Secret Fire (17 page)

W
hen she thought about it later, Katherine was glad that Dimitri wasn’t in close attendance on that long ride to Novii Domik, and not for the obvious reason. Marusia and Vladimir had joined her instead; consequently the trip became a learning experience. With Dimitri present, she would have been aware of nothing but him. But with Marusia she was able to relax. Not even Vladimir’s dour company could inhibit her, nor did his tolerant silence seem to bother his wife. Marusia was informative, entertaining, talking the whole way.

Katherine learned a little more about the people, the land, and between villages and estates that were described in detail, more about Dimitri. Some things she could have done without knowing, but once Marusia started, it wasn’t easy to deter her from a subject.

The countryside was breathtakingly beautiful, awash with summer colors; wild flowers, tall stands of silver birch, fields of golden wheat, and the vivid green of pines. But the villages were the most picturesque, with their blue or pink cottages, all with identical red-painted porches. Katherine thought they were quaint until she learned that such orderly villages were actually military colonies. The carriage passed close enough to one for her to see even children in uniform.

These military colonies were one of the subjects Marusia expounded on, since she had particular distaste for them. They had been started nearly thirty years ago by Alexander’s order. The provinces of Novgorod, Mogilev, Kherson, Ekaterinoslav, and Slobodsko-Ukrainski were soon housing one third of the army in these new camps. The process was simple. A regiment was moved into a district, and automatically all the inhabitants of that district became soldiers, reserves for the unit settled on their soil. The old villages were torn down to be replaced by symmetrical cottages. The serfs’ new role was taught with blows of the stick. Everything became military, even to plowing the fields in uniform to the sound of a drum.

“What about the women?” Katherine wanted to know.

“The Tzar’s idea was to keep soldiers with their families when they weren’t off fighting his wars, but also to combine the work of the soldier with that of the serf, who would be given military training. So the women are an important part of the colonies. Marriages are decided upon by the military authority. Not one widow or old maid is overlooked, and none has any choice. They have to marry the man they are ordered to marry and produce children. And fines are imposed if they don’t give birth often enough.”

“And the children?”

“Enrolled among the army children at the age of six to begin training. And everything is done by regulation: the caring of cattle, the washing of floors, the polishing of copper buttons, even the nursing of children, everything. For the least infraction—the cane.”

Katherine was incredulous. “And the people just went along with this?”

“The
people
were serfs. They simply went from civil obedience to military obedience. But no, many protested, entreated, fled, or hid in the forests. There was even a full-scale rebellion in the colony of Chuguyev, which reached such proportions that many death sentences were pronounced by the military tribunal. These were carried out not by shooting but by having the condemned pass under the rod twelve times between the rows of a battalion of a thousand men. More than one hundred fifty men died under the blows.”

Katherine looked to Vladimir to confirm this appalling story, but he was studiously ignoring both women, considering the subject highly inappropriate for female discussion. But his wife was in her element when she was gossiping, especially when she had such an avid listener. And she had a flair for drama. He didn’t have the heart to curb her enjoyment.

“Alexander loved his colonies,” Marusia continued. “Tzar Nicholas loves them as well. But then he is even more of a military man than his brother was. He insists on order, neatness, and regularity, and so he naturally feels most at ease among army officers. The Prince said the Tzar even sleeps on an army bed in his palace and when he travels through his empire, inspecting his troops and institutions. Prince Dimitri had to accompany him several times on these inspections when he was in the Imperial Guard.”

Katherine knew nothing about this most elite unit of the military or that Dimitri had at one time belonged to it, but Marusia was quick to
change that. And so the talk had come around to Dimitri, and Katherine’s interest picked up, as did Vladimir’s disapproval of their choice of topics. It was one thing for his wife to gossip about the Prince with the other servants, all loyal to Dimitri, but something else again for him to be discussed with an outsider, and this one in particular.

After describing his illustrious if short military career, Marusia went on to proudly delineate his ancestry, swearing it could be traced back to Rurik, the very man hailed as the founder of the Russian state. “Rurik was one of a group of Varangians from Scandinavia who settled along the Dnieper River in the ninth century, taking over the leadership of the Slav robber bands already established there.”

“You mean Vikings?” Katherine now made the connection, only surprised she hadn’t before. Dimitri could in fact have been a Viking of old. “But of course, I should have realized. The height, the coloring—”

“Vikings, Varangians, yes, they were kinsmen, but not many in Russia are as tall as our prince. The royal family, yes. The Tzar himself is more than six feet.”

In the days that followed, confined to the carriage and each other’s company, Marusia and Katherine touched on every possible subject at least once. Katherine learned about the rest of Dimitri’s family: about the oldest brother, Mikhail, who had died; about his two sisters, Varvara being one, and their families; about all the illegitimate children, who were as close and as well cared for as the legitimate ones; and about Dimitri’s Aunt Sonya, who according to Marusia
was a female tyrant. No subject was sacred, even the Alexandrovs’ financial status. Textile mills, a glass factory, copper mines, as well as vast estates in the Urals with more than twenty thousand serfs, the summer residence on the shores of the Black Sea, the palace on the Fontanka in St. Petersburg, another in Moscow, Novii Domik—and these were just some of the family holdings.

