“You’ve lost a daughter, Princess Elizaveta. You know how it feels. Don’t take Lydia away from me.”
“My sympathies are not lost. But this is out of my hands. Jasha has recovered. The Scarlett sister says he wishes to go to St. Petersburg to show Lydia our proud lineage.”
“Lydia has one here. Come one morning on a coal run. Let me show you Wilcox Coal. My father, her grandfather, worked very hard to create it.”
“Yes, the man you pretended was Lydia’s father, instead of the generous man recovering here.”
She crumbles the flower and tosses the petals into the wastebasket. “Jahleel’s father, my Andrew, came here to fight for his father’s rights and our marriage. Jasha did the same. Legacy means nothing amongst swine. They’ll never honor him or you. They won’t think of him as good as them. So why care what they think?These pigs only learned to bathe and to be civilized from the Moors. Another group of dark people who they owe but refuse to acknowledge.”
“It is easy for you to say. You’re a princess.”
“It is hard. I am a widow and mother who almost lost everything because of hate for my family. I’ll not lose another thing. My granddaughter will not, either. That means you must be safe. People who throw things will eventually use heavier weapons.”
She touches my cheek like I stroke Lada’s limp leg. “I know what we do. We try some ointment.”
“What about Jahleel and Lydia and Wilcox Coal?”
“I’m not finished,” she says. “Tell my son what has happened. Don’t treat him like he’s of no use.”
Shaking my head, I sit on the bed. “How can I ask Jahleel for one more thing?”
“Katherine?” Jahleel’s voice comes through the door to his suite.
Chapter 23
KATHERINE—HIDING THETRUTH
My heart pounds. Katherine the Great is gone. I crawl into my closet and close it to a peekaboo crack. The princess shakes her head and mumbles in Russian.
“Katherine, I couldn’t wait.” Jahleel pushes open the secret door and barges inside. “I wanted to see … Mother?”
“Son, what are you doing?”
“Mamen’ka? I thought Lady Hampton was in here alone.”
He leans on his cane. He’s in a white shirt, cranberry waistcoat, and buff breeches. Freshly shaved and handsome, Jahleel has a healthy color to his cheeks. Has he gone out? Did Jahleel feel well enough to venture beyond the upstairs?
“Alone?” the princess repeats. “You’ve had modistes and a jeweler in here all day.” She picks up the velvet box and opens it. “Excellent rubies. So this bribe allows you to enter a lady’s chambers without waiting for an invitation.”
He takes it from her, juggling the box and his cane. Jahleel doesn’t respond. He’s silent, hunting, looking. “I wanted to see her reaction to my gifts.” He starts toward my closet, but his mother stops him.
Her foot taps. Her arms fold. “You intend to buy her affections?”
“If it were that simple. Nyet, Mamen’ka. I just wanted to give her something nice.”
“I see. To get rid of her clothes and change her room without asking, and of course being in close proximity for your whims, she earns rubies. Hmmm.”
He backs up. “The grunt of disapproval.”
“I do not grunt. I sigh loudly. You have that poor child greatly disadvantaged. Be careful. Be the son Andrew and I raised.”
“I will not take advantage of Katherine any more than she has me.”
“She’s living in fear of breaking whatever new deal you two have struck.”
His eyes turn to the cracked door. I’m sure he sees or senses me. But I’m not budging. Let him think of me more as a coward, than as a woman who can’t run the business she’s made her entire world.
He walks back to the secret door. “Let her know I was looking for her. And I’m not interested in games.”
