Chapter 47 - Commoner House

It was late that night when Eleanor heard Rowan's voice. She had tested the waters and found out that she could leave her room. The door was unlocked and there was no one around. There was an empty hallway right outside her door and a set of stairs to her left that disappeared around a bend. The entire house was wooden and the floorboards squeaked under her weight. There was no way she could sneak out of this house without anyone finding out.

The stairs led into the main area of the house and it had several doors leading to different areas. There were several people walking about the house and Eleanor noticed that they were all... older.

At the sight of them, she began to fix her hair and smooth down her night dress. She definitely needed to shower and change, just not here. In this commoner house.

A dark-skinned woman stopped what she was doing and looked at Eleanor. She had a high nose and long hair that was in a single braid down her back. She barely reacted when she saw Eleanor. "You're awake. For how long?"

Eleanor cleared her throat. "Hours."

She took in Eleanor's appearance and something shifted in her gaze for a moment, but it was long enough for Eleanor to pick it up. Pity. Which was funny coming from the people who kidnapped her.

"You should clean yourself up."

Eleanor's eyes narrowed. "With what?"

"I'm sure Calihan brought things for you to use. Find him and ask."

"Calihan?"

"Donn, the old guy, the unofficial official leader around here..." She said that as if she actually expected Eleanor to have known what his last name was.

"And where would I find Calihan?"

"Right here." a new voice joined in their conversation.

Eleanor turned to find Donn walking through one of the doorways in the main area. He looked unnervingly chipper and it made Eleanor's brow twitch.

"She needs to wash up, you should get her what she needs." The woman said before she walked away.

Donn's eyes followed her, even after she was long gone, Eleanor could see the lingering feelings of longing on his face and resisted the urge to scoff.

"That was Diane, she's a little... wound up, right now," Donn walked up to her, and Eleanor did not move from her position on the stairs.

"Do you have things for me? As much as I hate the idea of participating in any activity that would need me to take off my clothes here. I can't stay in this dress." Eleanor told him in a flat voice.

Donn nodded, unaffected by her attitude, "I brought some things from Arune because I knew that they would be easier for you to use than anything that we could give you. I don't know if I brought the right things, but it's a start so..."

He led her to an area in the house where there was a surplus of trunks of all sizes. Donn looked around for a few seconds before his eyes landed on a trunk that clearly belonged to a noble. It was porcelain and had metal claspings and pearls on it. Of course, it was Eleanor's.

She was not the least bit pleased with a commoner touching her things but she was just glad that they were here. And when she looked through it, she found that he had put some daily and night clothes in the trunk as well as some of her toiletries (the most *basic* ones for her survival), and one pair of white low heels. It was barely anything, but Eleanor would have to make due. She hoped all the love she put into her skin would last her some time because she did not see any moisturizing lotions in the trunk.

"Is this enough for you?" Donn asked from behind her.

Eleanor sighed. "I should be able to survive."

After, he helped her take the trunk back up to the room that she was staying in, and then directed her to the bathroom that was connected to it.

"This is the only room in the house with its own bathroom, I figured that it's the least I could do now that you're in this situation."

"Yeah..." Eleanor didn't know how to respond to that.

Donn left soon after and she found herself in the bathroom trying to clean up. There was a little area in the bathroom to heat up water and it took her far longer than she would have liked to figure out how to light the fire. But once she did, she was able to finally scrub off all the frustrations that had built up over the last day.

She reveled in the warmth of the water even if the tub in there barely fit her stretched-out legs. But at least it was clean.

Once Eleanor had finally finished bathing. She changed and towel-dried her hair to the best of her ability. Since she had nothing to put in it, it was going to dry wavy, and poofy. She would have put it in a braid... but she didn't know how.

She put on the shoes she was given and exited her room once again. She wanted to know where she was and she wanted to know how exactly things would work around here.

Once again, she was downstairs with the elders of the guild who barely batted an eyelash at her. It seemed like they were not as spiteful and bitter as the younger ones. One of them had asked her if she was looking for something, and soon that had resulted in them offering to give her a tour of the area. As if Eleanor was not their prisoner.

The older man was round and had a jolly laugh, he looked like he would smile at any situation that came his way. His name was Olly, and he had three daughters that he loved with all his heart and four grandbabies whom he would die for. Eleanor tried to be indifferent, but how could she when he was probably the happiest person she had ever met? He made Eleanor feel lighter and she didn't like it.

He had answered all of her questions. She was in Inas, at the bottom of the country, and most of the guild had gone to take over the castle as after seizing some of the most important places in Haespia a couple of days ago.

The castle. The Prince. His awful parents. Eleanor would so have been on board with this plan if it didn't involve her.

"It's nearing seven, so they should be serving dinner soon. You should join us. I know that you probably hate our guts and don't want anything to do with us, but with everything that's happened, it was kind of hard to sit still and let the country continue to flush itself down the toilet."

Eleanor opened her mouth and spoke before she could stop herself. "I would have happily gone along with your plan. I know how bad this country is and how horrible the class system is here. But beating me to unconsciousness and tying me up has me regretting I ever had those thoughts."

Olly didn't say anything after that and they left their walk close to the coastline and went back to the house. And when dinner was served, she sat quietly in the corner of the room they turned into a mini dining hall and ate. She felt at peace among these old people and Eleanor was glad she was where they were.

Eleanor took her time eating the surprisingly good porridge they served when she heard a name that sent her body into overdrive.

"Rowan! You're back, how did everything go!" Donn called from across the room.

"Everything went fine. We were able to capture all of the nobles and royals. Most of the guild stayed back at the castle to make sure that everything remained well." Rowan spoke. His deep velvety voice brought Eleanor back to the moment when he left her. Bringing back the embarrassment at her feelings toward him and the shame she felt when her body still reacted to him.

Eleanor kept her head down, continuing to slowly feed herself the porridge.

"Perfect! Excellent! We should be able to move onto the next phase of the plan now!" She heard Donn move across the room before he spoke again. "We'll all discuss this tomorrow when we meet at the castle. We should not talk about some things here," he spoke in a lower voice.

Eleanor could guess that they were talking about her when she felt their gazes on her. The back of her neck burned at the thought of Rowan looking at her.

She heard the sharp intake of breath the gladiator let out before murmuring something to Donn, and then he responded in a low voice before they two walked away.

Eleanor waited a few seconds before she raised her head again, but was greeted with the sight of everyone in the room looking at her.

It seemed everyone knew her shame.