When they neared the entrance of the mansion, there was a slight commotion that could be heard coming from outside the mansion. Penny wondered what it was about and continued to walk with Damien and Alexander. Reaching the entrance, they saw many of the maids and servants who had come out to see what the sound was all about. Their expression held one to be of shock.
On the other side of the front of the mansion stood the Delcrov's butler who was right now pushing a young girl's face on the ground along with her hands which were held from behind. By the clothes, she could tell it was one of the maids from the mansion.
Her eyes took in the girl who appeared to be in pain, her face contorted in discomfort and agony with the way the butler held her hand behind. Penny still remembered the pain that had shot through her arm when Grace had twisted her arm during the first week before she was saved by Damien.
Suddenly the Lord appeared angry, he walked to where the butler and the maid was. Penny was still trying to grasp when she saw a bush that had been pulled out and sabotaged. It was the blue roses that Alexander had asked her to not pluck more than one.
"What happened here?" Lord Alexander had always been calm and quiet, speaking only when required while the rest of the time he appeared to be intimidating. Penny had never seen him this angry. More than angry, he appeared to be in a rage. Even the butler appeared to be lacking words for a second before he said,
"The maid was found destroying the plant and I had to stop her from damaging it anymore," Martin bowed his head, his eyes on the grey ground. The girl struggled to get up but the butler's grip was tight on her.
Penny and Damien made their way towards the garden to see and hear what was going on. She saw how the bushes were pulled out, its roots that were not only pulled but also chopped with a pair of the garden trimmer.
"Let her up," he ordered Martin and the butler was quick to oblige to his Master's words.
The maid stood up, guilt on her face yet there was no actual remorse on it. Her eyes looked to the side, not meeting the Lord's eyes, "What do you think you are doing destroying my property?" Alexander's words were hard, "ANSWER ME!" his voice boomed around the mansion which even had Penny jerk back with the impact.
Alexander looked at the crowd that had formed at the entrance, "The rest of you can go back to your work," one line and it had everyone scatter inside without a question.
The maid had done something bad which she wasn't supposed to do, but all she wanted to have the Lord's attention on her, "I-I, you drank blood from me, you touched yet another lady comes to the house and you give her more attention! Am I not special to you, milord?" For a moment Penny wondered if the maid was pointing to the woman to be her, "The woman you brought here yesterday," so it wasn't her.
The girl didn't continue and instead broke into a series of tears. The maid's shoulder shook devastated, "I thought you liked me, instead you go sleeping with that bitch! When I tried to speak to you today you said there was nothing...how could do that, Lord Alexander," the girl asked, her wide eyes staring at him with a bewildered expression on her face.
"I don't remember mentioning you being special. Did you perhaps decide to imagine it yourself to decide that you were?" he raised his brow.
"How heartless, milord. How heartless," she repeated herself, "You caressed me as if you loved me. Whispering words and now I am nothing. You behave cold yet you love this plant like it's some child. If you can treat me like some dirt, it is only right I do this-"
The girl picked up the trimmer which was next to her legs, ready to harm the remaining plant but she never reached it. Alexander caught hold of her neck in time, bringing her in front of him,
"How dare you touch things which don't belong to you, you also dare to damage the plant," he squeezed her neck that had the maid trying to push him away right now as she found it hard to breathe, "Don't forget you are a maid. Unless I have promised those words to you, you have no right to think and behave like you are my lover. How pathetic."
Alexander didn't care about the maid, for someone to go far as to damage things that they knew were important to him, people like that had no place here. He squeezed her neck further before letting her go and twisting her hand before pulling it off.
"AHH!" the girl screamed in pain. Penny turned her face away quickly, taking Damien's shoulder to shelter her from looking at what just happened. The girl only continued to scream, yelling in pain.
"Take her out to the forest and have her buried," came Lord Alexander's orders and Penny's eyes widened, she looked at Damien not knowing why Lord Alexander was so attached to the plant.
"Come, let's go inside," Damien urged and tugged her along with him, leaving the people who were out outside as they got inside the mansion.
Damien took her to the room. Making her sit on the bed before sitting on the front of her, "What just happened?" she asked him.
He took both her hands in his, sitting in front of her on his heels, "The plant is important to Alex," more than a person's life? She wasn't able to wrap her head around it, "Remember how Lady Isabelle was killed in the middle of the village? Where the villagers burnt her. Alex stole her ashes which was put in the cemetery to rest her soul. He brought the ashes back to the mansion and...buried it along with the rose plant. It was a normal plant but because of Aunt Isabelle, his mother, the plant turned out to be special for him."