Forever in Your Embrace by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss Page B

added expense of housing servants and stabling horses. If the girl wanted them near her so badly, then by heavens, Anna would see that she paid dearly for the privilege.
    “Prince Aleksei will have to decide if you can keep your coachmen and use our facilities while you’re here.” Having issued that statement, Anna excused herself with a curt nod and left the room, throwing back over her shoulder, “Boris will see you to your chambers.”
    Synnovea heaved a sigh of relief, feeling as if she had just won a horrendous battle, but only by the skin of her teeth. Obviously Princess Anna was going to be a lot more difficult than she had first surmised.
    Returning outside, Synnovea gave instructions to her coachmen and left them to find their own way to the carriage house. Then she paused to bid farewell to the captain. “T hank you for your care and kindly consideration, Nikolai. I hope we shall meet again in the future.”
    Gallantly Nikolai bestowed a kiss upon her slender fingers. “Adieu, my fair lady, but I pray that it may not be for long.”
    Synnovea had no way of knowing what the morrow would bring and could find no adequate response. “Take care, Nikolai… druga, my friend.”
    “I’m honored by your friendship, Lady Synnovea. Perhaps we shall meet again…and soon. It would give me great pleasure to see you…now and then.”
    Lightly touching two fingers to her lips, Synnovea reached up and pressed those same digits against his lean cheek. “Even if we’re destined never to cross paths again, Nikolai, remember that I shall value you as a man worthy of my trust. His Majesty did me a great service by sending you to serve as captain of my escort. I’m truly indebted.”
    Synnovea moved away before Nikolai could offer further comment and waved to the rest of the soldiers, who grinned and responded in kind. Then she slipped an arm around Ali’s thin waist and gently guided her to their suite of rooms in the manse.
    In the flickering glow of nearly a score of candles that burned atop a trio of candelabra, it became immediately evident that their new accommodations could not be faulted. A tiny cubicle just off the main bedchamber was furnished with a narrow bed and basic essentials to meet Ali’s requirements for comfort and cleanliness. Within that tiny niche, Synnovea pushed open the windows to let in the cooling evening breezes and then folded down the linens on the cot. Intent upon the maid’s comfort and full recovery, she bade the maid to rest until it was time for the servants to eat. After blowing out the tapers, she withdrew and closed the door quietly behind her.
    The main bedchamber was spacious and comfortably furnished with a chaise, several large chests, and a canopied bed draped with gold silk panels. A heavily decorated porcelain stove stood in a favorable spot where it would provide heat for both rooms during the winter. In all, the room was fit for royalty, yet at the moment, Synnovea felt much like an impoverished orphan within its opulence. Simple truth, she’d have been much happier at home, living well away from the Taraslovs.
    Privately ensconced at last behind closed doors, Synnovea washed thoroughly and then wrapped a long robe about her naked body before snuffing out the candles. The chaise was inviting, and she collapsed in pure exhaustion upon its cushions. Though she needed solace and rest from the ordeal of her meeting with Anna, sleep seemed as evasive as the legendary firebird that Tsar Ivan had purportedly searched for in a Russian fable. Her mind wandered far afield, lingering for a time on the servants whom she had left to tend her home and the myriad questions they had presented about her expected return, which, sadly, had been beyond her ability to answer.
    In greater detail Synnovea mulled over the qualms she had battled after receiving the tsar’s message. Anna was his cousin and touted to be his favorite, though some close to the monarch had offered the theory that the