He had come to his senses halfway to Moscow. So he had made a mistake. It wasn’t the first time. So this was a particularly bad mistake. It would just take longer to break down Katherine’s anger this time. She had been furious with him before and he had gotten around it, or rather, she had cooled off on her own. She was a sensible woman. She didn’t hold grudges. That was one of the things he liked about her, besides her spirit and defiance and passion and a dozen other things.
He had gone on in a much better frame of mind, satisfied that the hole he had dug for himself wasn’tthatdeep. He had even begun to wonder if he could somehow talk Katherine into staying in Russia. He would buy her a mansion, fill it with servants, shower her with jewels and the most expensive clothes. Tatiana was for getting him an heir. Katherine was for loving, and he wove a fantasy that had her placed firmly in his future.
And then he had remembered how he had departed, without so much as a word to her. He hadn’t even made sure that she would still be there when he returned, assuming she wouldn’t have the courage to venture forth alone in an unfamiliar land. But if she was angry enough, she might well do anything. And in boredom, she had nothing to do but gnaw on the bone of her anger.
He had turned around immediately. Tatiana could wait. He had to settle things at home first, even if it meant facing Katherine’s fury sooner than he had planned, before she had a chance to calm down. Then again, she wasn’t likely to calm down until she had something to occupy her mind with besides murdering him.
Now, as before, he wanted the worst over and done with so that he could go on from there. He also had an overwhelming passion just to look at her again, to see if the worst of his obsession was over. He had been gone for five days. If the first thing he wanted to do when he saw her was make love to her, then he was right back where he started, and his foolishness in drugging her would have been for nothing.
Dimitri left the White Room and marched back down the hall. The maid he had seen earlier was gone, but another was coming up the stairs with a tray piled high with food, no doubt meant for him. It didn’t take long for the news of his unexpected return to spread.
“Where is she?” he asked the girl abruptly.
“Who, my lord?”
“The Englishwoman,” he replied impatiently.
She seemed to cower away from him. “I—I don’t know.”
He passed her by, calling out to one of the footmen while he was still descending the stairs, “Where is the Englishwoman?”
“I haven’t seen her, my prince.”
“And you?”
Semen, who had known Dimitri all his life and who knew his rages were for the most part harmless bursts of emotion, was suddenly so frightened that he couldn’t find his voice. It wasn’t that the Prince had come in and gone straight to the White Room, which Ludmilla had whispered as she rushed past on her way to spread the news of his return. Nor was it that he was asking for the woman, not having found her where he obviously expected to find her. It was his anxious expression, and the remembered words he had heard whispered to Rodion: “You had better hope you’re not around when the Prince finds out about—” She hadn’t been able to finish. He had cut off her words with the first lash of the cane.Hedid that.
“Where’s your tongue, Semen?” Dimitri snapped into his thoughts.
“I—believe she was seen in the kitchen—earlier.” Dimitri had reached the hall, was only a foot away, and Semen seemed to shrink in his boots. “Right now—” He had to clear his throat, not once, but twice. “Right now, I don’t know, my lord.”
“Who would know?” got Dimitri only shrugs.
Playing dumb? Since when did his people play dumb with him? What the hell was going on here?
He scowled at each man before starting toward the back of the house, bellowing, “Katherine!”
“What are you shouting for, Mitya?” Sonya asked, coming out of the drawing room just as he passed it. “Really, you needn’t shout to let us know you have returned, though why you have come back so soon—”
He rounded on his aunt. “Where is she? And if you value peace and quiet, don’t ask me whosheis. You know perfectly well who I’m talking about.”
“The Englishwoman, of course,” Sonya replied calmly. “We haven’t misplaced her, you know, though she did run away once, stealing one of the villager’s horses. It was fortunate that Nikolai was here at the time to fetch her back.”
Several emotions washed over Dimitri simultaneously. Surprise that Katherinehadtried to leave, when that hadn’t been his main worry. Relief that she was here somewhere, even if he was having trouble finding out exactly where. And jealousy, bright, hot, and absurd, that one of his handsome, woman-chasing half-brothers—Nikolai in particular—had met his Katherine.
“Where is he?” Dimitri asked tightly.
“I do wish you would be more precise, my dear. If you mean Nikolai, he didn’t stay here long. He came to welcome you home as soon as he heard you were back and has gone on to Moscow with the same intent. Obviously you missed each other on the road.”
Dimitri brushed past her into the drawing room, heading straight for the liquor cabinet. Possessiveness was a new experience for him. He didn’t like it. For a moment he had actually thought about throttling his brother just for doing him the favor of fetching Katherine back here—no, not for that. For being out in the countryside alone with her, giving him the opportunity to do what he did best. If Nikolai so much as touched her…
“I suppose you are tired, Mitya, and that is why you are behaving in this boorish manner. Why don’t you get a good night’s sleep, and we can talk in the morning about why you have returned so soon.”
He downed a short vodka before fixing her with his dark gaze. “Aunt Sonya, if I don’t get some answers here very quickly, you’re going to think my present behavior is on the right side of saintly. I came back here to see Katherine and for no other reason. Now, where the hell is she?”
Sonya had to sit down after those terse words, but to her credit, her voice didn’t sound at all as shaken as her insides. “I imagine she has retired for the night.”
“I checked her room. Where is she sleeping, then?”