Apparently Dimitri also had his own personal fortune, inherited from his mother, and numerous businesses scattered across Europe, which Marusia didn’t know much about. Vladimir, who did know, wasn’t volunteering any information. She mentioned only his ships in some detail—not one, but five—a castle in Florence, a villa in Fiesole, and a country manor in England, and the fact that Dimitri, until Mikhail’s death, had spent more time out of Russia than in it.

When they discussed serfs, Katherine discovered that use of the cane was not exclusive to the military colonies; even a torturing spiked collar was used by some landowners to enforce obedience in their serfs. She came to understand why the Alexandrov serfs were so fiercely loyal, and why they preferred to be owned than set free to earn dirt-poor wages in deplorable working conditions in the cities.

“Do you know what year this is?”

Marusia laughed, not needing an explanation for Katherine’s ridicule. “The tzars have talked of abolishing serfdom. Alexander wanted to. Nicholas too. How could they not when they see how backward we are in comparison with the rest of the world. But always they are given rea
sons why they should not, why this is not the time, why it is not possible—so many reasons.”

“You mean they succumb to pressure from the landowners, who refuse to give up their slaves,” Katherine sneered.

Marusia shrugged. “The
aristos
… It is their way of life. People fear change.”

“But Dimitri is different,” Katherine remarked thoughtfully. “He’s not a typical Russian, is he?”

“No, and that is his mother’s doing. She influenced his younger years, at least until his father’s sister, Sonya, moved in. Then he had his very Russian aunt pulling him one way and his very English mother the other. And the two women hated each other, which only made matters worse. The Prince was raised in Russia, but he has never really forgotten his mother’s teachings, especially on the abomination of serfdom. Here is Russia, trying in every way to be westernized, yet clinging to the ancient custom of slavery, and it is not even a Russian custom. There were always peasants, true, but it was Ivan the Terrible who first bound them to the land so thoroughly that they lost the freedom to leave it at will.”

Katherine had much to think about during the trip, mostly that Russia was nice enough to visit as long as you didn’t see the cruelty and injustice beneath the surface. To have so much power in the hands of so few, and the vast majority tolerant of subjugation was inconceivable in this day and age. Good Lord, her father would have been in his element if he could have worked toward reform here. So much needed changing, too much for one person—no, that wasn’t true. The
Tzar was an absolute ruler. If one man could turn thousands into serfs, another could free them.

It gave Katherine a headache to think about Russia. If this had been her country, she would have gone mad from the impotence of being able to do nothing about the conditions here. But then, if this were her country, she would probably have a different outlook. It was just fortunate she wouldn’t be here long. Why she had to stay at all was becoming a question she asked herself repeatedly. Just because Dimitri said so? Ha!

At the first posting house, where the horses were changed, Katherine reviewed her options on slipping away unnoticed. It wasn’t heartening to find there were none. Vladimir had obviously been given the responsibility of keeping her in his sights and out of the public eye as much as possible, and he took his duty seriously. Whenever he wasn’t around, Marusia or Lida or one of the other servants was.

There was even less opportunity for escape the few times they spent the night at a country estate belonging to acquaintances of Dimitri’s. There Katherine slept in the servants’ quarters with a half-dozen other women, on a hard pallet on the floor. She could have slept in the main house in a comfortable bed, though probably not alone. Dimitri did make the offer. But after learning the true plight of Russian servants, and feeling a new and unbridled anger that Dimitri had placed her in the same class, Katherine turned stubborn. If she was no better than the other servants, why should he make an exception for her? She wouldn’t have it. She would either be given her due or demand consistency. No more
half measures. She had too much pride to accept the crumbs of his generosity, knowing what he really thought of her.

It felt good to pit herself against Dimitri again and have her will prevail. This high and mighty prince was not going to have
everything
his way. He might drag her off to the country and keep her prisoner there, but he couldn’t control her behavior. She was still Katherine St. John with a mind of her own, not some lackey afraid to disagree with him.

S
imilar to the country estates passed along the way, yet on a much grander scale than anything Katherine had seen so far, Novii Domik, or New Cottage, was a surprise and a delight. She had almost been expecting some colossal mansion, considering what she now knew of Dimitri’s wealth, yet the Alexandrovs’ country home was not in the least pretentious. Half-hidden amidst a grove of trees, it was a sprawling two-story manor with wide-flung wings, the veranda and balcony supported by massive white columns. Typically Russian was the fretwork on the eaves and window shutters, an example of the most beautiful carving Katherine had ever seen.

Approaching the house, Katherine could see an avenue of lime trees leading to an orchard of apple, pear, and cherry trees. Closer to the house were flower gardens, a riot of color in late-summer bloom. In the back, beyond her view, a vegetable garden separated a variety of outbuildings from the house, and less than a half-mile away was the village.

