Page 76 of You Belong to Me
Unfortunately, that topic happened to be on Maria’s list. “The girl refuses to ‘waste any more time,’ as she puts it, with fittings, and she won’t wear the several gowns that have been completed for her already.”
“Why not?”
“They are either the wrong color, or too tight, or too loose—she never lacks for excuses.”
Vasili managed to keep from grinning. “I have the feeling she’s worn her breeches and shirts too long. She probably finds dresses too constraining now.”
“A lady cannotgo about dressed as she does!”
“I know, Mother.”
“She can’t hold a fork or a knife without dropping it. The most disgusting words come out of her mouth when she gets the least bit frustrated. And she threatened to roast my cook!”
That one caught his interest. “She got angry with Monsieur Garrard? Why?”
“Because I thought she could benefit from the experience of a seven-course meal,” Maria replied stiffly.
“But that would take hours,” he pointed out.
“Exactly, and before the sixth course arrived, she marched into the kitchen and told Monsieur Garrard that ifhe sent out one more course, she’d make sure he was in it. He quit.”
“I never liked his soufflé anyway,” Vasili managed to say straight-faced before he burst out laughing.
Maria glared at him, but that didn’t curb his amusement. He wished he could have seen Alexandra in the kitchen. She must have been magnificent with her midnight eyes flashing, her breasts heaving…
“How can you laugh?” Maria demanded. “She’s no longer even pretending to try to correct her behavior. She claims we have no right to change her.”
That sobered him, and he said quietly, “She’s right, you know. We don’t have the right to try to change her.”
Apparently that wasn’t what his mother was hoping to hear, because she said, in an offended tone, “You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”
“What?”
“That I made a mistake, that I never should have insisted you collect a bride sight unseen.”
“Isthat what you’re saying?”
“I’m telling you that you can’t marry this girl. She doesn’t want to learn how to be a lady. All she wants to do is much about in a stable. Stefan will agree. We can’t have someone like that in the family.”
“Stefan won’t care one way or the other—what about my father’s honor?”
“Vasili, I promise you, your father wouldbreak that betrothal himself if he were alive today. He made a contract in good faith, but Baron Rubliov broke that faith by allowing his girl to turn out as she has. And you needn’t hide your relief for my sake. Iknowthis is what you’ve been waiting to hear.”
It was indeed, but now that he’d heard it, he wasn’t reacting as he’d imagined he would. Instead he felt as if the bottom had dropped out of his belly.
“Where is she?”
“Locked in her room,” Maria replied. “She has been there since early yesterday morning, which is why I sent for you. She won’t open the door. She won’t even answer inquiries. I’ve never known anyone who could be so willfully stubborn.”
Neither had he. “I’ll take care of it,” he said on his way out of the room.
“Good,” she huffed. “And you can also make the arrangements to send her home. I’ve already told…”
He didn’t hear the rest of what she was saying because he had already started to run. Even as a child, he’d never reached the upper floors so quickly. That he didn’t know which room was Alexandra’s didn’t slow him down, but it was fortunate that an upstairs maid appeared to point him in the right direction, or he would have broken down every closed door in the house, locked or not.
Hers was still locked and she wouldn’t answer his demands to open it. It didn’t take him long to break it down, because his furywas mounting at what he knew he would find. His Alex had too much courage to hide behind locked doors. And he was right. She wasn’t there. The room was empty of her possessions, too. Then he saw the letter propped against the pillows on the bed. And next to it lay the ring he had given her.
Your mother has told me that you can’t marry me, Petroff, so I am released from my promise. In your happiness over this news, I hope you will grant me a favor. It is too soon for my horses to travel again, so I ask that you allow them to remain in your stable until I send for them. I have left their grooms to see to their care. If you don’t agree, inform the head groom, Bulavin, and he will make other arrangements.
