Penny sat in front of the dressing table with her hands still holding the front of her dress as Damien had asked her to take a seat while he went to get something else. Coming back, he said, “We will need you to take off the first half of the dress,” his words were serious this time.
“Master Damien I should be able to do the rest of it,” Penny who had her face turned over shoulder tried to look at him as he carried a white roll in his hands.
“Says the one who can barely raise and move the hands,” she huffed. As if to prove him wrong, she let go of one of her hands to move it around which had the skin around the wound stretch and pull making her wince, “That’s what I thought.”
Penny stared at him when he came near, staring hard at him through the mirror. Surely, he wasn’t thinking about see her upper n.a.k.e.d half now, was he?
In the end, Damien had her remove the upper half of her dress to bunch around her waist. Damien had given her shirt to cover her bosom. With the wound that didn’t fall directly opposite in line to her b.r.e.a.s.ts but below. It made it easier for him to roll and wrap her wound to avoid it staining her clothes are to feel the scratch of the fabric on it.
Penny was sat straight, her face as red as a tomato, her skin cold and her eyes on Damien where not once did it move away from her back and his hands as he wound the think cloth round and round to tie it at the side. This was one of those rare moments that made her wonder who Damien Quinn really was. The first time one would say how notorious the man was but here he was with his eyes that continued to stick to what he was doing.
With new clothes that were brought by a maid who looked dull and out of place with her expression, Penny remembered what Damien said about death in the mansion. After she had dressed in clean clothes, Penny readied herself to leave the room when Damien stopped her from saying,
“You can sleep in here tonight,” he informed, picking up the first aid box which he went to the bathroom to keep from where he had taken. Coming out of the bathroom, Penny asked him,
“Why not your room?” she asked him slightly curious. Did something happen in there or was it that he was finally giving her some space after declaring his love indirectly to her. Or was it something she had done? With Pennys swaying emotions that were drifting towards Damien, she wondered if he found her less appealing now that they had kissed far too many times.
Her eyes lowered, her brows furrowing when she heard him say, “There’s a body lying dead in the room. I need to clean and have it taken out.”
“Body?” she asked. Was it one of the maids? With Penny whose head had been hit, her hands and legs tied while she was left in an abandoned village where there was no single walking soul until men had arrived after Nicholas’ words to inspect and make a report before the bodies would be cleared to be put in the lake of bones.
Penny had been out of loop of what had transpired during the time she had been separated from Damien and after meeting him.
Damien had no interest in protecting Penny from the knowledge of what was going on. Knowing she would one day be part of the household and her being involved in the current matters as the switcher had taken her form, it was better to have her know what was going.
“Is your back going to be okay?” he asked for her to nod, “Follow me,” he said walking towards the doors of the room and stepping outside, holding the door whilst she stepped out of it. Penny followed him, staying close to him even though there were not out in the village now. After the first separation with how things had turned out where she could feel every movement of her back with the back of her dress which kept touching, her mind found it hard to stay away from the shelter that could be provided.
The mansion was quieter than the rest of the days she had been in. And just when her eyes reached the end of the stairs, a small gasp escaped her lips. Four bodies laid on the ground and one of them was the butler, Falcon. She couldn’t believe her eyes over what might have happened. Too shocked to utter she just looked at them. There were two girls, the butler who she felt sorry for more than the rest and then the fourth person who was unrecognizable. The face was completely crushed. Like a fruit’s inside that had been scooped out.It didn’t look like the person was someone from the mansion but she noticed something very very odd. The person wore the dress she had been wearing in the morning.
Damien’s family stood there watching the maids who had died being placed in the hallways one after another. Maggie who caught Penny coming down behind Damien let out an inaudible sigh of relief. With the body found in Damien’s room with the slave’s clothes which Damien had given, she had been worried that her brother killed the slave.
“Four deaths?” asked Damien to his father who nodded.
“Did you speak to the lord about this?” asked his father for him to nod even though it was a lie. Right now no one knew about Penny who had had been missing for two hours from the mansion.Even though it was his family, there were some things he believed to not share and keep it to himself. Especially with the blabbermouth of his younger sister who didn’t know when and what to speak.
