Page 73 of Ravished By the Beastly Duke

“Tell me your father did not flog you simply because you could not welcome his guest when you were sick,” Eveline whispered.

The tears that she had tried to blink away earlier were now pooling in her eyes again, threatening to fall in torrents.

“I ran out of the house, as my frail, sick body could no longer take the flogging. It was all fine until it began to rain. I tried to enter the house, but he had instructed all the servants not to let me in. Therefore, I had no choice but to sleep outside, in the pouring rain as a sick, scrawny child.”

Eveline sniffed as her tears finally began to fall.

“How… how…” Her voice shook as she cried for him.

She quickly wiped her tears away and swallowed the rest of her words. William had suffered unimaginable pain, and she did not want him to know that she was crying.

She needed to hear it all.

“When I became a teenager and began to rebel, he would often threaten to send me to the military,” he continued. “Of course, I never quite believed him. After all, everyone knew the terrible things that happened in the military.”

Eveline had heard of the horrors of the Army even long before she met William.

The suffering, torture, hunger, and even death that young men experienced in the military was an open secret in the ton, and it was not quite uncommon for fathers to threaten their teenage boys with it.

In fact, her own father would often tell Stella that he would have shipped her to the military if she were a boy.

However, Eveline knew he would never do that even if Stella was indeed a boy.

And yet the former Duke of Mayfield did it to his teenage son without a care.

“As cruel as my father was, I never quite believed he would do that. After all, most men would often enlist in the military whenthey were at least nineteen. Therefore, I was surprised when, one night, my father woke me up and ordered me to follow him somewhere. No sooner had I stepped out of the house than I was snatched up by two grown men. The last thing I saw before I was blindfolded was my father with a satisfied grin on his face.”

“You were abducted?” Eveline was shocked. “How could anyone be so cruel?”

Her rage flared again. She knew it was futile, and yet she could not help being angry with his father.

The man was a monster.

“But you were only a boy,” she murmured. “Did the law even support that?”

At least Eveline knew that the military did not take little children. How, then, was the late Duke able to get him enlisted?

William shrugged. “It was a different time back then. You could get the military to do anything if you were willing to pay the right amount.”

Still, Eveline could not believe such cruelty. From his fatherandthe military officers who had agreed to abduct him.

“All my father had to do was pay off some officers, and they were happy to ship me off to the military even though I had only just become a teenager.”

“I cannot possibly imagine how harsh the Army must have been on your young body,” Eveline sympathized.

“You might not believe this, but the rigor of the Army was a welcome relief from my father’s cruelty.” William chuckled.

“How so?”

“In the military, it was simply our captains giving strict instructions and training us under harsh conditions. Everyone received the same treatment regardless of rank. Therefore, whatever hardship I faced was simply part of the training, and hundreds of other recruits were suffering the same. However, at home, my father tortured me simply because of my existence.”

Eveline nodded. “And I suppose it was easier to bear knowing that your captains were simply doing their job as opposed to your father, who seemed to relish torturing you.”

“You are right. And not to mention, I finally had people I could call friends,” William smiled.

For the first time since he began recounting his past, Eveline caught a hint of happiness in his voice.

“Finally, I had people who looked out for me, people who looked after me. At the time, I suppose I even considered them my brothers.”

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