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“Mr. Scoundrel, you are free to come in and listen with all of us,” Eloise said.
Garric immediately turned toward Hades and straightened.
Mr. Scoundrel. She was bent on calling him that. But even her soft voice and playful attitude didn’t manage to bring him out of his dark mood.
“I thought I told you to guard heroutsidethe room,” he barked at the guards.
“I told him—” Garric started, but Hades cut him off with a sharp gesture of his hand. “Out!”
Sal immediately scrambled to get up and filed out of the room after Garric. Verity slowly stood as well. She looked from Eloise to Hades, as if uncertain what to do. Hades stepped aside, and she rushed past him, leaving Hades with his prisoner—his guest—tet-a-tet.
Eloise was still invisible to his gaze, so he took a step closer. He finally saw Eloise sitting by the fire, still in her one and only day gown, which William had brought her in. She collected her dark ebony hair in a neat bun, and the light from the hearth illuminated her beautiful facial features. She stood carefully and dusted her skirts. “Did you have to frighten them all?” she asked with a frown.
“They are not here to keep you company,” he growled.
She cocked her head to the side and calmly put the book down on the chair. “And here I thought I was a guest here.”
“You are. They are not. They have work to do.”
Eloise slowly stepped closer to him. “So I am to rot here all alone?”
Hades felt a pang in his chest. That’s what Ava used to tell him, too. But he didn’t care. He wanted what was best for her. And best for her was not socializing with thugs and whores. Eloise was not Ava, though. He shouldn’t care who she socialized with.
“You are to stay here until your brother does as he’s promised.”
Eloise puffed out her chest. “Why am I being punished for something that my brother did?”
“You are not.”
She interrupted him with a scoff. “Then when can I go home? Or see my brother?”
Hades took a deep breath. “You are not being punished. Your brother is. So I am to keep you here comfortably until he does as he promised, and then he is free to collect you.”
Eloise pursed her lips. “You say I am a guest here, but I am not allowed to socialize with others, and I am not to leave my room. You say I am not being punished, but I cannot go home or see my brother. Do I understand you correctly?”
“I have no quarrel with you,” Hades pushed out between his teeth. “And as much as I’d love to see your lying brother suffer, I do not mean to subject you to the influence of criminals and harlots.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Why not?”
Why not?Ava used to ask him that, too.
Because I want you to be better. I want your future to be better than this;he used to say to her. But Eloise was not his Ava. He shook the memories out of his head.
“Why would you want to?” he asked curiously. “Why would a thief-taker’s sister want to socialize with thieves and whores?”
Eloise gave a shrug. “As long as they do not steal from me and do not ask me to whore around with them, why would I care what they do?”
“Your brother would care.”
“Well, I am not my brother,” she said irritably. “And rather than being alone, I would prefer the company.”
She is not Ava.Hades briefly closed his eyes.
“Then you are free to do whatever you like,” he finally said.
Eloise stumbled, apparently shocked that he gave in so easily. “I am free to do whatever I like… Even leave this room?”
Hope lit up from inside her, and Hades already regretted his words. But he had no hold over her. He could order everyone to stay away from her, he could order his men to protect her, but if she was willing to roam freely in his house of disrepute, so be it.
