Chapter 17

Eleanor felt herself stop breathing and she was sure her face had paled excessively as the sight of Sir Daniel Hadleigh making merry continued to assault her. The wretched man who had always irked her and been a nuisance before she was married, continued to do so, even after.

What was he doing in India? Had he followed her here? Her mind was a whirlwind of emotions and she stumbled

Eleanor heard Nathan mumble profanities under his breath - things no gentleman would say in the presence of a lady - and she knew he recognised him too.

She looked up at him, knowing panic was setting abode on her face, and his face shown with grim understanding. He quickly moved away from the table with Daniel, tugging Eleanor along with him.

They pushed past people - men and harlots alike - and Eleanor felt her skin crawl at the ghastly way men looked at her. But one look at a furious and powerful-looking Nathan, who held her hand firmly in his grip, and they immediately looked away, trying to find another woman.

Nathan pushed a door on the side open and they stumbled into a small room - evidently not meant for the literal sense of sleeping - before he locked it behind him. If Eleanor had not known any better, she would think he meant to have his way with her. She had no doubt that that was what everyone else thought when they went into the secluded room.

Eleanor watched as Nathan paced in front of the locked door, cursing colourfully under his breath.

'Nathan,' she called shakily, halting him in his tracks. He looked at her and she saw panic - sheer, astute panic - washed across the features of his handsome face.

'Sir Hadleigh is here,' he said, nervousness seeping into his words.

Eleanor nodded grimly. 'I did not know he was in India. Did you?'

Nathan shook his head and dropped his gaze to his feet. 'No, but this changes plans.'

Eleanor felt her legs shaking and she moved back and settled on the bed. 'What will we do? We cannot confront the men now. He will recognise us instantly!'

Nathan nodded and seemed to be deep in thought for a while before his face cleared and he looked back up at her. Eleanor was surprised to find a small smile on his face as he held his hand up. 'Stay here, I will be back soon,' was all he said before he made his way out of the room.

She continued to sit on the bed, shocked at his sudden change in demeanour. Had he figured out a way to talk to the men, still? She contemplated a barrage of reasons for his leaving for a few minutes before Nathan came back into the room, a broad grin on his face.

Eleanor jumped to her feet and regarded him. 'Well? What happened? Are we going back to the house?'

Nathan shook his head. 'I managed to keep him busy,' he said and gestured to the door. 'We can go now.'

Eleanor slowly got up. 'What did you do?'

Nathan smirked before grabbing her by the waist causing sparks to erupt at his contact. 'All I will tell you is that he is much too occupied with a certain bosomed woman to come into contact with us.'

Eleanor didn't take even a second to come to understanding. A small smile graced her face and for once, she was glad that Daniel was the certified rake he was. She let Nathan lead her back into the chaos and towards the table where the men Nathan meant to question were and she relaxed greatly at the sight of the Daniel-less table.

Nathan stumbled into the chair Daniel had previously sat in with an impudent smile before dragging Eleanor onto his lap. She resisted the urge to gasp at the sudden pull and willed her features to school into a calm but sultry expression, trying not to let anyone know of her racing heart.

Calm down, Eleanor, she reminded herself. He does not feel anything for you. Not what you feel for him. He is doing this out of duty.

But, no matter how much she repeated that, she could not get rid of the butterflies which seemed to have made home in her stomach.

She was sitting on Nathan's lap with his arms wrapped around her waist, his hand dangerously close to her derrière. Her own arms were wrapped around his neck and she could not help but smell him. The other men had seemed to reek of ale and some other ghastly odour but Nathan smelled divine. The strong smell of pine and masculinity - one that she was now quite used to - assaulted her senses and she was left defenceless. Honestly, it was no wonder that she had fallen for him as hard and fast as she had.

''Ello there!' one of the men - a short portly man with a moth-eaten cap and dirty overalls - who had a harlot on him said in Nathan's direction a few moments after they sat down. ''Tis a fine lass you got there!' he chuckled and Eleanor fought the urge to gag. Knowing that would blow her cover, she, however, kept the sultry smile - she hoped it was sultry - on her face and looked at him coyly.

Nathan chuckled and squeezed her side, almost possessively. 'Aye, she is,' he said, his accent slipping easily into that of the people of the lower class, no hint of his refinement in his words or voice. 'I'll be a lucky man, to-night.'

'Mind lending me her, after you're done?' one of the other men said, eyeing her body greedily, his gaze overly lustful. Eleanor felt her skin crawl as his eyes raked over her. There was no doubt that all of them were drunk to the moons and the very thought of even touching any of them sickened her greatly.

