“Vodka is more appropriate here.”
“I’ve tried your vodka, thank you, and didn’t particularly care for it. I’ll have tea, if you don’t mind.”
Dimitri waved a hand, and Katherine glanced up to see one of two footmen standing by the door turn and leave the room.
“How nice,” she said tightly. “Now I get a chaperon. Rather late, don’t you think.”
Dimitri waved his hand again and the door closed, leaving them alone. “The servants are always so underfoot, after a while you don’t notice them.”
“Obviously I haven’t been here long enough then.” Katherine opened the door to what was on both their minds, but quickly, cowardly, closed it again. “So, Dimitri, how have you been?”
“I have missed you, Katya.”
That wasnotthe turn the conversation was supposed to take. “Am I supposed to believe that, after you disappear for three months?”
“I had business—”
“Yes, in Austria,” she interrupted curtly. “I was told, but only after you sent for me. Before that, you could have been dead for all I knew.” Oh, God, her resentment over his long neglect was showing. She hadn’t meant him to know how much she had missed him too.
The tea arrived, obviously prepared ahead of time. Katherine was saved from making a further blunder and given time to get her thoughts back under control. She poured the tea herself, taking her time over the ritual. Brandy had been brought for Dimitri, but he didn’t touch it.
When Katherine remained quiet, sipping her tea, Dimitri realized she was done taking him to task for the moment. But he wanted the worst over.
“You were right, you know,” he said softly, drawing her eyes back to his. “I should have sent you word before I left for Austria. But as I said earlier, I have much to apologize for. I also should have left Austria sooner, but unfortunately the business took longer than I expected and… Katya, I’m sorry, but the harbor is now closed. There will be no sea travel from here until spring.”
“Then I can’t go home?”
He expected her to respond that the whole country couldn’t be closed off, and indeed it wasn’t. Dimitri had more lies ready to convince her that the open ports were not for her. Her simple question threw him, however.
“Why aren’t you upset?” he demanded.
Katherine realized her mistake. “Of course I’m upset, but I was afraid this would happen when it started snowing on the way here. I have had days to accept the idea already.”
Dimitri was so delighted that she was already resigned to staying that he nearly smiled, ruining the contrition he was supposed to be feeling. “Of course the southern ports are open, but a thousand miles away and a grueling trip this time of year even for a Russian used to the weather.”
“Well, that is certainly out of the question for me,” Katherine replied quickly. “I practically froze just coming here.”
“I wasn’t going to suggest it,” Dimitri assured her. “There is also the western route overland through to France.” He failed to mention all the open ports along the coasts between here and there, but then he was counting on her not thinking of that. “But again, it is not a trip recommended for winter.”
“I should think not,” Katherine replied. “I mean, if Napoleon’s undefeated army could be defeated by a Russian winter, what chance would I have? So where does this leave me?”
“Since this is my fault—after all, I did promise I would have you on a ship back to England before the river froze—I can only hope you will accept my hospitality until the ice melts in the spring.”
“In the same capacity?” she inquired. “As prisoner?”
“No, little one. You will be free to come and go as you like, to do as you like. You would be my guest, no more.”
“Then I suppose I have no choice but to accept,” she said, sighing. “But if I’m no longer to be watched and guarded as before, aren’t you afraid I’ll denounce you for a kidnapper to the first person I meet?”
Dimitri was flabbergasted. This was too easy. In all the hours he had spent going over his plan, imagining her reactions, this quick acceptance was not one of the responses he had anticipated. But he was not one to bemoan good fortune.
He grinned at her. “It will make a most romantic tale, don’t you think?”
Katherine blushed. Dimitri, seeing the warm color spread across her cheeks, recalled other times she had looked just so, times when she had been more receptive to him. He was so moved that he forgot his resolve to go slowly with her this time and immediately closed the space between them, proving that Katherine’s defensive tactic of sitting in a small chair so as to remain far apart from him was pointless. He lifted her, seated himself, and tugged her gently onto his lap.
“Dimitri!”
“Hush. You protest before you even know what my intentions are.”
