Secret Fire by Johanna Lindsey Page A

and worse. She moaned despite her resolve not to.
    “Stomp your feet, little angliiskii . It will help.” The words were spoken kindly by the older woman, but Katherine was hurting too much to appreciate her sympathy. “I—I—oh, blast and hang you, Kirov! They don’t draw and quarter felons anymore, but I’ll see the custom revived for you!”
    Vladimir simply ignored her, continuing to rub her ankles and feet briskly, but Marusia chuckledas she did the same to Katherine’s hands. “At least her spirit was not smothered in that trunk.”
    “More’s the pity,” Vladimir grunted.
    Katherine was further angered by their rudeness in speaking to each other in Russian. “I know five languages. Yours is not one of them. If you don’t use French, which I understand, then I won’t bother to tell you why the Queen’s navy is going to pursue this ship all the way to Russia if necessary.”
    “What nonsense,” Vladimir scoffed. “Next you will tell us you have the ear of your English queen.”
    “Not only that,” Katherine retorted, “but her friendship as well, ever since I served a year at court as one of her ladies. But even if that were not so, the Earl of Strafford’s influence alone would suffice.”
    “Your employer?”
    “Don’t humor her, Marusia,” Vladimir warned. “An English earl would not concern himself with the whereabouts of one of his servants. She does not belong to her master as we belong to ours.”
    Katherine noted the contempt with which he said this, as if he were proud to be owned. But the fact that he obviously didn’t believe anything else she had said rubbed her raw.
    “Your first and most grievous mistake was in assuming I am a servant. I didn’t correct you because I didn’t want my true identity known. But you’ve gone too far with this kidnapping business. The Earl is my father, not my employer. I am Katherine St. John, Lady Katherine St. John.”
    The husband and wife exchanged a glance. Katherine didn’t see Marusia’s expression. Itseemed to say to her husband: “You see? Now you can understand the commanding arrogance, the haughty disdain.” But Vladimir’s expression showed not a whit of concern for what Katherine had revealed.
    “Whoever you are, you waste your anger on me,” he told Katherine with utter calm. “I did not act on my own this time. I followed orders, specific orders, even to the suggested use of the trunk. The oversight of not properly ventilating the trunk was mine, however. You were not to be harmed. And perhaps I should have released you sooner—”
    “Perhaps?” Katherine exploded, wanting to hit him over the head with something.
    She would have gone on, but a wave of debilitating pain spread down her legs at that moment, scattering her thoughts and making her double over with a loud groan. She yanked her hands away from Marusia and dug her fingers into her thighs, but to no effect. Full life was returning to her legs with a vengeance.
    For the last five minutes Maksim had stood in the doorway, listening to the exchange between the three people in fascinated silence, but he finally recalled his duty. “If she is the Englishwoman, the Prince wants to see her immediately.”
    Vladimir glanced over his shoulder, his earlier dread returning. “She is in no condition—”
    “He said now , Vladimir.”

Chapter Ten
    D imitri leaned his head against the high-backed chair and lifted his bare feet to the stool in front of it. It was a comfortable chair, firm, but thickly padded, and served to remind him that he was a man who rarely denied himself anything, be it women, luxuries, or even moods. The chair was one of eight he had purchased, all identical, one for each of his bedrooms in the estates he owned across Europe as well as one to travel with him. When he found something that suited him, he made certain he acquired it. It had always been so.
    Princess Tatiana was such a goal. She would suit him. Of all the glittering beauties of St.