Page 74 of You Belong to Me
Tanya chose not to answer that, at least not until she had clarified what she had begun to suspect. “Can I ask you why he didn’t want you to eat anything?”
“Will my answer get back to him?”
“Not if you don’t want it to.”
“Very well. He didn’t wantyouto see me eat anything. He thinks I eat like a pig.”
She said it with enough amusement in her tone that Tanya felt free to ask, “Do you?”
“Only when he’s around.”
“I begin to understand. Lazar told us about the trip, but mostly about Vasili’s behavior. You reallydon’twant to marry him, do you?”
“Wouldyouwant to marry a lecher like him?” Alexandra countered.
Tanya laughed. “I agree he indulges in excess, but he’s too handsome for his own good, and women tend to make fools of themselves over him. I had intended to warn my ladies that he is no longer available.”
“Well, that will save me the trouble of cutting off any more ears.” Alexandra snorted.
Tanya was startled. Lazar hadn’t mentioned that, merely that there had been threats. “Would you really?”
“No, but women tend to prefer not to find out.”
Tanya laughed again. “I suppose not. But, you know, Vasili has never had a reasonnotto be a libertine. And as I understand it, you told him you didn’t want to marry him when you first met him, which wouldn’t have encouraged him to changethataspect of his nature.”
“I had only learned of this damn betrothal a few hours before I met him.”
“You must be joking!”
“Not at all,” Alexandra said in remembered disgust. “My father kept it a well-guarded secret. He was afraid that if he gave me prior warning, I wouldn’t be there to meet Vasili at all, which was likely, considering how furious I was.”
“Was that the only reason you didn’t want to marry him—because you were angry?” Tanya asked gently.
“No…but I’d rather not discuss the other reason.” Alexandra was already blushing, just imagining the queen’s reaction to someone’s waiting seven years for a man to get around to proposing. “It’s—well, I find it embarrassing.”
“Then don’t think of it. But I have to ask, since I’m so fond of Vasili, if you still feel nothing for him.”
Alexandra wasn’t sure how to answer, considering that the womanwasso fond of him. “I have sensed, just recently, that he might have a few good qualities, though he rarely shows them. But—whatever I feel for him, itdoesn’t matter. You said it yourself, how contemptuous and insufferable he can be, and that’s about all I’ve seen from him. I could never get along with someone like that.”
“And how does he get along with you—as you are?”
Alexandra blushed. “I may have pretended to be something I’m not, but I was trying to make it easy for him to end the betrothal, since I can’t.”
And that put Tanya in something of a dilemma, wondering if she should tell Alexandra the truth about Vasili, or if it wouldn’t make any difference if she knew. Lazar had told them some surprising things, about Vasili calling her “his” without realizing it, and asking Lazar to seduce her, then changing his mind, and displaying some obvious signs of jealousy over the girl. That pointed to something other than indifference as far as Tanya was concerned.
“Would you be surprised to know that Vasili has done exactly what you have?”
“What do you mean?”
“He hasn’t shown you his true self. When I said I detested him—and I really did—it was because he was doing everything possible tomakeme detest him, and he did it all deliberately.”
“Why?”
“Because women tend to fall in love with him before they even know him—it’s that face of his—and he was afraid I would do the same when I was to be Stefan’s wife, not his.He loves Stefan, you see. They are more like brothers than cousins. And he’d do anything to assure Stefan’s happiness, including acting like the most despicable, condescending jackass imaginable, when he’s not like that at all.”
Alexandra had gone very still. “He’s not?”
“Not at all—well, perhaps a little arrogant—no, make that very. I believe arrogance runs in the family. And maybe he does occasionally belittle things that he deems unworthy with that diabolical wit of his, but he more than makes up for that with his loyalty and dedication to duty.”
