Once a Princess by Johanna Lindsey Page B

was ridiculous.
    â€œIf you wouldn’t mind , I’d appreciate it if you realized I’m still here, much as I wish I weren’t.”
    â€œSorry, Princess.” Lazar grinned down at her, then suddenly laughed as he got a good look at her face. “I don’t believe she has done what Stefan ordered her to do,” he said to Serge.
    That one’s hand came around to turn her face toward him, giving him a quick look at her before she knocked his hand aside. “So she hasn’t.”
    Lazar’s blue eyes were back on her, full of amusement. “I distinctly heard what our friend promised to do to you if you defied him, Tatiana. Perhaps you would like to return to your room now and wash before we take you below?”
    That would be the wisest thing to do at this point, sandwiched between them as she was, with her chance to escape postponed for now. But Tanya hadalways had a rebellious, stubborn streak that had been responsible for more than a few of the beatings she’d received over the years. And she hadn’t been promised a real beating after all, so she’d rather they knew right up front that she was going to be as difficult as she possibly could be, no matter what threats came her way. Just maybe, they might then decide she wasn’t worth the trouble.
    â€œI wash once a month—when I feel like it,” she said brazenly, smiling so there’d be no doubt that that was a lie she intended to stick to. “And I’ve got at least three weeks to go before I get anywhere near water again.”
    â€œSo you intend to defy Stefan?”
    â€œAbsolutely.”
    Serge groaned behind her. Lazar chuckled. Tanya tried slipping out from between them while they were both distracted, but was chagrined to have an arm slip around her waist from behind in what she would swear was no more than reflex.
    â€œIt’s not funny, Lazar,” Serge grumbled over her head, totally ignoring the small hands prying at his arm. “She’s going to make Stefan even angrier than he is now, and right now he’s too angry to be around.”
    â€œHe knows it. That’s why he left.” Lazar tipped her chin up to study her face now that at least half of her haggardness had been rubbed off. “But I have a feeling his mood won’t improve either way,” he added thoughtfully. “We expected to find a beauty, and it looks like that is what we may have here after all.”
    â€œYet he seemed to like her better when he thought she wasn’t,” Serge concluded with another groan.
    â€œMy thoughts exactly. But I wouldn’t worry about it,” Lazar said with blatant cheerfulness now. “For a change, he’s not going to take his black mood out on us—he’s going to take it out on her.”
    If that was said just to make Tanya rethink her stubborn position, it didn’t work. But that didn’t mean she liked hearing it. And she definitely didn’t like the way they continued to talk around her.
    She jabbed Lazar in the chest with a pointed finger, demanding, “If I’m to marry your king, why is Stefan the one giving me orders?”
    That had Lazar grinning again for some reason, a joke shared with Serge obviously, since he glanced at him before answering. “Because until you are wed, you have been placed in Stefan’s care—at our king’s insistence. So it would be to your benefit, Princess, to pacify him rather than antagonize him, don’t you think?”
    Lord help her, they had an answer for every little discrepancy in their scheme that she tried to point out. “What I think hasn’t mattered one bit so far, so why should it now? But answer me this. Does my being placed in Stefan’s care mean that he can take liberties with me?”
    If everything they had told her was true, that she really was to be married and all the rest, then that question should have angered Lazar, or at least