Love Amidst Wars

seventeen

Jake silently read his documents in his office, enjoying the peaceful time he had. After a few hours of sitting in his chair, he knew he needed to stretch out his arms. As he got up to stretch in front of the window in his office, the door was slammed open.

Private Johnny came in and dragged a man before making him kneel on the floor. The Duke raised an eyebrow at the young soldier, "Is this the man?"

"Yes, Your Grace. I found him at the publishing company. He was about to print out a new scandal about you and Lady Juliette."

The man laughed sinisterly before spatting on the floor, "Your Grace, I'm honoured to be invited to your lovely manor."

Jake chuckled before tilting the man's head to look at him, "You sure have a passion for writing news. To the point that your passion annoys me."

"But I write what's true. I write what people want to read."

Johnny could not help but scoff at the boldness of the journalist. Jake sighed as he had a straight expression plastered on his face. He crossed his arms before saying, "Yes. But your passion for writing is actually bothering me and my partner's privacy."

"Partner?" The journalist asked mockingly before laughing hysterically, "It looks to me that Lady Juliette hates you, Your Grace."

Jake smirked before rummaging through his drawers. The journalist's eyes widened when he saw Jake taking out a small knife and approaching him. The Duke crouched down before holding the man's chin, "Say more with that filthy mouth of yours. You might not get to write anything at all."

He traced circles on the journalist's hand. Johnny grimaced at the sight before bowing, "I'll wait outside, Your Grace."

Jake ignored the soldier and stabbed the journalist's hand. The man screamed in pain. That made Jake entertained even more, "You're quite unfortunate, I guess. My manor is pretty secluded from the other nobles' homes."

"What do you want me to do? I promise I'll do anything you want!"

Jake sighed before brushing his hair with his fingers. "Hm, what do I want?" He thought for a while.

"You can't do anything anymore since you've already published that article. But what I can do is to prevent it from happening again in the future," the Duke's smirk made the journalist shiver in fear.

"Johnny!" He called and the soldier hurried back into the office, "Yes, Your Grace?"

"Hold him."

Johnny obeyed without any questions. Jake began to cut a few of the journalist's fingers with an uninterested expression. The man's screams filled the entire room and no one was there to hear it except the Duke and the soldier.

"Let me tell you, if you were to ever tell anyone about this, I'll have your neck slashed with a bayonet," Jake warned before turning to the soldier, "Bring him out of here. You can just throw him anywhere. And feed these fingers to the dogs or something."

"Yes, Your Grace."

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Juliette sat in the living room, calmly continuing with her embroidery. As she enjoyed her peaceful time, she could hear her mother's nagging towards her father. She lifted her head and saw her mother following behind her father as he fixed his army attire.

She stopped what she was doing and approached her parents, "Dad."

"Jules," Viscount William replied with a sad smile. Juliette knew what his attire indicated. And she knew well why her mother was nagging. He had to join the expeditionary force.