Chapter 46 - Heartbreak and Humiliation

When Eleanor woke up the next day, her head was pounding and her body ached at the slightest movement. It only took a few seconds for all the memories of the previous night to come back to her, and when they did, she could not stop the sob that escaped her lips.

The agonizing, embarrassed sob.

The pain in her head coupled with the one in her heart had Eleanor drawing in on herself. She clutched the blankets of the bed as more sobs wracked her body.

Rowan had betrayed her, left her at the mercy of his guild, and didn’t even turn back. She knew that he didn’t particularly like her in the beginning, but it had been several months of them living together. He bought her pastries and shopped with her. He was so perfectly gentle with her and kissed her with the right amount of passion.

And all of that was a lie. A ploy, to get Eleanor Louis to drop her guard around Rowan and walk right into the Goldenshroud’s plan.

Never in her life had she been so humiliated. She has been beaten to the ground by a commoner, and in the presence of other commoners as well. It was the most disgraceful thing that could have ever happened to Eleanor. She wanted to burn off all of her skin. But even that would not be enough to scrub off the disgust and shame she felt. Eleanor just wanted to disappear.

And that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was that she still hoped, somewhere in her heart, that Rowan would still come back for her. That he would rescue her from this room, sweep her up in his arms and tell her that everything was ok. That it was all a big misunderstanding and that he would never hurt her.

She was angry at herself for falling for their trap. For falling for a commoner, and actually expecting something good to come out of it. But she was the most high-maintenance person in Haespia after all. Who could truly love her if not for her money?

Eleanor let out an angry sob and buried herself deeper into the sheets. She had spent so long trying to figure out what she was feeling towards Rowan and believing that he could reciprocate it.

“Dammit!” Eleanor snapped and threw one of the pillows on the bed to the wooden wall next to it. It flopped against the surface with an anticlimactic *poof* and that just made Eleanor even angrier.

She was stewing in a humiliation and heartbreak that was new to her. She didn’t know how to process these emotions. She wanted to wring Rowan’s neck and scream at him. She wanted to beg him for answers. She wanted to know if he felt even a fraction of what she felt for him.

The door to the room being opened cut off Eleanor’s thoughts and she held her breath, burying her head in the pillows, as someone entered the room and got closer to the bed.

“Eleanor.” It was the older man, Donn, “Are you alright?”

The mocking of that statement caused her ears to burn, but she held her anger in. How dare he ask that question to her when he was probably one of the ones who planned out what happened to her?

“I know that yesterday was a very… traumatic day for you. But I promise it was not supposed to go that way. Shannon was never supposed to hit you, but in the presence of an overwhelming amount of people who would do the same thing, it’s hard to step in and stop it.”

*Just leave.*

Eleanor didn’t want to hear his excuses. She was never going to need them. As soon as the Prince or her parents found her, she was going to have them all killed. They had the audacity to beat and imprison her? She was going to make sure that they regretted it dearly.

“I know that you’re hurt by what Rowan did. But I can assure you that he had no choice in the matter. He didn't want to do it. The look of hesitation was so evident on his face when he left to rescue you, but we had all come too far for us to stop. He never wanted to hurt you, believe it or not.”

Eleanor flinched at his words, another sob threatening to burst through her lips. She bit onto them for dear life and tried to tune out what he was saying. He didn’t need to make excuses for Rowan, they all knew that if he didn’t want to do something, then no one could make him.

“I’ve brought you something to eat. You’ll need this to help you feel better. There’s also some medicine on the tray. And don’t worry, this was all brought from Arune before we left.”

Donn seemed to wait for a few seconds before he sighed and walked out of the room. “I really hope you eat Eleanor. Don’t be stubborn just because you are upset.”

It took Eleanor a while before she found the courage to lift herself from the bed. She found the tray he was talking about on the little nightside table next to the bed. The cup of tea had gone cold but she still took the medicine with it and ate the pastries and the bowl of fruit that he had also prepared for her.

It looked like a meal that she would eat when she lived with Rowan and her heart ached as she tried to get through the meal without crying once more.

Eleanor took in her surroundings while she ate and cringed at the sight of the room that she was in. She really was living in the slums now. Couldn’t they have bought another house like Rowan’s to hold her hostage in? She would not have been happy, but she would be a lot less miserable.

Hours passed by before she felt like she had not been dropped off of a house. There was a window behind the bed and the sky was darkening behind it. She looked outside to see her surrounded by other wooden houses and people walking in and out of them as if they weren’t bothered by how horrendous they looked.

It was hard to be cramped up in a room that smelled like dust and old wood all day, but she did not want to leave her room only to get beaten up again. She wasn’t even sure if she could leave her room. She wasn’t even sure where she was. They could have smuggled her to another country for all she knew.

The thought had Eleanor’s stomach dropping and she let out a shaky breath when she finally got herself off of her bed.

Although Eleanor acted bratty when she didn’t get what she wanted, it did not mean that she liked to wallow in self-pity all the more than she liked the way she felt when someone told her no. She had been kidnapped by a guild of people who wanted to take over the country and were using her to make that happen.

If Eleanor was valuable to them, then they should at least treat her like it.

So Eleanor was not going to let them walk all over her and think that they actually defeated her. She was going to swallow down her feelings and act like nothing ever happened. Giving them the satisfaction of her defeat… Eleanor would rather die.

Developing feelings for a commoner was the lowest thing that had ever happened to Eleanor. It should be an honor to be on the receiving end of Eleanor’s feelings but it seemed like Rowan’s small commoner brain didn’t get that. But it was all good, because she was going to get rid of these feelings and continue on like that lapse in her common sense didn’t happen.

She was not going to succumb to the tricks of someone who didn’t even know what a bubble bath was before she met them. Because that would be below the Princess of the Universe.