The mansion of Mr. Varreran was quiet and dark just as she thought it would be. The interiors were darker than she had seen in Lord Nicholas’ mansion or in Quinn’s. She could tell that it was an old family house that had been passed for generations before it came to be possessed by the man, Robarte Varreran.
The man led her inside the mansion, the butler had his head bowed as he let them in while holding the door for them. The temperature in the mansion was much better compared to outside as the rain hadn’t stopped nor did the wind which was moving with the rain in a different direction.
Penny’s eyes took in the architecture of the house. The ceiling was taller than the most and the halls narrow. It reminded her of the church she worked in where Father Antonio and Sister Jera lived. When she continued to walk, her footsteps brought the mud and the water inside the mansion on the floors and she stopped her footsteps.
“Don’t mind that. I will have some clean the floor,” she heard Mr. Varreran said to her who had stopped walking too as Penny was looking at the floor she had dirtied.
“Apologies for it. Let me remove my shoes,” feeling guilty for walking in with her dirty shoes. Penny had been walking for so long in the rain that she hadn’t given it much thought that her shoes had covered themselves in the mud. If the shoes didn’t go high, the bottom of her pants would have turned muddy too.
Removing her shoes, she placed them at the side.
“Get Miss Penelope some new clothes from the closet,” Mr. Varreran ordered his butler when the butler had closed the main door of the mansion. Before the butler could go on his way, Penny protested.
“Please, no. I am fine with what I am wearing.”
“Please, allow me to get you fresh dry clothes. You will fall sick-”
“Mr. Varreran, I am fine,” Penny’s voice was firm as she said it to him, holding her ground on not wanting to change clothes in a stranger’s house. This man, though he was being hospitably nice to her, it didn’t mean she trusted him.
She was merely showing courtesy to him while also letting him know that she didn’t mind telling a no.
“Thank you for your concern but I will be fine. It isn’t the first time I have got drenched in the rain. I was a slave before who came from a lower background. My immunity is much better than most of the delicate women in your society.”
The man looked at her in the dim light that the candles lit up in the room which wasn’t sufficient turning the hallways dark.
“If that is what you want,” he said to her and again ordered his butler, “Get us some tea in the drawing-room,” the butler bowed and left them.
Mr. Varreran or Robarte led her into the drawing-room and had her seated. Another servant went to the fireplace and had the fire running by the freshly placed woods which were seated below the old ashes which had been burnt days ago.
Coming to this room, she realized it was actually cold. She rubbed her hands again, hoping for the fire to spread its heat around the room for now so that she could stop shivering. She saw Robarte walk around the room to get back with a thick woolen shawl.
“I hope you don’t mind this,” said the man and before she could even tell anything, he had the shawl dr.a.p.ed around her shoulders.
Penny wanted to deny it but she was freezing right now. She was sure she would fall sick by the time of the morning tomorrow. With the heavy rain where she was still soaking wet except for her shirt which was slowly drying up, her pants were wet inside out. She had picked to sit on the wooden chair to avoid bringing water on the other chairs.
“I can see you are a stubborn woman, Miss Penelope,” said Robarte, taking a seat not too far away from her, that was, he had picked a seat right next to her even though there were many seats next to him, “I can tell why Mr. Quinn fancies you.”
Penny felt he was stepping into territories which he wasn’t too. He had made an opening to talk to her about her being a slave.
“Why do you think so?” Penny asked him, her green eyes looking at him curiously.
“You seem to be kind of hard to get and please. Don’t take it wrong but there have been many times when I have met you that I thought how nice it would be if I were to have met you first. Before the young Master Damien would have met and bought you,” said Robarte, leaning his back when the butler came in with a kettle and teacups on the tray.
The butler bent down, making tea for both of them and handing it to Penelope first and the man of the house. When the servant left the room, Penny said,
“I don’t think you would be able to afford my price, Mr. Varreran,” Penny gave the man a polite smile on her face.
Penny sipped the tea which was given to her, her eyes still on Robarte who stared at her right now. She was sure that even if Robarte had seen her first during the time of the auction, he still wouldn’t be able to get her as Damien would have raised the price so high until everyone would give up on her and he would be the only one to take her back to the mansion.
“Do you take my luck to be bad, Miss. Penelope?” she hadn’t noticed it before but the way he called her name, it felt more like he was taunting her while keeping his words to be subtle. She was on high alert so she didn’t know if she was overthinking things when it came to this man, “Or are you saying I don’t have enough money?”
“I mean no offense but if you were to turn back in time to go back to the day, I thinkDamien would still end up buying me.”
