The carriage lurched into motion, saving her from having to answer. She changed the subject to one she found more comfortable.
Alexei smiled as Michelle prattled on about the mountains around them. Since he had found her at St. Bernard’s School for Girls, he had found out how different she was from his expectations. Her mother had been world-weary, tested by years of living two separate lives. Michelle was an innocent, believing that she could change the world simply because she did good for those around her.
Innocent mayhap in many ways, but he could not be unaware of her enticing beauty. Her mother had been an elegant hostess, winning the admiration of men throughout Europe. He should have been prepared to discover that Michelle possessed Sophie’s elusive allure, which he had sensed even though Sophie D’Orage had been many years his senior when they worked together. Yet it was Michelle’s innocence that made her even more irresistible than her mother.
His hand curled around her shoulder, halting her in midword. When she glanced up at him, her eyes luminous in the dim light, he smiled. A man could lose himself in those eyes, if he was not cautious. It was his good fortune that he was always cautious. If he had not been, he would have given in to his yearning to press her back into that bed and teach her how much rapture they could share. She was concerned that he was sleeping on the floor night after night, but she need not be, for he could not sleep, plagued with the intoxicating thoughts of her so near.
“Liebchen.” At her grimace, he smiled and repeated, “Liebchen, there are some things you need to know about how we must appear when we reach Vienna.”
“Such as?”
“Everything said or done in our apartment must never be discussed elsewhere.”
Her eyes sparked. “Do not treat me as if I am completely naïve, Alexei.”
He flinched at her words. Had she become privy to his thoughts? Warning himself not to be fanciful, he let his hand slip along her arm. He fought his yearning to press her back against the seat and claim her lips. To claim all of her. With her hair flowing along her back and her eyes hooded with fatigue, she had a vulnerability that was beguiling.
He put his hand back up on the top of the seat. His fingers clamped into a fist. Nothing had changed. He had been a fool to kiss her even that first time. And then to have kissed her again … This torment was of his own making.
His words were squeezed out past his taut jaw. “Treating you as anything but my translator was not my intention.” Even though he tried to pull it away, his gaze centered on her soft mouth, which was parted so slightly in an invitation he was sure she had no intention of offering. He shook his head to clear it He must think only of the reason he was going to Vienna and why she was going with him.
“Then what is your intention? I do not carry tales.” She arched her shoulders. “Nor do I have to suffer your pawing when we are alone.”
His lips tightened when he realized his hand had cupped her shoulder again. “Pawing? I was only trying to offer you comfort after what you suffered.”
“With that man or with you?”
A growl came from deep in his throat as he pressed her back against the seat. As he leaned over her, his hands caught her face between them. “If you don’t know the difference between rape and seduction, Liebchen, allow me to show you.”
He savored her beneath him as he captured her lips with a gentle kiss that startled her, for she stiffened in the moment before she raised her arms to curve around his shoulders. The wind spun her hair about him. His fingers entwined through it as his tongue tantalized her mouth before moving to outline her throat with kisses. Her breath grew frayed, and the answering response raged through him. Drawing aside the blanket, he reached for the ribbon closing her nightgown at her throat.
“Alexei, don’t!”
Not sure whether it was Michelle’s voice or the echo of Sophie’s from his memory, he blinked. Michelle’s eyes were wide with dismay. If stealing her innocence had been his goal, he had almost succeeded. It had not been, for he only wanted to show her he was not like that beast at the Gasthaus, but he had nearly been overcome with his desire for her. What was wrong with him? He never lost his self-control, but this demure schoolteacher threatened to steal it from him with a single glance in his direction. Slowly he moved away so she could sit.
She turned her back on him. When he started to speak, she said, “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say, Count Vatutin, except that you shall honor your vow.”
“Vow?”
“That I can go back to St. Bernard’s whenever I wish.” She looked over her shoulder at him, tears glistening in her eyes. “We must end this right now. I do not want to work for any man who would treat me like this, Count Vatutin.”
“You want to leave because I kissed you?”
She shook her head as the tears glistened on her eyelashes. “No, I want to leave because you seem unable to realize I am not my mother.”
“What does Sophie have to do with this?” he asked, although he could not forget how that voice had rung out through his head. Sophie’s voice telling him to be careful. That had been the first lesson she had taught him, as well as the first one he had forgotten when he drew her daughter into his arms.
“Maman has everything to do with this.” A sad smile stole across her lips. “Maman is the reason you sought me out. You hoped I would be just like her, but unfortunately for you, I am not the woman you love.”
“Love? Sophie?” He regarded her with shock. “You are mad! She was my mentor. Nothing more. Not with me or any man, for, as far as I know, she was always faithful to your father’s memory.”
“So she never had to suffer your idea of a seduction?”
“Michelle, I was just trying to show you—”
“Your fantasies of my mother.”
“You are mad!”
Michelle knew she was not. Alexei’s eyes glowed each time he spoke of her mother. It was just as well that this was over. She liked Alexei’s kisses too much, but no one could compete with a legend, especially when that legend was her mother.
