Page 41 of Alone with the Beastly Duke
“I said I am sorry. I should not have taken it, and I regret even entering the room,” she said. “I will never enter the room ever again.”
“Damn well, you will not,” he huffed. “How could you be so intrusive?”
The more Axel spoke, however, the more annoyed Jasmine became.
“I have apologized for entering the room and taking the vase from the room. What else would you have me do?” she asked, her temper beginning to rise.
“Do you really think a miserly apology would change what has happened? Do you think a simple sorry would fix what you have just done?” he asked.
“I know it will not fix it, but what else would you have me do?” she asked.
Axel ran a hand through his hair in obvious frustration.
“Nothing. Just do not go poking your nose into places you should not be. I should not have to tell you that, should I?” he snapped.
“And I promise you that besides walking to my room and the dining room, you will never see me anywhere else in your house,” she vowed, fighting back the tears that were brimming in her eyes.
“I would really appreciate that,” he replied. “I understand that you can go anywhere you fancy in your parent’s house, but this is not Thornhill’s residence. You cannot just walk into any room and take whatever you fancy,” he continued.
“Maybe you should learn to start locking the doors of the rooms that you do not allow people to enter,” she suggested. “That is what a rational person would do instead of getting mad at anyone who entered an open room.”
Axel’s eyes narrowed, and Jasmine could tell he was incredibly angry. Jasmine, however, was past caring.
“That was what my parents did. They understood that people would be curious, so they locked rooms that they did not want anyone walking into,” she continued, “instead of doing that, you would rather just rant and blame the poor person that walked into the room. Anyway, here is the vase,” she said, holding out the vase for him.
Axel shrank back, and Jasmine was surprised.
“Kindly return the vase to where you picked it up from,” he said scathingly.
At this point, all Jasmine wanted to show Axel that she could be just as spiteful, so she replied.
“Wait! You are vexed at me for going into the room, but now, you want me to go back to the room to return the vase so that you may be vexed even more,” she snapped. Axel huffed. “As you can tell, your instructions do not make any sense,” she said.
“Just return the flower vase, goddammit!” he commanded.
“I will simply place the vase right on that table in the hallway. If you truly care, you will find a way for the vase to get back into the room,” she replied as she slowly walked toward the table.
“Why can you not just return the vase to the room!” he asked, in a voice that seemed more like pleading than an angry statement.
“Because you already made a point of telling me that I was not allowed in any other room in this house,” she explained as she made to set the vase on the table.
At the last minute, the vase slid from Jasmine’s hand, hit the table, and began to slip off the table too. Terrified and out of her mind, Jasmine lunged after it and caught it just in time before it hit the floor and shattered. With her heart pounding in fear, Jasmine held the vase to her heart, breathing heavily.
“Oh, my!” he gasped.
Without giving him a second thought, Jasmine placed the vase on the table and walked out, still vexed at how he had spoken to her.
* * *
Axel ran a hand through his hair in frustration as the horse galloped. His unresolved emotions had gotten the better of him; now, he might have lost the only person who brought a ray of sunshine into his life.
He urged his horse forward with his legs, and it broke into a run. One of Axel’s many hobbies was riding his horse, but this was the first time he had done so since it happened. He winced as he remembered how he had raced into the night the day his wife had died. He had been so terrified at the idea of her leaving him that he damned all consequences. All he could think of was getting his wife back.
His parents had died not long before, and the idea of his wife also leaving him made him lose all rational thoughts. Getting her back consumed his thoughts, and it was not until he saw what had happened, what he had caused, that he finally saw himself for the beast that the Ton called him.
Only a beast would kill his wife whom he loved so.
The evening wind rustled Axel’s hair, and he closed his eyes to take it all in. He had missed this— the ecstatic feeling that came with riding his horse. He remembered the other thing that made him feel ecstatic and on top of the world— being around Jasmine.
