Page 31 of You Belong to Me
It was beyond belief what he’d witnessed, what the entire room had witnessed. Such barbarous behavior, such viciousness. She couldn’t bring her complaint to him, could she? She couldn’t make her threats in private,as any civilized person would have. She had to demonstrate for one and all what a little savage she was. And this was the woman his father had chosen for him to marry.
Vasili and Lazar had been friends long enough for Lazar to know what was on Vasili’s mind without asking. But he just couldn’t sympathize, and actually was quietly amused. Because of his incredible looks, Vasilineverhad trouble with women, at least not this kind. It would do him a world of good to find out what other men had to deal with from the fairer sex.
“You might as well forget it,” Lazar offered, his tone neutral.
Those golden eyes, presently glowing, came to meet Lazar’s blue ones. “Forget that my bed is going to be empty again tonight, when I had been looking forward to sharing it with that very accommodating wench? Or forget that my betrothed is a walking, breathing scandal?”
Lazar nearly choked as he tried to cut off the laughter that Vasili’s last comment had prompted. “Forget both,” he managed to suggest. “Your bed was filled to its usual capacity nearly the entire trip here, so a little abstinence on the way back isn’t going to kill you.”
Vasili wasn’t so sure of that, considering the way he’d been feeling since last night, but he replied, “Certainly it won’t, but you’re overlooking the fact that my dalliance was for Alexandra’s benefit more than for my own. Itwas supposed to enrage her enough to cry off, not to allow her to demonstrate an unexpected tendency toward violence.”
“Or bluffing.”
“I wish I could believe that, Lazar. I really did think exactly that when she first made the threat to do what she did tonight. But she’s done just what she said she’d do if I attempted to entertain myself with another woman—cause an embarrassing public scene. Can you imagine her doing something like that at Stefan’s court?”
Lazar grinned. “Stefan might find it amusing. I know Tanya would.”
“And my mother would collapse from the shock. I havegotto get rid of the little barbarian before we reach Cardinia. But tell me how I’m to do that when she has effectively taken away one of my better means of accomplishing it.”
“But you do have other means,” Lazar reminded him. “Which, by the way, you can’t put to use when you’re sitting across the room from her.”
“If I were sitting next to her, I would have throttled her by now,” Vasili replied. “I still may.”
He was not exaggerating. While he still felt such a strong urge to wring her pretty neck, he had been avoiding even glancing in her direction. Yet thinking about it, he did just that. He didn’t expect to be astonished, however, or momentarily to forget his anger.
Alexandra had a chicken leg in one handthat she was waving around as she spoke to her companions. There was a leaf of boiled cabbage in her other hand, a rather large leaf, that she managed to stuff into her mouth with her fingers. She was drinking the wine she had ordered straight from the bottle. Even the bread she ate she dipped into the butter instead of spreading it with a knife. In the five minutes that he stared, utterly amazed, she didn’t once reach for the utensils that lay unused beside her plate.
It came to him then, with swift and thrilling relief, that the answer to his dilemma was Alexandra herself. And it wouldn’t even have occurred to him if he hadn’t just mentioned his mother and the shock she was going to suffer if she had to witness a scene like the one he had viewed tonight. But that and this combined, and heaven knew what else, were going to so revolt his mother, there would be no question of a wedding. She would absolutely forbid it.
“Jesus, Lazar, I may not have to do another thing except take her home and let her dine with my mother. Look at her. She has the table manners of a pig.”
“I’d already noticed, just forbore mentioning it,” Lazar replied, humor in his tone. “I take it you’re not excessively appalled?”
“Are you joking? I couldn’t be more delighted. I’m not going to have to break off this betrothal, and neither is she. If my mother can spend just one day with her, and I’ll makesure she does,shewill refuse to let me marry her, and that’ll be the end of it.”
“Are you going to depend on that when Maria’s fondest wish is to see you wed?”
Vasili frowned at that depressing reminder. “A good point. I will proceed as planned, yet I’m happy to say the urgency is gone. I no longer have any doubt that this matter will right itself.”
“You had doubts?”
“I was close to terrified, if you must know,” Vasili said with little exaggeration.
Lazar snorted. “I don’t see why. If you had to take a wife, this one is at least easy on the eyes, full of surprises, which is not a bad thing, and you could always teach her some proper manners. She also glows with good health, which means she’d have no trouble supplying you with a great many heirs.”
“IfI was looking for a wife, everything you’ve said is true, I suppose. But you’ve left out a few important facts. Alexandra’s attitude happens to really irritate me, I don’t particularly like her, and I can name a dozen women who would suit me betterandwho wouldn’t tell me they don’t want to marry me.”
Lazar couldn’t resist chuckling. “Is that still twisting the screw?”
“Don’t be absurd,” Vasili replied and went on to insist, “Her reluctance was merely a surprise, and as it happens, a fortuitous one. I had been dreading the possibility of having todeal with her hurt feelings before she got angry enough to call this off.”
Lazar nodded, as if he truly believed that. “Now you’ll earn her eternal gratitude for proving to be so unacceptable to her that she has the excuse she needs to end it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she laughs all the way home.”
That remark had Vasili scowling, though he wasn’t even aware he was doing it, and he still said, “I’m the one who will be eternally grateful that she’s such a backwater provincial. Her father said she was unique, he just didn’t specify how. Do you think those three Cossacks are her lovers?”
The question was so unexpected, Lazar choked, literally, his food going down the wrong way. It took him a full minute of coughing and throat-clearing before he was able to glare at Vasili and say with rancor, “Just because you think nothing of pleasuring three women at the same time doesn’t mean your betrothed would consider trying the same.”
Vasili had meant nothing of the kind and was amused that Lazar thought he had. “Oh, I don’t know. Countess Eva managed four once—or so I’ve heard.”
