Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49458 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49458 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
“Daddy! Come on! Let’s go,” Essie urged, practically dancing with excitement. The events of the day rebounded into her mind. If she’d only waited a few more hours to explore! She held a hand out to tug him to his feet.
“I think I’m okay. We’ll walk slowly up the stairs, so I don’t overtax my injured self.”
“You’re killing me, Daddy,” she pleaded with him to hurry.
Zander’s deep chuckle told her he knew exactly what he was doing. “Okay, Little girl. I can move a bit faster despite my tragic injury.”
He allowed her to set the pace as Essie raced up the steps as fast as she could. Zander pulled out the familiar keychain and dangled the three keys in front of her. “We’ve already figured out the first key goes to our suite of rooms.” He put the largest antique key into the slot to demonstrate locking and unlocking the door. They left the main door open during the day to allow staff to clean and refresh the rooms.
Walking inside, he inserted that same key and fastened the door behind them. “We don’t need visitors while we’re exploring.”
She nodded eagerly before urging him. “Can you open the nursery?”
“Of course. Let’s go.”
Zander fit the second largest into the lock they’d discovered in the paneling, and the door swung inward. This time the scent of lemon and freshness wafted out. “You go first, Essie.”
She stepped through the threshold and froze. Looking around the large, airy space, she couldn’t believe that this was the same place. Every surface gleamed and sparkled. “Wow! How did you do this?”
“With some elbow grease and the right cleansers. Maybe this is weird to say, but I think the room helped.”
“Really? Like the nursery was eager for another Little girl?”
“Yes. I’m sure that’s totally in my head, but simply removing the rugs and bedclothes freshened the area a lot.”
Essie walked to the crib and ran her fingers over the beautiful walnut railing. Zander joined her and triggered something to drop the barrier.
“How did you do that?” she asked, checking for a hidden lever.
“Daddy’s secret. Sliding that down took me a while to figure out. I found the trigger when I accidentally wiped a control. That railing lowered with a thunk. The scare chopped several years off my life. I wondered if Edmund was demonstrating how everything worked.”
She giggled, imagining him jumping at the sound. “You can show me.”
“Nope. When you take a nap in your crib, you’ll stay there until Daddy lets you out to play again. Let’s get your shoes off, and you can climb inside and test the mattress out.”
Zander dropped to one knee next to her and slipped off her sandals. As soon as she was shoeless, Essie scrambled into the bed with Zander’s help. Looking over the side, she discovered it was higher than she had thought.
“That’s why the railing goes up for naps, Little girl. To keep you safely inside.”
Essie nodded and moved farther from the edge. Dangling toys tickled the back of her head. She stretched out to study the mobile made of orange tabby cats in all poses. “Those look like Marmalade. That one has him making biscuits like he does on the couch. I wonder if Ferguson’s Folly has always had orange tabbies.”
“I saw the resemblance to Marmalade when I cleaned them. That one over there has him lying belly-up in the sunshine. Each of the cats is still a vivid orange color. None of the images has aged at all”
“Maybe it’s magic,” she whispered.
“You must be right. Littles are very special.”
“Thank you, Daddy,” she said and laughed at how skillfully she’d taken that as a compliment. Zander praised her often. Essie treasured each one and had worked hard to not automatically deny his sweet words.
“You’re welcome, sweetheart. Want to explore the rest of the room?”
“Yes!” Essie scooted to the edge and hesitated before lifting her arms up to Zander.
Immediately, he scooped her out and set her toes on the polished wood floor. “I’m having the rugs professionally cleaned, so I thought you might want to wear these in here until they’re back.”
Zander lifted a pair of orange slippers with cat ears off the nearby dresser. He helped her slide them on and leaned against the wall as she took several tentative steps.
“I love these. They’re squishy inside.” Essie walked around in a big circle to try them out.
“Perfect.” Zander leaned against the dresser, watching her with a fond smile. She loved being Little with him. Zander made everything feel right. Not that she was weird or silly. He truly enjoyed seeing her happy.
Essie darted back to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek to his chest. “I love it in here.”
“Just wait. You haven’t seen the toy box yet. Inside, you’ll find a combination of old toys and new things I selected especially for my Little girl. Maybe you can find something in there we can play with together?”