“Let us not get carried away here,” Alexander interjected, alarmed. “She still needs to brush up on her etiquette lessons, and fix her manners.”
Penelope realized that Odette was not theonlyone with warped notions of what it meant to be a woman. Alexander was equally confused, if not worse.
“Your Grace,” she turned to him, “didn’t we just agree there’s more than one way to be a girl?”
“You had an opinion on it, yes,” he said dismissively.
“An opinion based out of experience,” Penelope asserted.
Alexander gestured toward his daughter with a faint scowl. “You’ve just told her she doesn’t need to change a thing. ”
“That’s not what I said,” Penelope replied. “I said she doesn’t need to become someone else. That doesn’t mean she can’t grow.”
“Children need discipline,” Alexander replied.
“Children need understanding.”
Odette watched the two of them bicker, looking oddly amused. For once, it seemed that she was not the one arguing in a conversation.
“Odette, dear,” Penelope turned to her, “why don’t you go play with Apollo? I have to speak to your father.”
Odette mumbled something under her breath, but did as told.
“Will you please refrain from saying things like that in front of her?” Penelope brought her hands to her hips once she was out of earshot. “She is too impressionable, and absorbs these things.”
Alexander opened his mouth to protest, but then seemed to relent.
“I do not think I agree with you entirely,” he exhaled. “But I cannot fault you for your methods. She is actually listening to you. Even now, you asked her to go and she did.”
“A miracle,” she smirked. She did not know validation could be this fulfilling until it came from Alexander himself.
“Whatever this is,” he said, with a vague wave of his hand, “keep doing it.”
.”
CHAPTER 8
Penelope did not wish for the picnic to end yet, though she could see Odette growing more distracted as the time passed.
“Odette,” she called out carefully. Keeping the attention of a fourteen year old took work. “Would you come here for a moment?”
Odette narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but listened. Apollo followed behind her, wagging his tail. All the while, Alexander monitored their interactions closely. He still seemed to be amazed by the fact that Odette was listening to what Penelope was saying.
“What is it?” Odette asked, jutting out her bottom lip and putting her hands on her hips.
Penelope looked at her, and then Alexander. “What do you think about going for a walk outside the estate?”
Odette immediately brightened up at the idea, but tried to downplay her excitement. “Um, sure, I suppose. Apollo might enjoy the exercise.”
“And you might as well,” Penelope laughed. “We will not venture out too far. What do you think, Your Grace?”
Alexander hesitated for a moment. Penelope perceived he was caught in some internal conflict . “I will not be able to accompany you, but you may take Fergus and Lewis along with you.”
“Fergus and Lewis?” Penelope repeated, knitting her eyebrows together.
“You’ll meet them,” Odette said, smiling coyly. “They’re quite… important to Father.”
“They’ll escort you to wherever it is that you wish to go,” Alexander conceded. “I shall inform them that they are to meet you by the gates.”
