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touch the fingertips of
her lover’s ghost. Olivia longed for the nutcracker, though she’d only come to
have him a few short hours ago.
    “Tell
me then,” Todd inquired. “What does he have that’s so special? So important–so
valuable that you would care about him more than me, Anne, your own family? What ?”
    When
she didn’t speak her defense, Todd wrapped his fingers around the nutcracker’s
leg, and he did not wait for her to protest. With a malicious snap, he broke
the wooden limb away, dropping it to the floor.
    Olivia
screamed, putting her hands to her ears in sheer horror and lowered herself to
the ground. The wood snapping was as ghastly as a human bone in her mind,
because that was just the way she viewed it. Todd dropped the nutcracker onto
the floor, leaving her to stare at the broken toy. Quickly, she swooped to
retrieve him.
    Olivia
looked down at the red liquid on her hands that only she could see. The blood
covered the nutcracker, dripping off of his detached leg.
    4
     
    Anne
stared at herself in the round mirror in her own room, smoothing her hair down
and looking for any evidence of tiredness around her eyes.
    So
tired, Anne. Don’t you ever sleep? She sent this inquiry silently to her
reflection, but received no answer.
    She was
grateful for any moment of peace she had from Olivia, but even now, she could
hear muted voices from the attic room above. The girl was playing with her
dolls, no doubt, giving them voices in different tones. If Anne hadn’t known
better, she might have guessed that there were actually two people above her
having a conversation, but of course that could not be true. Olivia was secure.
She would not come out, and who would bother to visit her?
    Fleetingly,
Anne let herself imagine the family downstairs, and how they would lounge about
now, truly enjoying the house, and certainly not being bothered by someone of
lower birth, such as herself. She was not invited to join them, and so all that
was left for her to do was ready herself to turn in for the night. Of course,
only after she had examined every pore.
    Anne
found herself to be as decent as she’d been this morning, but she constantly
swore that Olivia would be the cause of premature gray hair.
    Thinking
that, her mind wandered back to other things. What had Todd been on about after
dinner? What right did he have to be on her case about Olivia? He hadn’t even
seemed like himself. When he’d begun to talk about the girl, as if he knew what
was best. Anne knew Olivia–much better than she wanted–and the girl could not
be saved. Honestly, Anne would be pleased when Todd went back where he come
from–
    What? Her eyes shot
upward. It sounds of distress above. A whale of sadness and a loud crash had
startled her, thoughts ceasing as she jumped in her skin.
    Olivia. That was her only
thought, and it was enough to get her moving.
    Anne
dashed from her room, feeling the key in her pocket as she took to the stairs.
She would have to admit that she had felt a short jolt of panic, followed by an
instant need to protect her charge, but she told herself. Now that it was false
instincts. She rushed to the girl because it was her job to do so, and that was
that.
    Anne
reached the attic hallway, and hadn’t realized that William and his brother
author were following behind her until she burst through the door, where she
was confronted with the site she certainly hadn’t expected.
    Broken
dolls were scattered all across the floor, Olivia was kneeling down in
distress, and there are with her was Todd. What was he doing? Anne was at once
ashamed and suspicious, but she made no accusations.
    “What’s
happened?” William demanded from behind her, and she waited for either party to
give an answer.
    “I
came to say goodnight,” said Todd, sounding shaken, “but she wanted me to play
with her, and when I told her I had to go, she started breaking all her things
and screaming like this. She’s gone completely