"Your fiancée? B-But she was promised to me. I paid- Ow, ow, ow," Percival whimpered as Damien twisted his hand. The pain shot up to his shoulder.

Any further, and Percival was certain he would have to bandage his arm.

Percival didn’t like the glint in Damien’s eyes. He was almost certain that if the lady wasn’t present, his hand would have been broken.

"I don’t have time to see you two fight. I must go home," Eloise said, hoping Damien would focus solely on her. "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride there?"

Percival’s eyes widened after hearing that Eloise was going to leave with Damien. "I paid for you. We are to wed and have sons soon."

"Could I trust you to make it to where the carriages are safely without being courted by another man?" Damien asked, his grip on Percival’s hand yet to loosen. "I can take you, but I must take care of this first."

Eloise panicked, believing Damien was going to kill someone else. "He is annoying, but you mustn’t, you know."

"I will be with you shortly. I must make sure he doesn’t follow us," Damien explained.

Eloise looked at Percival.

Unfortunately for Percival, Eloise had more important matters to tend to.

"I will go there,’ Eloise replied, and stepped away from Damien. She wasted no time heading to where all the carriages were waiting.

Damien didn’t move until Eloise was out of sight.

"Lord Hawthorne, we must settle this like men. I have already paid to have her-"

"For your sons, right?" Damien finished for Percival. He peered down upon Percival thanks to their height difference. "She is not for sale."

"You do not understand. Her uncle has accepted an offer. It wasn’t that I bought her, but I made a generous offer for her hand. It has been set that she will come to me-"

Damien released Percival’s hand and instead grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. He pulled Percival forward, forcing him to stand on his toes. "She is not for sale," he said slowly for Percival to understand.

Percival nodded his head, fearing that Damien might kill him if he pushed further.

Percival, like everyone else, had heard the rumours that Damien was not a man to be troubled, but he had invested a lot of money in being the one to marry Eloise. He couldn’t let her go.

When would Percival get another chance to find a young woman able to provide him with heirs?

Clive was not offering Iris’s hand for marriage.

Percival thought he was freed from a fight with Damien when his shirt was released, but he was soon met by the cold muzzle of a gun pressing against the flesh between his eyes.

"L-Lord Hawthorne," Percival trembled as he raised his hands, showing defeat. "I won’t trouble her any longer. I will go to her uncle to settle his matter."

A single shot was heard, followed shortly by Percival’s body falling to the right.

Damien placed the gun back in his coat and turned to follow Eloise.

The ball was already a bore, so there was nothing to miss by leaving now.

Damien made it to the front of the mansion without being spotted by guests and found Eloise standing alone, waiting for him.

Damien grabbed Eloise’s hand as he walked by her and led her to his carriage.

Eloise looked back at where Damien came from. "Did you get him to leave us?"

"I did," Damien responded.

"Did you kill him-"

"I hate to interrupt you, but you shouldn’t ask that question out loud. Wait until we are away."

Damien’s response gave Eloise the answer.

Damien had killed someone again, and he didn’t have a good reason to. Once she married Damien, wouldn’t Percival have just left her alone?

Eloise followed Damien to his carriage, where three men greeted them.

Damien opened the door and held it open for Eloise. "Run now if you wish, but my offer to help you won’t come again. No harm will come to you. I can’t and won’t promise the same for others."

Eloise entered the carriage with slight hesitation. She knew well that if she turned away from Damien, she would be hopeless.

Before entering the carriage, Damien instructed his guards. "You don’t need to send the gifts to the Wilkins anymore."

"Gifts? What gifts? Oh!"

Damien gritted his teeth, annoyed by his guard. He entered the carriage before he shot his second victim.

Damien sat on the opposite side of Eloise so he could watch her. "Take us to Thomas Wilkins’ home."

Eloise peered out the window as the carriage began to move.

Only when they were away from the mansion did Eloise say, "You didn’t need to kill him."

"A man who appears so desperate and went as far as to pay your uncle to have you, won’t leave you alone. He would have been right back before you in the morning, along with your uncle. Getting rid of him now will save you a headache," said Damien.

"I fear there will be great consequences, especially if anyone saw you. I learned tonight that my father was killed. To know another man has died in so little time is too much to bear. It is too much for one night," Eloise said and rested her head on the carriage wall.

Eloise thought of her father. He was all she cared about as of late.

"He must have been quite afraid and confused when Clive killed him. I have been begging to see him, but it wasn’t allowed. Tonight was my one chance," Eloise mumbled.

Eloise thought she was close, but she was far too late. She should have run away sooner instead of asking for Clive’s permission to see her father.

Eloise knocked her head against the carriage as she was forced to accept that both her parents were now gone. Though she had other relatives, Eloise felt alone.

Eloise continued to hit her head against the carriage until the hard surface turned soft. It was only when she snapped out of her thoughts that she realised Damien had moved and placed his hand for her head to collide with.

"Don’t hurt yourself," Damien said.

"They are both gone now," Eloise whispered, her voice trembling. "When he first fell ill, I thought that if he ever passed, I should find comfort in knowing he would be reunited with my mother, but he is gone, and there is no one beside me. What am I to do without my father?"

Eloise’s tears spilt, and the more she tried to stop them, the more tears fell.

"Here," Damien said gently, offering Eloise his handkerchief. "I cannot fill the space you hold dearly in your heart for your father, but if you welcome me, I shall always be present for you. You are not alone since I am here and will never leave you, Eloise."

Damien placed his right hand to cover Eloise’s eyes. "Cry all you need. No need to harbour it inside. I will not disturb you."

Eloise found comfort in Damien’s words.

For a moment, Eloise forgot that Damien also knew the heartache that came with losing both parents.

Eloise didn’t move Damien’s hand as she cried her heart out, mourning the loss of her father.