Seized by Love (32 page)

"Did he… the babe… are
you…" He couldn't say the words, but he had to know.

"There wasn't
time," she gasped. "Thank God, there wasn't time."

"Your dress is torn as
if… I found part of it."

"He ordered me to
undress in front of him. When I refused, he tore my clothes from me and then he
tied and gagged me." The words rushed from her as if to exorcise the
horrible memory. "He sat drinking, watching me, as if planning his next assault.
Then I think the journey and drink together proved too much for him and he fell
asleep." She closed her eyes against the horror of her memories.

Nikki kissed her.
"It's over," he murmured. "I'm here. You're safe…" And
swiftly shrugging out of his leather jacket, he covered her trembling
shoulders. "Wait here," he whispered, "I'll be with you
soon." He didn't want her to witness his vengeance on Forseus. She'd have
nightmares enough.

Following the voices of his
faithful servants, he came to a camp clearing where three men stood under the
guns of Ami and Yukko. Nikki immediately recognized the evil countenance of
Forseus.

He could think of nothing
now but killing the man who had stolen his mistress. In a low, savage voice
Nikki said, "Prepare to meet your maker, Forseus."

Forseus stared at Nikki
with a bestial ferocity, his eyes flecked with insanity, and when he spoke his
words were uttered with the finality of the deranged. "The Jezebel
deserves to die for her sins," he intoned, the fire of a zealot burning in
his eyes.

Snatching his pukku from
its sheath, Nikki leapt at Forseus, driving him helplessly down on his back,
forcing his advantage of size and strength ruthlessly. Wild with loathing,
Nikki's eyes raged with venom. The point of his hunting knife flashed in the
air.

Instantly springing into
action, Yukko stayed Nikki's knife hand, talking rapidly while he held back the
shuddering strength. But his master was too strong. Nikki shook him off and
lunged for Forseus, who had risen to his feet.

As he was about to strike a
murderous blow, Alisa ran forward, Nikki's jacket clutched tightly to her, her
eyes alarmed.

"No! stop!" she
cried, "please, I don't want that man's blood on my conscience. Please,
Nikki!"

It was the only voice that
could have stayed Nikki's hand, and even then he hesitated before pulling back
from Forseus's chest. He gazed up at Alisa, indecision in his glance, and then
he rose abruptly, releasing the man he'd held helpless beneath him. Pointing
his knife at the man's loins, he said, "I'll not kill you, but if I should
see your face again, you'll not survive."

With the fanaticism of
insanity, sustained by an aberration he called religion, Forseus screamed,
"God will punish you for your sins!"

"Will he indeed?"
said Nikki icily. He picked up Alisa and mounted his horse. Then, wheeling his
mount, he rode out of the clearing, followed by Ami and Yukko.

They traveled home slowly,
Nikki holding Alisa closely to him, both filled with an enormous sense of
gratitude and relief, their essential spirits at peace. The miles passed in a
silence of contented exhaustion. Much later, Nikki looked down on the red-gold
curls, the delicate face dozing lightly on his chest, and said softly, "I
love you," very simply and without emphasis, the raw terror of almost having
lost Alisa still brutally fresh in his mind.

Through the mists of a
light half-sleep Alisa responded faintly to that staggering statement with a
small, satisfied smile.

Nikki placed a gentle kiss
on her tousled curls.

They were going home.

The first evening back at
Mon Plaisir, Nikki and Alisa retired contentedly to their bedchamber after
putting the lovable Katelina to bed. Nikki had ordered a sumptuous dinner to be
served to them to celebrate Alisa's homecoming. Numerous sterling candlesticks
illumined the small table a deux, lending a lyrical poetic brilliance to the
scene.

Arranged before them in
precise rows on Lanerschy decorated china plates were unbelievable quantities
of succulent, lightly scraped asparagus. Instructions as to their preparation
had been stipulated: no more than seven minutes of the plunged stems in boiling
water or heads will roll, Nikki had teasingly commanded of his beaming cook.

Finger bowls were laid out,
and a large sauceboat of melted butter rested between the two services. Nikki
silently reached across the small table with his long arms, rolled up the sleeves
of Alisa's dressing gown, did the same to his linen shirt-sleeves, and
admonished her in a thoroughly relaxed drawl as he reached for his first spear,
to please forget etiquette and enjoy the pleasure of the delicious vegetable.

Alisa hesitated momentarily
as she contemplated launching into the plate full of asparagus as Nikki was
doing. As she paused, one hand daintily raised above the plate, Nikki muttered,
typically heedless of decorum, "Yes, I know asparagus is a great stumbling
block in a refined ladies repertoire," he said, smiling, "but, a
propos shoddy table manners, I must confess, they would never cause me to
reject such a charming companion." Gazing up at the most audacious man in
the Empire, Alisa ironically murmured, "How reassuring. I need not pack
then, should I dribble butter down my chin."

