“Of course he didn’t. And you won’t be, even if I have to protect you myself. Really, pigeon, there is nothing for you to fear at Novii Domik.”
He still couldn’t believe that Sonya, sweet old Sonya, had ordered a caning. It was inconceivable. The woman had probably fallen and hurt herself, and for some reason wanted to blame Sonya for her pain, and was intelligent enough to make her story sound convincing. At any rate, he had been sent to bring her back, had come this far, and having found her, saw no good reason not to carry out his mission. Besides, she had Savva’s horse. What would the man think if he had to tell him he just let her go on with it? He certainly wouldn’t believe that Nikolai hadn’t been able to find her. Neither would Sonya.Hewould end up having to replace the horse and have the old woman peeved with him too.
“You know, Ekaterina—it is Ekate—”
“No, by God, it’s Katherine, good old English Katherine, or even Kate or Kit—God, to hear myself called Kit again!”
“Very well, Kit.” He smiled indulgently, though the name didn’t sound at all the same in his French-Russian accent. “Mitya will straighten out this misunderstanding once he returns, and you do want to be there when he returns, don’t you?”
“Would I be heading for St. Petersburg if I did? Besides, it could be weeks or longer before Dimitri gets back. No, it’s out of the question. But then—” She paused thoughtfully, running over her options since he was proving so difficult. “Since it will in fact take Dimitri to unravel this misunderstanding, as you call it, why don’t you take me to him instead? That I wouldn’t object to.”
Nikolai laughed delightedly. “A splendid idea, little Kit, as long as you realize the consequence of traveling alone with me such a long way.”
“I assure you my reputation couldn’t be in worse ruin.”
“And I assure you I couldn’t take you all the way to Moscow without bedding you, will you, nil you.Thatis the consequence I refer to. To Novii Domik I can manage to control myself, since it is only a short distance away.”
“The devil it is!” she returned, furious with him for toying with her. “I must have ridden fifty miles yesterday.”
“More like twenty, pigeon, and it wasn’t yesterday, but this morning.”
“You mean—”
“It’s only nearing evening now. We can be back in time for dinner, if you will stop putting up such a fuss about it.”
“All right!” she stormed. “Fine! But if that witch you call an aunt ends up killing me in her madness, it’s going to beyourfault, you—you lecherous womanizer, you! And don’t think I won’t haunt you for it, that is, if I get the chance, because Dimitri will probably kill you first when he learns you’re responsible for my demise!”
She had more to say, but she turned her back on him to mount her horse unassisted. She would scratch his eyes out if he offered assistance. And it wasn’t easy. God, each little movement hurt! But she did it on her own with the help of a large rock. And he just stood there, watching her in amazement, and feeling a trifle, no, actually more than a trifle guilty as he caught a word here and there.
“You couldn’t be a gentleman, no, that would be asking too much, wouldn’t it? That’s something that doesn’t run in your particular family, I’ve learned to my detriment. Kidnapped, drugged, used, imprisoned, those are run-of-the-mill niceties for the Alexandrovs. Heaven forbid that one of you should have a conscience!”
She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. She wasn’t going to succumb to this pain. She wasn’t.
“Why? Why me?” Nikolai heard that plainly. “Why did he have to drag me with him all the way to Russia? Why did he have to keep after me until…until…Good Lord, you’d think I was a blasted beauty, when I know perfectly well I’m only passing fair. Why was it so important to him to—”
Nikolai wished to high heaven that she would have finished that particular statement, but she didn’t. She had groaned when she nudged the horse forward, bent over in obvious pain, and he was assailed by doubts, not about letting her travel in her condition, but about her actual importance to Dimitri.
“Kit, pigeon, perhaps—”
“Not another word from the likes of you,” she said with such contempt that Nikolai cringed. “I’m going back to face that bitch, but I don’t have to listen to any more drivel from you in the meantime.”
She rode away, and he had to make haste to catch up with her, doing so only when she reached the broken shrubs at the side of the road that had led him to her in the first place. Damn, but he was in a quandary now about what to do. Keeping Aunt Sonya happy was one thing. Raising Dimitri’s fury was quite another. And trying to talk to this quarrelsome woman now was something else again. In the end, he decided that if she really was important to Dimitri, then his brother would want her to be where he left her, not in St. Petersburg where he would have to search for her. That is, if he wanted to find her. Sweet Christ, it would be nice to know the actual truth about what was going on here.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Dimitri stared at the empty room: the bed smoothly made, nothing out of place, sterile, like a white tomb. A feeling that it had been like this for days made him rush to the wardrobe and throw open the doors. The clothes were all there, even the black cloth purse she had tried to brain that annoying fellow with the first time he had ever seen her.
He let out his breath, unaware that he had even been holding it in. Katherine wouldn’t leave without that purse, would she? It was all she had left that was actually hers. So where was she, then?
Irritation swiftly took hold. He had steeled himself to face her. For hours, as he raced the last miles to Novii Domik, he had been working himself into a numbed state of mind in which he could accept anything she might say to him, and he expected the worst. Now he felt like a condemned man who had been given a short reprieve when all he wanted to do was get his execution over.
He had expected to find her in the White Room, reading a book perhaps, or primping at her vanity, or even curled up in bed eating bonbons.Thatwas how he had always found Natalia when he deigned to visit her. He had even thought to find Katherine pacing the room in a fury of boredom. So much for what he expected.
It wasn’t that late in the evening when he had rushed into the house and straight up the stairs without a word. Two footmen in the entrance hall had stared at him in amazement. A maid in the upstairs hall had gasped upon seeing him. Usually the household had warning of his coming. But Dimitri hadn’t been doing anything in the usual way lately.
He hadn’t even returned with his servants. For that matter, they had been far behind him on his mad dash to Moscow, and when he had turned around, wanting to speak to Katherine, only a day and a half short of the city, and finally came upon them almost halfway there, he had sent them on. After all, Moscow was still on the agenda, Tatiana still needed a visit from him. Only two Cossacks had kept up with him, and even they had fallen behind today.
It wasn’t like Dimitri to do anything in such a hurry. His race to Moscow certainly did not come from any wild desire to see his intended future bride. She had been the farthest thing from his mind, no more than the vague reason he had set off for Moscow instead of in some other direction. Actually any direction would have served for his cowardly leave-taking. That was exactly how he had thought of himself after the mad panic to be gone had worn off. The reason for his rush had been to get away from Katherine, to be far away when she woke up after their night together, to avoid the contempt and loathing she was bound to feel, despite her words to the contrary while she was still under the drug’s influence.
