The moment that the music stopped and Thalia and Benedict slowed down, Caspian strode across the dance floor and right toward them. There was darkness in his eyes, a curl to his lip, and Thalia had never seen the man wear so much emotion on his face.
“Your Grace…” Benedict took a step back when he saw Caspian approach, and while Benedict was ordinarily gay and charming, she could sense the panic rippling through him. “I hope you do not mind, that I asked your wife for a dance.”
Caspian ignored him as he reached for Thalia’s hand. When he took it, he squeezed tight as if daring her to try and pull away. She looked from his hand to his eyes and she nearly gasped. The way he was looking at her…I have seen that look just the one time, and it certainly wasn’t in a ballroom with hundreds of people about.
“It is time we leave,” Caspian growled. “Now.”
Thalia did not deny him. She did not think herself capable. Her voice caught in her throat, her legs trembled, and it was all shecould do to follow her husband without looking as if he was dragging her away.
“I am sorry for dancing with Lord Northwick,” she said softly as he continued to pull her through the ballroom. “He asked and I did not think.”
Caspian said nothing. He held her hand but walked ahead, his stride assured and powerful, forcing those before them to part out of the way lest they were trampled.
They exited the ballroom together, and then the manor. Down the driveway, Caspian steered her, his sight set on their carriage. He indicated to the driver, who was quick to whip the horses into action and steer it toward them,
There, they stood, waiting.
Still, Caspian held her by the hand, but he did not look at her. She could feel his body shaking, and she could see behind his eyes that same look that he’d held when he had approached her on the dance floor. He was not angry. He was not upset. He was… something else.
“Caspian…” Thalia said. “Are you… well?”
He ignored her as the carriage approached. Once it pulled up, and the door was open, he directed her forward and helped her climb inside.
She tripped up and fell into the carriage, which suddenly felt very small. Spinning around, Thalia’s heart leapt through her throat when Caspian clambered inside and slammed the door closed behind him.
Alone now, the curtains drawn, silence upon them, and Thalia did not know what to say or what to do.
She sat down. She tried not to fidget. She looked from Caspian to the curtains to her lap to anywhere that she could. And all the while, she felt Caspian watching her.
He sat across from her. His stare was fixed. Thalia looked at him, then away. Her breathing grew ragged. Her body trembled. She was not scared, because that’s not what this was about. Rather, excitement began to ripple up her body, the sense that Caspian was about to do something that she could never have expected but now made so much sense that she could not believe she hadn’t seen it coming.
All this time, I wondered how to draw a reaction out of Caspian. If I had known it would be so easy to do as this, I might have acted far sooner. Save myself the headache.
“It’s my fault,” he said, his tone dark and low.
“Excuse me?”
“Everything,” he said. “Ignoring you. Pretending that you do not matter. Making you question…” He growled as if withfrustration. “Making you question how I feel about you. About us. It is my fault.”
“Oh…” Thalia blinked. “Caspian, I was only dancing with Lord Northwick. He is my brother’s friend.”
“It is not about Lord Northwick,” he said. “It is the fact that he thought… that he even considered…” The side of his lip twitched. “It was my error, and I will not make it again.”
“What do you mean?” She swallowed the lump in her throat, feeling the change slowly transform the inside of the carriage.
It was electric. It was tense. It was weighted, as if the air itself were heavy. Thalia thought to look away, or to shift back, but she was worried to move, to even breathe, as if doing so would shatter the moment.
“It is about more than having a child with you, Thalia,” he said. “I want you to know that.”
“What… what do you mean?”
“It might have started that way, but that is not how it ends.”
“Caspian…” She laughed awkwardly. “You are not making any sense.”
“You’re right,” he said as he shifted forward. He hesitated, his eyes flicking to her hands, and then to her face. He bit into his lip, a battle raging behind his eyes. “Perhaps this will make things clearer.”
Caspian did not elaborate with words. Nor did he allow a second for his meaning to become clear. Instead, he reached across the carriage and took Thalia by the hand, pulling her from her seat, and forcing her to fall onto his lap.
