The Nutcracker King (Coming From Darkness #1)

Chapter 2 Part 1: Marie

Marie woke up happy. Why wouldn't she be? She had a wonderful night eating delicious, energy-giving candy fruits and dancing with her prince — even if he was still a doll.

The morning passed as it always did. There was an emergency that needed Father's immediate attention, leaving half his plate untouched as he rushed out of the house. Mother fussed over Marie, wondering why she did not wish to eat while Marie dreamt of having candy fruits for breakfast. And Fritz? Fritz tumbled into the room just as everyone was finishing their meal, as he had always done.

"Mother! I hope there's a big breakfast for me. You know I need to keep my energy up, having joined the Hussars." Fritz had joined his beloved Hussars as soon as he came of age, and never lost a chance to remind everyone.

Mother just smiled indulgently. "Of course, Fritz. I told Cook to make you a hearty breakfast. Speaking of meals, how did Herr Schmidt find the dinner party? I hope Marie wasn't too quiet."

"Oh no." Fritz said through a mouth full of food. "He said that Marie had a wonderful mind, whatever what meant. But I think Godfather Drosselmeier frightened him. Do you think he's trying to scare Heinrich away? Marie is his precious goddaughter after all."

"Really Fritz," their mother said. "You're being ridiculous." Turning to Marie, she placed her hand on her shoulder and spoke quietly, "Don't listen to your brother. Councillor Drosselmeier would never do anything to harm your future."

"But what about his strange habits?" Marie blurted out.

Mother froze, her fingers digging into Marie's shoulder. Fritz stopped chewing and raised his eyebrows.

"What do you mean?" Mother finally said in a tight, high voice. "Your godfather was stressed when you fell ill, that's all. Your father has helped him overcome that horrible vice. You must not listen to rumours — who told you that?"

"Oh, no one." Marie said quickly. "I may have heard it at a dress shop but forgot about it. I only thought of it because of last night."

"Are you sure?" Mother pressed. "You know I can tell when you're lying."

Marie nodded, but mother didn't look convinced. But before she could question Marie further, Fritz started coughing violently, sending mother flying out of the room for some water.

"Marie," Fritz whispered as soon as mother left the room, the cough suddenly gone. "You can't just say things like that to mother."

"Why not?"

Fritz was about to explain, but mother came back with a glass of warm water, and Fritz started coughing again.

By the time Fritz had returned to normal, mother had forgotten about what Marie said earlier. Instead, her attention was focused on her son. "Fritz, your uniform has creases in it, do you want someone to press it before you leave?"

*******

"Good job this morning. I can't believe you made me cough like that."

Marie jumped at the sound of Fritz's voice. She had been staring out of the window of their little back parlour and didn't notice him walking in.

Fritz sat down, making himself comfortable. Of course, that meant sitting with his legs up on the tea table and shrugging off his red jacket, leaving it in a heap at the side of the chair — strangely, it was clean. There were no mud-tracks or signs of the outdoors despite the fact that Fritz had been out the whole day.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Marie said, her eyes going back to the outside.

"Really? I never knew you would talk about godfather Drosselmeier. You know mother and father won't discuss him with us."

"Don't be silly, they always talk about him and his presents."

"You mean to say that when Heinrich told you the news — I made him report everything to me — that was the first time? I'll have to talk to him about keeping his mouth shut." Fritz leapt up from his chair, as though he was going to run out to find Herr Heinrich.

"Stop it, Fritz!" Marie quickly got up from her window seat, only to hear him laugh.

"I say, Marie, I've never seen you care so much about one of my friends," Fritz teased her, before adding, "I really do need to have a talk with him. We can't have my little sister bullied, can we? In fact, I'll invite Heinrich over for tea — no need to thank me, your blushes are enough. By the way, his favourite colour is green, so I bought you this. Don't be mistaken about my motives, I only happened to see it in the window on the way home."

Fritz finished his monologue, came over and dropped something into Marie's lap before walking out of the room, whistling.

Marie looked at the object in her lap. It was a green necklace, the sort of bright green that made her look a sickly yellow. She had seen, and rejected, that exact same necklace which was placed in the back of the haberdashery just the other day while out with mother.

Oh well, Marie thought as she looked at the necklace, Fritz has never been good with colours. Gently, she took the necklace and went to her room, where she opened a box overflowing with necklaces, bracelets and other jewellery, almost all horrible colours that did not match her complexion. She dug around before pulling out an aquamarine necklace tangled together with its matching bracelet; these were two of the few things from Fritz that she could actually wear.

Now these would do very nicely for Herr Heinrich's visit.      

I'm so, so sorry that this chapter is late! Yesterday was a really busy day work-wise and all I could do when I got home was to fall asleep on my bed :p I hope you enjoyed this, and if you did, please vote/comment/add this to your lists so that other people can find it(: