The Goblin's Heir

Chapter Seventy Seven: Mouse

"Mouse?" I echoed, my brow furrowing in confusion. I pulled the door tighter against my side, narrowing his passage into my house despite the joy his very presence sparked in me. "Do I know you, sir?" I asked as I tried to place where I'd seen him before. There was something familiar there, especially about the eyes and his boney hands which gripped the top of his cane so tightly his enlarged knuckles turned white as bone. 

Danger! My mind shouted, warring with my heart, my very soul. This man means you harm! Let him in and everything you are, everything you hold dear will vanish!

My question struck him like a stone to his skull. He winced, swaying on his feet to the point he was using the cane for more than just show. He leaned heavily on it, still himself. "How silly of me. Of course you wouldn't remember me." He said breathlessly, miss mouth pulling tightly into a half-hearted smile. "It was a long time ago that you knew me. Practically a whole other life." He dipped into a playful bow, pulling at the corner of his cape as a lady would her dress in a curtsey. "My name is Knut."

I couldn't help but laugh at the strange man, both at his manner and his bizarre name. "Do you have a surname?" I asked.

His face brightened at the sound of my laugh and the thin lipped, toothy smile that cracked across my face. "Never had need of one. I am only Knut."

"Are you here to see my father? We were about to sit down for his retirement dinner."

 "I would love to join you." He straightened himself, glancing over my shoulder at the house beyond the barricade of my body, briefly before his eyes snapped back to me. His eyelids lowered, warmth refilling those dark pits to their brim. "If you would allow me to, Matilda. If you don't, if you would prefer that I leave you and your family to celebrate in peace, then tell me to go now before I pass over your threshold. What is done cannot be undone."

"What does that mean?" I asked, all mirth draining from me as fear swelled like a rising tide between my ribs. "You're frightening me sir."

Clenching his jaw, the man bowed his head in defeat. "Forgive me, Dear Mouse." He turned to retreat back to the sun-gilded street and a new fear settled in my chest in place of the old. 

"Don't leave!" I shouted, snatching a corner of the silvery cape. He stopped in his tracks before his cape even grew taut and looked back at me. "Please stay." I pleaded. "Stay and dine with me."

"I would like that very much." He said softly. 

Remembering myself, I let go of his cape and backed away from the doorway to let him in. My feet were like led, my hand frozen on the door handle, but I willed myself to move, to open the door wide for him and clear his path into the heart of my home. 

He paused a moment before striding across the threshold, stepping across it as if it were a great chasm. "What a beautiful home you've made for yourself." He said, admiring the columns of solid wood and the high ceilings above us. 

"Thank you." I replied, though his question was worded strangely. I moved quickly ahead of him, guiding this way into the dining room. "This way, please." He trailed after me, sticking at a close but respectful distance. 

"Hurry and take your seat." My mother sasid as she finally took her own. She didn't even glance Mr. Knut's way. No one did. They ate and chatted, ignoring  the grey figure at my side yet there was an extra setting at the table directly across from where I was meant to sit as if he had been expected. I knew that the setting had not been there before, nor had the table been quite so long.

"Everything looks delicious." Knut said, taking the seat between Jasper and my father while I took my own between Joseph and Mr. Hughes.

"There you are." Mr. Hughes smiled at me as I sat down, bringing his wine to his lips. "I was beginning to worry I'd scared you off with this ugly mug of mine." I felt my blush bloom across my face and creep down my neck at the attention. He was the furthest thing from ugly to my eyes.