"Dribble it anywhere
you like, darling." Nikki's voice held a velvety undertone.

"I do adore the
libertine in you," Alisa acknowledged with a lazy smile, reaching for a
spear.

"I noticed… once or twice
that you did." Nikki's grin was wolfish.

Alisa, already consuming
her first tender spear, smiled and said full-mouthed and muffled, "Eat
now, darling. You'll need your strength."

This harmonious, genial
companionship continued through the entire four courses of superbly prepared
food, and Nikki, in a gentlemanly fashion, forwent the lonely port and cigars
and directed his attention to the lady's entertainment.

And later that evening, as
they sat by the fire, he pulled her to him, looked deep into her eyes, and said
again, "I love you."

Alisa gazed up at him in
tearful disbelief. "I thought it was a dream. But you did say those words
before, when we were coining home."

"I almost lost
you," he quietly said.

"I've loved you from
the first," Alisa whispered.

"It's a word I've
avoided—til now."

"But—I'm so
lovable," she teased.

He smiled down at her,
feeling strangely blessed, an uncommon sensation for a man of his repute.
"Yes," he said, and then his voice turned husky. "I'm a lucky
man."

In the following days,
these lovers, so similar in their volatile temperaments and yet so dissimilar
in the outward appearances of their past lives, settled into an intimate
companionship. They slept and ate and laughed and talked and
agreed.
They entertained Katelina and read together and walked the estate hand in hand.
The rhythm of their days was serene and languorous; the rhythm of their nights
passionate and intense. They lived in a cocoon of love, preoccupied with their
own concerns, oblivious of the outside world.

The summer nights were very
short now, and many evenings after a sauna they'd sit on the porch of the
bathhouse, perched over the shore of the lake, and watch the pale iridescent
colors of the setting sun far into the evening hours. Even the land of the
midnight sun seemed to be presenting an extravagant, sumptuous backdrop to
these glorious, halcyon days. Often on these evenings, when it was warm and
still and heavy with the scent of grasses and clover, they would sing together,
all the old Finnish folksongs. Nikki's bass and Alisa's soft soprano in concert
with Katelina's lilting, high-pitched voice blended in pleasant harmony.

Their relationship, at one
time so turbulent and violent, was in these days without flaw. Late one
evening, after putting Katelina to bed, Nikki and Alisa were sitting in the
library; Nikki was drinking his way to sleep as was his custom, but slowly now
and with none of the reckless intemperance of the past. The Prince was happy,
not the usual frenzied exhilaration that had often passed for enjoyment or the
satisfied lust that offered a certain consolation, but truly a deep, contented
happiness. He watched Alisa from under lowered lashes as she sat across the
Turkish carpet on a small settee, engrossed in Winckelmann's
Excavations at
Pompeü.
Her peaceful beauty reached out and struck him afresh. She was
his, proud now to be his, and she was to have his child. A strange sense of
fulfillment soothed his mind. He actually looked forward to the event. He
wasn't just happy because she was happy, but happy within himself.

Could he have stopped the
passage of time, he would have then. He was content. In the past, he'd always
lived for the uncertain future, hoping to find tomorrow an assuagement of his
restless ennui. But now he wished for neither past nor future. He was
experiencing a happiness that had eluded him for twenty years and he wanted to
halt the progress of time.

Unknown to the participants
of the sunny, contented household at Mon Plaisir, Nikki's father had been
informed by his servants of the dangerous abduction attempt by Val-demar
Forseus.

Prince Mikhail was in a
fine choler, storming and cursing as he paced around his study in Petersburg
one warm summer morning. Damn, insolent pup! He'd wait no longer for Nikki to
come to his senses. Alisa could have been killed by that insane lunatic
Forseus.

I've waited long enough,
biding my time while he thinks only of his amusements, the old prince muttered
impatiently. I even
explained
to him my firm desire for a legiti-mate
grandson, he fumed. I don't have to request. He will obey, he furiously raged.

Prince Mikhail stalked from
his study, bawling for his barrister, his secretary, his Finnish trackers; he
raved and fumed.

"I want an audience
with Alexander II as soon as possible," he commanded his secretary curtly.
"Alisa shall have a divorce before the next sun sets. Send for my
barrister. He must inform Valdemar Forseus of the divorce and offer him a
settlement to sugar the action," he snapped briefly.

"Johanos"—he
turned to the leader of his trackers—"I want Nikki back here as soon as
possible. Go up to Mon Plaisir and bring him back. I don't care how you do it.
I'll write a note informing him of my wishes while you're saddling your
mounts."