“Wonderful. A mistress choosing a wife,” Vasili said dryly.
“I thought it was rather a brilliant idea.” Dimitri chuckled. “After all, Natalia knows my likes and dislikes very well, so she wouldn’t suggest anyone that I won’t get along with. She can make this chore much easier for me.”
“You don’t even know where she is at this time of year,” Vasili pointed out.
“So I will just have to track her down. Really, Vasya, I would like this matter over, but I’m not inthatmuch of a hurry. I do have other things to keep me occupied in the meantime.”
When Dimitri returned home, there was another letter waiting for him, this one from his sister…and not at all welcome.
Mitya,
You must come immediately to keep your promise. I have met the man I want to marry.
Anastasia
What promise? He had never promised he would be quick to approve her choice of husband. But if he didn’t, no doubt the minx would find a way to marry without his approval. What was her rush?
Damn, just when he thought he had arranged everything perfectly to give him more time with Katherine before he must send her home, or at least offer to send her home. The more he thought about it, the more he wished he could come up with an adequate reason to keep her here longer. He was fine at coming up with reasons to put off another courtship. Why couldn’t he think of something that would prevent Katherine sailing out of his life?
Chapter Thirty-four
“My lady?” Marusia stuck her head in at the door. “A messenger has finally come from the Prince. We are to leave immediately to join him in the city.”
“Moscow?”
“No, St. Petersburg.”
“Do come in, Marusia, and close the door. You’re letting in a draft,” Katherine said, pulling her shawl closer about her shoulders. “Now, why St. Petersburg? I thought Dimitri was still in Moscow?”
“No, not for some time. He has been to Austria on business and has only just returned.”
Typical, Katherine thought. Why should she be told he had left the country? Why should she be told anything? He just stuck her in the country for months and forgot about her.
“Has the Tzar returned at last? Is that why we go to St. Petersburg?”
“I don’t know, my lady. The messenger just said we were to hurry.”
“Why? Blast it, Marusia, I’m not budging until I know what to expect,” Katherine said irritably.
“I imagine that if the Tzar has returned and the Prince plans to send you home, it would have to be done soon, before the Neva freezes and closes the harbor.”
“Oh.” Katherine slumped back in her chair by the fire. “Yes, that would explain the hurry,” she added quietly.
Where did that leave her? Arriving home with a stomach ballooned with pregnancy and no husband to show for it. Not if she had anything to say about it. She couldn’t do that to her father. Disappear for half a year and then bring home an even worse scandal? No and no again.
She had planned to tell Dimitri about her condition when he returned to Novii Domik. She had planned to demand that he marry her. But it had been nearly three months since she had seen him. Summer had vanished quickly. Autumn was gone as well. She hadn’t planned to spend the winter in Russia, but she wasnotgoing home without a husband. If Dimitri thought he was going to stick her on a ship and have done with her, he was crazy.
“Very well, Marusia, I can be ready to leave tomorrow,” Katherine conceded. “But as for rushing, you can forget it. No more flying carriages for me, thank you, and you can tell your husband I said so.”
“We won’t be able to return as quickly as we got here anyway, my lady, now that the nights are longer.”
“That can’t be helped, but I was referring to the daytime traveling. No more than twenty or twenty-five miles a day. That should assure us a more comfortable ride.”
“But that will take twice as long.”
“I’m not going to argue about this, Marusia. That river can surely wait a few more days before it freezes over.” She hoped not, but then that was the whole point of delaying her arrival in St. Petersburg, that and making sure her baby wasn’t jostled about by the mad Russian drivers.
Dimitri had a fit when he got Vladimir’s message. Katherine insisted on traveling at a snail’s pace. They probably wouldn’t arrive for nearly a week yet. Damn, this was not supposed to happen.
