Page 69 of The Duke Who Claimed Her

“Fr—from here,” he stammered. “She has been here all day…” His cousin continued to look blankly at him. “You sent a carriage for her this morning and…” He trailed off as the obvious answer battered him across the head. “Oh no.”

“What? What happened?”

Suddenly, Caspian’s forced resolve to not worry, to not want to be overly controlling and protective, left him completely, swallowed by that gaping pit in his stomach. How could he have been so foolish? So blind?

What sort of husband am I that I might pretend everything is fine while my wife… He swallowed back that thought, unable to finish it for fear of what might have happened.

“Something has happened to Arabella,” he said to his cousin, his voice cracking with each word spoken. “Someone has…” He could not finish, but there was no need. Penelope saw the answer in his eyes, and she acted immediately.

“We cannot waste time!” She swept past him. “I will have every available member of staff searching for her. Do you have any notion of where to start?”

“No,” he said desperately. “I thought that she was here!”

“We will spread out, search the roads, and perhaps we will get lucky.”

It was a long shot, with little chance of working. Arabella had not gotten lost or become waylaid. She was lured somewhere, taken, and now trapped.

Caspian forced himself to focus, to think logically!

If his wife was taken, there was a reason, which meant whoever did so wanted something. And if they did, there was only one person whom they might ask.

“Send for George,” he told her. “Have him meet me at my home with as many men as he can gather.”

Penelope’s face whitened. “Are you sure that is necessary? What will you do?”

“I need to return home,” he said as he hurried across the room. “I have a feeling that whatever has happened, I need to be there.”

“Someone took her,” she said in understanding. “But why?”

“I do not know,” he said. “But I intend to find out.”

With that said, Caspian left his cousin’s home, climbed atop his horse, and rode it home as fast as it could travel. As he did, he allowed the images that he had previously denied himself to flood his mind. His wife in danger, scared, needing him like she never had before.

He pictured these things, let them fuel him, and promised himself that he would not rest until she was safe.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Arabella paced the small room frantically as she tried desperately to deny the fear that seemed so determined to consume her.

It was there, bubbling away beneath the surface so that it was all but impossible to ignore. Of course she was afraid! She had been tricked, kidnapped, and was now being held hostage by her own father, a man who she knew would go to unspeakable lengths to get what he wanted. To feel fear was to be human.

However, feeling afraid and letting it dominate her were two completely different things. While Arabella could do nothing to ignore her fear entirely, she could at the very least stop it from controlling her.

I am a duchess, no longer the same little girl I once was, and my father needs to understand that. I must show him that he does not control me.

So, she paced, and she planned what she might do… If anything could be done.

The room that she was in was locked tight, while the only window was boarded up so that she had no chance of escaping through it. Beyond the room was a small cabin in the middle of a forest; Arabella did not know the location of the forest. She had been trapped in the back of the carriage as she was taken to it, half-conscious, hardly able to move, let alone take note of her surroundings.

When the carriage arrived at the cabin, she was dragged inside by two large men. She did her best to look about, as if knowing where she was might make a difference. But all she saw were trees, and before long, she was being tossed into this small room.

There, she was left alone. For how long? She did not know. But it was dark outside, likely the same day as when she had been taken. Again, not that this mattered! Not that she could do anything!

I need to think! I know what my father wants, but how can I make him see that this will not work?

That was where she stalled. Arabella could posture however she wanted. She could stand up to her father and deny him his wishes. But at the end of the day, she was trapped here, Caspian had no idea where she was, and it would only be a matter of time until her father snapped…

The sound of the door unlocking had Arabella stop her pacing.