Page 67 of Alone with the Beastly Duke
Jasmine’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “And you somehow know about this because you have lived in the same house as him?” Jasmine asked.
“Jasmine, why are you being so difficult?” Daphne said, “We all know the rumors about him in the Ton.”
“That is the problem with all of you and, in fact, the Ton!” Jasmine growled. “Some random person cooks up a rumor, and the rest of you take the rumor, hook, line, and sinker.”
“But there has to be an element of truth in the rumor, right?” Cassian said.
“Indeed,” William responded, “and when the Duke was given an opportunity to exonerate himself today, he did nothing of the kind.”
“The Nordic Beast all but admitted to committing the crime,” Daphne concurred.
Jasmine breathed hard as she regarded her siblings. She had never been so vexed by them as she did at that moment.
“All of you are simply annoying brats,” she exploded.
“Jasmine, I will not have you talk to me in that manner,” William said angrily. Jasmine, however, was past caring.
“I will speak to you in whatever manner I deem fit,” Jasmine replied. “You stand here talking about a man whose life you know nothing about. You claim he committed a crime you have no evidence for. Do you think the constabulary would not have punished him if he had killed his wife?”
Jasmine looked around at all of them, daring any one of them to argue with her.
“He could have easily bribed the constabulary. After all, he is wealthy,” Daphne argued stubbornly.
“None of you knows anything about this man and his life, yet you would happily repeat a rumor cooked up by some drunk gossip,” she continued. “Have you ever seen him be violent to anyone before?” she asked, looking at them one after the other.
“You are simply being naive, Jasmine,” William said. “We do not have to see him being violent in order to know that it is indeed what he is capable of.
“The naive one here is you, all of you,” Jasmine said. “You would believe some stupid rumor without knowing if it is indeed true or not. Tell me, if it was true that the Duke was violent, would he not have thrown a violent rage today after father and mother’s guests insulted him?”
“I suppose Jasmine is right,” Cassian accepted. “He seemed angry indeed, but he never did anything untoward. In fact, all he did was smile.”
“Nonsense, Cassian,” Daphne said. “Jasmine is only trusting of him because she spent a few days in his house, and you, you only trust him because he is tall, and you wish to be like him.”
Jasmine gave a bitter laugh. “I am trusting of him because when all of you forgot me at the market, I stole his money to get home. And when I ran to his house after the intruder came, he did not throw me out just because I had earlier stolen from him. Instead, he provided me with shelter and food.”
“Why do you even feel the need to defend him?” William asked stubbornly. “The fact that you have spent a few days in his house does not mean that you now know everything about him. He could be a dangerous man, and you would never know. After all, his staff would have been there to save you.”
“The Duke helped her when we had all deserted her, and for this reason alone, she can defend him,” Rose said.
“Whose side are you on?” Daphne asked angrily.
“I am inclined to be on Jasmine’s side because all the accusations and rumors against the Duke have been baseless ones with no evidence,” Rose replied.
Daphne scoffed. “Would you only believe if you saw him kill someone in your presence?”
“I know what I have to do,” Jasmine said upon realizing that her siblings were set in their ways, and they would never believe that Axel was, in fact, innocent.
“What?” Cassian asked.
“I have to go and apologize to the Duke for all that my family has said and done to him despite him being nothing but kind to me,” Jasmine said, and for the second time that night, she rushed out of the house and headed for the Hexington estate.
“Jasmine, come back this minute!” William snarled. “You cannot possibly go out without a chaperone.”
Jasmine, however, did not pay his words any heed. All she could think about was going to Axel and apologizing for her family’s behavior.
“Jasmine, I will tell father about this unruly behavior of yours!” William continued to shout.
Jasmine only trudged on, heading out of her father’s estate and starting the short journey to the Hexington’s residence. Seeing how her siblings talked about Axel with such vileness, Jasmine finally understood why he desperately wanted to leave London.
