Penny’s lips went dry as the realization sunk in her mind. It couldn’t be, could it? She hadn’t met many red-haired men or women. Her first thought would have been that the little girl was related to Elliot Wells. Both Jerome and Elliot had curly wavy hair but their hair colors were different. One had black and the other had red.
She had tried to race her brain over where she might have seen the little girl in the portrait. The boy in the picture wasn’t familiar enough because she didn’t remember him but the girl.
“Caitlin, was her name?” Penny asked Mrs. Artemis, gulping down softly.
“Yes, Caitlin. She was really a bright young girl and we spent really good times together. I wonder what brought upon the distance that she now doesn’t want to meet or talk to us like her brother,” Mrs. Artemis gave a confused look of expression, “Mr. Artemis and I were childless when we took her and Walter in.”
In the meantime, Penny tried to wrap her head around the timeline and the gap between the time where nephew and niece had been taken in, grew up to get married and later the Artemis came to have a family of their own by having two boys he ended up being dead. Penny tried to conclude the information in her mind.
“I am sure when they find the time they will come to see you,” Penny tried to assure her. Still looking at the frames in front of her, she asked the woman, “How old is this portrait?”
“Which one? This?” Mrs. Artemis pointed to the family picture with the two boys. Seeing Penny nod, the woman went to answer, “Maybe only ten years older from now.”
Ten years wasn’t too far yet in the picture they looked young and had now aged to their late years. The age of the witches varied and it wasn’t fixed which made it tricky to know what and how old they were. People could pause their age when they were young, spending a possible of forty to sixty years while still looking like a child. Looks were deceiving but when it came to witches they were far worse to know and calculate.
“Both your niece and nephew must have been very sad over the loss of your children,” Penny commented, still wanting to test the time when she heard Mrs. Artemis say,
“Oh, they were married by then and gone. I wrote letters to them about our loss but like I said earlier both my husband and I never came to hear from them. It is sad how it turned out to be,” she murmured, “Come let me show you the garden I have been gardening myself. It is one of my favorite times of mine to pass.”
“Yes,” Penny gave her a small nod before walking along with her, leaving the portraits behind her.
Both Damien and Penny spent more time there until the time of meal was announced where they decided to take their leave. Neither Penny nor Damien wanted to taste the food of the witches who they were suspecting right now when it came to the case of their dead sons and the children they adopted.
Getting on the carriage, Penny waved back at Mrs. Artemis.
“Do visit me if possible until you are here in Valeria.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Artemis,” Penny replied back. The carriage started to pull away from there, the horses pulling the carriage behind them and taking them away from the house of the Artemis when Damien saw Penny who appeared to be in a state of blankness where she was yet to speak.
“You found something,” he noted.
Penny’s gaze moved from the front of the seat to shift slowly towards Damien, “The girl in the picture, I met her in the slave establishment. She was my cellmate there.”
“You’re sure it is her?” Damien asked her and she nodded her head.
“I am sure it is her. Of course, she looks older now. I thought she was only five or six years old to me because of her young appearance but I didn’t expect her to be old. When I was about to escape, I wanted her to come along with me but she seemed hesitant over the idea. As if she didn’t want to leave the establishment.”
“She never told you why?”
“I spent only a week there. She didn’t want to help me initially and I had to trick her to help me,” she smiled sheepishly at the thought, “Mrs. Artemis said that she was married but what if she was not married at all and what if, what if she was sold to the slave establishment?”
“It is a possible thought,” Damien agreed, “But for that, we will need to go to the slave establishment to see what is going and if the girl you have seen in the picture is the same woman who is the slave establishment right now. I guess we’ll need to make a quick trip to Bonelake.”
Before Penny could hear his complete sentence, Damien placed his hand on top of her hand. In less than a few seconds, both Damien and Penny stood not too far from the slave establishment.
“That was quick,” she muttered under her breath.
“Come, stick close to me when we are in there,” Penny knew what he meant. The slave establishment wasn’t a place one would like to be part of. She had been here for less time but that didn’t mean she had forgotten how the guards and others treated slaves right in here.
Penny had been extremely lucky to put her name in the list of auctions and to end up with Damien as her buyer, it must have been the fates showing her some mercy over what her mother had put her through.
The slave establishment looked the same, the dark grey walls were tall and wide to cover the entire buildings inside it in a way no one could ever come to escape it. Only brave souls would dare to try escaping from here through the front gate by running past it.
