Page 72 of Alone with the Beastly Duke
Moments later, he got to the outskirts of the town. As expected, he saw another carriage. Axel walked out of his carriage and headed toward the other carriage. When he was just several feet away, Dorothy stepped out of the carriage. Axel nearly gasped when he saw her as she looked nothing like the vibrant lady he had known. She had dark circles around her eyes, and her face was pale. For a moment, Axel forgot all about his troubles.
“Dorothy!” he called, “You look...”
“Awful?” she asked, laughing a little hysterically. “Do not fret, Axel. I have simply been spending more time indoors, thinking about my actions.”
Axel nodded. “Dorothy, where is...”
Dorothy held a hand up to silence Axel. “Iwill do the talking.”
A look at Dorothy’s face told Axel not to argue with her.
“I have decided to let go,” she said.
“Let go?” he asked, “I do not understand.”
“I have decided to let go of you,” she replied. Axel was shocked as this was not what he had expected Dorothy to say.
“At first, I planned to hurt you as much as I could. I wanted to ruin you and your little lover. However, I soon realized that I was a tad selfish. I had my chance at being married, and sadly, it was with an unfortunate man who did not care about me or my feelings.”
“You showed me what it felt like to be understood and cared for, and I appreciate you. You deserve to find love of your own, and I hope she will be a better lover to you than my husband was to me. And just like you have reminded me, if I made good my threat, I would also be losing more than I bargained for. For one, my husband would probably throw me out, and while I despise him with all that is within me, being ridiculed in society is worse than staying married to that awful man.”
For once, Axel was lost for words. Instead of being happy, he realized that now he was no closer to finding Jasmine. Instead, he had spent precious time journeying to the outskirts of town just for nothing.
“I suppose I have to thank you for being reasonable,” Axel said, “however, I also have to ask you if you, by any chance, had ordered for my…for Jasmine to get kidnapped.”
“Kidnapped?” Dorothy looked genuinely surprised, and Axel immediately knew that she really knew nothing about it.
“I would never do anything so awful,” Dorothy exclaimed. “The only reason I sent that letter to you was that I was angry and drunk and bitter. I wanted to see your face for one last time, and I knew the only way to see you was to threaten you. I would never kidnap her.”
Axel nodded as he turned to walk away. He was now back to having no clue about who Jasmine’s kidnapper may be. Unless it was truly that Lime man.
“Axel!” Dorothy called. Axel turned back. “What details do you know about the kidnapping?” she asked. “I may be able to help you. As ashamed as I am to admit it, I happen to be in contact with many unscrupulous elements.”
Did I even know Dorothy at all?
“Do you know a gaming hell owner called Lime?” Axel asked Dorothy.
“I do,” Dorothy said. “He can be quite mean, especially when he is owed money.”
“Jasmine’s brother owes Lime a lot of money,” Axel confided.
Dorothy nodded. “You can be sure that Lime was the one that ordered her kidnapped. Lime uses two petty criminals for his dirty business. They are Toby and Pip, a rather clowny pair of twins. They have an abandoned ship at the shore where they conduct their dirty business,” Dorothy explained.
“Do you know what the name of their ship is?” Axel asked.
Dorothy narrowed her eyes in concentration as though she was trying to remember something.
“I believe their ship is called ‘The Sea Witch,’” Dorothy said.
“I appreciate your help, Dorothy,” Axel thanked her before turning on his heels and running the rest of the way to his carriage.
“Take me to the shore,” he said to his coachman, “and I need you to race as fast as you can.”
ChapterTwenty-Four
Jasmine had been in the dark and smelly room for so long that she could no longer keep track of time. Even though the blindfold had been taken off her face, she could not see a thing. It did not help that there was no window in the room, so she really could not tell if it was daybreak already.
Thanks to the sound of the waves she could hear, the only thing she knew was that she was on a ship. She had no idea where they would take her or what would happen to her.
