His Nanny Mate (Moana and Edrick Morgan) novel Chapter 232

#Chapter 232: Read Me a Story

Edrick

I watched as Moana’s head of red hair slowly faded into the distance. She seemed to stop and look over her shoulder before stepping into the treeline, with Kat following secretly at a distance.

From where I was standing, I could still see her as she began to wander around the entrance to the forest.

Just one day ago, I wouldn’t have let her go out like that. But I had a constant patrol keeping watch around the entire perimeter of the property where anyone could feasibly get in, I had patrolled the whole property myself just last night, and I sent Kat along with Moana to keep an eye on her.

If my father was going to try to get at Moana, it would certainly be near impossible for him to accomplish. And besides… keeping Moana cooped up would only make her more likely to be in danger.

“Daddy?”

I was suddenly snapped out of my deep thought by the sound of Ella’s voice. I didn’t realize it, but I must have been staring out the window for quite some time while I was stuck in my deep train of thought.

“Yes, Princess?” I asked, turning to face her. She had a book in her hands, and she held it out to me. Her hair was messed up and she was a bit out of breath, like she had just run inside after playing out on the lawn.

“Will you read me a story?”

Smiling, I took the book out of her hands. The cover was old and worn, with no text or design on it; I honestly had no recollection of ever seeing a book like it before and wondered where she found it, but I figured that children often had mysterious ways of exploring shelves and finding random things, so maybe it was just tucked away in a place where I forgot about it.

“Sure,” I said. It looked like it would rain soon, so I didn’t mind. Maybe by the time I finished reading to Ella, Moana would have returned from her walk and we could do something together as a family.

Ella grinned and grabbed my hand, leading me over to the armchair by the window. I sat down and let her crawl up into my lap, then wrapped my arm around her and cracked the old book open.

The inside was just as dusty as the outside.

“Are you sure you want this one, Ella?” I asked, making a face at all of the dust. “We have lots of books.”

Ella shook her head. “I want this one,” she insisted, pushing her lower lip out in an irresistible pout. “Please? Pretty please?”

I sighed and finally relented, although my fingers were already black from handling this seemingly ancient book. I flipped to the next page, where the story immediately began. There was no cover page, and no title to be seen anywhere.

“Once upon a time,” I read, deciding that it wasn’t worth arguing about and that I could make something up if the story got strange, “there was an old man who lived all by himself.”

A strange premise for a kids’ book, I thought to myself, but kept reading.

“The old man didn’t have any friends, and he didn’t have any family. He never got married, and he never had children of his own. In fact, the children in the little village that he lived in were afraid of him, as they saw his worn-out old house at the end of the street as being a cursed place… Are you sure you want me to read this, Ella? Won’t you have nightmares?”

Ella shook her head. “Keep reading, daddy.”

“Alright… The old man didn’t mind being all alone, though, because he was working on something. You see, the old man was a skilled craftsman, and he was visited one night by a guardian spirit who told him that he had to make something very special: a golden knife… with a wolf’s head on the handle…”

As I read the story, I felt my hands start to shake and my eyes widened. I nearly dropped the book as a lump grew in my throat.