His Nanny Mate By Eve Above Story

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?”

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

so I didn’t mind. Maybe by the time I finished reading to Ella, Moana would have returned from her

down and let her crawl up into my lap, then wrapped

was just as dusty

this one, Ella?” I asked, making a face at all of the dust. “We have

head. “I want this one,” she insisted, pushing her

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

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

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

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

head. “Keep reading,

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:

my hands start to shake and my eyes widened. I nearly dropped the book as a lump grew in

dreamed of… The knife that would

back to look up at me with her big eyes. “Why did you stop

story, and it was a somewhat common one. It was only a coincidence that Ella

didn’t know why he was tasked with making it or what it would be used for, only that it

“Ella?” I

for a moment, then tilted her head back

didn’t find it,” she

mean?” I asked. “You didn’t find it

her

this had to be a game that she was