Evil Duke, Please Be Gentle!

Only lord knew how Evangeline had endured the journey with his mind wandering at all places. The way he had held her and then tied her hair. Surely, he knew how to take care of girls, while his own sisters have a plethora of maids to work for them.

'I knew it, I knew from the start that there must be a reason that the old man wanted to marry his son to me.' she continued to grumble as her eyes turned heavy.

The panic and running exhausted her and the smooth moving of the carriage rocked her body. Soon she lost herself in la la land.

She leaned her head on the window as she drifted to sleep. But with the moving of the carriage, her head kept banging on the window with a thud sound. She frowned but her sleep did not break.

He frowned as he looked at Evangeline and sighed. With some hesitation, his hands wrapped on her shoulders, and then he leaned her on his shoulders. He tried to look the other way, but his eyes kept turning back towards her face. The glaring kitten finally looked docile again. His eyes moved from her face to her lips and he kept staring at them when suddenly the carriage jerked and his lips touched her forehead. His eyes widened and he felt scared for a moment. He closed his eyes in fear! Then he opened an eye and looked at her, she was still sleeping without a care in the world.

"What kind of a woman are you? You did not even wake up when a man kissed you?" he grumbled, though he did not understand why he was so furious about it.

He has to close his eyes and take a few deep breaths to control his emotions. He closed his eyes, as he was too exhausted, but no matter how much he tried, he could not sleep with a woman's breath too close to his neck. Her hair was tickling his body.

"I have neve seen a brazen woman like you." He commented , getting further irritated, but the woman continued to sleep without a care in the world.

The knights looked at each other as it was already night yet the lord had not asked them to stop and have a meal. They did not have lunch too and now even the horses were getting exhausted.

"Let me ask, my lord." said the older knight and others nodded with relief.

The coachman stopped the carriage and the knight waited for Leo to ask the reason but the curtain of the window did not move at all. They looked at each other hesitating. After two or three minutes when there was still no movement, the knight knocked on the door.

Leonardo jerked and his eyes snapped open with the sudden sound.

"What is it?" came his cold voice from the carriage, that was the voice they knew of their master. They did not recognize the man who was bickering with the girl in front of the inn.

"My lord, the horses are tired and so are the knights. If possible, take a break and have dinner at the nearby inn first." the knight was at least hoping that Leo would open the curtain. So, he could have shown the condition of horses. But the curtains were still tightly closed.

"Alright, stop the carriage when we reach the inn." The knights looked at each other and then at the coachman who gulped. They could not believe that their lord who could even feel the movement of a fly did not realize that the carriage was not moving. This had never happened before!

Did they stop him in the middle of.. Wild thoughts started to form in the mind of all the knights.

"But my lord, the carriage has already stopped in front of an inn!" replied the knight hesitating and finally Leo moved and opened the curtain.

Evangeline, who was comfortably lying on his shoulders wrapping her arms on his waist, almost fell on the ground.

In her dreams she was watching that she had bound Leo with chains and he was kneeling and begging for her mercy. She had a sword in her hands and she was laughing like villains she had read in the book in the library while he was looking scared.

'Ha! Now you are asking for mercy. No, I will kill you to get my freedom now.' She was about to stab the sword when she felt the shaking of the earth and she fell on the ground. She opened her groggy eyes and looked around to see where Leo went!

It took her a few seconds to realize that she was still in the carriage and her hands were bound with him.

While the knights looked at the disheveled hair of Leo, his front buttons were opened and his scarf was missing. His shirts have creases and the girl was on the ground with her hands on his thighs and their faces turned aghast. So they were right!

"We.. We apologize to my lord. We will not disturb you anymore." replied the knights as they tried to look everywhere but him. He frowned at their strange behavior when he heard her mumbling and sitting on the ground.

"What are you mumbling there? Get up?" Evangeline fumed listening to his cold voice.

"I am here because a donkey has bound me with himself and then he started kicking. Hmph.'' She did not know what came over her as she had never behaved like that or talked to someone like that, but she could not control herself whenever he looked at her with those cold eyes.

"Did you just call me a donkey?" he asked, stupefied. What kind of woman was she! She had no demure, no shyness and no awareness at all. she shook her head and a smirk formed on his lips when she added...

"No, how can I insult a donkey like that!."

".........."