“If you will ask Rusak to stop at the next village,” she said, “I can—”
“I will not let you travel back to Zurich by yourself.”
“But you said that you would—”
“I am quite aware of what I said. I don’t forget conversations. Remember? I remember every damn word you or anyone else says to me. What you must remember is that you know too much now for me to risk your returning to Zurich, where someone could convince you to talk.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and glowered. The carriage hit a rut in the road, and she was tossed against Alexei. He caught her before she could slip to the floor.
“Let me go!” she cried.
“I told you that you are going to Vienna with me, Liebchen. I meant it.” She stiffened when he went on in a dark tone, “Don’t tell me that you will be silent. If anyone else suspects that you are Sophie D’Orage’s daughter, you will find them demanding answers you do not have. They would not accept your tale of ignorance of your mother’s life, and the methods they use to ask their questions can be deadly.”
“You are trying to scare me.”
He nodded, surprising her more. “You are right. You are also right that I did love your mother. How could anyone not love her? She was vibrant and intelligent and, even when I knew her, beautiful. But, Liebchen, I loved her as a boy adores a favorite teacher. She taught me everything I must know to survive in this life I have chosen. What I learned from her, I intend to teach you. The first rule is that once you start, you cannot stop. You are the hunter and the hunted. Every day you must stalk without being caught. It never ends.”
“But I did not choose this life.”
“No, Liebchen, you didn’t.” He sighed. “It was my mistake to choose it for you.”
“At least you are apologizing.”
“No, I am not, for there is nothing to apologize for.”
“You have ruined my life, and
you say there is nothing to be sorry about?” She wrapped her arms around herself beneath the blanket.
“Ruined your life? You wanted to put that staid life behind you.”
“How do you know that?”
“You would not have come with me if you were not bored with life at St. Bernard’s School for Girls.”
“If I had had an inkling of what would happen, I would have refused.”
He shook his head and sighed again. “You still don’t understand. You had no choice. Once I discovered where you were, I knew others would, too. The only way to protect Sophie’s daughter was to bring you with me.”
“You mean that you would have taken me against my will?”
“If necessary.” He caught her face between his hands as she was about to move away. “Your mother saved my life once, Liebchen. I never had the opportunity to repay her, so I shall watch over you until I am sure you are safe.”
Putting her hands on his wrists, she meant to draw them away. Her fingers froze on his as his cold stare riveted her. He was not jesting with her. He believed what he was saying.
“Safe?” she whispered. “From whom?”
“From the ones who would kill you as they did your mother.”
“Maman died in an accident.”
“Do you honestly believe that?”
“I—”
“Honestly! Liebchen, do you honestly believe that?”
Questions she should have asked years ago taunted her. Questions of why her mother was traveling so far from Zurich in the company of strangers, of why there had been a rock slide on a road where there never had been one, of why no one had come to Sophie D’Orage’s funeral but her daughter. And …
She shivered and hunched into the blanket, but this cold came from the center of her heart. “You said it was your fault, Alexei.”
“I should have been traveling with her. Mayhap I would have seen something she missed, but I had decided to take another route because of an obligation.” He looked up toward where Rusak was sitting on the box. “I chose between two friends, and I lost one while barely saving the other.”
“You could not have known what would happen.”
“I knew. Your mother’s enemies are thorough, Michelle. They have been trying to find you, but have been stymied by how Sophie kept her life with you so private. When I learned that they were looking for you, I came to Zurich.”
“But how did you find me?”
His smile had no warmth. “I remember all I hear, and your mother spoke of you to me often enough so I could piece the clues together.” He cupped her chin. “Until you are safe, Liebchen, you shall stay where I can watch over you.”
“How long?” she whispered.
“As long as necessary. We might be together far longer than either of us wish.” His grim tone made his words a threat as he repeated, “Far longer.”
Chapter Six
Opening the door, Alexei motioned for Michelle to precede him into the apartment. It would be home during their stay in Vienna. She hesitated. Crossing the threshold meant another beginning, another collection of unknowns, another farewell to the safety she had known at St. Bernard’s School for Girls.
She forced her feet forward. She was exhausted. For the past two days, they had traveled with a stop only for quick meals and for her to change out of her nightgown and into a dress that was appropriate for traveling.
When she paused just within the door, Alexei pushed past. He lit a lamp and bent to start a fire on the cold hearth. Wrapping her arms around herself to keep out the damp chill, she stared around the room.
She had not expected the second floor of the unremarkable, gray building to be like this. The large room had a trio of windows that overlooked the Plate. She could see snow flying past, and shook her head to dislodge the flakes that had been driven into her bonnet.
“Why don’t you take off your cloak?” asked Alexei without looking up. “I shall light the other hearths while Rusak brings in everything from the carriage.”
“Other hearths?” Her teeth chattered.
He smiled at her. Sitting back on his haunches, he held out his hands to the fire. “You didn’t think we were going to live in poverty in Vienna, did you, Liebchen?” He got to his feet and tossed her cloak over the back of a chair between the hearth and a pair of scarlet settees. Tossing his hat on a marble table near the windows, he laughed. “We have a certain appearance to maintain. As a Russian diplomat, I must live well with my mistress.”
