Was it because she was going to see her husband? A feeling specific to him. She did not know for sure, but mustering up all the courage she could fathom, she finally knocked on his door.
“Who is it?”
“Penelope,” she called out, gulping loudly.
There was a small pause.
“Come on in.”
Slowly, she ventured inside his study. The walls were dark, and he sat at a corner desk, peering at her from behind his spectacles.
“I’ve come to speak with you,” she cleared her throat, suddenly feeling unsure of what to do with her hands that hung awkwardly at her side.
“Evidently.”
“Well, then, can I?” she said. She had a feeling that he was not going to make this process easy for her.
“Before you say anything,” Alexander took off his spectacles and set them aside on his table, “I would like to ask you if you have already forgotten the rules that I had set out for you?”
“Yes, you told me that I was never to disturb you,” Penelope nodded.
“So then, what is so urgent?” Alexander said, watching her carefully. She could see a hint of curiosity in his eyes that he was trying to hide behind annoyance. That gave her the confidence she needed to proceed.
“Well, if you remember your own rules,” she said, “I am allowed to disturb you, if it has to do something with Odette. You need not worry so much, I would not have dared to venture here unless it was important.”
Her tone turned sarcastic towards the end.
“If that is the case,” he sat up straighter, “then I would advise you to hurry and tell me whatever it is. If you have not noticed, I have work I need to return to.”
He was not in the best of moods, that much was evident.
“It is a question that I cannot ask anyone else, and it is in the interest of efficiency that I come directly to you,” Penelope explained herself, “What does your daughter like?”
“Pardon?”
“Odette,” she clarified. “What are her interests? Her hobbies? What does she enjoy doing?”
There was a pause. Penelope found herself second guessing , thinking that she might have said something out of line. But then she reminded herself that this was her last resort.
“Answer me, at least,” she said, frustrated. “For the love of god, I cannot figure her out and there is no one to help me.”
Alexander leaned back slightly in his chair, rubbing the sides of his face.
“You are having some trouble getting through to her,” he exhaled, dejectedly.
“Some trouble would be putting it lightly,” Penelope stressed. “She seems to want nothing to do with me, and I have all but exhausted my attempts.”
Alexander nodded, as if this was a perfectly normal and expected outcome. It only irked her more.
“Well then?” she said. “You told me to come to you if it was about her. She won’t speak to me. She barely even looks at me. I’m not asking you to perform miracles, but just… give me a place to start.”
It took Penelope everything to ask for his help, for she was so accustomed to never having to resort to it. Her finger nails dug into her palm as she waited for him to reply, which he seemed to be taking his sweet time to do.
A silence settled between them for a long moment.
“She likes the stables,” he said finally. “She prefers horses to people.”
“I knew that already,” Penelope muttered under her breath.
