Chapter 33 - Honest? Honest!

***Eleanor***

The door to the dining room swung open and Eleanor stared at a wide-eyed Rowan in silence. Fear struck its way through her heart. She knew that she should not have listened in, but Eleanor was not expecting to overhear a plot to take over the country.

"Eleanor," Rowan said her name as if the very word haunted him. "What are you doing here?" His words were stiff.

Suddenly her throat was dry. "I just... the door was... what?"

"What did you hear?" He took a slow step toward her.

"Are you... are you planning a coup?" She finally spat out.

The life seemed to drain from Rowan when she said that and he let out a sigh. Eleanor wanted to run away, she didn't want Rowan to have more reasons to not talk to her, but her feet were glued to the floor. She wanted an answer, she wanted to know what she really heard.

Since the dining room door was open, all of Rowan's friends were witnesses to her eavesdropping. They all stared at her with mixed emotions. Scorn, panic, anger, frustration. So many commoners staring at her at the same time made Eleanor's skin crawl. Good thing their filth was not transferable by gaze. But it sure felt that way.

"What's the princess doing here?" one of them asked.

Eleanor almost gave herself a headache because of how deep she rolled her eyes. "You better watch your mouth, because if I really was the princess you say I am, then I can make your lives even more hell because of how rude you are to me. Actually, I'm pretty sure I can do that right now. I am a part of the second richest family in this country after all."

Someone in the room sucked their teeth. The noise alone made Eleanor convulse. "Oh be quiet, you don't have the right to talk."

Eleanor fingered one of her black curls that fell over her shoulder. Her hair was almost to her hip. Slowly, she flicked her hair over her shoulder and turned toward the room. "But I do. I know the system you're trying to dismantle. The system that you think you understand but have no idea about. Weaknesses, persistence. I bet you've never even met a royal. Maybe the cousin of a cousin of a cousin... of a cousin. Ignorant fools charge into battle with little to no knowledge of their opponents. And yet you wonder why you're common."

The room was silent. All eyes on her, but nobody said anything.

"But I digress, you can go ahead and hate me if it will make you feel better. But don't act like it's my fault that your parents were too poor to love you properly." Rowan was staring at her, frozen, was he in shock? The thought made Eleanor giggle. "Good luck in taking over the country. It's definitely as easy as you make it seem."

Eleanor nearly barked out laughing but silenced herself by taking a bit of her nearly forgotten sandwich. She was a couple of steps away from the stairs before she was dragged to the kitchen by her shoulders.

Rowan spun her around, backing her up behind the counter and out of sight and earshot of the dining room. "What was that about?"

"Just because your friends don't like me does not mean that they can be disrespectful to me."

"It isn't like that-"

"Are you planning a coup d'etat?" Her patience was thinning.

Rowan's grip on her shoulders tightened. "What did you hear?"

Eleanor recounted what she heard when she eavesdropped. The message seemed clear there, but what if she got it wrong? That would be embarrassing. Especially after all that she had said to them.

"Really? That's all?" Rowan sighed, the tension releasing from his body. Was he relieved she heard so little?

Eleanor nodded. "Honest."

"You can't tell anyone about this Eleanor. This is serious business." He held her gaze.

"I'm well aware of that. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about this. I am interested to see how things will play out. Especially after learning about all the stuff that the royal family did. I would love to see them brought down. Especially that stupid prince." Eleanor thought about the Tudors losing all that they had and being shamed in front of the entire country. It made her mood shoot up.

She didn't really know how they planned to take over the entire country, but she was curious to see if they would be able to do it.

Rowan gave her a small smile. "You should go back to your room. And don't listen in anymore. We're talking about serious stuff. I'll come and get you once it's over."

Rowan was walking out of the kitchen when she spoke. "So this is what it took for you to talk to me."

The gladiator paused, but didn't look back and disappeared around the corner. A few seconds later, she heard the dining room door closing.

Her heart felt heavy when she was walking back up the stairs. She decided to distract herself and jump back into her story. The romance of a royal and their servant. There was something about it that kept Eleanor there, and she finished the book before Rowan came to get her.

***Rowan***

Eleanor hearing was a catastrophic problem. She was important and hearing about what his guild was planning was bad. Even if it seemed like she didn't hear too much. It was still risky. They were definitely going to stop having meetings in his house. He knew that it was risky in the beginning, but it was the easiest thing to do while keeping Eleanor close.

"She didn't hear much of anything. Only the last few sentences said before I opened the door." Rowan said as soon as he closed back the door.

"That bitch is rude and ignorant. How can she act like that." one of the female members snorted.

"How can you live with someone so stuck up all the time? It must be exhausting." a male member asked.

"She isn't like that all the time," Rowan said.

"You're just saying that because you've gotten used to her."

"Maybe."

"The Princess probably charmed him into thinking that she was nice when in fact she's a snake."

"Oh, she definitely molts."

The room burst into laughter at that comment. A chorus of agreement followed.

"She has no idea what she has coming to her and yet she acts like that. I can't wait to knock her off of her pedestal." a member commented venomously.

Rowan sighed and went back to his spot in the corner of the room. He was too busy thinking about Eleanor to really focus on what the others were saying.

She was right. It took her finding out about their plan for him to talk to her. He was being so childish for the past week. But he wanted to forget about all his thoughts about Eleanor. Maybe if he pretended she wasn't there, then everything would go back to normal. Eleanor was a spoiled brat, who disliked commoners and acted like she was the most important person in the world.

But no matter how many times he chanted it, they were always overpowered by the image of her smile, her enthusiasm for learning, and the way he got used to her being snarky and grumpy. And Eleanor Louis was not a child. Far from it. That was the last thing Rowan imagined her as.

And after *that* night, his imagination strayed even farther from anything remotely childish.