Page 40 of The Shadow of Breninsol
The fresh night air hit her as they emerged through a door that had somehow led them outside, as if it was…magic.
A frown creased her brow as the soft giggle echoed once more, only for her to belatedly realize that the sound was emanating from her own lips. His solid grasp didn’t waver as he marched along a gravel path between tall bushes. Her legs felt softer outside, and she had more difficulty keeping up with him, so Eleanor concentrated on her steps, not wanting to fall onto chipped stones.
Ouch. That would hurt.
As they rounded a sharp corner, a striking line of carriages suddenly appeared before their eyes, a magnificent sight that made her want to stop in awe. A firm tug on her arm jerked her attention back to the man next to her, who had all but dragged her along with him. As they walked away, she quickly glanced back at the pale palace, her eyes searching for the doorthrough which they had just passed. Although it wouldn’t make a difference if she knew where it was. She did not know how they’d ended up here, the twists and turns of the palace bewildering her. When they drew closer to where the carriages were waiting, it became apparent that there were far more carriages and horses than she was accustomed to seeing there.
Strange.
Have more courtesans been invited?
The coachmen scrabbled to the first carriage where the serious man was marching her with a determined gait. They all bowed deeply to the lord who had been pulling her along. She was under no illusion that their genuflection was solely for the man holding her arm and him alone.
A glint in the sky above caught her eye. She sighed, seeing the brightest star was out tonight. It looked pretty,so pretty.
Eleanor wanted to reach up and touch it, but the lord grabbed her rising arm and pinned it to her side.
Rude.
The coachman’s sudden movement to open the carriage door caused her head to jerk swiftly from the sky to the scene before her, filled with sounds of horses snorting into the cold night and their hooves shifting against the gravel.
She was unceremoniously pulled forward by the Dark Star, who all but pushed her into the carriage. Eleanor successfully stopped her fall to the carriage floor by regaining her footing, but this caused her to stumble and fall against the seats. With a surge of righteous anger, she started to go after thearseholewho manhandled her, however, upon seeing his aristocratic face looking back at her, she immediately halted.
Illuminated by the torchlight emanating from the alabaster palace, his face, brutally beautiful in its harsh angles and striking features, glowed with an ethereal light. The last thing she saw was stormy eyes as the door slammed shut in her face. Thecarriage lurched suddenly, its movement propelling her gently into the plush seating, and it rumbled out of the courtyard, moving farther and farther away from the palace and, more significantly, away from him.
Chapter Sixteen
Sweet Treats
Eleanor blearily grabbed the cracked coffee pot. She had forgotten how many cups of the weak stuff she’d drank, much like the glasses of sparkling wine last night. She’d been drunk enough that she hadn’t needed to break open any of the bottles under her floorboards, and finally, she had slept. Even if her dreams had been mildly disturbing.
Eleanor assumed they were memories of the evening at the party palace. Distorted memories, replaying endlessly, until the memories had contorted into the lord with stormy eyes into an impossibly tall figure. He had been bigger than her in everypossible way and he…well, she wasn’t too sure what he had become in her dream. He had become someone she should flee from, but she never did. Instead, she got sucked into him and, unfortunately, not in a sexual way. It had been an all-consuming pain that stretched and pulled at her until she thought her body was going to break down into thousands of tiny flecks. After straining through the constant misery, she eventually felt…bliss. She felt a type of peace she had never known before, and she knew she was supposed to be there, somehow within him, as one.
Only after draining this newest cup of coffee did Eleanor finally feel like she was shaking off the remnants of sleep. Refilling her cup and ladling out a bowl of porridge, Eleanor thanked whatever higher power that Mirabella had made the porridge today. It was stiff and sticky rather than the curdling slop it generally was. Eleanor didn’t think her stomach could handle anything liquid except coffee right now. Regardless that it was weak, she needed the energy it gave her to fight off this pounding headache, which the ladies around the table weren’t helping with.
Stars.Why were they so fucking loud?
Eleanor focused on her breakfast, ignoring whatever conversation that was being yelled across the table. She forced herself to eat it all and not give into the nausea that plagued her. However much she’d drunk last night, it had been enough to give her a rip-roaring hangover, and she didn’t begrudge it. At least she’d never been as hungover as that time she’d fallen drunk asleep in the ancient wine cellar. She’d drunk enough to have a pounding hangover for days afterwards.
Her heart squeezed at the brief memory and, refusing to look at it any further, she roughly swallowed the stiff porridge and pushed all of those thoughts aside, focusing instead on the few returning memories of the night before. Each time an additionaldetail emerged, she knew it had happened, but she hadn’t registered it at the time.
The one part of her evening that had taken the breath from her, as she’d remembered it from the top of the stairs, and she would have fallen if not for her iron-fisted grip on the railing. Eleanor clearly and vividly remembered the handsome stranger saying,‘I've used her enough for tonight,’as he slammed the carriage door in her face, discarding her and leaving her to return to The Ladies Grace.
She knew that moment hadn’t been her imagination. She knew it had happened, and it made her feel small, insignificant, and used. Sadly, a feeling she was not unused to feeling.
Each time she tried to push away the memory of his handsome face glaring back at her from within the carriage, his face changed each time she remembered that moment. Until the same expression on his face repeated so she knew it’d been real. There had been something that had caught her breath and made her swallow against her angry movement to get out of the carriage, it was his angry glare had changed, softened almost. She almost convinced herself that he looked…guilty, although she didn’t know why she thought that.
As soon as she felt herself soften towards him, she remembered the seemingly insignificant motion he’d made with his hand, a clenching and unclenching of his fingers. The mere thought of him replacing the feeling of her made her stomach sour to the extent that she wanted to vanish from the world. He had hated touching her.
“—yes, Eleanor,” she heard the almost hissing noise coming from one of the ladies around the table.
There were many things Eleanor could ignore, but that tone used with her current name was not one of them. Eleanor properly looked around the table for the first time since enteringthe kitchen. Everyone was looking at her, and she didn’t like the vitriolic looks that the courtesans were glaring at her.
Shit.What had she missed?
“Hidden talents, clearly,” Jasmine said in a dry tone.
Eleanor frowned at what theever-loving fuckthey were going on about now.
