Loving a Fearless Duchess: A Historical Regency Romance Book(56)

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.