Page 40 of You Belong to Me
“I’m being spied on? Well, then, I’ll have to return the favor, won’t I? And I’ll start by finding out tomorrow what you were doing today.”
His brows rose. “You mean at the farmhouse I discovered—”
“You philandering—!”
“Now, now, whatareyou accusing me of?” He was almost laughing, he was so pleased by what she was thinking. “As it happens, it was already getting dark when I found the place, so I didn’t have time to dally. But as long as we’re on the subject, let me remind you that your own behavior had better remain completely virtuous—at least until after you’ve borne me an heir. Then you can do whatever you like.”
“Oh, I intend to do whatever I like, but I won’t wait until I have your permission. You, on the other hand, have had your last tawdry liaison.”
He was no longer pleased, but frankly incredulous. “In other words, you can, but I can’t?”
“You men have had a monopoly on that sentiment for far too long. You should have known thatsomeday a woman would turn the tables on you.”
“But it isn’t going to be you, sweetheart,” he said with a cold, sharp edge to his tone. “You’re fond of cutting off ears? I’ll cut off a hell of a lot more than that from any man who puts his hands on you—at least until after—”
“Yes, yes, you’ve already saidthat,” she snapped, out of patience. “What makes you think I can even bear children? Maybe I’ve already tried and failed.”
She struck a nerve with that barb. “Then maybe we ought to find out beforehand.”
“Don’t even think it, Petroff, orI’llcut off more than ears.”
They were glaring at each other nearly nose to nose. Stalemates were sounsatisfying, but they each knew that they’d reached one.
And then Vasili’s nose suddenly twitched and he leaned back to say, “Damn, what is that smell? I thought it was the horses, but it’s coming from you.”
Alexandra blinked, then stopped herself just in time from laughing. “Me?” She tried to sound indignant. “I don’t smell any different than I always do.”
He was really scowling now. “Woman, you did not stink when I met you.”
She shrugged. “I had just had my monthly bath when you met me.”
“Monthly?” he choked out.
She opened her eyes wide. “You think that’s too often? I always thought so, but Papa insisted.”
Vasili walked away in disgust.
Alexandra grinned from ear to ear.
18
Alexandra’s embarrassment lasted for two days. She should have taken Vasili at his word, but no, she’d had to stop at that farmhouse he’d mentioned—and find out that the only inhabitants were an old couple and their two grandsons.
Whether he had dallied or not, it wouldn’t have been with the old woman there unless he wasreallydesperate, and apparently he wasn’t, because he had been laughing when Alexandra had come back out to mount her horse. And he’d been smiling ever since, or so it seemed. That round had definitely been his, damn him.
But he had gone one better. When they’d stopped at an inn last night, he had sent a bath to her room with a message she couldn’t ignore.Use it or I will be pleased to assist you. And the insufferable popinjay had sniffed her when she had come down to dine afterward.
But when an opportunity came for her to get even, she pounced on it, not realizing just how effective it would be.
The town they arrived at later that week had a small but elegant hotel, and as usual, it was an establishment that Vasili was already familiar with, since they were retracing the route he had taken to her home. She had at first worried that the hotel would have too many women on staff for her to keep track of them all, so she determined that she would have to keep track of Vasili instead.
But she found out that he had spent only one night at the hotel the last time he’d been there, even though the rest of his party had stayed much longer. This was where they had stopped for an entire week, and not because a member of his group had been ill. Vasili had lied to her father. He had caused her to pack and leave her home with less than a day’s notice. Why?
The lady’s name was Claudia Shevchenko, a young widowed countess, and Vasili had spent the entire week in her bed, or not far from it. Her home was down the street from the hotel, and he had met her the night of his arrival in town, when she had been at the hotel dining with friends.
The story had been easy enough to obtain because the two had created quite a scandal. It wasn’t a large town, after all, and the widow was well known here—and supposedly pious; at least she used to be, before she had met one extremely handsome Cardinian who could seduce an angel if he cared to try. Or so the story went.
So Alexandra was surprised that Vasilididn’t once try to leave the hotel the night they spent there, that he went to bed and actually stayed in it, according to the report she had from Timofee as soon as she left her room the next morning. What didn’t surprise her was to find him absent when she joined everyone outside the hotel to leave.
