It wasn't long before many other guests arrived at the Morningstar household. They were all Lucifer and Lilith's fellow socialite friends, wealthy business men, doctors, and lawyers who would smoke cigars and drink brandy with Lucifer, and their wives who would discuss fashions and jewelry and gossip with Lilith. Charlotte herself would socialize with the other children, playing traditional holiday games and munching on Christmas sweets.
Later music started to play and everyone danced about in a merry way. Most of them waltzed but Charlotte was once again dancing the ballet. She switched her black flats for a pair of silken, pink, slippers and glided across the floor on the tips of her toes. She was having a most splendid time, until her laces came undone and she slipped on them. She fell down and all the other children laughed at her. Charlotte turned red with embarrassment.
"Don't take it so hard sweetie." Rosie said helping her up. "You're a wonderful dancer. You just need more practice."
"You think so?"
"Yes. Being an actress, I've had my fair share of foul ups."
"Really?"
"Yes. You should have seen when I first started acting, I couldn't even remember my lines and I ended up saying such silly nonsense. But I learned from my mistakes, kept on trying, and now I am the toast of Paris and many other countries."
"Tell me about your last show? The one in Venice."
"Well as you know I played the role of Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, I received a standing ovation and afterward your godfather treated me to a romantic gondola ride under the stars. But my favorite performances were always the ones I did in London and in Moscow."
"Why those places?"
"Because Moscow was where I met my dear Husker and it's where we climbed to the top of the snowy mountains to gaze out over the city. As for London, that's where my sister had gone to live with her husband and it was the only time we could see each other. I remember one time, the King of England was so impressed with my performance as The Queen of the Night, that he invited my sister, myself, and our husbands to attend a ball at Buckingham Palace."
"You must have felt like a princess. I wish I could have been there."
"Maybe someday you will be. If you become a prima ballerina, you'll be invited to all kinds of balls and parties."
"I'm not good enough to be a prima ballerina."
"Well how do you know? You've never really tried to see if it was possible, and I've been thinking, in Paris there is a wonderful ballet school, the best there is. I could put my acting on hold so you could live with Husk and myself while you attend the school."
"Father would never allow it."
"Well there's no harm in asking him, is there?"
"But I'm not even sure if I want to go live in Paris, or if I even want to go to that school. It does sound great but...I just don't know."
"I understand. We'll discuss it at a more appropriate time. Right now, I think Husk is getting ready to hand out gifts and perform a few more tricks."
With that said, Charlotte went to join the other children who were gathering around Husk. He stood at the center of the room, creating all kinds of wonders from his finger tips. Making toys, nuts, and candies seemingly appear out of thin air. Flashes of light and sparks of color flew from his sleeves and from under his cape. Each every child laughed and danced around him. While the adults were either neutral or annoyed by the strange man, the children adored him because he always brought something pretty in his pocket for them. Sometimes a little man who moved his eyes and made a bow, at others, a box, from which a little bird hopped out when it was opened, and many other wonders.
"Easy now, one at a time." Husk said as the children eagerly reached out to grab each toy he made appear. "Don't worry, you'll all get something special."
Dolls, tin soldiers, spinning tops, puppets, marbles and jacks, so many pretty and entertaining toys. Toy makers would be jealous of what he could create and every child would covet whatever special trinket he showed them. Well almost every trinket. He did have one particularly special item that not many people would take to right away. An item that Husk had kept hidden in his cape but in the midst of all the excitement, it fell out of his cape and landed at Charlotte's feet.
A curious little man made of beige colored wood, his body broad and stout, yet at the same time thin and with slender legs. His red hair was roughly chopped short, his jaw was very large, he had crooked teeth, and his head was very hard with a red cap on top. However he was dressed very nicely in a suit that consisted of a red hussar's jacket fastened together with buttons, grey pants , and the neatest black boots that ever graced the foot of a student or an officer.
"A nutcracker." Charlotte said as she picked him up off the floor. "How sweet."
"Oh that silly doll." Husk sighed. "I knew I should have left him at home."
Charlotte grabbed a walnut from the crystal candy dish that was perched on the table beside the sofa, then lifted up the latch built into the nutcracker's back, placed the nut into the wooden man's jaw, and with gentle push of the latch, the walnut was bitten it in two. The shell fell off, and Charlotte caught the sweet kernel in her hand.
"He's so cute." She smiled before popping the kernel into her mouth.
