The Nutcracker Bleeds by Lani Lenore Read Free Book Online Page B

at her, unable to help himself. Her innocence was unlike anything
he’d ever seen. Her purity was mixed with wisdom, and that was rarely
encountered by anyone. Still, if he were to address her about the matter he wished
to, he would have to wipe all smiles away. He had to show her he was serious.
    “I
was in my room unpacking,” he began, putting on his most solemn face. “Some of
the toys weren’t where I had left them. You haven’t been in my room, have you?”
    The
girl was quiet, taking the moment of silence to begin humming a song; her way
of ignoring him. When she would hum, people would usually stop talking to her,
accepting that she didn’t hear them for the sound of her own humming, but not
him. Never her uncle.
    “Olivia”
he said firmly, raising his silver eyebrows to await her answer.
    She
held up her index finger, making it catch his attention, then she turned her
head to look at it herself, squinting as if trying to figure it out. She
paused, not speaking until she was sure he’d focused on the bandage there on
her finger.
    “There
was a mouse in the toy chest yesterday,” she said, considering it herself as
she spoke. “It bit me. I bled.”
    “Were
you frightened?” he asked, humoring her.
    “It
bothered Anne, but not me. We all bleed.”
    She
paused then, looking over her uncle’s hands and coat, searching.
    “But
not him ,” she added. “He shouldn’t bleed–unless it’s in a fair battle.”
    He
knew what she was seeking, but he withheld the prize from her.
    “You
never answered me before,” Euan said finally, adjusting the cuffs of his
sleeves. “Did you? Did you go into my room?”
    She
finally gave her attention back to his face, wearing her doll smile, painted on
perfectly and symmetrically between her pale cheeks. He’d used it as
inspiration for some of his own creations.
    “Of
course not,” she said. “I know the rules. I would never disrespect you like
that.”
    He
nodded then, believing her. She would hold nothing like this from him. If she
told him she had not gone into the forbidden room, then she had not. It was
simple, but though she hadn’t, he was sure that someone had.
    “Do
you have him?” she asked hopefully, refusing to search the man over again and
instead looking into his eyes.
    “You
haven’t named him?” Euan asked, a bit surprised.
    He
reached into a deep pocket and withdrew her newly beloved toy, repaired and
looking just as good as he must have on the day of his creation. She took the
prince from him quickly, looking over the repaired appendage and stroking the
nutcracker’s soft hair.
    “He
hasn’t told me what he wants to be called. No matter how I coax, he won’t speak
to me. Not like the others.”
    Euan
knew that all of Olivia’s dolls and toys had names. He’d often heard her
introduce herself to them, and then in the silence which was their turn to
speak, Olivia would hear the dolls tell her what they wanted to be called. He
had no doubts that the girl actually heard them speaking, but he did not
understand it. He was far removed from that.
    “Everyone
is disappointed in me,” Olivia said, not sounding very happy with herself about
the matter. “Are you too, uncle?”
    “I
could never be disappointed in you, sweet treasure,” Euan said lovingly.
“Others don’t understand you, that’s all, but none of that matters.”
    The
man reached up with long fingers to push blond strands from the girl’s face
before he continued.
    “What
happened tonight is over,” he said. “It is in the past. Yet do not worry about
tomorrow either. You must be happy with yourself now.”
    “It
isn’t fair that they don’t understand me,” she said. “I understand them
perfectly well.”
    “ I understand you,” Euan promised, taking Olivia’s hand gently, looking at her
as though she were his own child, “and you will always be my perfect doll.”
    Olivia
smiled as her uncle kissed her forehead, then rose to leave and attend to his
own