She ignored his grin. Rubbing her cold hands together, she glanced at an arch to her left. The darkness beyond suggested it was a corridor leading to other rooms. She hoped one room was a kitchen. They had not eaten since breakfast, for they had wanted to beat the storm into Vienna.
“Will the other diplomats live here?” Michelle asked.
“You mean from the Russian delegation?” He shook his head as he walked toward the arch. “I like being free to do what I need to do.”
“Why don’t you just be honest? You want to spy on the other delegations and can do it more effectively without your fellow countrymen around.”
He shot her a grin. “Now that sounds like a comment Sophie would have made. You are right. Now stop chattering like a chicken and let me get these fires started. You will not want to sleep in the cold.”
Michelle walked toward the fireplace. She considered following him to explore the apartment, but she ached from the long hours of riding on the uneven roads. All she wanted to do was sleep.
No, that was not true. She looked at the arch. She wanted to be in Alexei’s arms. It was insane. Yet, during the last two days of their trip, he had again treated her with the polite indifference of a brother. She missed his teasing kisses and his bold caresses that dared her to be as brazen.
When the outer door opened, she turned to see Rusak entering. He dropped her bag in the center of the room. Glowering in her direction, he walked back outside. After the attack on her, he had reverted to his scowls. Her hopes that they could become allies, if not friends, had come to naught.
As she untied her bonnet, Alexei strolled back into the room. “What do you think?” he asked, brushing small bits of bark from his coat.
“Of what? This room?”
“You have not stuck your pert nose into the other rooms yet?”
She sighed, for she longed to avoid another argument. She guessed that was as likely as Alexei explaining even one of his strange comments. “I think this room is lovely.”
“A grudging compliment.” He sat on a settee and placed his feet on the table in front of him. At her gasp, he frowned. “Don’t become a nag, Michelle.”
She hung her bonnet on a peg behind the door. “This is going to be my home also. I would prefer not to have to have the furniture marked with bootprints.”
“This was a stupid idea,” he grumbled.
“Bringing me to Vienna was your idea.”
Firing a glare, he said with a snarl, “You need not remind me, but that was not what I meant. I meant it was stupid to find you, thinking you would be as reasonable as Sophie was.”
“You are forgetting one vital thing.”
“What is that?”
Michelle knocked his feet off the table. “My mother would not have been pleased either to be hired under false pretenses. I might be more reasonable if you had been candid with me from the beginning, Alexei.” She bent to pick up her bag.
“Let Rusak do that.”
“He does not like me. Why would I want to make things worse by asking him to run errands for me? He is your servant, not mine.”
Bounding to his feet, Alexei pulled the bag from her hands. “Are you going to force me to be a gentleman?”
“I did not realize I was forcing you to be anything but your customarily beastly self.”
“Beastly?” He stepped toward her, overwhelming her. “If I were to show you—”
The outer door opened behind him. Rusak’s expression showed his abhorrence at seein
g Alexei standing so close to her. Looking away, he carried her small trunk past the arch.
Michelle watched him, wide-eyed. Rusak’s familiarity with the apartment warned that this was not the first time the men had stayed here. She wondered who had shared it with them in the past.
No, she would not even think that. What did she care about Alexei’s past? If it had not touched hers, she would not be here now, and her life would not be all ajumble.
Fatigue deepened Alexei’s voice as he motioned toward the arch. “Lead the way, so I will not find a knife protruding from my back.”
“Alexei, I—”
“Just go. The second door is your room.”
“My own room?” The words slipped out. After all the nights of sharing a room on the way here, the thought of being able to have privacy was delightful.
“Is that dismay I hear in your voice?” he asked as they walked down a broad hallway. A lamp had been lit, and it illuminated the paintings hanging along the walls like a gallery. His quick pace gave her no chance to admire the landscapes.
“Hardly, for I cannot wait to be alone. I do hope the door has a lock.”
“The one to the hall,” he said as he opened the first door.
“I thought you said my door was the second one.”
He smiled and, taking her arm, drew her into a room. A gasp of amazement erupted from her. She had never seen such a magnificent bedchamber. A tester bed stretched toward the ceiling, its cloth of gold curtains shadowing its breadth. Chairs and settees as fancy as the ones in the front room flanked the white stone fireplace. To one side a desk was topped by leather.
“This, Liebchen, is my room.” He reached for another door. “And this is the door that does not have a lock.”
When he ushered her into another room, Michelle shivered. A mistress would never deny her lover access to her private room. Another bed, this one smaller but still taking up half the room’s floor, was set by a mahogany armoire. The door hung open to reveal that it was lined with a brocade that matched the bedcurtains.
Alexei placed her bag on the chair in front of a dressing table, but Michelle’s gaze went to a tub filled with steaming water. Her delight must have been emblazoned on her face, because Alexei began to laugh.
A Sister's Quest Page 7