Page 65 of An Arranged Marriage with a Cruel Earl
They went to go and check the shelves in the middle together.
Emmeline pushed on the sides of the bookshelves, then bent down and pressed at the shelves themselves. “Unless there’s a trapdoor to a cellar here,” she added with a grin.
“I would not be surprised,” Andrew said lightly. “After what happened to you, nothing will surprise me anymore.” He gazed at her, his heart aching. She was still wearing his coat, her dress torn and dirty, and she still had a smudge of dirt on her cheek. He reached out, resting his hand on her shoulder. “I am so glad you are all right.” His voice was thick with emotion.
Emmeline gazed into his eyes. “I could not stop thinking of you,” she admitted.
“You thought of me?” Andrew stared at her in disbelief.
“All the time,” Emmeline told him. “I wanted to believe I would see you again.”
Andrew stared. He had thought she was afraid of him, that she was at best indifferent and at worst that she actually disliked him. But this?
“You wanted to see me again?” he breathed.
“So much,” Emmeline admitted.
“I don’t know what I would do if I had never seen you again.” He could not contain his pain at the thought, nor the longing in his heart. He leaned forward and his lips pressed to hers. She tensed for a second, then relaxed and he wrapped his arms around her, drawing her into a kiss that was filled with all the emotions he could not express.
Emmeline leaned against him, and he tensed, struggling to hold back the wave of feelings that had been building inside him for days. He bit his lip, willing himself to stay composed. She moved closer and he steppedforward, so as not to fall off balance, and as he did, his foot kicked the bottom shelf. He blinked. It sounded hollow.
“Emmeline?” He gazed at her. “Do you think there might be a hidden compartment there?”
Emmeline frowned. “In the shelf itself?” Her eyes lit up. “Let’s see.”
They bent down and together tapped along the back of the lowest shelf. It did indeed have an echoing tone to it, as though there might be something there; some empty space behind the front board.
Emmeline moved her fingers down the side and gasped.
“Here! There’s something.”
Andrew hurried to check, and he found what she was exclaiming over—a small metal lever. His fingers closed over it, and with a steady press, he pushed it down. As they both stared in amazement, the back of the shelf slid back to reveal a hidden chamber.
“We found it,” Andrew murmured, his voice laced with awe. “I wonder if there’s something inside.”
Emmeline bent down to reach into the narrow opening. Andrew had to suppress the urge to push ahead of her, lest there be something dangerous in the gap they had uncovered.
“There’s something in here,” she declared.
Andrew’s eyes widened. She was holding two small leather-bound books in her slim hand.
“We found them,” Andrew repeated, staring at the two books in her hand, bound in brown leather that he was sure could only be the journals.
Emmeline gaped at him; her eyes wide. “We did!” she declared. “We really did.”
She held up the books and he took one. He passed her one and opened the other and slowly they began to read.
