Page 66 of You Belong to Me
More shock. “You call her babies horses?”
“No,” he replied patiently. “She calls herhorsesher babies. She breeds them.”
“That isn’t funny, Vasili.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
Alexandra could feel Maria’s incredulous gaze on her again, but she didn’t care. Keeping up the pretense for Maria’s benefit was much easier than she’d thought it would be, with Vasili present. Of course, he wouldn’t remain here. After dinner, he would return to his own house and…
“Just how manyothersdo you have besides that concubine at your house, Petroff?”
Maria gasped. Vasili nearly choked. He couldn’t believe that even Alexandra, as frank as she was, would bring up such a topic in front of his mother, and where the hell had it come from anyway? But at least she was losing her temper with him, and not with his mother. He really couldn’t have arranged it better himself.Thiswas going to be the crowning touch, the coin to tip the scales.
“Only three others,” he answered, aware that his mother’s gaze had just swung back to him, but he kept his own eyes on Alexandra. And Alexandra was gloriously furious. This could only get better. And it did.
“Onlythree others? And you keep them all, pay for them all, fornicate with them all?”
He nearly choked again. His mother sounded as if she were also choking. He didn’t dare look in her direction. Even expecting something of the sort, he could still feel heat rising in his cheeks. And he’d thought Alexandra couldn’t shock him anymore.
Somehow he managed to answer calmly, “Something like that.”
“I’ll find them, Petroff, each one of them, don’t think I won’t. You won’t be enjoying them much longer.”
“Then I suppose I will be visiting you quite often, won’t I?”
“In your mother’s house?” she countered triumphantly. “I don’t think so.”
“You really don’t think that will stop me from keeping my promise, do you, Alex?” he asked in a softly warning tone.
“For a lecher like you, no, I suppose not. But Bojik will, and he’ll be sleeping with me from now on.”
Maria finally found her voice, and it came out quite loudly. “Who…is…Bojik?”
More color mounted Vasili’s cheeks. Alexandra so aggravated him, he had actually forgotten, briefly, that his mother was still sitting there with them. And finally looking at her, he was afraid that he’d managed to shock her as much as Alexandra had.
“Bojik is her dog, Mother.”
“There will be no dogs in my—on second thought—oh, God.” Maria started fanning herself. “You willnotgo sneaking into her room, Vasili, until after the—oh, God. This can’t be—she’s—oh, God.”
“I know, Mother,” Vasili commiserated.
“Didyou know?” Her voice was accusing.
“Not everything, certainly. The trip was quite an eye-opening experience.”
“And you didn’t return her?”
“I believe you told me that wasn’t an option,” he reminded her.
“No, of course, but—oh, God, this is too unexpected. A lady who thinks horses are more important than—”
Vasili wished his mother hadn’t begun her complaints there, because now he had to stop her before she got too far along. But he knew Alexandra wouldn’t tolerate any complaints that included her horses.
“She has a mind of her own, Mother.” Andthen he grinned at Alexandra. “Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”
“I must have misplaced it, to be sitting here listening to you two dissect me,” Alexandra replied as she stood up. But there was no anger in her tone. She even licked her fingers, loudly, before adding, “If you have anything more to say to me, Petroff, I’ll be in the stable. Don’t bother if it’s not what I want to hear.”
At that moment, watching her leave the room, he realized that she expected him to end the betrothal tonight, that just about everything she’d said tonight had been deliberate. Jesus, had she figured out what he had, that his mother could end this thing for them? No, she was guessing, testing the waters, so to speak. When he recalled some of the language he’d heard her use on the trip, he knew she could have been even more outrageous than she’d been. Perhaps she’d merely been trying to show Maria her worst so she wouldn’t be shocked by her on a regular basis—as he’d been.