'What about it, love?' the man asked, turning his eyes from her body to her face. ''Ow about giving me a tumble after you're done with 'im? May not be as 'andsome but I can sure show you a good time.'

Eleanor panicked. She couldn't answer him unless she spoke in Hindi and even if she could, she knew her answer would be a resounding no. Thankfully, Nathan jumped into the conversation.

'Sorry, men. She is mute. Besides,' he said as his hands started roaming over her body. Eleanor, trying not to drop the smile on her face, looked down at Nathan to find him looking back up at her. His smile was still squalid but his eyes shown with something else - something she dared not hope for. 'I mean to spend the entire night with her. Maybe you can have 'er tomorrow.'

The men grumbled but mad no other objection as they went back to drinking and feeling up the women on their laps. Eleanor honestly felt sorry for the harlots. They smiled coyly and giggled like girls right out of the schoolroom but she could tell by the look in their eyes that they'd rather be anyone but on the laps of those men.

'So,' Nathan began again, raising a mug laid out for him on the table to his lips, 'what're we talkin' 'bout?' Eleanor internally raised her brows at Nathan's statement. He had been far too blunt in asking it and she feared that they might know what he was up to.

One of the men laughed and leaned in close, so close that Eleanor could smell the stench that rolled off him in waves. She was sure the man hadn't washed for weeks for even Nathan's delicious scent could not cover up the wretched stench.

'We 'it a pot of gold!' he said, cackling, not caring that he was spilling his secrets to a stranger. And then it hit her. Of course, the men were drunk and Nathan played that to his advantage. He could ask them outright what he wanted to know - although Eleanor wasn't sure what it was - and the men would give it to him on a silver platter!

However, they weren't all drunk for the next moment, the third man at the table - the one who hadn't made any comment about her yet - interrupted by shushing him. 'Now, don't go spilling our secrets!' he said, slapping the man on the shoulder. 'The pot of gold is ours and I'd rather not share.'

But, of course, he was incredibly tipsy - if not fully drunk - if he could say that it was a secret but till agree to the fact that there was, in fact, a pot of gold.

Eleanor saw Nathan smile smugly - he must have realised they were putty in his hand in this state - before he leaned in. 'A pot of gold?' he chuckled. 'Ain't that a fairy-tale for children?'

The men chuckled as they went on to spill, ''Tis a fairy-tale come true then! Why else would we be so gaily celebratin'?'

'What is this treasure, then?' he asked as he leaned back, his hands playing over Eleanor's skin. Goosebumps erupted all over the skin his hands came in contact with and she shivered, knowing that it wasn't the cold that enveloped her due to her little clothing that was the cause.

This time, the man leaned in and whispered, for what, Eleanor knew not.

Men are thick-headed idiots, she decided.

'We work for the Viceroy,' he said, shifting the harlot on his lap. 'Work as servants only but then, us, servants, know the most, don't we?' he asked with a sly smile, nudging Nathan with his elbow. Of course, the man thought Nathan was a servant. In their shabby clothes, no one would think he was the Duke of Wolverhampton or she, the Duchess. And although Eleanor was sorely tempted to correct the man's grammar at his use of the word "us", she held her tongue and listened to him go on about how the rich folk were clueless as to the servants' knowledge of their personal lives and secrets and how much of a "bloody advantage" it was to them.

Eleanor made a mental note to be wary around her servants going forth.

'Of course, the Viceroy's a dolt! He 'inks we're all stupid and spills 'is secrets in front of us!' the man continued, laughing.

Eleanor felt Nathan tense under her and looked to see that his eyebrows had been raised for a fraction of a second before he regained his nonchalant composure.

'The Viceroy?' he questioned calmly, gulping down ale. 'Thought 'e was in Calcutta at his office.'

This time, it was Eleanor's turn to tense. From her father's story, she knew that she had been adopted there.

The men grinned darkly. 'Aye, that's what everyone thinks but 'e's 'ere on urgent business. 'As been for the last week!'

'Why?' Nathan asked, still lounging back in his chair calmly. One would think he questioned them purely out of curiosity but only Eleanor knew he was as tense as a struck chord, if the tightening of his hand on her waist was any indication.

'Somethin' 'bout a revolt!' the man opposite them said, droplets of ale flying out of his mouth as he spoke. Eleanor tried not to cringe in disgust as some of the vile spittle fell on the table, right in front of her. 'He means to attack the locals and have them at his feet before they be attacking them!'

'Aye,' the other men agreed, 'and another man, don't know who the fig it is, has paid us a pretty sum for that information!'

