To Charm a Prince (33 page)

Duke Magnus cleared his throat. “I would like to know if you can set aside your animosity for Alexander Emerson and welcome him into the family at some future time.”

“Are you considering adoption,” Rudolf asked, “or is he another of your by-blows?”

“Roxanne wants a marriage between Alexander and Victoria,” the duke said. “My wife’s youngest niece has a wild streak. She was allowed an unusual amount of freedom at an early age. She is exceptionally undisciplined and unruly. Roxanne feels that Alexander is strong enough to control Victoria.”

“I can stomach the man as long as he stays away from my wife,” Rudolf answered.

“I am relieved to hear you say that,” Duke Magnus said. “Alexander and I settled on a betrothal agreement yesterday. Of course, we’ll give her another year to mature.”

“Does Victoria know she’s betrothed?” Robert asked.

“Good God, no,” the duke said. “Alexander insists on courting her first, so she won’t fight him.”

“And if Victoria does not develop a fondness for Emerson?” Rudolf asked with a smile.

“She’ll go down the aisle anyway, but she’ll fight us all the way,” Duke Magnus said, his expression grim. “I can’t begin to tell you how infuriating Victoria can be.”

Robert laughed out loud. “Poor Alexander thought he was getting sweet, biddable Samantha but ended up with the family’s hellion. I can almost hear the sound of crashing crockery.”

“Samantha is nothing like her younger sister,” Rudolf said. “Except for that lapse in judgment, she would never do anything contrary to my wishes. I know where she is and what she is doing at all times.”

Robert hooted with laughter. “That’s because you’ve locked her in her chamber.”

There was a knock on the door, and Tinker entered. “Your Highness, three gentlemen are asking for you. They claim to be your brothers.”

“Send them in,” the duke told the majordomo.

Rudolf grinned. It was about time. Too bad they hadn’t arrived a few days earlier. He would still have the Kazanov Venus.

And then they were there. Rudolf rose from the chair and hugged each brother in turn. “Your Grace,” he introduced them, “here are Viktor, Mikhail, and Stepan. Brothers, this is my wife’s uncle, the Duke of Inverary, and his son, also my brother-in-law, the Marquess of Argyll.”

The three princes shook hands with the duke and the marquess. Robert remarked, “Viktor looks exactly like Vladimir.”

“They are twins,” Rudolf explained. “Unfortunately, Vladimir is older by two minutes.”

“They have the look of you except for the blue eyes,” Duke Magnus said. “Sit down, please. Robert, pour them whiskeys.”

“Vladimir tried to kill me to get the Venus,” Rudolf said in English for the benefit of the duke and the marquess. “Olga is in London with him.”

“They married after you left Russia,” Viktor told him.

“How long have you been married?” Mikhail asked.

“Two days.”

“Why are you speaking with us instead of getting a son on your wife?” Stepan asked.

Rudolf’s eyes lit with amusement. “I took care of that
before
the wedding.”

“What is her name?” Mikhail asked.

“What is she like?” Stepan asked. “We want to know everything.”

“Samantha is an angel, everything Olga was not,” Rudolf told them.

“We went to Montague House first,” Viktor said.

“Igor directed us here. He asked me to tell you he is accepting your offer as soon as Vladimir leaves England.”

“Who is lgor?” Duke Magnus asked.

“Igor is the man who abducted Samantha and me from your estate,” Rudolf said. “I offered him a job while he had us locked in that cellar.”

“You trust him to work for you?” the duke asked.

Rudolf nodded. “I always liked Igor. Besides, he had the opportunity to kill us but didn’t.”

“Let’s join the ladies for tea,” Duke Magnus said. “Your Highnesses?”

The Kazanov brothers looked at each other and laughed. “Call me Viktor” the twenty-seven-year-old said.

“I am Mikhail,” said the twenty-five-year-old.

“Stepan, if you please,” the twenty-three-year-old said.

The prince turned to the duke and said, “Call me Rudolf.”

Duke Magnus was obviously touched. The two men shook hands.

“Can I call you Rudolf, too?” Robert asked.

Rudolf grinned and teased the other man. “You may call me Your Highness.”

Laughing and talking all at the same time, the six men walked down the corridor to the drawing room. The duchess sat in a high-backed chair, and Victoria sat on the settee.

