Victoria The Billionaires Maid

“I don’t think I can do that, Cook. It’s changing my whole personality in a way. I’m not sure that living here and being with Alex calls for that. He’s not rude to the staff.”

“Oh no, he’s never rude. But, he is most definitely the boss. There’s no guesswork there at all and no room for a staff member to take advantage of him. As nice as you are Miss Victoria, that’s what I worry about. I’d hate to think anyone would take advantage of your kindness.”

I was touched by his concern, but this was one of those things I’d been worried about myself. I can’t ever imagine acting like I was “above” anyone. I came from the same place they did and my current position was pure luck at this point, I felt tenuous at best. “Thank you for your concern. I know that I need to be more aware of people who might want to take advantage. But I’d like to believe I can do that without losing touch with who I am. Besides, I happen to know that on a class-to-class basis, you way outdo me anyways.”

He laughed. “A lot has been said about me over the years. The word “Class” was never entered into any of it.”

“Well then, they didn’t know you,” I told him with a smile.

He was about to say something else when the doorbell rang.

“Excuse me.”

“Of course.”

I went to answer the door. I knew Karen would get it if I didn’t, but I was right here… I turned the corner and heard Karen’s voice saying, “I will see if she’s here.”

Then my heart dropped down into my stomach when I heard the person she was talking to say, “Thank you.” Speaking of being taken advantage of… it was my mother. Damn her! I took a deep breath and stepped into the foyer.

“Oh, there you are, Vicki.” I smiled at Karen.

“Thank you, Karen. I’ll take it from here.”

“Of course.” She stepped out and I waited until I heard her heels disappear down the hall.

“Mother, what are you doing here?”

She looked me up and down and then she said, “Maybe if you worried about your appearance, your staff wouldn’t call you “Vicki.” That’s very disrespectful.”

I almost laughed. “And who are you, the Queen of England?”

“Don’t talk to your mother that way,” she said.

“You keep saying that, yet I hear you speak rudely to everyone you encounter. What is it that makes you different from everyone else?”

“What’s wrong with you? Are you still having post-partum depression?”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Mother, what is it that you want?”

“I told you, I want to meet my grandson.”

“I thought I was going to call you when it was a good time.”

“I doubted that you would do that. What’s wrong with now, anyways?”

She’d worn me down. Cook was right; I was easy to take advantage of. “Okay, Mom. He’s sleeping right now. Would you like some tea while we wait?”

“What about a tour?”

So that she can do a mental inventory of how much everything is worth. With a sigh, I said, “Okay, I can do that.”

I took her into the living room first. She stopped to peruse the artwork on the walls, checking for signatures and dates on the paintings no doubt to assess their originality. From there, we went out onto the sun porch. She wasn’t much interested in plants and flowers but she did comment on how much the skylight must have cost. I tried to point out the gardens to her outside the glass but she was disinterested in that as well. I showed her the formal dining room and tried to skip the kitchen, but she headed in there on her own. I reluctantly followed her.

“Well hello there, big guy!” Oh, Jesus, she’s so embarrassing.

Cook looked at her warily and then at me and said, “Hello. You are?”

“Whoever you want…”

“Mother!” She was too much. “This is our cook, Gregory Black. Gregory this is my mother, Rita.”

Gregory smiled at her and I saw my mother’s posture straighten as she pushed out her fake boobs. God help me. “It’s so nice to meet you,” she said.

“And you as well, ma’am,” he said.

“Oh please, I’m way too young to be a ma’am… call me Rita.”

He only smiled again. I took my mother by the arm and said, “Gregory is busy. Let’s get back to the tour.”

She resisted saying, “I can’t imagine that any room could be more interesting than this one.”

“Mother,” I said through gritted teeth. I could tell Gregory was trying not to laugh.

“Maybe your mother would like to have a look at the basement.”

“Yes, come on Mom… you’ll love it down there.”

She finally moved but as we were leaving the room she said, “I’ll be seeing more of you now that my daughter is the lady of the manor, I’m sure.”

Gregory did chuckle then as he said, “I’ll look forward to it ma’am.”Property © of NôvelDrama.Org.

VICTORIA’s [POV]

Mom and I were upstairs in the master suite when the baby monitor in my pocket signaled that my handsome little man was awake. She was going on about the gold fixtures and the sound of her grandson didn’t even phase her.

“The baby’s awake,” I told her.

“Oh… yay!” She was so transparent. I headed to the nursery and was mildly surprised when she followed me. When we got to the nursery, before she even looked at her grandson she said, “My goodness look at this, it’s like he’s royalty.”

My head was beginning to pound.

The cure for it however was quickly in my arms. I kissed my sweet boy on his fat little cheek and said, “Hello there handsome. You have a visitor.” I tried to hand him to my mother and she took a step back. “You don’t want to hold him?”

“Oh, I’d love to… but this is a new blouse, I’d hate to get spit-up on it, you know?”

I rolled my eyes. She leaned in and looked at him and said, “He doesn’t look like you, but he is handsome. I’ve seen publicity photos of his father, he has good genes.”

“Yes, he does. He looks a lot like Alex.”

The baby has forgotten that quickly, she looked at me and said, “So, what about Alex? Has he proposed?”

“He’s not legally divorced yet, mother.”

“But you are sleeping in that big room with him, right?”

“Mom, I need to feed my son. If you’re truly only here because you think that me being with Alex will benefit you financially I’ll solve that mystery for you right now. What is Alex’s is Alex’s? I’m not with him in anyway shape or form to benefit financially or otherwise in any materialistic way. I care very much for Alex and being with him is all about that and Michael.”

She narrowed her eyes at me and said, “I don’t know what has gotten into you. Becoming a mother has made you hateful and spiteful.”

“Because I won’t agree to share the money that’s not mine with you?”

“If you marry him it will be yours,” she said, proving what I already knew; she did expect to benefit.

“I’d like for you to leave now, Mother, and please don’t come back unless you’re invited.” She opened her mouth to say something and I took out my breast and put it in my son’s mouth. She made a face that told me she was repulsed by the natural sight of a mother feeding her child and in a huff, she turned on her heel and left. I looked down at Michael and said, “Wow, if I had known it would be that easy, I would have fed you an hour ago.”

By the time Liz arrived, the last of the staff was leaving, Michael was down for the night and Cook had set out one of the most amazing-looking meals that I have ever seen.

“Wow, look at all of this,” Liz said, looking around as we sat. I asked Cook to put us in the kitchen. I knew how Liz felt about the mansion and I was hoping it would be more comfortable for her than the formal dining room.

“Yeah, Cook goes all out. He’s something…” I suddenly had an idea.

“What’s that look?” she said. “What are you up to?”

“I was just thinking I should introduce you and Cook. I think you would like him and him you. He is an amazing man. I had never really thought about him as a “man” though until today. You can thank my mother for that.”

She laughed. “You never thought of him as a man? Should I worry about that?”