The Monster in the Manor: Chapter 25

Rupert

I know my answer hurt her. Peony wanted a different one, but I couldn’t give it to her. Especially not with someone like Stella. That stuffy old lady would run away screaming the moment she saw me, and then tell all of her rich friends at the club about the monster who lives at Edgewood Manor. And then what would happen? Would the government show up at my doorstep to take me into custody and study me?

Peony is still quiet after dinner. She says she doesn’t feel well, and goes to sleep in her own room for the first time since we became intimate. Of course I tell her that I understand, and I return to the east wing alone.

My bed is cold and empty. I wish I could have said something else, something that would make her happy, but this is the way things are. This is the way things will always be. I need Peony, but I need to remain hidden, too. I can’t face the outside world, what they would think of me, what they would do should they see me.

And faced with this conundrum, I don’t know how to reconcile what Peony wants with what I fear.

---

The following day, Peony cleans without her usual vigor, quiet as a mouse when I’ve become so used to her humming made-up tunes as she works. She greets me, but once I’ve greeted her in return, she continues hoovering into the next room without a second look back.

I didn’t realize how much it meant to her to have her great aunt over. Stella is such an unlikable woman, I don’t understand the significance. It must be about something more than just Stella.

I wonder how long Peony will freeze me out. I don’t like this, not at all.

At lunch, which she prepares before I can even make it into the kitchen, Peony informs me that Stella is coming over tomorrow night for dinner. Then she cleans up and dumps her dishes into the dishwasher and departs saying she needs to check on the laundry, when we usually go on a walk together in the afternoons.

I sit at the counter with Kellen, staring at the space where she used to be.

“Ms. Austin seems unhappy with you,” he remarks, as if it’s not the most obvious thing in the world.

I gnash my teeth. “I know.”

Kellen leans on one hand, elbow propped on the counter as he studies me. “Are you going to do something about it?”

“She is being unreasonable,” I grumble. “She’ll get over it eventually.”

Peony has never been upset with me before, and I detest how it feels.

“Hmm.” Kellen rises from his chair. “Well, I hope you’re right.” He pauses before leaving the kitchen. “I ought to tell you, Mr. Edgewood, that I have decided to engage in an… official relationship, as well.”

I stare at him. “Really?” 

“His name is Ignacio. I’ve discussed it with Ms. Austin, and I will invite him over tomorrow night so they can meet during the dinner with Stella.”

I let out a hiss between my teeth. “You, too?”

Kellen shrugs. “I consider Ms. Austin a friend, and she expressed interest in meeting him. I’d thought that perhaps, my other friends—” he gives me a meaningful look, “—might also want to introduce themselves.”

Damn it. Now it’s coming from Kellen? He should understand better than anyone.

Getting to my feet, I shove my stool under the counter so it makes a loud noise against the floor.

“Stop it,” I snap. “Just… stop. Bring him over if you like. Introduce him to Peony. But I will not be there. You know what I look like. It’s impossible.”

With that, I storm away back to the east hall, infuriated with both of them. They know how I feel, how I don’t want to show myself. It would be a disaster. And yet they ignore my wishes! They push and prod me, trying to force me to change when I have no interest in changing.

Peeved, I hole myself up in my rooms for the rest of the day, and no one bothers me. Around dinnertime, there’s a knock at my door, but when I answer it, Kellen’s already retreating down the hall and my meal sits on a plate on the table.

My chest tightens as I snatch up the plate and bring it inside. When there is no word from Peony that night, either, I grow angrier.

And angrier.

Is this how fickle she is? That she would give me the cold shoulder because I don’t want to meet her awful relative? Because I don’t want to end up as a science experiment?

Fine. If I mean so little to her, then that’s how much she’ll mean to me. I don’t need to regret anything. I don’t owe her an apology. And I certainly don’t owe Stella Austin my time or my presence.

I go to bed early that night, but I can’t sleep. I’m so used to holding Peony in my arms as I drift off that instead, I feel a nervous energy, as if something important is missing. With a growl of annoyance, I shed my clothes and leave the manor through the side door. Then I’m off into the woods on all fours, salivating for whatever creature I might find out there. 

Eventually, after loping through the forest for most of the night, I discover a nest of rabbits. When I grab one around the throat, it screams like a wailing infant. Then I bury my teeth in it, and it falls still and silent.

I’m covered in blood when I get back to the manor around sunrise, and I take a long, hot shower to get it all off. I’m so tired that eventually, I fall asleep, sprawled on top of the blankets.

---

Peony

I hear a horrible scream in the middle of the night that wakes me up from a dead sleep. I search for the source, but I’m there’s nothing around save for the darkness and a sliver of moonlight coming in my window.

Still, it unsettles me. Was the scream inside my dream?

I reach out subconsciously for Rupert, to touch his soft fur and wriggle into his arms for reassurance, but he’s not here. 

