Page 77 of For Love & Torture
Kissing her cheek, I give her shoulders a squeeze. “Glad to hear that. We have to pick up our wedding rings this afternoon too. Don’t let me forget about that. We only have a week until the ball, you know. Seven days, until we get married. Not a lot of time.”
“Congratulations.” Penelope gets up and walks around the room. “I can tell you that this man will come back here. He’s left a little something here to make sure of that.” She goes to one corner and moves her hands through it. “This is how your mother came into the room. Bart Mason has managed to make a portal here. His dark master has trained him well and given him many secrets only those on the other side have. He’s lied to Bart though. He’s told him he is an immortal, which he’s not. Keep that in mind when you deal with the man. He’s as human as you two are. And so are the women he keeps around to help him. The only spirit is the dark one who manipulates them all.”
I get up and go to feel the air in the area she’s told us is a portal. I can’t feel any difference at all. “Can’t you close this? Or maybe Mom can.”
“It’s next to impossible to close one of these up.” Penelope walks back to Bell and pats her on the back. “You can handle this if you say the words I told you when you need them, and remember that as much as Bart and his cohorts look like they have magical powers, they don’t. But they do have someone working on the other side for them that makes it seem that way.”
“So, what you’re saying is we can handle this. No matter how bad it looks, we can deal with it. Right?” Bell asks.
Penelope gives her a reassuring smile. “You can deal with anything and everything that’s put into your path, Isabel. The same way you dealt with what your stepfather did to you when you were too young and helpless to defend yourself. Don’t you remember how you dealt with that situation?”
Bell’s face goes pale, her hand covers her mouth, and her eyes bug out. “You know what I did? I never told a soul. Not anyone.”
“You’re never as alone as you think you are. And that was clever for a ten-year-old to think of. Keeping your stepfather on the toilet did keep him from getting aggravated by anything you did, didn’t it?” Penelope gives her a wink. “Don’t worry, my lips are sealed.”
Stepping up to the ladies, I have to admit, “And my curiosity is peaked. Would you let me in on what you did, Bell?”
“I put chocolate flavored laxative in his coffee every morning. He liked lots of sugar and milk in it. One morning I told him we’d run out of regular milk and I put chocolate milk in it. After he smacked the shit out of me, knocking me to the floor, he took a sip and loved the flavor and told me to do it that way from then on.” Bell looks at Penelope as she shakes her head. “I never told a soul, I never spoke the words out loud about what I was doing. If he would’ve ever found out, I thought he’d have killed me”
“And he never did, did he?” Penelope asks. “He never told a soul about his bathroom issues either. And he lost a lot of weight. He also lost his strength, didn’t he?”
Bell can only nod. “I knew it was from the laxative. I did. Am I going to be punished for what I did? You know, maybe this is the punishment. Maybe that’s why this dark spirit wants my blood.”
“It has nothing to do with that.” Penelope shakes her head. “And you only served up the karma your stepfather deserved.”
I could tell Bell wasn’t sure that was entirely true by the doubt that shone in her brown eyes. She looked down at the floor, and I knew she was freaking out a bit that Penelope knew so intimate a secret.
Pulling her to stand up, I wrap my arms around her and hug her tightly. “Don’t worry. You were a scared kid who came up with a plan to stop something bad from happening to you. I’m with Penelope; I think that was damn smart of you.”
She rests her head on my chest as I rock her back and forth, then she looks up at me. “Promise me you’ll never hit any children we have, Grant.”
I can see it there, written all over her face. I’ve doled out punishment to her. I’ve hit her and other women. Not out of anger, or spite, or cowardice. But I have hit them. I know how to use a belt and a paddle—things that some would use to discipline children.
Now I find Penelope touching my arm, taking my attention. “Grant, your mother wants to tell you that she knows what you do. She wants you to know she’s not one to judge and she knows what you both get out of it. There’s nothing wrong with it as long as you both get something out of it. And she knows you’d never intentionally hurt a child.”
Although I’m sort of mortified that my dead mother knows what kind of stuff we’re into, I still manage to say, “I wouldn’t. I’ve never thought about having kids until very recently. But I don’t think I agree with physically harming a child. No matter what they’ve done. There’s more than one way to teach a child the difference between right and wrong, after all.” I turn to Bell and make her the promise she needs. “I will swear to you I will never raise a hand or any other thing to our children. And I’ll never do anything to you that you don’t want to do. All you have to say is…”
“Red,” Bell finishes my sentence. “I know.”
Penelope claps her hands just once. “Okay. I think I’m done here. I hope I’ve helped you both. Daphne has left so I think she’s done talking to you both too. Good luck to you and if anything comes to me that I haven’t told you, I’ll call you, Isabel.”
Walking her back out, I hold Bell’s hand as we watch Penelope leave and smile at her. “That was on the edge of crazy, huh?”
With a nod, she comes in close to my side and rests her head on my chest as her hand presses against my stomach. “Right on the edge. I guess there’s nothing to do but wait to see what Bart Mason and his dark spirit come up with.”
I’m not real happy with that, but I guess she’s right.
