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Chapter 9
Hunter Jamison, Ford’s right-hand man, and a long-time friend, sat behind one of the gaming tables, smoking his pipe. His face split into a wide smile as Verity approached him, and he beckoned her to sit on his lap.
Eloise looked away. She didn’t want to see how the rest of it played out. Of course, he came to places like this. Hunter was a man, and men did this before they married; Eloise knew that. But somehow, it grated that he was here, enjoying himself in the hell of the person who’d captured her.
Didn’t he know she was being kept here? Or had he come here in an attempt to find her?
Eloise peeked once more. Hunter stood, took Verity by her hand, and led her away.
Probably to private chambers.
Eloise’s heart dropped. He was amusing himself with other ladies while his fiancée was missing. Why wasn’t he looking for her? He couldn’t have known how she was being treated. She might have been abused, treated horribly while he—
Eloise shook her head. No. She shouldn’t have uncharitable thoughts. What had she expected him to do? Sulk in his house, turn the entire city upside down looking for her?
She tried to force herself to think rationally, but she couldn’t. It felt like all the air had left her lungs, and she couldn’t breathe. The walls were closing in on her, and it was getting darker. Eloise squeezed her eyes shut, but it didn’t help.
She took off and flounced along the narrow corridor. She found some stairs and ran up, hoping to get back to her room in Hades’ mansion. She’d hide away in the library, her sanctuary, and ask to never leave that place again. Not until Ford came to get her. Tears burned at the back of her eyes, and her breathing became erratic.
There was a door at the end of the corridor, but it didn’t have a door handle. Eloise banged on it, hoping someone would hear and let her out of this horrid place.
It seemed like an eternity passed between the moment she found the door and the moment it opened. Eloise stumbled out of the corridor and almost fell.
She straightened and looked around. She was in some sort of a corridor again. Wider than the one she’d just escaped from but not much lighter. There were a few lit candles around, but it was still difficult to see.
“Can I help you?” A voice sounded from her left. A feminine voice.
Eloise turned. A tall, voluptuous lady stood before her, in a white intricate wig, her face covered in powder and paint. Eloise blinked. The woman was definitely one of the harlots, but none of them painted themselves so much as to be unrecognizable. But surely she hadn’t met everyone who lived in Hades’ mansion.
The woman stood still as a statue. Her paint, coupled with the room’s darkness, prevented Eloise from reading her expression.
“Yes, I… Apologies. I was stuck in the—” Eloise waved a hand toward the now-closed door of the hidden corridor. “I am Eloise,” she finally said.
The woman seemed to catch her breath. It was difficult to say for certain, but her chest seemed to have risen, and there was no other indication of her reaction.
“Welcome, Eloise,” she said slowly. “Are you here to partake in carnal pleasures?”
“Excuse me?”
“Were you looking for the private chambers?”
Eloise looked around, then leaned closer to the woman and whispered, “Is this it?”
“No.”
Eloise looked around the dark hall again. “Actually, no. I got lost. I’d like to go back now. To Hades’ mansion.”
There was a beat of silence before the woman gestured toward another corridor with a graceful wave of her hand.
“Is the corridor leading back to the house?” Eloise asked, but the woman kept silent.
She was like a doll, not making any movement aside from what was necessary. She didn’t even seem to breathe.
Eloise swallowed, gooseflesh creeping on her back. She walked in the indicated direction, slowly looking around. It was just a regular corridor with a few candles adorning the walls.
The woman unlocked one of the hidden doors, the existence of which Eloise hadn’t even noticed. How many hidden passages did this place have?
The wigged woman gestured once more.
