but she was more enraptured by the attention her children were giving this stranger. They let her speak without interruption for far longer than Eliza was used to them doing for anyone.
“That’s pretty cool. You learn something new every day,” Henry said.
Eliza had forgotten he was there while distracted by the scene playing out at the table.
“She’s good,” Henry mouthed to Eliza as he jerked a head toward Rowyn.
The kids were now shooting more questions about coloursand names at her as she answered them in her stride.
“Can I speak to you for a sec before you go?” Eliza asked Henry as she got up to step out into the hall. Henry followed her out and she pulled the door closed behind them.
“Eli did break Amelia’s headphones, but it was an accident. She left them on the floor in the car, and he stepped on them getting in. We narrowly avoided World War Three because of it, so it was a fun car ride over,” Henry said with a chuckle.
“I’m not sure the new nanny is going to work out,” Eliza said.
She spoke calmly to keep all emotion out of her voice. Henry frowned and tilted his head to the side.
“You mean the new nanny that got our kids to learn something without an argument? The nanny who was just rattling off the meaning of colour names while our kids stared at her like she hung the moon. You don’t think she’s going to work out because what…she had mud on her shoes coming in?”
Eliza glared cooly at Henry, but he was too used to her to flinch.
“She’s too young. There’s no way someone her age can have enough experience to deal with our…”
Eliza trailed off and Henry raised his eyebrows.
“Our chaos demons? You can say it, they can’t hear. Our kids are tiny terrors with the faces of angels, and we both know it. But that’s precisely why they need someone who can keep up with them. Plus, you heard what the agency said last time, Eliza. Our beautiful children are basically on their last shot here. They’ve been kicked out of two afterschool programs and lost six nannies. Well, technicallyyoufired four of them, so that’s not all on the kids—”
“I fired them because they couldn’t do their jobs, and I was getting calls every second day to come home from work. It wasn’t sustainable,” Eliza cut in.
“I’m not arguing with you on that, Eliza. I want the bestfor my kids, and I trust that you won’t let them have less. But that’s Rowyn. This is the person they send when nobody else will come. She’s the big guns, the best, and you don’t have an alternative. So, unless you feel like finishing work when the school day ends every day, you’re all out of options.”
Henry was right, even if Eliza hated to admit it.
“She’s not that young. You were basically climbing steadily up that corporate ladder and running rings around your colleagues already at twenty-eight,” Henry said with a smile.
“She’stwenty-eight?” Eliza said in alarm.
She had known Rowyn was younger than her, but she assumed early thirties at least. Not in her twenties.
“Did you even read the profile I sent you before we made this decision?”
