AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Right and Miss Olivia here.”
“Well, I did. Now can we get them out of here before Hades arrives?”
“Is Hades an actual name of a real person?” Olivia asked.
“Why do we have to leave?” Annalise asked at the same time.
The door opened at that moment and a young lady entered the room carrying two cups of steaming coffee.
“Eloise!” Ford smiled tightly at the lady. “I thought I told you to never come here.”
“I saw two ladies coming down. I thought I’d bring them some coffee and wish them a good day,” she said with a light shrug. Then she put the cups on the table, turned to Olivia and the Paynes, and curtsied. “My lord, my ladies,” she said with a smile.
“Now that you’re done, please, leave with all haste,” the thief-taker said roughly. “And take the ladies with you if you please.”
The young miss seemed unperturbed by the thief-taker’s rough tone of voice. “Would you not introduce us? It’s only polite,” she said to him with a smirk.
The thief-taker looked at her in reproach, but the lady just raised her brows. Olivia watched the byplay with interest. It was obvious the thief-taker sought to intimidate, but the lady was anything but impressed with his attempts.
“Lord Payne, Lady Payne, Miss… Olivia, let me introduce you to my sister, Miss Eloise,” he finally said in a dry tone of voice.
Payne raised his brows while Annalise smiled at the lady. “How nice to make your acquaintance,” she said.
“Yes, a pleasure,” Olivia parroted.
Miss Eloise curtsied prettily again and Blake bowed. “Eloise, this is Lord Payne, his wife Lady Payne, and their friend Miss Olivia. Now, will you please leave this place?” He raised a brow in irritation.
“All right,” his sister grumbled under her breath. “Ladies, would you like to follow me?”
“If this meeting has anything to do with Jarvis, I am staying,” Olivia said resolutely.
“And if Olivia is staying, then I am staying also,” Annalise echoed her.
“Well, then, I see no reason I should leave either,” Miss Eloise said.
Payne ran a hand through his hair. “Annalise, darling, can you please make your friend leave! You are in no condition to attend clandestine meetings with criminals and if I knew that’s what we were doing, I wouldn’t have brought you here in the first place.”
“But—”
“No buts, I need you to leave. I do not feel comfortable being here as it is.”
Annalise turned to Olivia. “He is right. If this Hades man is as dangerous as he sounds—”
“It’s about Jarvis,” Olivia pleaded. “If this meeting was regarding your husband, I am certain you wouldn’t leave.”
Annalise bit her lip. “I wouldn’t.”
“Then don’t make me leave, please. You can go, but let me stay. I can take care of myself and your husband and all those men will protect me.”
Annalise scoffed. “I cannot in good conscience leave you in a room full of men!”
“If you two do not leave, then I shall leave,” Payne said. “This is not a place for ladies.”
Olivia swallowed. She was not about to relent.
“I’ll lead the way,” Miss Eloise said and turned to leave, but at that moment, the door opened, and in entered a tall, dark man.
So tall, in fact, that he had to stoop to enter. His shoulders were as wide as the doorframe, his face an inscrutable mask. Or at least it seemed so, until he turned facing the light, and Olivia saw a hideous white scar adorning the right side of his face. It was wide and ran from his brow, down his cheek, and slashed across his lips, finishing somewhere on his chin. The scar also pulled at his upper lip, making it look as if he sneered.
