Page 32 of The Duke Who Claimed Her

“I think that you are tricking me,” she said as she followed close behind.

“I am not. Here!” He came to a sudden stop by a table that sat against the wall. He then looked at her with a wicked grin, his entire body trembling.

She frowned at the table. “Under there? That will not work! I will see you from down the hall. You tricked me.”

“No,” he giggled. “Not the table. Come.” He snatched her hand and pulled her toward it. “Look!” He pointed underneath the table at a ventilation grate built into the wall. “See!”

She studied the grate, biting into her lip. “What are you…”

“Here.” He let go of her hand and ducked under the table. Then he gently grabbed the edges of the grate and, without any effort, pulled it from the wall. It swung open, revealing a small crawl space behind it. “See!” He turned back, his eyes wide and eager. “I told you!”

“In there?”

He pumped his eyebrows and ducked into the crawl space.

Arabella hesitated. While she appreciated that he was showing her this most sacred space, she wondered if it was worth it. The crawl space was rather tight and undoubtedly dirty. What happened if she became stuck?

“Come on!” Timothy shouted from behind the walls.

“Fine.” She sighed, and with no choice, Arabella hoisted up her skirts, crouched beneath the table, and entered the crawl space.

It was bigger than she had imagined. As soon as she slipped her body inside, it opened to a space roughly four feet wide and another three feet tall. Not large enough to stand in, but she was able to fold her legs and sit comfortably.

There were cobwebs everywhere. Every layer was coated in dust. And the smell was musty and old. But Timothy crawled onto his knees and opened his arms wide to show off the space, and never had anyone looked so proud.

“What do you think?” he asked her.

She looked around them. “How often do you come here?”

“Not often,” he admitted sheepishly. “Only when I…” His brow furrowed, and he suddenly looked upset. “Only when I want to be alone.”

Arabella very nearly asked him why he wanted to be alone, but she shut her mouth quickly, thankful that she had the sense not to press the point. Although she knew little of Timothy’s circumstances, she knew that his parents had died within the last year, so she could only imagine how much such an awful situation affected him.

He was so bright, so excitable, so full of life! But it was a cover, a way for him to ignore the pain and the sadness, likely pretending that it did not exist. That was until it did.

Arabella’s heart broke just a little for the boy, and she wanted nothing more than to pull him into a tight hug and show him that she was there. But she refrained from that, as she knew they were not that close yet.

This right here was a good first step, but there were still so many left to take.

“I love it,” she said brightly. “This is…” She looked around the crawl space and nodded approvingly. “This will do perfectly.”

“You will not tell Uncle Caspian?”

“No,” she said. “This will be our little secret, I promise.”

The little boy beamed, and she laughed. She was still alone in this marriage, but her world had just grown that little bit larger. And if things continued in this way, then maybe her life here would not be nearly so bad as she had thought.

Chapter Twelve

Caspian’s lips kissed down Arabella’s neck like a starved animal. His hands pawed at her as if she were life itself, and to let her go would see death visit him. She lay on her back, happy for him to take full control, happy to give herself to him because he owned her in that moment.

“Oh… Caspian…” she breathed as his lips devoured her neck. “Touch me there…”

“Do not tell me what to do,” he growled as his lips moved to her collarbone.

She wrapped her legs around him. They were bare, she only just realized, and his hands squeezed them and pulled them in tighter. On top of her, Caspian moved his hips, trapping her beneath him so that she was utterly at his mercy.

And all the while, those lips moved further south.