Page 90 of Taken By the Beastly Duke

Her heart ached, not from the physical discomfort, but from the profound betrayal she felt.

How could she have been so blind to Theodore’s madness?

To the twisted possessiveness that had now reared its ugly head?

How… how did she never see it?

"You may think you are saving me, Theodore," she said, her voice low and bitter, her gaze still fixed out the window, "but in reality, you are destroying any chance of friendship or respect I ever had for you. You cannot force me to love you, no matter what you do."

His face hardened at her words, though he tried to maintain his composed demeanor. "It is because I am your friend that I am doing this. Do you think that I would risk all this if I wasn't convinced it was the right thing to do?"

She gave him no reply wielding her silence as a weapon to him.

She had finally come to the understanding that there was no point trying to make him see reason.

As she watched the carriage hurtled further and further away from everything she knew, she knew she had to focus her energy on one thing and one thing only.

She had to figure out a way to get away.

She had to find a way to escape before Theodore actually carried her off to some foreign land, far from Anthony and far from any hope of rescue.

Theodore leaned forward, his hands clasped together as though he were praying for her understanding, his voice soft but insistent. "Victoria, please listen to me," he said, his eyes wide with a kind of wild desperation. "You cannot truly love Anthony. It’s… it is impossible. Remember how you must have felt when you first saw him. He is… he’s a beast, a brute. Everyone says so. And if you can't see it… then… then he must have done something to you… tricked you, cursed you, maybe lied to you. But it is not real. Men like him, they have ways… ways to blind women to the truth, to make them think they are in love, when really, they are trapped in some kind of wicked spell. I know this. You know he went to war right… he must have… picked up some things from there. Yes! That must be it."

Victoria couldn't help but turn and stare at him in disbelief, her mouth falling open in shock.

Curses?

Really?!

She could hardly comprehend the words coming from his mouth, each one more absurd than the last.

How could this be the same man she had called her friend for so long?

If anyone is cursed or under some mad spell then he is the one.

Not her.

"Do you hear yourself, Theodore?" she said slowly, her voice heavy with irritation and disbelief. "Do you… truly believe this nonsense? Do you think I have been bewitched… bewitched!... into loving my husband? Do you even hear the madness of what you’re saying? Do you understand how absurd that is?!"

Her words hung heavy in the air, but his expression didn’t even change. His eyes still held that mad light even as he reached out to touch her, but she recoiled, her face contorting with disgust.

"Don't touch me!" She snarled as she moved further back into the leather chairs.

"I can see the truth, Victoria. I know what’s happening. You cannot love him. No woman in her right mind could love a beast like Anthony. You know his first fiancé… a childhood friend actually broke up with him. Ended the betrothal when she saw him. And that was someone who knew him as a child. How does it then make sense for you to just accept him." he continued, his voice shaking slightly as if he were desperately trying to make her see some twisted logic. "He’s dangerous. He has blinded you to who he really is. But I… I see it clearly. I see what you cannot."

She shook her head, her rage rising with each word he spoke. "You… see what I cannot?" She let out a sharp, bitter laugh, her voice rising in pitch as her anger finally boiled over. "Oh, how manly of you. How can you presume to know me better than I know myself? Do you think me a fool? Us that how you see me? That I am so weak-minded, so easily manipulated that I could be bewitched into loving someone? You insult me, Theodore!"

"Victo-"

"And more than that, you insult Anthony. A man who has fight for this country. Bled for it. Lost for it. A noble, honorable man. He is not the beast you claim him to be. See, despite all of that anguish and pain he must have gone through, he is still kind and loving, and he treats me with more respect than you ever have… certainly more respect than you are showing me now. And I love him."

His face twisted, a mixture of anger and frustration crossing his features.

"Stop it. Stop saying that, Victoria, just stop it. You don't love him! You think you love him, but it’s because you’ve been deceived! Can't you see?! You’re too good for him. He’s not worthy of you, and he will ruin you. He is already ruining you!"

"Ruin me?" she repeated, her voice cold as ice. "Anthony has only ever sought to make me happy. He respects my independence, my choices. You, on the other hand, would seek to cage me, to tear me from my life, my marriage, because of your own selfish desires. Of anyone was going to ruin me it is certainly you. Kidnapping a married woman from her own home in the dead if the night, what is worse than that? I dare you tell me a worse scandal that can ruin a woman."

Theodore’s mouth opened in protest, but she cut him off with a sharp, bitter tone.

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