Page 77 of You Belong to Me
Now I must tell you how sorry I am for all the trouble I put you through. Please be assured that I bear you no grudge. In fact, I wish you well, Petroff.
Vasili read the letter a second time, then a third, but it still didn’t sound like Alexandra. The words were too stiff, and the sentiment? She bore him no grudge, was sorry, actually wished him well? Not his Alex. And how did she dare to leave? How did she dare to assume that his mother’s word was the final word?Hehadn’t released her from her promise.
To hell with fate. Give it a chance, and damned if it didn’t suit you.
34
“She left her horses with me, even the two stallions,” Vasili said, his voice still expressing disbelief. “They mean everything to her. How could she leave them?”
Stefan led Vasili to a chair in the audience room, where his closest friends were gathered; he even pushed him down into it, but this was the second time he had done so, and he doubted his cousin would remain there for long this time either. Vasili was angry, yet he was bewildered, too, and it wasn’t a combination that sat well with him.
“Try thinking about it logically,” Stefan suggested. “She would leave them because shedoescare so much for them, and it’s the middle of winter.”
Stefan had been allowed to read the note Alexandra had left; he’d had it thrust into his hands, actually. They had all read it, though Vasili hadn’t noticed it being passed between Serge and Lazar, he’d been pacing so hard.
“Besides the weather,”Lazar added, “the reason she gives is a sound one. It’s too soon to take them on another long, grueling trip.”
Vasili shot back to his feet for some more pacing. “Then she would have stayed with them until they could travel with her.”
“When your mother told her that there would be no marriage?” Serge reminded him. “The girl probably assumed she was no longer welcome.”
“Then perhaps she didn’t go far,” Stefan said. “She could still be in the city.”
Vasili shook his head. “No, her man, Bulavin, said she left Cardinia, that she won’t be back, not even to collect the horses. She’s going to send for them.”
Tanya had just finished reading the note and looked up. “Obviously Alexandra trusts you to keep them safe for her, Vasili.”
He snorted. “She doesn’t.”
“I have reason to believe she does,” Tanya said.
That arrested him, and his golden eyes settled on her intently. “What reason?”
“It’s just an…impression I got, after talking to her,” she said evasively.
“You mean she didn’t drag my name through the mud?” he asked sarcastically.
She smiled gently at his remark. “Actually, your name might have gotten a few sprinkles of dirt on it. After all, she can’t help thinking you’re a lecher, when it’s a well-established fact that you are.”
His reply was indignant. “I’ll have youknow I haven’t touched another woman since I met her.”
It was Serge who caught the implication in that. “Anotherwoman?”
“Oh, Vasili.” Tanya sighed now in disappointment. “Don’t tell me you seduced that innocent girl when you had no intention of marrying her.”
And from Lazar: “Jesus, Vasili, when did you manage that, as cramped as the accommodations were on the whole trip?”
Vasili was flushing with heat by then. “It was hardly a seduction when—never mind. It doesn’t matter, since Iamgoing to marry her.”
“You are?” more than one of them asked incredulously.
And Stefan said calmly, if a bit dryly, “I suppose this means you’re leaving again.”
Vasili nodded. “Within the hour. I only came here to tell you.”
“It’s late afternoon,” Lazar said. “Shouldn’t we wait until morning?”
“Not when she left early yesterday—and I wasn’t inviting you,” Vasili retorted.
