Beth was indeed heading for Regent Street, in the next block, but that didn’t allay any of Katherine’s suspicions. It was as good a place as any to meet William, not nearly as crowded as in the afternoon, but congested nonetheless with clerks rushing to work, servants shopping for their employers, wagons making deliveries; and being a main thoroughfare, the street was quite crowded with carriages and coaches and advertisement wagons, those dreadful vehicles that caused so many traffic tie-ups in the afternoon.
Katherine lost sight of Beth when she turned onto Regent Street and had to hurry to the corner. But there she stopped. Beth had halted three shops down and was examining the display in one of the windows. Katherine didn’t dare get any closer, so she stayed where she was, impatiently tapping her foot, ignoring the people who passed her. It was a busy corner.
“Hello, luv.”
Katherine didn’t hear him, never dreaming the fellow would speak to her.
“Don’t be snooty, now.” He grabbed her arm to gain her attention.
“I beg your pardon.” She looked down her nose at him, which wasn’t easy when he was a half-head taller than her.
He didn’t let go of her. “Hoity-toity, ain’t you? But I like that.”
He wore a suit, even carried a cane, but his manners left much to be desired. He was rather good-looking, but Katherine didn’t take that into account. Never in her life had a stranger laid a hand on her before. There had always been grooms or footmen surrounding her to keep that from happening. She was at a loss how to deal with this, but instinct made her jerk her arm back. His grip held.
“Goaway, sir! I don’t wish to be bothered.”
“Now don’t put on airs, luv.” He was grinning at her, liking the sudden challenge. “You’re just standing here with nothing better to do. It won’t hurt you to pass the time.”
Katherine was appalled. Was she supposed to argue with him? Not likely. She had already made her wishes known.
She drew back the hand that clutched Lucy’s sturdy little reticule by the string and let fly at him. The fellow let go of her to jump back. He avoided being hit, but in doing so, collided with another man waiting to cross the street. That man shoved him away forcefully, with a sharp oath that stung Katherine’s ears and brought vivid color to her cheeks.
The moment her accoster righted himself, he glared at her. “Bitch. A simple no would have sufficed.”
Katherine’s nostrils flared angrily. She very nearly stooped to his level to tell him what he could do with his misplaced indignation. But she had too much breeding for that. She gave him her back, then groaned when she saw that Elisabeth had moved on during the commotion and was nearly half a block away now.
Chapter Four
Anastasia fretted at the delay. It seemed as if their coach had been stuck on this busy corner for a half-hour, waiting for an opening in the heavy congestion on Regent Street so that they could cross over and continue on their way. Their uncle’s townhouse was only a few blocks away. She could have got there quicker if she had walked.
“I hate this city,” Anastasia complained. “The streets are so narrow and always so crowded compared to St. Petersburg. And no one ever hurries here.”
Dimitri said nothing, not even reminding her that this was where she said she wanted to stay. He simply sat staring out the window. What did she expect? He had hardly said two words to her during the entire journey to London. But then he had said more than enough before they left the Duke’s country estate.
Anastasia shivered, remembering his rage. He hadn’t beat her. She almost wished he had. His anger had been just as nerve-racking.
After he had ranted and called her every kind of a senseless fool, he had said scathingly, “What you do in bed, and whose bed you do it in, is not my concern. I have allowed you the same freedom that I enjoy myself. But that is not why I’m here, is it, Nastya? I am here because you had the temerity to scornGrandmere’swishes.”
“But it was unreasonable for her to send me home for such a minor thing.”
“Quiet! What is minor to you is not minor to these English. This is not Russia!”
“No, in Russia Aunt Sonya monitors my every move. I have no freedom there.”
“Then I will do well to put you in the care of a husband, who will perhaps be more lenient.”
“Dimitri, no!”
The matter was not open to discussion. He had made his decision. And even that was not the blow she had been anticipating in retaliation for the inconvenience she had caused him. It came just before he turned to leave her.
“You had better hope to God that my plans have not been ruined by this unnecessary trip, Nastya,” he told her brutally. “If they are, you can be sure the husband I find for you will not be to your liking.”
And then he had been most congenial for the four days he had stayed to visit with the Duchess. But Anastasia could not forget the threat hanging over her future. It was too much to hope that he hadn’t meant it, that it had been said only in anger. A husband wasn’t too bad if he allowed her freedom and ignored her indiscretions. And at least she would be out from under Sonya’s rigidity. But a man who would demand fidelity, who would cruelly enforce his wishes on her, set his servants to spy on her, beat her if she defied him, that was another thing entirely, and that was exactly what her brother was threatening her with.
She had never suffered his wrath before. She had seen it fall on others, but with her he had always been indulgent and loving. It only showed how mightily she had displeased him in this instance. She had known he would be furious. She had known she had gone too far in disobeying the Duchess. And Dimitri’s cold silence since they had left the country was proof that he had not forgiven her.
They shared the coach alone, which only made the silence that much more unbearable. The dozen servants that he traveled with were in coaches behind them as well as those she had brought to England. There were also eight Cossack outriders who always accompanied the Prince when he left Russia, a necessity, she supposed, considering Dimitri’s wealth. They were a curiosity to the English, these savage-looking warriors with their flowing mustachios and Russian uniforms, fur hats, and numerous weapons. They never failed to attract attention to the Prince’s entourage, but they aptly discouraged anyone from bothering him.
