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Chapter 7
“Tell me, Sal, how long have you been here?” Eloise asked as she sat in the main hall, playing fish with the occupants of the house. It was still early; the hell had not opened yet, so both men and women were still at the mansion, going about their business.
Garric stood by the main door, unwilling to fraternize with the prisoner. Eloise hoped she could find a way to soften up the stern guard, but for now, befriending all the other inhabitants of the house would do, too.
“A few years,” Sal said in an offhand manner.
“What did you do before?” she asked curiously, and everyone around her groaned.
“Here we go! Tell her, Sal!” another man, by the name of Hersham, taunted.
“I was a pirate!” Sal exclaimed, and Eloise’s jaw dropped.
“Truly? I have never met a pirate before!”
“I spent most of my childhood roaming the seas.”
“Why would you leave? It must have been marvelous!”
“Oh, it was. Until our ship was captured by other pirates.” He waved a hand as if he did not want to talk about it. “I escaped and found myself looking for a place on land.”
“Show her your boots,” Chastity said dreamily.
Sal unceremoniously put his leg on the table, showing off his black boot with a little anchor attached to his heel.
Eloise watched Chastity curiously. The woman was obviously infatuated with Sal, and Eloise couldn’t blame her. He was charming and good-natured. His pirate past must have played into his charm as well. What woman does not dream of a romance with a pirate?
Eloise certainly did. At least, when she was younger, and read all those novels about the pirate life.
“What about you, Garric?” She threw the words toward the guard standing far away from them, but he just grunted.
“Garric has been here forever,” Prudence said. “He and Grace were here before anyone else.”
How interesting.
“Why do you not play with us?” she tried again to converse with Garric.
“I am to protect you, not socialize with you,” he answered. At least a few more words than his usual grunt. Eloise would take it as a win.
“Do you not think it unfair,” Eloise turned back to Sal, “that everyone here goes to Hades’ hell in a bit, and you get stuck with me?”
Everyone laughed, and another man clapped Sal on the back.
“No, I do what Master requires. I do what ‘e perceives is most important,” Sal answered with a shrug.
“And what Master requires is for you all to be on your way,” Hades boomed from the staircase.
The men scattered as one, Sal joining Garric by the main doors and the rest disappearing in different directions.
“If you continue scaring them all away,” Eloise said as she stood slowly, “it will be awfully easy for me to win the wager. I am to survive socializing with them, am I not?”
“I think you’re getting a little too cozy with them,” Hades said as he stepped in closer.
“I am just determined to win. And in as few as eight hours, I shall.”
Hades stepped closer to her, looking at her intently. Gooseflesh covered her skin. “Then perhaps I should order my men and women act as terribly as possible so that you won’t win.”
Eloise let out a chuckle. “I think I won over their hearts. It shall be difficult to sway them now.”Except for Garric.