“Your Grace, I would present my brothers, Viktor and Mikhail and Stepan,” Rudolf made the introduction.

“I am so pleased to meet you finally,” Lady Roxanne told them.

“And this young lady is my wife’s younger sister, Victoria,” Rudolf added.

Victoria gave them an easy smile. “Welcome to England.”

“What an interesting color hair,” Mikhail said, admiring her fiery mane. He sat beside her on the settee.

“I saw her first,” Stepan told his older brother, sitting on Victoria’s other side.

Victoria laughed, pleased by their attention.

“Be careful, Victoria,” Rudolf said, laughing. “My brothers could charm the virginity out of a celibate”

“I wish the settee had space for four,” Viktor complained.

“I’ll get Samantha,” Rudolf said. “She’s upstairs.” He turned to leave the room, but his sister-in-law’s voice stopped him dead in his tracks.

“You won’t find her there, Your Highness,” Victoria announced. “She’s gone.”

Everyone except for his brothers looked stunned. And then his sister-in-law had the temerity to inform his brothers, “His High-and-Mighty Highness locked my sister in her bedchamber.”

“Where did she go this time?” Rudolf asked, his irritation apparent.

Victoria looked him straight in the eye. There was no mistaking her hostility when she answered, “I have no idea.”

Rudolf felt his temper rising. The sister knew where Samantha was hiding.

He impaled her with his black gaze and knew he’d frightened her when she shrank back into Stepan. “I will protect you,” his brother whispered.

“Stepan, mind your own business,” Rudolf ordered.

He looked at Victoria and asked, “How did she escape from a locked room? You stole the key and opened the door, didn’t you?”

“I did not,” Victoria said, lifting her nose into the air. She gave him a smug smile, adding, “Samantha climbed out the window and down the tree.”

“Samantha did that?” the duchess asked, her surprise obvious.

“With my assistance,” Victoria amended. She gave Prince Stepan a sidelong glance and said in a loud whisper, “I needed to climb up the tree to get her down. She was desperate to get away and—”

Rudolf was heartened to see her pale when she looked at him. He was enraged by her bragging about disobeying his orders. He could feel his cheek muscles twitching. His hands itched to slap both sisters, especially this one who had obviously encouraged Samantha to endanger herself by going out the window.

He watched the girl turn to her aunt. “Perhaps climbing down the tree was not a sterling idea.” She turned and looked him straight in the eye, adding, “I don’t blame her, though. You
are
a tyrant.”

“I commend your loyalty to your sister,” Rudolf said. “However, you have no idea of the seriousness of her actions.”

“You don’t know what her actions were,” his sister-in-law told him. “You judged her guilty without giving her a chance to explain herself.”

“What did the lady do?” Viktor asked.

“My wife handed the Venus over to Vladimir,” Rudolf answered his brother.

“The Venus is merely a piece of metal,” Mikhail reminded him.

“The medallion is important to Fedor,” Rudolf said.

“When will you stop fighting that war?” Stepan asked.

“Have you forgotten what Fedor did to our mother?” Rudolf said.

“We have forgotten nothing,” Viktor answered.

Rudolf turned to Victoria, intending to frighten her into telling him where Samantha was. He was unprepared for her verbal attack.

“You ruined her wedding day, and you ruined her wedding night,” Victoria accused him, her voice rising with anger. “When she tried to explain herself, you hurt her.”

“You hurt Samantha?” the duchess asked.

“I hurt her pride,” he answered.

“Pride was all she had,” Victoria shouted.

Rudolf snapped his black gaze to his young sister-in-law. Her words rang with truth, but his anger had blinded him to the fact that Samantha was not Olga.

“Suppose you tell me what exactly her actions were.”

The twit had the audacity to lift her nose into the air. “Your willingness to listen comes two days too late. My sister doesn’t want to explain now. She only wants to be left in peace.”

“You are going to be left in
pieces
if you don’t start talking,” Rudolf growled. “
Now.
”

He could see the seventeen-year-old trembling, but she put a brave face on. “Your oh-so-treacherous wife took her entire life’s savings of one thousand pounds—”

“How did Samantha manage to save one thousand pounds?” Aunt Roxie asked.

“I will begin at the beginning,” Victoria told Rudolf, “but you will not like yourself very much by the time I finish.”

Rudolf inclined his head. “I will chance that.”

