"No? You would miss this chance to bring them down? If only you could see how Penelope and her sisters walk like they own the town. You must act now, mother. Ruin them while the town speaks," said Warren.
"Enough, Warren," Noah said, stepping in to end all talk about revenge. "Your mother doesn’t want to face the town, and we shouldn’t force her."
"Ha," Warren laughed.
It was insufferable how he had to live with a mother who could not step foot out of their home. His mother wasn’t the only person in town who could not walk, and she wouldn’t be the last.
"I don’t have time for this," Warren said, storming out of the dining room.
"Warren!" Noah called after his son.
"Leave him," Kate said. "He will return when he calms down. Warren never misses dinner."
"I need to speak to him about all this talk of revenge. You don’t need to go up against the Collinses. Your life is peaceful," Noah said, hoping Kate continued to realise this.
"I hate the life that I have now. I want my old life back. The life when I could get dolled up, or my name would be on countless invitations. I was envied by everyone, but now look at me. I cannot walk, and my home is empty," Kate said, frustrated over the state of her life.
Kate wished to be among the women who were parading their daughters around the town. She yearned to recreate the moments she once had with her mother.
"Our home is not empty," Noah corrected Kate.
"It is empty in my eyes. You must enjoy that I am unable to walk. How else would you have found yourself with a woman like me? We would have only crossed paths in the past with you working in my home had I not ended up , so you must be loving this," Kate said, annoyed by Noah’s presence.
Noah bit his tongue before he replied, "It is time for dinner to start."
"I do want revenge. I hate it here, and I hate that my life did not go as I planned it. She should have died. She was to go with William, and I was to end up with a duke. I want revenge, and as my husband, you should do it for me," said Kate.
Kate wanted revenge only but only where she didn’t need to leave home.
"I am no match for who you want me to go up against. Our lives are peaceful here, Kate. You shouldn’t let Warren be caught up in your past. I don’t want him to end up like the rest of your family. We are lucky that you were spared-"
"Lucky?" Kate released a dry laugh. "Nothing about what happened to me is lucky. It was all lies that she told the court. She was the one jealous of our father’s attention on me. She changed when she got Edgar standing beside her, and now her daughter does the same. I will not allow it."
"So be it," Noah said, allowing Kate to do as she wanted. He already planned not to carry her around for what she was planning.
Noah sat down beside Kate to get their dinner started. He could only hope that after a nice dinner and a night’s rest, both his wife and son would change their minds.
Outside the Kennedy home, Warren paced back and forth. He could not get the run-in he had with the Collinses at the ball out of his mind.
It was infuriating to think of how Penelope had the crown prince wrapped around her finger. Not only was there the power of a duke to be abused, but now there was the crown prince.
"That fool," Warren said, thinking of Tyrion. "How could he be so foolish?"
Aside from her father’s title, Penelope was not a suitable candidate for queen.
Warren peered down at his hands. His hands trembled during the last encounter he had with her, as he so desperately wanted to snake his hands around her neck and squeeze with all his might.
He had purposely bumped into Penelope to see what her reaction would be to seeing him. What did she think of the son of her aunt? Or did the Collinses not view him as a blood relative?
"What does he see in her?" Warren wondered.
He couldn’t allow the prince and Penelope to be together.
News of the duchess’s daughter becoming the next queen might finally drive his mother mad.
"Someone should have her before the prince," said Warren.
During his work, Warren had overheard men speaking of Penelope as though she were one of the women in the brothels.
Those men would never be with a noblewoman a day in their lives, so should she wander off to where they gathered, they would not let the chance slip by them.
Warren had come across many scoundrels during his work. Place a pretty woman before them and they would lose their senses.
"Place a pretty woman before a brothel owner and they would take her," Warren whispered.
If he went to the right person, Warren was certain he would have the chance to sell her. A woman like Penelope would bring in valued customers, and the brothel owners would hide her away to avoid the duke’s wrath.
Warren grinned, looking forward to the future of Penelope and her sisters. If he couldn’t reach the duchess and duke, he would be satisfied in hurting their daughters.
"If only I had a little power," Warren said, still feeling weak.
He lacked status, and with his mother’s money running out unless she sold the other home, he lacked money.
Luckily, there were men all around the town who would lend him money as long as he paid it back within a good time.
Surely, once they heard that the daughters of a duke would enter brothels, they would hand him over the money and enjoy the show.