Page 12 of You Belong to Me
“What you’re really like?” Tanya nearly choked on that one. “You mean, what youcanbe like when you don’t want people to like you.”
Since she spoke from experience, he had to concede her the point. “If you say so. Your Majesty.”
It was Tanya’s turn to give him a sour look. Stefan bit back a chuckle and said, “Go home, Vasili. A good night’s sleep is bound to make your situation look less disastrous. After all, even if you have to marry the girl, you don’t have to—”
“The hell he doesn’t,” Tanya cut in indignantly.
“Itoldyou she’d make fidelity a royal command,” Vasili growled and stomped out of the room.
Tanya barely waited for the door to close before she said, “Oh, God, I love it. The peacock is finally going to get his feathers pulled.”
“I thought you had forgiven Vasili for the way he behaved toward you on your trip to Cardinia.”
“I have,” she assured her husband. “I understand he was only trying to keep me from falling in love with him. But he should have figured out right away that that wasn’t going to happen, instead of being such an utter ass nearly the entire trip. But he’s still a peacock, and I can’t tell you how much I’ve hoped thatsomewoman would bring him down a peg or two, though I wish it were one he was interested in. Vasili’s problem is that women don’t tell him no. They don’t wait to get to know him, they fall instantly for that face of his, and imagine what that’s done to him. It’s no wonder he’s so insufferably arrogant. He can’t get through a day that some woman isn’t trying to seduce him.”
Stefan laughed at her look of disgust. “You would be surprised, Tanya mine, how annoying Vasili finds that circumstance.”
She snorted. “Oh, sure he does, about as much as I don’t like being pregnant.”
Since she was absolutely thrilled about her pregnancy and everyone knew it, she’d just dismissed his remark. “But it’s true,” he insisted, his sherry-gold eyes glinting with laughter. “There is, after all, only so much one man can do in one day.”
There was no way she could restrain her sarcasm now. “Well, that explains it. He gets annoyed when he can’t accommodate every woman who asks. I can’t tell you how sorry I feel for him. I’m probably the only woman he’s ever met who actually,seriously, disliked him, but that doesn’t count, since that’s just what he was striving for in my case. But I honestly think it would do him a world of good to meet a woman who ignores him. Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll ever see it happen.”
“And you say you’ve forgiven him?”
She sighed. “I’m sorry, Stefan. I suppose I do still have trouble separating the Vasili Imet from the Vasili I know now. I know he’s usually charming. I know he can be terribly sweet at times. And, of course, I know how fiercely loyal he is to you, and I love him for that. But the arrogance and condescension, the derision and scorn—that didn’t come from nowhere. He has all those traits, though I will allow, not in the abundance I first thought.”
“I’ll go along with the arrogance, but that’s all,” he replied loyally.
She started to argue, but his raised brow stopped her. Vasili was, after all, not just his only cousin, but as close to him as any dearly loved brother could be.
“Oh, very well,” she conceded. “But he’s dreaming if he thinks he can get this Russian girl to cry off from marrying him, and you know it. She’s going to fall instantly in love with him, and no matter how nasty he tries to be, it won’t make any difference in the end. He’ll break her heart, but she’ll still want him for her own.” And then Tanya sighed. “I pity that poor girl, I really do.”
5
Two months later, the girl Tanya had pitied was still blissfully unaware that she had a betrothed, or that his arrival was imminent.
Anna was with Constantin when Bohdan brought the news that the Cardinian was only a few hours away. The baron had stationed a number of men along the roads leading to his estate for just that purpose, so he wouldn’t be caught unawares, and because, despite Anna’s pleading to do otherwise, he was waiting until nearly the last minute to apprise his daughter of the upcoming nuptials.
“He has certainly dragged his feet about getting here,” Constantin felt compelled to grumble. “The countess’s letter informing me that he was coming arrived more than a month ago. He should have been right behind it.”
“And what does that tell you?” Anna asked, receiving no more than a scowl for an answer. “Exactly. It says he doesn’twant to get married.”
Constantin was nervous, extremely nervous, not only because Count Petroff was finally about to arrive, but because he had yet to inform Alexandra that she had a betrothed.
Anna read his thoughts correctly. “When are you going to tell her,afterhe’s arrived here?”
“You don’t think that might help, letting her meet him without knowing who he is?”
“Are you mad?He’llmention the betrothal and she’ll laugh in his face, and that will start things off wonderfully, won’t it?”
His scowl grew darker. Anna had done nothing but nag him about his decision since he’d first told her about it. Perversely, the more she inflamed his guilt on the subject, the more stubborn he turned.
Now, when he made no move to summon Alexandra to finally break the news to her, Anna sighed in exasperation. “At least give her time to change, or do you want him to meet her when she’s in her britches?”
She was right, that wouldn’t do at all, and he hadn’t even thought of it. Alexandra would need at least an hour to wash the stink of the stable off her and to make herself pretty, and there was no telling how long their argument was going to last before then. Not once did he consider the possibility that there wouldn’t be an argument. He knew his daughter too well.
Immediately he left the dining room, where he and Anna had been sharing a late breakfast. He sent a servant straight out to the stable, then retreated to his study to wait.
