Sonya was quick to clarify. “Search her for anything of value, and be thorough. She was found unattended in the Prince’s chamber.”
“Now just a minute,” Katherine said with forced evenness. “Dimitri wouldn’t stand for this, madame, and I believe you know that. I demand that he be sent for.”
“Demand? Demand!”
“Your hearing is quite excellent,” Katherine cut in sarcastically.
She probably should have resisted the gibe, but then she was really angry now, her diplomacy gone by the wayside. The witch had no right to charge her with any wrongdoing. There was simply no basis for the accusation. And for her to presume to treat Katherine like one of her serfs was the outside of enough.
For Sonya, Katherine’s sarcasm was the last straw. No one had ever spoken to her with such lack of respect, and in front of the servants. It couldn’t be allowed.
“I will have you—” Sonya began in a shout, then seemed to recollect herself, though her face was suffused with angry color. “No, I will let Dimitri attend it, then you will see that you mean nothing to him. Where is the Prince?” She rounded on the servants, who were watching this scene in fascination. “Come now, someone must have seen him this morning. Where is he?”
“He’s not here, Princess.”
“Who said that?”
The girl almost didn’t step forward. To have attention drawn to her when the mistress was in one of her rages wasn’t the greatest piece of wisdom. But she had opened her mouth. She had already put her foot in it. She was damned already and couldn’t do worse by telling all.
Katherine thought the girl was Lida at first glance, but she was younger, and lacking Lida’s confidence, seemed actually frightened. What didshehave to be frightened about? Katherine was the one in a pickle here.
“My sister woke me before dawn, Princess, to say goodbye,” the girl explained, her eyes trained on the floor. “She was in a rush because the Prince had already left, and she and the rest of his entourage had to hurry to catch up.”
“Never mind all that!” Sonya snapped. “Where has he gone?”
“To Moscow.”
There was a moment’s silence, and then Sonya’s lips turned up at one corner as her cold eyes fastened on Katherine. “So he takes his duty seriously after all. I shouldn’t have doubted him. I should have known he would leave in all haste to resume his courtship of the Princess Tatiana. But he’s left you behind for me to deal with. I should just put you out.”
“A capital idea,” Katherine said tightly.
She was still angry enough not to be bowled over by this bit of news. Dimitri gone? Just like that? And to secure himself a fiancée? No, that was his aunt’s assumption, not fact.Don’t you dare jump to conclusions, Katherine. There’s probably a very good reason for him leaving without a single word to you. And he’ll be back. You’ll have answers, the right answers, and you’ll laugh that you even doubted him for a second.
“So you would like to be on your way?” Sonya broke into her thoughts tersely, her moment of improved humor past. “Then perhaps I should keep you here. Yes, Dimitri might have forgotten your existence already, but his man, Vladimir, isn’t so lax, though apparently he was so harried this morning he overlooked leaving instructions concerning you. But there must be some reason you have been left behind, so I suppose I must make certain you are still here when they return, much as I would wish it otherwise.”
“I can tell you exactly why I am here,” Katherine retorted indignantly.
“Don’t bother. Anything your kind says must be held in doubt.”
“Mykind?” Katherine fairly shrieked.
Sonya didn’t elaborate. Her expression and the way she looked Katherine up and down said it all. Her eyes narrowed. She was queen bee again, through with her fury, under control, and every bit the dried-up old tyrant Marusia had called her.
“Since you are to remain at Novii Domik, you must be taught the proper conduct. Disrespect is not allowed here.”
“Then you could use a few lessons in courtesy yourself, madame, because I recall being quite polite to you until you made your unfounded charge against me. You, on the other hand, have been insulting from the start.”
“That will do!” Sonya shouted. “We will see if a visit to the woodhouse doesn’t curb your insolence. Semen, take her there immediately.”
Katherine almost laughed. If the witch thought locking her up in the woodhouse was going to make one whit of difference, she was sadly mistaken. She had just spent endless weeks confined on the ship. A few more days’ confinement until Dimitri returned wouldn’t bother her at all. And she could spend the time envisioning Dimitri’s high rage over his aunt’s tyranny.
Even the servants could envision it, Katherine thought rather smugly. The fellow holding her— Semen was it?—had hesitated a full five seconds before he began to tug her toward the back of the house. The others who watched them registered expressions from shock and amazement to outright fear.
Katherine was marched outside and over to one of the outbuildings she had noticed on her arrival. From the back of the house she had her first view of the village nearly a half-mile away, and the endless acres of ripening wheat, like a sea of gold in the morning sunlight. Funny that she could appreciate what a splendid scene lay before her while she was on her way to being locked up. But she could. It was the quest for new sights, new experiences, that made this whole trip an adventure that satisfied a longing she had long held dear.
The woodhouse was a small shedlike structure where cut wood was stored. Windowless, floorless even, Katherine’s first look inside took chink out of her smugness.
Buck up, Katherine. So it’s not going to be pleasant. All the more reason to expect profuse apologies from Dimitri when this is over. He’ll make it up to you, see if he doesn’t.
