Page 4 of Alone with the Beastly Duke
“It is the Thornhills, Your Grace,” his butler replied. “They are an eccentric lot and—”
“Indeed, I can tell.”
“Your Grace, if you so wish, I can ask them to respect their neighbors and not cause a racket,” his butler continued.
Axel thought about it for a moment. He did not know these people personally as he avoided all kinds of relationships with members of the Ton and their silly social events. All he knew was that they had several children who screamed like demons every once in a while.
“Do not bother. They will never stop, and I cannot live in such chaos anyway,” Axel shrugged, “I shall be better off living in the countryside.”
“As you wish, Your Grace.”
The Duke entered his quiet and cold house and was immediately filled with envy and sadness: envy at what his loud neighbors had and sadness at what his life used to be. There used to be a time when Axel’s house was filled with such merry noise and a warmth that made him long for home even when he was far away. Nowadays, however, his house was just like his heart, cold and empty.
Axel shook himself out of his reverie, but this proved abortive when he accidentally knocked over a vase.
“Bloody hell,” he swore under his breath as he bent to straighten the vase that had, fortunately, remained intact.
It was then that he remembered how it had come to be in his house.
His dead wife had commissioned an artisan to decorate the house, and she had personally picked out the vase because she loved it so. He could not help but remember her yet again: her lovely hair, beautiful smile, and the regretful and unfortunate event that led to her death.
The Duke sighed and steadied himself as his heart beat faster.
I cannot bear to be in this house a moment longer!
“Maxwell, tell the coachman to get the carriage ready,” he told the butler, and soon enough, he was in the carriage.
“Where to, Your Grace?” his coachman asked.
“Take me to Bond Street,” he responded.
Bond Street was a bubbly and commercial part of town, and Axel knew he would have no time to think about his dead wife and his guilt in the shops’ noise.
Axel had scarcely spent a moment at Bond Street when he began to regret his decision.
“How dare he…?”
“…Nordic Beast.”
“Is it true? The story about the late Duchess…”
Everywhere he went, his presence was followed by judging gazes and hostile whispers. Mothers took their toddlers away when he walked past as though he were a beast who would pounce upon the children and devour them, and men steered out of his path as though he were a leper. While he was used to this reaction, it always bothered him.
While Axel was unperturbed, he could not hide the fact that he did not like the negative reaction. He was relieved when he came upon a bookstore and quickly slipped in to avoid the judging eyes of the members of the Ton.
ChapterTwo
Clang! Clang!
The jarring sound of the bell reminded Jasmine that she had been browsing in the bookstore for far too long. Her fears were further confirmed when she glanced over the window to the modiste’s and saw neither her mother nor her siblings in there.
“Mama must be worried sick about me,” she realized before her eyes caught a book on the other end of the bookstore.
She gasped.
“That book! I had been looking everywhere for it; I must buy it at once,” she said to herself. In her excitement to pick up the new book, she dropped the other novel in her hand on a stool. She moved over to the last bookshelf to pick up the new book, having now forgotten all about her mother and siblings again.
Jasmine was disappointed when she returned to the book she had earlier placed on the stool, only to find it gone. It claimed to be a very passionate story about a lady who fell in love with a deformed man. She had turned around in confusion, looking for her book, when she slammed into what seemed like a giant.