“Since we became his wards, His Grace has been kind enough to give us an allowance,” Victoria said. “Samantha saved hers, never even spent a penny.”

That surprised Rudolf. Women were notorious for squandering money, and his wife hadn’t spent a penny. “What was she saving for?”

Rudolf watched his sister-in-law’s expression change from jaunty impertinence to remembered anguish. He felt a tremendous weight settling around his heart. He didn’t want to know the rest of her story, but knew he needed to hear it.

“I asked her that once,” Victoria said. “Samantha told me she was saving for her old age.”

Everyone laughed, including the prince. “Old age?” he echoed.

“Samantha said she was already a pathetic cripple. She didn’t want to add the word
burden
to describe herself,” Victoria said. “I tried to persuade her to buy a few hair ribbons that she had been admiring.” The seventeen-year-old’s voice cracked with emotion, adding, “Samantha insisted that, in her case, buying ribbons was a waste of money. No matter how many pretty ribbons she wore, she would always be a cripple, and no man would want to marry her. She said she needed to save her money to support herself when she was an old spinster.”

“Oh, dear God,” Aunt Roxie exclaimed.

“The poor child,” Duke Magnus said.

Rudolf felt sickened by the story. His heart was breaking for his wounded princess. His sister-in-law was correct. He didn’t like himself very much. “What does this have to do with the other day?”

“On the day in question, Samantha took her entire life’s savings of one thousand pounds for her old age and asked me to accompany her to Bond Street, “Victoria continued. “She paid a goldsmith the whole thousand pounds to make a replica of your stupid Venus medallion. Then we went to Montague House and gave the replica to your brother. If you don’t believe me, go upstairs and look. Samantha put the real medallion back as soon as we returned home.”

Everyone in the drawing room was silent. Rudolf was filled with self-loathing. His princess had put aside her own safety for him, and he had repaid her with cruelty.

“Why did she not tell me this?” he asked, his voice hoarse with raw emotion.

“You wouldn’t listen.” Victoria pointed her finger at him, saying, “And you owe me money for the hackney coach I hired.”

“Tell me where Samantha is,” Rudolf ordered.

“No.”

“She is carrying my child,” he tried to reason with her.

Victoria rose from the settee and walked toward the door, calling over her shoulder, “Samantha said she would return before she delivers the babe.”

Rudolf felt like shaking the twit. He appealed to the duchess, saying, “Make her tell me where Samantha is.”

“Tell His Highness where you have put his wife,” Aunt Roxie ordered.

Victoria turned to the prince. “I have put her in a safe place where you can’t hurt her,” she told him. “I will not betray my own sister.”

Rudolf couldn’t believe it when his brothers seemed to side with the twit. Viktor walked over to her and kissed her hand. “You are too amazing for words,” he complimented her. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

Victoria looked confused.

“Viktor is too old for you,” Mikhail told her. “Marry me.”

“I am younger than they are,” Stepan said. “I have more endurance. Marry me.”

His sister-in-law apparently didn’t know what his brother meant by endurance. She smiled at each in turn and said, “I am flattered.” Then she glared at him, adding, “However, I would never wish to marry a man even remotely related to that monster.”

Rudolf inclined his head. He had it coming. He had treated his wife abominably.

“If you have misplaced your wife, Your Highness,” Victoria said, “I suggest you look for her
without my help
.”

Chapter 19

Please, God, keep her safe.

Rudolf stared at the Venus medallion in his hand. He’d passed a troubled night in his wife’s chamber, sleeping fitfully on the chaise because he felt closer to her there. Now, as the sun streamed into the window, he wondered where he should start looking for her.

His beautiful, wounded princess . . .

Rudolf remembered how shy she was the night at Emerson’s ball. He’d thought she was a proper English lady until she picked Igor’s pocket and began to reveal another side to herself.

He smiled at the memory of their coach ride to Scotland. How appalled she was at the prospect of sharing his bed. He’d had a wonderful time seducing her. He loved her sweetness and savored her surrender. She had welcomed him into her heart, her soul, her body. And still she had so much love to share with Grant, Drake, and Zara.

Samantha was shy and obedient but fierce when those she loved were endangered. She had accepted him completely in spite of his bastardy. When he was acting like a bastard, she had refrained from using that word on him. He had almost called her a pathetic cripple. He would never forgive himself for that.