Page 56 of Alone with the Beastly Duke
Jasmine had a sinking feeling in her heart that Axel was not that unhappy about them parting ways. As much as she was afraid to admit it to herself, she could not help but have a nagging feeling in her heart that Axel did not care about her as much as she did for him.
Knowing that she would still see him at her house for dinner, Jasmine held on to a hope in her heart that she simply misunderstood his demeanor or that he had been too flustered by her parents’ presence to even spare her a glance.
“What was he like?” Cassian asked.
She shrugged. “He was normal,” Jasmine lied.
Of course, the last thing that Axel was was normal. He was an exceptional man who had given her pleasure that she had never thought possible.
“And unlike what you told me, he does not eat children for breakfast,” she added.
“That is a shame then,” William said. “I would have been simply elated to have him take Cassian off our hands.”
“Why? Cassian did not behave dreadfully during the trip, did he?” Jasmine asked.
Rose sniggered. “If you do not consider him trying to convince us that the trees and shadows were vampires who wanted to suck our blood, then he was not so dreadful.”
Jasmine turned on Cassian. “Do I even have to ask why you did that?”
“What made it so fun was that the carriage driver was scared out of his wits. He really believed that vampires were following us,” Cassian smirked.
“You are simply irredeemable,” Jasmine said, shaking her head.
As much as she had never imagined she would, she realized just how much she had missed her family, especially her siblings. She had missed their loud bantering, the twins’ pranks, William’s insufferableness, and Rose’s wise inputs.
“I missed you all,” Jasmine blurted out.
“We missed you too,” Daphne said. “Mother and father were dreadfully scared when we found out that you were not in one of the carriages. Cassian had sworn that he saw you get into one before we left so we ended up asking around, worrying that you had fallen off.”
“You cannot simply imagine the relief we had when the Nordic Beast sent us a letter saying that you were staying at his house,” William added.
“We heard that there was an intruder,” Rose said.
“Yes, and I was absolutely terrified. I ran as fast as I could to His Grace’s estate. When we came back here, however, there was no sign of the intruder ever being here,” she replied.
“You must have been terrified,” William said, “being a lady all alone in this huge house and then having an intruder try to come in.”
“This has nothing to do with her being a lady,” Rose replied.
Jasmine groaned.Here we go again.
“It does,” William retorted. “IfIwere the one in the house when the intruder came in, I would not be terrified. I am a man, and I can protect myself and my property.”
“You would be terrified if you were the only one in the house when the intruder came too,” Rose argued. Jasmine had to agree with Rose.
“Rose is right,” she said.
“Nonsense!” William flared up before turning to Cassian. “Cassian, if you had been the one in the house when the intruder came, would you be terrified?”
“Of course, I would be terrified,” Cassian said. “But he would have been more terrified than me.”
“Nonsense!” William muttered before walking away.
“Jasmine,” Cassian called, “did you get my letter?” he asked, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
“What letter?” she asked.
It took a moment for her to realize what her brother was talking about. Jasmine gasped.
