Chapter 347: Dancing with death (5)
"I won’t be sending for anyone. You will speak to me for now," Penelope said as she walked closer to where Warren lay.
Penelope kept her distance so Warren couldn’t reach her.
Warren didn’t wish to speak with Penelope since she wouldn’t be bold enough to kill him or order it to happen. Penelope was just a little girl playing dress up as a wife.
Penelope didn’t mind that Warren was ignoring her. He couldn’t help but listen to what she had to say.
"I wonder if I should grant your wish to have them torture you to the point you can’t hear any longer. Then you would be able to lie here peacefully as you wish," Penelope said, catching Warren’s attention.
Warren laughed.
It always amused him to see ladies like Penelope, who grew up thinking the world was all rainbow and sunshine, try to threaten someone.
"No one fears you, Penelope. It is your father and husband they fear," Warren said, wishing one of the two men would show up.
Speaking to Penelope was more torture than losing his sight.
"But you somehow don’t fear either one? You couldn’t have feared since you kept approaching them. How foolish of you," Penelope said, curious about the way Warren’s mind worked.
"I see right through them both. Men who let other men fight their battles. It wasn’t the duke who captured me, but the men he sent out. Your husband lets his guards torture me. I am a man who gets what he wants by himself. I only fear men like myself," Warren explained.
Penelope tried to understand Warren’s reasoning, but it didn’t make any sense.
"My father and husband have the means to pay men to take you away from your family and not speak of the fact you are here, but you do not fear them? I have wondered why a fool always stood before my father," Penelope said, touching her forehead.
If this was how all men thought, then it made sense why her father was never left alone, and it gave her insight into her future with Tyrion.
"I question the tutors your mother allowed to teach you. You were charging right into the arms of death. How foolish could you be to think you could have won against the men in my life?" Penelope asked, wanting an honest answer.
Was it all confidence or a lack of common sense?
"How unfortunate that you have put yourself in a position where your mother is going-"
"Don’t speak of my mother!" Warren yelled, feeling the same anger he felt when Tyrion spoke of his mother.
Neither Penelope nor Tyrion had the right to speak of his mother.
"Don’t you dare think of doing something to her," Warren said, trying his best to sit up. He hoped he was facing directly where Penelope stood or sat.
"Don’t worry. I see nothing to gain from going after someone innocent in this matter. My issue lies with you and only you. I will not become like you to misdirect my anger. You are pathetic. A sorry excuse of a man," Penelope said, seeing Warren for what he truly was.
Laughter filled Warren’s cell.
"Would you switch places with me? Would you give up a life of riches to be the daughter of common folk? My mother had everything before I was born. A nobleman as a father and husband. I got brought into this world when she had nothing!" Warren spat.
It wasn’t fair that Warren came at a time when there was nothing to gain from his mother’s old life.
There was a home Kate had been allowed to keep, belonging to her ex-husband, all because the court and townspeople thought it was haunted because of the horrors which unfolded there.
Warren wanted the home since it was grand and suited him, but his mother wouldn’t allow it.
"I could have a home fit for a marquis, but she wouldn’t allow it. It is all that I ask for," Warren said, speaking to himself.
"You want the home which belonged to Simon? Are you mad? Did you not hear the stories of what he did to his parents’ corpses or the girls he took? Only someone who desperately wants to be left alone would live there. You," Penelope said, once more stumped by Warren.
Penelope pitied Kate a little.
Kate lived in a house of horrors and wanted to rightfully stay away from it, but Warren was pushing to have it. Warren appeared to care more about the wealth than about what his mother endured.
"Do you not care about what the man who owned that home did to your mother? To others? Now that we speak of him, I cannot believe the offer you would make with my name after what was done to your mother," Penelope said.
"My mother wasn’t offered to a brothel owner," Warren said, not seeing the similarities.
Since Warren had not taken women and killed them, he had not become the man who haunted his mother.
"Katrina Barrett worked in a brothel. Your mother fears a man who preyed on innocent women. After all that they faced, you turned around to make an offer to hand me over to a brothel owner. You are awful," Penelope said, seeing a monster before her.
If Kate had a good heart and could get past her hatred for the Collinses, then she would be ashamed of the son she raised.
"My husband made the right decision not to kill you. You would have gotten off too easily without learning your lesson, but I will make you realise your mistake before you pass. I will have it that you endure the same restlessness I felt last night," Penelope promised.
Penelope was unable to rest last night due to her mind lingering on Tyrion’s state and then what Warren did.
Penelope turned around to look at the guards waiting for her orders. "I heard that he is not to have food, water, or to have the doctor visit him. Keep it up a little longer, and with it, you should torture him just enough to keep him alive. Have him beg you for mercy."
"You! You and your mother go around claiming to be saints," Warren said, his hand finally resting on one of the metal bars of his cell.
"Saint? Perhaps I playfully told my father that I was a saint or an angel when I did something I wasn’t supposed to. I don’t recall preaching to the town that I was a saint. I am kind to those who are kind to me and, on rare occasions, to others who might be rude but need help," said Penelope.
Warren wasn’t someone in need of her kindness.
Penelope looked to the guards for them to get moving. "Punish him. He will be taught how to behave here. I will correct what your mother failed to teach you. I am glad we got to speak once, dear cousin."
Penelope proceeded out of the dungeon so the guards could do as they liked.