It wasn’t just Katherine’s feet that were numb, but her entire legs. She discovered this when her knees knocked together as she was plopped down on the top of the trunk, and she felt nothing. Her hands too had long since lost feeling. And she wasn’t ignorant of what would happen when the feeling began to return. It wasn’t going to be pleasant.
Vladimir untied her wrists while Marusia worked diligently at her feet. Her shoes had been left behind, one of the things she hadn’t gotten around to putting on when Vladimir had entered the room. There had been no time to arrange her hair either, and it hung loose and tangled down her back and shoulders. But most embarrassing was her dress, which was partly unbuttoned in the front, the lacy bodice of her white chemise stark against the black of the dress. And as she noticed the crowd in the doorway, staring at her curiously, bright color swept up her cheeks. No one hadeverseen her in such a state of dishabille, and yet more than a half-dozen people were in this tiny room with her.
Whowereall these people? For that matter, where in God’s name was she? And then she felt the swaying motion and knew. She had felt it in the trunk, but had prayed she was mistaken. She heard a babble of Russian being spoken by the door (she could recognize the language easily now) and knew she was on a Russian ship.
Her arms sprang free of the rope, and she brought them around in front of her with a moan, carefully flexing her shoulders and elbows. Behind her, Vladimir reached for the gag, but she felt his fingers hesitate in her hair. Very perceptive of him. He must know she was not going to accept this last misdeed silently. She had such a tongue-lashing ready for him that his ears would blister before she was done. But still he hesitated, and she couldn’t make her fingers move yet to yank the gag away herself.
A torrent of Russian came from behind her, and the group by the door quickly departed. The gag fell away, but Katherine’s mouth was too dry for her to do anything but croak the wordwater. Marusia left to get some, while Vladimir came around and began to massage Katherine’s feet. She would have liked nothing better than to send him sprawling with a solid kick, but she couldn’t move her legs yet at all.
“I owe you an apology,” Vladimir said without glancing up at her. His voice was gruff, as if he had to force the words out. “I should have made holes in the trunk for ventilation, but I’m afraid it just didn’t occur to me.”
Katherine was incredulous. What about his putting her in the trunk in the first place? Where was his contrition for that?
“That was not—your only—mistake, you—you—”
She gave up. It simply hurt too much to talk with her parched throat and her tongue feeling like some swollen, rotten intrusion in her mouth. And feeling was returning to her legs, the discomfort increasing by the second. She had to grit her teeth to keep from moaning. Good Lord, she had suffered numb limbs before from lying too long in one position, but nothing of this magnitude.
The water arrived, and Marusia held the cup to Katherine’s lips. She drank greedily, without the slightest thought to decorum. At least one part of her had found instant relief. But the rest of her was screaming in protest, a thousand needles attacking her legs and hands until she thought she couldn’t bear it, only to have it get worse and worse. She moaned despite her resolve not to.
“Stomp your feet, littleangliiskii. It will help.” The words were spoken kindly by the older woman, but Katherine was hurting too much to appreciate her sympathy. “I—I—oh, blast and hang you, Kirov! They don’t draw and quarter felons anymore, but I’ll see the custom revived for you!”
Vladimir simply ignored her, continuing to rub her ankles and feet briskly, but Marusia chuckled as she did the same to Katherine’s hands. “At least her spirit was not smothered in that trunk.”
“More’s the pity,” Vladimir grunted.
Katherine was further angered by their rudeness in speaking to each other in Russian. “I know five languages. Yours is not one of them. If you don’t use French, which I understand, then I won’t bother to tell you why the Queen’s navy is going to pursue this ship all the way to Russia if necessary.”
“What nonsense,” Vladimir scoffed. “Next you will tell us you have the ear of your English queen.”
“Not only that,” Katherine retorted, “but her friendship as well, ever since I served a year at court as one of her ladies. But even if that were not so, the Earl of Strafford’s influence alone would suffice.”
“Your employer?”
“Don’t humor her, Marusia,” Vladimir warned. “An English earl would not concern himself with the whereabouts of one of his servants. She does not belong to her master as we belong to ours.”
Katherine noted the contempt with which he said this, as if he were proud to be owned. But the fact that he obviously didn’t believe anything else she had said rubbed her raw.
“Your first and most grievous mistake was in assuming I am a servant. I didn’t correct you because I didn’t want my true identity known. But you’ve gone too far with this kidnapping business. The Earl is my father, not my employer. I am Katherine St. John,LadyKatherine St. John.”
The husband and wife exchanged a glance. Katherine didn’t see Marusia’s expression. It seemed to say to her husband: “You see? Now you can understand the commanding arrogance, the haughty disdain.” But Vladimir’s expression showed not a whit of concern for what Katherine had revealed.
“Whoever you are, you waste your anger on me,” he told Katherine with utter calm. “I did not act on my own this time. I followed orders, specific orders, even to the suggested use of the trunk. The oversight of not properly ventilating the trunk was mine, however. You were not to be harmed. And perhaps I should have released you sooner—”
“Perhaps?” Katherine exploded, wanting to hit him over the head with something.
She would have gone on, but a wave of debilitating pain spread down her legs at that moment, scattering her thoughts and making her double over with a loud groan. She yanked her hands away from Marusia and dug her fingers into her thighs, but to no effect. Full life was returning to her legs with a vengeance.
For the last five minutes Maksim had stood in the doorway, listening to the exchange between the three people in fascinated silence, but he finally recalled his duty. “If she is the Englishwoman, the Prince wants to see her immediately.”
Vladimir glanced over his shoulder, his earlier dread returning. “She is in no condition—”
“He saidnow, Vladimir.”
Chapter Ten
Dimitri leaned his head against the high-backed chair and lifted his bare feet to the stool in front of it. It was a comfortable chair, firm, but thickly padded, and served to remind him that he was a man who rarely denied himself anything, be it women, luxuries, or even moods. The chair was one of eight he had purchased, all identical, one for each of his bedrooms in the estates he owned across Europe as well as one to travel with him. When he found something that suited him, he made certain he acquired it. It had always been so.
Princess Tatiana was such a goal. She would suit him. Of all the glittering beauties of St. Petersburg, she was the rarest gem. And if he was going to marry, why not the fairest?
