I quickly rushed to the child and pulled the wet coat off them. A little boy looked up at me.

"Cody, this is Montana." Oliver said then leaned to the boy. "But call her Monty, she don't like Montana." He whispered to the child playfully.

The small boy smiled shyly and grabbed Oliver's leg. I knelt down so I was level with Cody.

"Hi Cody." I smiled at him. His large dark blue eyes looked at me.

"Hi." He whispered shyly. I looked up at Oliver. Who was this kid?

"You could have told me it was a child." I whispered harshly at Mr Black. There is next to nothing here for him.

"Sit up here buddy." Oliver picked the small child up on to the bar stool, ignoring my tone.

I went to the bag he brought in. It was filled with all kinds of food. I raised my eyebrow in questioning.

"Chicken nuggets?" I half smiled.

Oliver shrugged as he took the box. I got a tray out and gave it to him.

I turned the oven on and placed the tray in there. He isn't going to tell me. It was just on four in the afternoon and I had to do dinner. But first, I fed Cody.

It wasn't till after everyone ate and Oliver put the very tired boy to bed that he called me in to the study. I was slightly annoyed. It was meant to be my day off but yet, here I am.

"Monty, I have Cody staying for a few weeks." Was his gruff tone.

Was it just me or he didn't sound too happy.

"It's not the best timing, because I'll be in and out for a week, depending on this blizzard. I will need you to take care of him."

I tilted my head to the side. "I'm sorry, I thought I was hired as your housekeeper, not a nanny."

"Well, I guess you got promoted." Oliver sighed.

I sat at the chair at the desk. "So... What am I going to do?" I asked, lost.

"Well first of, do you like children?"

I gasped. "Yes. I adore children."

"You have to cook, clean, and run after him. The washing, the driving, purchasing whatever he needs."

I nodded my head.

"So you don't have to do what I originally hired you for unless it's on the list of things that are required in this job." Oliver looked drained.

"My hours?" I inquired.

Monday to Friday, 6am till 8pm. Unless it's a day care day, which I will eventually enrol him to. Then only 6am till drop off then pick up till 8pm."

"What about the weekend?"

I heard the groan. I'm not going to like this.

"Can we negotiate the weekends?"

"Can we negotiate my pay?" I smirked.

"Fine." He snapped. I could see he was tired. The storm was getting stronger outside and I shuddered.

"Great. I'll work the weekends you're not in. And I'll have every weekend off that you are in."

Mr Black shook his head. "That's not going to work."

My face fell. "Why not?"

"Well, I'm a busy man and sometimes you have to take the child with you when you do personal errands since I can't have him under my feet while I try to work."

I shrugged. "That won't bother me."

Oliver looked straight at me. "And what of this person you've been seeing?"

I paled. Percy. I forgot. "Fine. I will take every second Saturday afternoons and nights and every opposing all day Sunday."

"Every second Saturday afternoons and nights and opposing Sunday nights?"

"No!" I half shrieked. "I would like to sleep in."

"Fine. Every second Sunday morning."

I thought it over. "I'll work Saturday mornings 7 till noon and 7 till 8. Sundays 7 till 8 and noon till eight. But I also want every second Friday night off. So I want to finish at 6pm."

I saw Oliver's jaw clenched. "Fine." He snapped as he wrote that down. I sat back with my arms crossed in victory.

"Now I want -"

Mr Black cut me off. "What now?"

"My pay."

Another groan. He knew it was coming.

"I'm too tired. Can we finish this tomorrow?"

I was surprised. Holy crap! I stood up. "Very well. Tomorrow. I'll hold you to that." I left the study and went back to where I was sleeping, but first checked on Cody.

The child was sprawled out, a leg hanging off the bed. I smiled as I pushed his leg back in and fixed up his blankets.

I laid on my bed for several minutes before I willed myself to have a shower.

The room was cold and I made it a quick shower, getting dressed and rushed to my room. I wrapped my dressing gown on and laid back down.

The wind was howling, I could hear hail on the roof and against the walls and thunder in the distance. I hope the glass roof won't smash.

It's going to be a wild storm. I closed my eyes, listening to the sounds.

I heard a huge crack and then a thud as I sat up in bed. What the hell was that? I got up off the bed. It was late or early, I'm not too sure. I don't even know if I had slept or not.

I picked up my phone and looked at the time. It was 11:45pm. I tightened my gown as I went to turn the light on.

Nothing.

I turned the torch on on my phone and opened the door. I saw another light by Mr Black's door.

He strode over to me. "Go check on Cody. I'll check the fuses."

I heard the exhaustion in his voice. I went to Cody's room and he was still sound asleep.

I went downstairs and went to the kitchen. There was no sign of Oliver anywhere. I couldn't see a thing outside.

Suddenly, Oliver appeared through the back door. "The powers out." He grumbled and left.

Out? My face stilled. Out. I quickly followed Oliver to his study. "Out? So no power? No heater?"

Oliver went through the side door and outside. He quickly appeared with firewood and stacked them in the fire place. "No. No power. No heater."

He went back outside, letting the cold air in. The only light we had were from our phones.

I do recall seeing candles. I went back to the kitchen and went through the drawers. I found seven candles. I padded back to the study. I lit the candles and placed them on the coffee table.

"Help me." I looked at the glow of Oliver at one end of the couch. I went to the other and picked it up and moved it away from the fire place. The large coffee table was next.

"You've done this before?" I asked as I straightened myself up.

"Yeah, a few years ago now. It was my first blizzard here. I rang emergency services about the power. They told me what to do."

Suddenly a thunder clapped, making me jump slightly. That's when we heard the crying.

"I'll get him." I offered as Oliver played with the matches in the fireplace. I picked up my phone up and went to Cody. He sat on his bed crying.

I rushed over to him and soothed the poor scared child. I picked him up and wrapped a blanket around him. I could feel the rooms getting colder.

I carried him back to the study and placed him on the sofa. "I'm just going to get some more blankets.

I went back upstairs to my room and slipped some socks on and picked up the top blanket off my bed and wrapped it around me as I went to the study.

"Monty," Cody sniffed at me.

"Yes buddy?" I sat next to him.

"Can I have some water please."

I brushed his hair with my fingers. "Of course." I dropped my blanket on to him and went to the kitchen. I felt my way around, avoiding using too much of my phone as I went to the fridge and grabbed a pitcher of water and a cup.

I poured a cup of water for Cody and sat next to him, brushing his hair again.

I noticed Oliver disappeared. I've yet to find out the relationship between the two.

After several minutes, Oliver returned with blankets and dropped them on the floor before going again.

There was a tiny room that was adjoined to the side door in the study that Oliver had stacked in fire wood. I watched Oliver make a makeshift bed in front of the fire place and shoved some towels under the cracks of the doors.

I sat with Cody leaning on me, as I played with his hair. It wasn't long before he fell back asleep. I slowly got up and laid Cody down, fixing the blankets up.

I lost my blanket. I moved to the roaring fire and tried to warm up. I never realised how harsh snow could be.

I looked over at Oliver, who had his back to the fire, watching Cody.

"Who is he?" I asked Oliver.