Chapter 23
Living with Uncle Avery was everything Penelope could dream of except for Henry. She turned fourteen, and her body started to change. Henry’s rudeness ratcheted up a notch.
Penelope and Edward had a tutor Henry didn’t need. They got a break from him during their studies. He was almost of the age to attend Cambridge. How the townhouse would be different then.
When Penelope started becoming a woman, an uncomfortable time on its own, Henry’s comments became even more difficult to bear. He made comments about the changes in Penelope’s body, embarrassing her and making her feel self-conscious. The more she blushed or became flustered, the more he was spurred on to say embarrassing things.
This type of behaviour was shocking to both the women and men who heard it. No one discussed such personal things. Avery lectured Henry for his behaviour, but his words fell on deaf ears. He would roll his eyes as soon as he left Avery’s study, muttering that he was going to kill Penelope.
Edward would lose his temper. “Shut up, Henry. Do you have any idea what a jerk you sound like? Keep your ridiculous thoughts to yourself. I’m bigger and stronger than you are, and I’m sure in a fist fight I would come out the victor. You are such a bully; I would be happy to put you in your place.”
“Father would throw you out if you laid a hand on me.”
Edward laughed. “That’s where you are wrong, Henry. Your father would know you had it coming. Be careful, Henry. I’m itching for you to give me an excuse to let it happen.” Edward was right, he was bigger and stronger, and he wouldn’t hesitate to unleash his anger on Henry.
It was about the time Henry began to concentrate on Penelope when the two of them were alone. His senseless prattle bothered her, but she didn’t want Edward to interfere. Henry couldn’t help it. Penelope had known for years there was something wrong with Henry. His glee in watching animals suffer was matched by his glee to watch the people around him squirm and twitch the same way.
He couldn’t go long between his times in harassing Penelope. What Penelope didn’t know was that Henry was making plans to rid himself of his most annoying problem.
*****
Henry was tired of being bested by Penelope. She was a fourteen-year-old girl, and he wasn’t going to put up with her anymore. She thought she was better than him? He would show her. It was time she was no longer a thorn in his side.
He waited until she was alone in the garden. He knew he would find her there. It was her favourite place to go. Edward checked in on her constantly. Henry knew they were afraid of him, and with good reason. After all, it was his house. It was his father, not theirs.
“Hi, Penelope.”
Penelope ignored him, but he was used to that. She always ignored him. No matter. He always had one-way conversations with her. He didn’t even bother having one-way conversations with Edward anymore. Edward just threatened to beat him up.
“You can ignore me, but I want to show you something that you will definitely like. Normally, I’d say you are too mean to me to deserve to see it, but it’s so good to see that even I want to show you.”
He could tell Penelope was interested even though she was silent. She didn’t walk away from him as usual. She took her time pruning rose bushes and didn’t turn her back on him.
“I was walking down by the river. I like to skip stones. I’m good at it too. When you don’t see me around, I’m usually there.
“Anyway, I was there today, and I saw a Red.”
Penelope gasped. Red had been missing for over a week. No one knew where she was apart from Henry. Part of her was buried in the woods and the other part was buried near the river.
“She had puppies. Cute little puppies. Some were jumping all over Red while she lay on her side while others suckled. I think you would love to see it.”
Penelope turned. “We have to tell someone in the barn. They have been looking everywhere for her for a week.”
“Later. They can’t be moved now. And mother and pups have to stay in the same place until they are older. Let’s go see them. We can tell them later.”
“If they are going to be there for a while, we can wait.”
Henry was getting frustrated with her. “What do you think I’m going to do? Talk you to death? So you don’t like the way I talk to you. So what? Do you or don’t you want to see the puppies?”
“Let’s get Edward. He’ll want to see them too.”
Henry shrugged his shoulders. “Never mind. I’m busy later. I won’t be able to show you. I’ve tried to be nice.”
He started to walk away towards the barn. “Wait,” Penelope said.
Henry’s back was to her. He couldn’t help smiling. He schooled his face, turned around, and put his hands on his hips, seeming annoyed. “What?”
Penelope approached Henry. “I’ll go. Will I find my way back here without a problem? I want to show Edward.”
“It’s easy.”
Penelope thought as they started to walk toward the trees, So that’s what happened to Red.
“Do the pups have Red’s colouring?”
Oh, God. I’m going to have to talk with her, Henry thought.
“I think two have her colour if I remember correctly. Do you think the barn will want all the pups as well as Red?”
Penelope looked at him as if he was crazy. “Of course they’ll want the pups. Why not?”
“If she kept talking to him, he was going to go crazy. There was nothing worse than a fourteen-year-old female. Not much longer, now.
“How long is the walk? It seems like we’ve been in the woods for a long time.”
Henry shrugged and mentally rolled his eyes. “No accounting for where a dog decides to give birth.”
Up ahead, Henry saw the spot. “Are you familiar with this area?” he asked.
Penelope looked around. “No, I’ve never been here. As soon as we see the pups, I want to go back,” she said, a slight waver to her voice.
Henry smiled. “Up this hill, and we’re there.”
Penelope nodded.
When they reached the top of the hill, Penelope looked for Red.
“He’s down there,” Henry pointed to the bottom of a cliff. You have to look over the edge. Red’s at the bottom. A good secluded place to have puppies.”
The hill gave even more height to the cliffs. The edge didn’t slowly dip down to the bottom. It was a sheared edge of land rocky and deep. No vegetation grew along the large, sharp boulders. Unless you knew there was a cliff there, you’d never see it.
Penelope nodded and stepped closer. She looked up at Henry. “I don’t see them.”
“Get closer to the edge and look down a little to the left.” He approached her slowly. “Over there,” he pointed.
She leaned forward.
He pushed her as hard as he could.
She screamed on the way down and hit the side of her head on a sharp rock. She bounced onto another rock then didn’t move. Henry wasn’t going down there to check her pulse. If she were alive, she wouldn’t be for long. Besides, no one would look there. She was impossible to find.
Henry ran from the woods. If anyone saw him coming out, they would look in there and might find her. They might put two and two together.
He came over the hill and stopped. Edward was running in his direction, so Henry walked at a regular pace, not a care in the world. Edward seemed frantic. Too frantic to wonder why Henry was walking alone in a secluded part of the estate.
Henry hadn’t thought they’d be looking for her so fast. He thought he’d get to the house before she was discovered missing. He doubted it mattered because they would never find the body.
When he walked into the house, his father, red in the face, said, “What have you done?”
“In my study, now,” Avery said to Henry.
Henry followed him in and shut the door. Avery turned to him. “Penelope’s missing. What have you done?”
Henry shrugged. “Why do you think I did something? Maybe she wandered off by herself and is hiding for some stupid reason only a fourteen-year-old girl knows.”
Avery ran his fingers through his hair. “We both know Penelope didn’t just wander off. Since the day I brought that girl home, you’ve made it clear you don’t want her around. You have said you were going to kill her on several occasions.
“Tell me, Henry. You can’t protect yourself. Only I can protect you. Tell me what you did.”
Henry started pacing and raised his voice. “That’s the problem, Father. You brought her into this house, and she ignores me when I try to talk with her. Then she gets me into trouble with you. It’s true; I wanted her dead.”
Avery closed his eyes. He hadn’t cried since he was a young boy, but he wanted to cry now. He was sure Henry had killed Penelope. He just had to figure out how to handle it.