The Duke's Masked Wife

"What kind of a man are you? To be so cruel to treat me this way."

Edgar stooped down to Katrina's level on the floor. "The kind that warned you and your husband to stay away from his wife. How amusing that you call me cruel when you've tortured your stepdaughter for years and continue to mess with her when she is no longer by your side. I am never kind to people like you."

"Get out," Katrina looked away from him. At a time like this, she should be thinking of never messing with him and Alessandra but she could only think of repaying him for what she just endured. She was a Baroness, not a common woman on the street to be tossed around like this.

"You," he roughly grabbed her face and forced her to look at him. "Have one day to clear this up and never go after my wife again. I will kill you if I have to return here again."

"Get out!" Katrina yelled, smacking his hand away from her face. "You'll get what's coming to you, Edgar. Just wait."

"I can toss you out your own window and you're foolish enough to threaten me.  It's going to be fun for me to ruin you, Baroness. You've used your beauty to get you further in life, haven't you?" Edgar stared at her face.  He didn't see what Desmond used to gush about but beauty was in the eye of the beholder.

Edgar placed his hand in his pants pocket and pulled out a dagger.

"N-No," Katrina tried scrambling back to get away from him but her back collided with a drawer, stopping her from running away. "I have not done anything to you to warrant this. James!" She called for the butler to save her.

The sound of the doorknob turning was heard followed by a thud against the door which remained shut.

"An attack on my wife is an attack on me. It's been so long since you got married but don't you remember that husband and wife share each other's burdens? Stay still or you will ruin more than I want to," Edgar reached out to grab her face. "An eye for an eye."

"Stop," Katrina tried crawling away but Edgar blocked her. "I was not the one who ruined her face. It was her and Kate. They were only children. Do not do this to me," she cried.

In this world, she treasured her looks, money, and Kate more than anything else. If Edgar ruined her face with his dagger, she would never be able to fix it.

"Don't worry, your daughter will get what's coming to her if she toys with my wife in the future. Parents should be examples for children. You will serve as a warning to your daughter," Edgar created a small wound on her right cheek with his dagger. It wasn't deep but enough to leave a scar once the blood was dealt with.

With a trembling hand, Katrina touched her face where she felt a slight stinging pain and something running against her cheek. "You cut me," she said in disbelief. "You truly cut my face."

"Until I am ready to kill you, I'll add a cut to your face each time you try to mess with my wife. The ridicule she endured for years, you shall experience it soon. One day to clear the rumor," he patted her other cheek before standing up. He was already starting to feel itchy just from being inside this house.

"I'll tell everyone what you did to me. Do you think you can get away with treating me this way? You're a man who abuses his power. This town will rip you to shreds."

Edgar chuckled, amused by her confidence in him being ruined. "Go on, tell them what I've done here tonight. I will also state what you did to my wife and perhaps, state a little bit about your past," he bluffed. Right now, he didn't know much about her. "While you run to the town to ruin me, I should warn you. I am not the type to care about my reputation."

A few people in town referred to him as a monster but he never paid any mind to it. They were allowed to think whatever they wanted of him. Most of those same people would flash him a smile when he was nearby in order to get close to his wealth.

Edgar knew the type of man that he was. He never hurt the innocent and only went after people who did horrible crimes. He never once befriended anyone who could hurt innocent people which was why he never liked the Baron or William Lancaster. He would never care for Katrina or her daughter. If anyone were to be called a monster it should be the two of them.

It was funny how Katrina mentioned he abused his power. Edgar liked to keep to himself but everyone around seemed to like poking at him only to get upset once he gave them a response. Then they shouted for the ills about his power and how he had too much.

"Should I show you what it is like for me to abuse my power?" Edgar asked.

Katrina stared at him as if he was talking crazy. "You already have by walking in my bedroom and almost throwing me-"

"For harming Alessandra's face, you and your daughter should have been thrown in a cell and questioned. You and your late husband should have been punished for letting a child be hurt in your care. I am merely carrying out what had not been done years ago. The king has tasked me to rid the kingdom of people like you so I am well within my right to treat you how I did. Our king no longer has tolerance for those who hurt the innocent."

Katrina did not see why the king would give Edgar this power.  "He was a fool to let you be the one to do this. Look at how many people you have killed."

"You mean the murders, abusers, kidnappers, and those who tried taking my life? Should I have killed innocent people, a priest, or maybe a dog to become the one fit to get rid of evil people? Oh right, people like you get upset about who I've killed because they used to be your accomplices. It's clear from the friends your husband had around him. You are no different as you befriended the wives of those kinds of men," Edgar stared down at her pitiful state.

"Get out. I no longer wish to hear anything else you have to say now that you have ruined my face. You are a man hated by many. I don't have to go against you myself. Someone else will surely humble you one day," said Katrina. She was sure it would happen sooner than Edgar expected.

There was William who hated Edgar's guts and he was still upset with Alessandra marrying Edgar. She hoped William would find a way to kill Edgar or at least make him fall from the high horse he was on.

"How interesting it is for someone like you who thrives on having money and power to help you look down on others to say that I need humbling," Edgar scoffed.

People with far less money and power than he possessed were always the ones speaking the most with their noses in the air while he remained silent on the sidelines. He never flaunted his wealth or made anyone feel less of a human because their titles were nowhere near a Duke's. Yet he was the one to need humbling?

"I am not the one to need humbling, Baroness. I know how to pick my battles and how to win them. You must view that as me being cocky but it's about playing smart. If you had common sense, you wouldn't be in this position right now. The person who needed to be humbled was you. You should thank me for humbling you before it cost you your neck," Edgar flashed a smile to irritate her.

"Get out!" Katrina yelled at the top of her lungs hurting her neck in the process but she desperately wanted Edgar far away from her. "Please."

"No need for you to beg as I have finished what I came here to do. I hope that you are smarter than you look, Baroness. From this moment on, forget about Alessandra or soon enough everyone will forget there once was a woman named Katrina Barrett. Goodbye," he lazily waved his hand as he walked away from her to leave the bedroom.

Edgar opened the door and was greeted by the sight of the butler looking as though was about to lose his mind. 'Interesting,' he thought as the butler brushed past him to check on the Baroness.

Instead of calling for help, Katrina called for the butler and the said man looked as if he would fight his way in to save her. Was the butler just a loyal servant to someone like Katrina or…

"This house is always full of drama," Edgar chuckled.