Katherine smiled, feeling the warm, gentle tugging on her breasts, the strong fingers that skimmed over her skin with such tender caresses. She might be exhausted for the moment, only the moment, but her mind was working just fine.
And in that moment, Katherine knew she loved him.
Chapter Twenty-five
The morning light turned the White Room into a brilliant display of diamond-bright jewel tones. Through the open windows sunlight spilled across the carpet but didn’t quite reach the bed. Like minuscule suns, dust motes danced and swirled with each gust of warm breeze or disappeared beyond the sunbeam.
In the large bed Katherine stretched luxuriously, consciousness slowly creeping up on her. There was something important—ah, yes, last night. She smiled as the memories flitted across her mind. A happy sigh escaped her just before she opened her eyes.
She was alone. A quick glance about the room. She was still alone. She shrugged and let her head sink back into the pillow.
What did you expect, ninny? Just because he was there that other time when you woke up, doesn’t mean he will be every time. He’s got things to do, people to see. After all, we arrived here only yesterday, and according to him, he left soon after and didn’t return until last night. There’s no doubt a multitude of things he has to attend to.
But there was no denying it would have been nice to have woken up beside Dimitri. She was eager to let him know that she remembered everything and to assure him that everything she had said last night still held true this morning. And if he had been here now, she could have told him—yes, there was no reason to keep it a secret—she could have told him she loved him.
Katherine smiled as she felt a rush of warmth spreading through her just from the thought. She still couldn’t quite believe it. She had fallen prey to that most silly of emotions. Her? Incredible. But love wasn’t silly after all. It was real, powerful, glorious. And this was one mistake Katherine was delighted to own up to.
She lay there thinking about this new emotion for nearly an hour before she suddenly leaped out of bed, unable to contain it any longer. She had to find Dimitri and tell him what she was feeling. What she didn’t realize was that her driving need was actually to hear that her feelings were returned.
She dressed in haste, with only a quick glance in the vanity mirror to assure herself that all her buttons were done up properly. She had long since given up trying to do anything with her hair. It was something she had never had to attend to herself, and something she had not been able to master from necessity. As long as it was neatly tied back with a ribbon, as she had worn it aboard ship, she was satisfied she looked demure, if unfashionable.
The most likely place to look for Dimitri first was his room, and so she knocked on the connecting door, and when she got no answer, she opened it anyway. She didn’t stop to think that even yesterday she wouldn’t have been so brazen. In her mind she had accepted Dimitri as her lover, and that gave her certain privileges that she wouldn’t have dreamed of taking otherwise. Unfortunately he wasn’t at the desk she had noticed last night, as she had hoped. He wasn’t there at all, nor was Maksim, who could have helped her locate him.
Impatiently Katherine crossed Dimitri’s room to get to the hallway instead of going through her own room. So it was with some surprise that she came face to face with Dimitri’s aunt when she opened the door.
Sonya had been about to knock. She was given a start by finding Katherine coming out of Dimitri’s room, when she had distinctly heard the order for her to be placed in the White Room. If she had needed further evidence of what the woman was doing here, she had it now. And her disreputable appearance was a wanton announcement of her calling. A woman did not wear her hair down except in the bedchamber. That this one was about to leave with her hair flowing down her back only increased Sonya’s sense of moral indignation.
Katherine recovered first, enough to take a step back so that she wouldn’t have to crane her neck to look up at the imposing woman. She started to smile, but blushed instead on noting the censure in the older woman’s cold blue eyes. Good Lord,thatwas something she hadn’t considered in her newfound happiness, but here it was in abundance. Of course her new relationship with Dimitri was scandalous. She would have been the first to admit it if she hadn’t been one of the parties involved. Anyone else would say so without hesitation.
And yet she had made her decision, or rather, it had been made for her. She loved the man. And she was sure that he felt rather strongly about her as well. So she didn’t have a ring on her finger—yet. She had high hopes that the matter would eventually be rectified. After all, this was not a schoolgirl infatuation that she had succumbed to. For her, this was an everlasting commitment. She had fought against it too long not to fight for it now.
Unconsciously Katherine stiffened her backbone, assuming a pose that was inherently regal. Sonya saw it as haughtiness and was outraged.
“I am looking for my nephew.”
“So am I,” Katherine replied politely. “So if you will excuse me…”
“One moment, miss.” Sonya’s tone was commanding, hermissderogatory. “If Dimitri is not here, what are you doing in his room alone?”
“As I said, looking for him.”
“Or taking this opportunity to steal from him.”
The accusation was so incongruous that Katherine couldn’t take it seriously. “With all due respect, madame, I don’t steal.”
“I’m to take your word for it? Don’t be absurd. The English might be so gullible, but we Russians are not. You will have to be searched.”
“I beg your pardon.”
“You’ll do more than that if we find anything of value on you.”
“What the—” Katherine gasped as Sonya began to drag her down the hall.
She tried to shake off the woman’s grip, but it was as if talons had hooked into her arm. Sonya was nearly a foot taller than her, and her spare frame was deceptively strong. Katherine found herself being pulled down the stairs, where several servants had stopped in the hall to gape at yet another spectacle she was involved in.
Keep your temper, Katherine. Dimitri will straighten this out. After all, you haven’t done anything that he would object to. His aunt is just being bitchy. Didn’t Marusia warn you she was a tyrant, that Dimitri’s personal servants stayed well out of her path?
In the large entrance hall, Katherine was pushed into the hands of the nearest footman. Older than the others, but the more thickly built, he seemed genuinely nonplussed about what he should do with her.
