I am not her - So there was no time or place for that (17.)

"How nice, but don't tell me you know this person?" said Madame mockingly, but also with a touch of surprise.

"You can do better than that, my dear! Believe me!" She walked gracefully slowly over to them with a forced smile and held out her hand to Juliet.

At that moment the little girl pressed herself more closely to Anna, who at once understood the old schemer's intentions, and therefore replied angrily:

"You had better go," hissed Anna through clenched teeth, while quickly seizing the wrinkled hand that was directed towards the head of the little blonde princess.

 

*

 

"Here's the chocolate, please. Be careful; it's hot!" she said to Julie, who still looked terrified, and right now, she was sitting on her dad's lap, and it didn't look like she was going to move, even an inch, from him in the next few moments.

Anna was beginning to worry. Okay, Mrs. Glotylda Omelgl, who had left less than an hour ago, could be rude, yes, but Anna hadn't expected Julka to react to her like that, not in the least.

Meanwhile, as all sorts of thoughts of why ran through her head, she put the cup with the child's motif on the table. Her head began to spin slightly, and her body was making itself known.

"So, Princess, are you feeling better?" She spoke in a warm voice and sat down at the table, not stopping to watch the little person who shook her head.

 

 

"I've never seen her like this before, or, at least, not like today."

Michael's voice was saturated with worry and fear. Anna watched as he leaned down and kissed his daughter's hair, which he then began to stroke in a soothing gesture.

"She's had these conditions since she was a little girl. She's afraid of people and no one has figured out why yet." Anna felt her eyebrows lift slightly. Michael's corners lifted slightly at that moment. He must have guessed exactly what was going through Anna's mind.

''You have the exact same expression I had when Melissa told me about this, and that's actually why I know you're back...'' He paused. Anna tensed slightly.

"I'm quite impressed with how quickly you won my daughter over." Anna relaxed and sighed at that sentence, but at the same time she suddenly felt like she had to run away, or at least do something, because there was no time or place for the conversation Michael had bitten off with that last sentence.

"Okay, I should start opening up slowly." With that, she nervously put a hair behind her ear.

"You should take the little one home," she added, about to get up. She was just reaching for the cane she had leaning against the corner of the table when...

 

 

"Don't go," the little girl spoke up, startling Anna. She looked at the little girl again.

"I don't want you to go anywhere." Julia's voice was muffled, which meant only that she was almost asleep.

Anna looked at Michael. Again, they understood each other without words.

"I'm not going anywhere, honey! Sleep." She sank back down in her chair, and at that moment Julie reached out her tiny hand and took a firm hold of hers. Anna immediately felt the pleasant warmth.

"I'm glad to see that my little sweetheart has learned to trust another person, especially one as special as you," Michael gently smiled as he settled his little treasure better in his lap.

 

*

 

"It was too much for her," Michael uttered as he laid his daughter down on the sofa in the next room where they had both agreed to put her to sleep.

Anna was in the process of removing her pink booties and the man was carefully removing her sweatshirt in the same color when he quietly added something that stopped Anna in her tracks.