Nathan leaned in and asked quietly, forgetting his commoner accent for a minute as genuine curiosity overtook his features. 'And how does the Viceroy plan to go about his plan? Who paid you for your information?'

The men all looked around startled for a bit and Eleanor sucked in a breath. Had Nathan's momentary lapse in character blown their cover?

The sudden crash behind them, however, saved them from being caught and everyone turned in the direction of the noise.

Eleanor watched in horror as a fuming blonde-haired English woman, her already barely-covering dress falling of her shoulders and revealing her bare, creamy breasts, stormed out of a room and shouted to an older woman, 'The man refuses to pay, mum!'

Everyone watched with wide interest as a greatly dishevelled Daniel - his coat and cravat undone - stumbled out of the room, drunk as a lord, and wagged a finger at her. 'I refuse to pay for such measly service!'

The prostitute gasped and glared at him. 'Measly? You didn't think it was measly when I 'ad you screaming on top o' me!'

Daniel stumbled but regained his footing by clutching on the door jamb for support. 'I screamed because I was greatly unsatisfied. It was a shout of rage!'

The woman seemed to grow in size as she walked up to Daniel and landed a swift blow to the area between his legs. Eleanor sat transfixed as Daniel let out a cry of anguish as he slumped to the ground, clutching his groin and cried mightily. The prostitute harrumphed and stormed away, avoiding the hands that reached out for her from all around.

The older woman, undoubtedly the brothel madam, yelled at a couple of men who promptly came over and picked up a squirming Daniel.

'Get 'im out o' here!' the woman shouted at the men. 'Make sure 'e ne'er enters again!'

The men started to walk to the door, dragging Daniel between them as he screamed profanities in rage. However, the way to the door meant that they had to pass the table Eleanor and Nathan were at and she realised in horror that Daniel would see them and, drunk or not, recognise she and Nathan.

She could only stare in terror as Daniel's eyes moved around the room, seeming to try and find someone to support his cause, and they slowly moved in her direction.

The next instant, before she could even fully see his eyes come to rest upon her, Nathan's face covered her vision. She barely had time to absorb what was happening before he leaned in and warm lips covered her own as Nathan kissed her.

Eleanor froze in shock as the reality of what was happening sunk in. She was sitting on Nathan's lap. And he was kissing her. In front of a room full of people.

Nathan is kissing me!

She took a moment for the information to root within herself before she finally let herself do what she had wanted to for a long time coming.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

Their lips crashed and buckled as they moved over each other in a hot frenzy. His hands dug sharply into her sides and she moaned at the sweet, pleasurable pain it elicited. Her head tilted to the side as Nathan's tongue probed at her closed lips and she willingly opened them for him, not giving a damn about the fact that they were behaving so vulgarly, so openly.

Dear God, this is magnificent! she thought before she chastised herself for invoking the Lord's name in vain. Especially when doing something so sinful, had she not been married to the man.

Their tongues clashed in fury and passion and Nathan didn't hold back as his hips pushed against hers and she pressed her body closer to him. She moaned and gasped as Nathan bit her bottom lip and the acid taste of her blood filled her mouth before he moved onto sucking her neck. She could only hold onto him for dear life as he bit and suckled and teased the skin under his expert mouth.

Then, just as suddenly as he had kissed her, he pulled back and left Eleanor feeling a cold sense of loss.

Her breathing was heavy as she clutched the collar of his shirt and looked at him. Nathan looked back at her, breathing as heavily as her. His lips were swollen and red and his hair was a dishevelled mess, although how, Eleanor couldn't fathom as she didn't recall feeling the smoothness of his hair in her hands. But what made her breathing stop short was the dark, lustful look in his eyes.

'He's gone,' he whispered all too suddenly into her ear.

'What?' Eleanor asked, her voice a light, breathy sound.

'Daniel, he's gone,' he repeated. 'We don't have to kiss anymore.'

Eleanor's heart stopped. He had kissed her because of Daniel?

'I don't understand,' she murmured into his shoulder, still reeling from both the shock of Nathan kissing her and the fact that he had done so only because of Daniel.

'Daniel was about to see you,' he whispered back. 'I couldn't let that happen. The kiss was a distraction.'

Eleanor clutched his collar tightly as his words sunk in and she raised her head to meet his gaze. He still had the lust-filled look in his eyes and she couldn't believe he had done so only to distract Daniel.

Her heart hardened suddenly and she made up her mind. Without a single word, she got off his lap and walked to the door, ignoring all the people around her in the room and leaving her husband behind her without a single backwards glance.