"Cute?" Husk said, surprised by his goddaughter's reaction. "You think he's cute?"
"The cutest. Can I have him Uncle Husk?"
"Oh no Charlotte, you can't really want him. Why would you? He's not a handsome doll. He's an awfully ugly one."
"No he's not."
"Yes he is!" One boy argued, snatching the nutcracker from her. "What a stupid fellow!"
He threw the nutcracker to another boy.
"Stop it! You'll hurt him!" Charlotte pleaded.
"Stop it! You'll hurt him!" The other boy taunted.
He threw it over to a girl.
"I don't want it! It's creepy!"
She threw it to another child.
"Now see here!" Husk said trying to retrieve the nutcracker. "Don't play rough with him! He's not built for that kind of treatment!
Back and fourth the other children threw the nutcracker until one missed the catch and he fell on the cobblestone fireplace which resulted in his arm breaking.
"Oh you rich kids!" Husk scolded. "You're so spoiled rotten by your parents, you can't appreciate special toys or be bothered to treat them well."
The children just rolled their eyes, letting his words slide off them like water off a duck's back. It was true what Husk had said. These children had been so spoiled rotten by their wealthy parents, that they never cared to treat any object well because their parents could just easily replace what they broke.
But Charlotte was different from them. She gently lifted the nutcracker and his arm from the floor, then sat down on the sofa. She pulled a silk ribbon from her dress and used it to bandage his arm, then wrapped up the little fellow more carefully than ever in her handkerchief, for he looked very pale and frightened.
The longer Charlotte gazed upon the little man whom she had taken a liking to at first sight, the more she was sensible how much good nature and friendliness was expressed in his features. Nothing but kindness and benevolence shone in his clear, though somewhat too prominent eyes.
"How can you even touch that ugly thing?" Asked a girl. "If I were you, I'd throw it away."
But Charlotte did not such thing. She only held him, rocking him in her arms like a little child.
"Do you truly like him Charlotte?" Husk asked her, amazed that she would caress and tend to such an unattractive doll.
"Yes I do."
"Well I'm glad." He smiled. "I'm glad that somebody likes him, even though there are so many things wrong with him."
"Wrong? Oh no Uncle Husk, there's nothing wrong with him at all."
"Oh yes there is. Just look at him. His teeth stick out, he's far too skinny, and his eyes are so huge that they could almost pop out. Who would care what happens to this ugly old nutcracker?"
"I care, and he's not ugly."
"Yes he is. He'd be the first to admit it and if you're honest, you will too."
"Well so what if he's a little ugly? That doesn't mean there isn't anything about him that can be beautiful."
"Now that I can agree to." Husk said. "You're right, he does have something to make up for his homely appearance. Something far more precious."
"What is it?"
"He has a perfectly beautiful heart."
"Heart? He has a heart?"
"Yes dearest." Rosie said, joining the conversation. "On the outside he doesn't look like much, but inside beats the heart of a prince."
"A prince?" Charlotte looked at the nutcracker skeptically. "Well he is dressed as nicely as a prince. But how could he have the heart of a prince? What does that mean exactly?"
"Well that's a long story." Rosie said. "And a very sad one I'm afraid."
"Will you please tell it to me?" Charlotte asked.
"Very well."
Rosie took a seat on a velvet chair, Charlotte sat herself down on the footstool, the nutcracker held safely in her lap.
"Once upon a time, a lovely lady from Paris met a charming gentleman from London. They fell very much in love, got married, and had a son whom they loved very much. But one day the couple died when the boy was very young, so he had to be brought up by his mother's younger sister and her husband. They loved him like he was their own son and he was very good to them. He helped his aunt with the cooking and the cleaning, and he was an apprentice to his uncle."
"What did his uncle do?" Charlotte asked.
"His uncle was a magician, just like Husk. A magician who was so talented and amazing, that even royalty desired to have him entertain their parties and social gatherings."
"Really?" Charlotte said intrigued
"Yes. Then one day, about eight years ago, the king of a very special place, was throwing a grand party to celebrate the fifteenth birthday of his only daughter, Princess Mimzy. The king was determined that this would be the best birthday ever for his little girl, so he hired the magician to serve as the entertainment and the magician decided to bring his nephew along as a special treat to him. It was supposed to be a fun trip, a reward to the boy for all the years of helping his uncle with his work. But tragically that was not to be the case at all..."