Page 33 of Alone with the Beastly Duke
However, we regret to inform you that we cannot come back to London for you as our carriage has broken down. Even if we could rent another carriage, the weather has also been unfavorable, making it a foolhardy decision for us to come back to London.
We implore you to find a way to get used to being alone at home and to find a way to care for yourself. Your siblings send their deepest regrets and greetings. We hope to see you soon.
Your loving Mama, Lady Thornhill.
The more Jasmine read the letter, the more stunned she became. She had never felt so betrayed. She knew her parents did not exactly care about her as they did for her siblings. What she never imagined, however, was that they would refuse to come back for her after they had left her behind. Refusing to come back for her was even worse than leaving her behind. It was simply unforgivable.
She also knew that her excuse about their carriage breaking down was dishonest, especially since they had several carriages, and it was impossible for all the carriages to have suddenly developed faults simultaneously.
Jasmine felt her eyes brimming with tears, but she blinked them away. She furiously placed the letter on the table beside her and turned her attention to her food. She attacked the food but soon realized that even the food had lost its taste to her.
“Lady Jasmine,” Axel inquired gently.
Jasmine looked up at him.
“Are you all right?” he asked. She nodded, not trusting herself not to burst into tears if she tried to speak.
“You seem angry. You hold the cutlery as if you want to murder it,” he observed. Jasmine looked, and Axel was right. She was holding the fork so tightly that all the veins in her hand were pronounced.
She dropped the cutlery. “I am sorry,” she said, “I…” Jasmine choked back the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. She took several breaths to compose herself, and it was not until she felt better that she finally spoke.
“I am fine,” she said simply.
“You do not seem to be fine. May I ask what the matter is? Is it the letter you got from your parents?” he asked.
Jasmine nodded.
“What did they say?” he asked.
“They pretty much said that while they regretted leaving me behind, they could not come back for me,” she replied.
Axel gasped. He seemed just as shocked as her. “Why would they do that?” he inquired.
Jasmine shrugged. “To show me just as I have suspected that they simply do not care about me.”
“Did they tell you why they could not come back for you?” he asked.
She nodded. “They said that their carriage had broken down.”
“Nonsense!” Axel said angrily, “they could simply rent a carriage if that were true.”
“We have loads of carriages, so this is simply a silly attempt at an excuse,” she huffed.
“I cannot believe they would simply leave you behind despite knowing that it is not possible for you to survive all alone,” he said.
“Even if Mama and Papa did not care about me, what about my siblings? William could have taken a carriage and come for me. Rose could have insisted that they come back for me. I presume they are all relieved and happy that I will not be joining them,” Jasmine ranted.
“I have a carriage, and if you would like, I could take you to your family in the countryside. We could leave tomorrow morning,” Axel suggested.
Jasmine pondered the offer, and while it seemed too good to pass over, she knew she could not take it.
“I am sorry, Your Grace, but I cannot possibly ask that you take such a long journey for me,” she declined.
Axel shook his head. “You are not asking me to make the journey; I am offering out of my own volition. And frankly, I have taken longer journeys, so you do not have to feel guilty about bothering me,” he said.
“Moreover, if my family does not want me with them, I should respect their wishes and stay away. If my presence is so unpleasant to them that they would leave me to die in the huge and cold house, then I would not want to burden them with my presence,” she added.
This time, Axel did not make a retort, and it seemed to Jasmine that he also agreed with her.