Right. I’ve been sleeping alone in my room, irritated at him.

I know he has perfectly good reasons for choosing not to show himself. But Stella is the only family I have left. I want to get to claim Rupert as mine and show Stella that I’m happy here.

It worries me, too, about our future. If he won’t come out for anyone, what does that mean for me? When I have friends over, will they look at me strangely because he won’t meet them? Will they also think that he believes himself too good for them?

A memory of my life with Andy trickles in, of the way he insisted on moving to Tennysville, far enough away that it would be an inconvenience for my friends to see me. When I did go out with them, which was rarely, Andy and I never went together. Even if I took our one car, he would stay home, saying he didn’t care for the people I surrounded myself with.

I don’t want to be isolated and separate like that again, as if we’re living two parallel lives.

Maybe I’m infatuated with Rupert now, absolutely head over heels for him, but what about in six months from now? A year? A few years? I’ll grow tired of never getting to go out to dinner, or see a movie, or do anything that normal people do together. I would never get to live a true life with him.

A coldness washes over me, considering the idea that Rupert and I can’t work out long term. That what we have here, while wonderful, might not be forever.

Maybe he’s right. Maybe it’s for the best that he doesn’t meet Stella. 

And maybe I should start looking for that apartment.

---

It’s Saturday morning, so I skip my usual cleaning routine and throw together a breakfast of biscuits and gravy. I breeze past Kellen on my way out.

“Can’t wait to meet Ignacio later,” I tell him, waving. Finding out he has a boyfriend was unsurprising, but it’s also exciting they’ve made it official.

“You aren’t taking your car, are you?” Kellen stops me with a frown.

“Well, I was going to, because—”

He sighs. “We should really get you a new vehicle, Ms. Austin.”

I roll my eyes as he fishes out his keys and shoves them into my hand. “Do you want those cookies I’ve been getting you again?”

This earns the slightest smile from Kellen. “I would like that very much.”

Then I’m off, trying not to think about my realization from last night or imagine how Rupert would react if I told him how I feel. Would he fire me if I said I couldn’t have a relationship with him anymore?

I know that he has a temper, and he would certainly not handle it well.

My chest feels tight, too small for my ribs. I don’t want that. I don’t want to do that to him or to me. I think that certainly, I love him.

Too muddled to think about anything but chores, I head into town, going onward to Penn Rock so I can pick up the blue crab I’ve been dreaming about. I’m going to throw together basil crab cakes with a gremolata on top as an appetizer. I think someone with Stella’s palate will appreciate it.

When I pull into the lot and get out of my car, the hair prickles on the back of my neck, as if a frigid breeze has blown past. It’s getting chillier lately, and even the peacoat Rupert gave me isn’t quite enough to stave off the cold.

Inside the store is better, though, and I get lost in choosing my ingredients. I wonder what sort of food Ignacio likes? I forgot to ask, so I try to come up with something Kellen’s new boyfriend—or whatever he is—might like: a pasta bolognese. That should be a good spread, and I’ll throw in a side of white asparagus with cream sauce. I decide to finish off the meal with pineapple upside down cake.

This will be some of my best work yet. But when I remember that Rupert won't enjoy it with us, I'm immediately deflated.

Then it’s time to head back so I have enough hours ahead of me to prepare. After I finish paying, I exit the store with a heaviness in my step, knowing I’m headed back to the manor. Knowing what awaits me there.

I can’t hold off on telling Rupert what I’ve decided. I need to rip the bandage off sooner rather than later, before we get even more attached to one another. I know I can’t live a life sequestered in the manor like he does. We’re too incompatible, as strongly as we feel about one another.

As I make my way to the far end of the asphalt lot, where I parked Kellen’s car so no one would bump or scratch it, I spot a familiar head of blond hair. It’s moving toward me, quickly. 

Then I see him, with his beard grown out and his hair an unkempt mess, his eyes flashing with pure fury.

Andy.

I turn around on instinct and run, but he’s on top of me before I can get more than a few steps. He tackles me to the cement, and I try to scream, but he slaps a hand over my mouth, muffling me. My head swims from the blow, and all I can manage is a whimper. It’s early in the day, and there’s no one else around to witness it as Andy hauls me to my feet, then drags me back to an ancient blue truck I’ve never seen before. I shout some more against his hand as he opens the door and flings me inside, then grabs my face roughly.

“Scream one more time and I fucking end you,” he says in a low, dangerous voice. I realize once he moves his hand down to his hip that he has a gun in his pocket, and I go quiet. The last thing I want is a bullet through my brain, and with the deranged way Andy looks now, I don’t doubt that he’d do it. 

He snatches a roll of duct tape and wraps it around my head, covering my mouth twice before he repeats it with my wrists, until I’m completely bound up. Then he slams the truck door.

“Thought you could get away, didn’t you?” Andy has a wicked glint in his eye. “But I found you, honey.”