Dimitri had not ridden ahead, though he had spent most of the trip on horseback and was impatient to be home. For the last several miles he had ridden alongside Katherine’s carriage. It was the most she had seen of him since they left St. Petersburg. Even at the posting houses he had managed to avoid her. She didn’t mind. She had become used to not seeing him on the ship. And
whenever she did see him, she always experienced that rush of feeling that she could certainly do without.

Was he still displeased with her for insisting on sleeping with the servants again last night at his friend Alexey’s house? Of course he was. He was so easy to read when he was angry: the deep scowl, the tight-set lips, the little muscle that ticked along his jaw as he ground his teeth together, and the murderous look in his eyes when he happened to glance her way, as if he would like to wring her neck.

No wonder his servants feared him when he was like this. Katherine supposed she ought to fear him as well, but she couldn’t help being amused instead, at least in this instance. Dimitri was so like a little boy in his temper. He reminded her of her brother Warren when he was a child and the tantrums he would throw when he didn’t get his way. Ignoring Warren had broken him of the habit. Ignoring Dimitri wasn’t quite so easy. It was in fact impossible to ignore such a man. She could pretend to, but the truth was she was always aware of him, vitally aware. Even when she couldn’t see him, she knew when he was near.

When they reached the house, Katherine became uneasy, seeing so many people waiting there to welcome the master home. Worse, out of the four carriages in their cavalcade, hers had to be the one to stop directly in front of the house. Worse still, Dimitri ignored everyone, even his aunt waiting on the veranda, to open the carriage and drag Katherine out, up the stairs, and into the house. This is what she got for being amused by his temper—mortification.

In the wide entrance hall, Dimitri swung Katherine around to face him before he let go of her wrist. “Not a word, Katya!” he cut her off when she opened her mouth to protest such bizarre behavior. “Not a single word. I have had enough of your stubbornness, enough of your contrariness, and most definitely enough of your arguments. Here you will sleep where I put you, not where you want, not with the servants, but where I put you. “Vladimir!” Dimitri shouted over his shoulder. “The White Room, and see that she stays there!”

Katherine was incredulous. He actually turned his back on her then and walked back to his aunt. Dismissed. Treated like a child again—worse than a child!

“Why you—”

“Sweet Mary, not now,” Vladimir hissed in her ear. “He got it out of his system. His temper will improve now, but not if you challenge him again.”

“His temper can rampage perpetually for all I care,” Katherine hissed back. “He can’t order me about like that.”

“Can’t he?”

She started to contradict him, but snapped her mouth shut. Of course Dimitri could order her about. As long as she was in his blasted power, he could make her do anything he pleased. And out here in the country, surrounded by his people, she was most certainly in his power. Intolerable. Frustrating beyond belief. But what could she do?

Ignore him, Katherine. His behavior is beneath contempt anyway and not deserving of a reaction. Pa
tience. Your time will come, and when it does, Dimitri Alexandrov will rue the day he met you
.

Dimitri already rued the day he met Katherine. No woman had ever caused him such exasperation, and he couldn’t even claim that she made up for it in other ways. And there was little doubt that she did it deliberately, took pleasure in annoying him, delight in spiting him, and she did it so well. Ungrateful wench. But he was tired of humoring her and tired of losing his reason and control where she was concerned. He had only to glance around him to see what a fool he had just made of himself.

But he had actually done more than that, though unintentionally. One look at Marusia’s disapproving face told him he had also diminished Katherine’s worth in the eyes of everyone there. At the moment he didn’t care. It was just as well anyway. It was time her little game was over. Marusia and the others treated her with too much deference. They fostered her delusions, which made her think she could get away with anything. Humoring her himself hadn’t helped either. But no more.

Seeing his aunt’s bemused expression, Dimitri realized he had marched past her without a word. He greeted her properly now, but Sonya Alexandrovna Rimsky was not known for being circumspect.

“Who is she, Mitya?”

He followed Sonya’s gaze to see Katherine walking behind Vladimir up the stairs. Head held high, shoulders thrown back, skirt lifted just so high, and only the slightest sway of hips. It ir
ritated him no end that she even walked like a lady.

“She isn’t important, just an Englishwoman returned with us.”

“But you put her in your private wing—”

“For now,” he interrupted curtly. “Don’t concern yourself, Aunt Sonya. I will find something for her to do while she’s here.”

Sonya started to protest, but thought better of it. She was a tall woman, nearly six feet, and narrow in build. A widow whose marriage had lasted less than a year, she hadn’t mourned her overbearing husband’s death and had refused to remarry and suffer the indignities of the marriage bed with yet another man. Her life, fraught with one disappointment after another, left little tolerance for the baser urges men were cursed with. Her own brother had gone so far as to marry an Englishwoman simply because he couldn’t have her any other way, and now the Alexandrov bloodline would be forever tainted. If only Misha hadn’t died, or if he had at least left an heir, a legitimate heir…

A brief look of disgust crossed Sonya’s features as she drew her own conclusions about Dimitri’s companion. So now he was bringing sluts into his home. He couldn’t be discreet like his brothers and father and just tumble a willing serf now and then. He had to bring one back from England. What was he thinking of? But she didn’t ask him. His mood was not conducive to criticism at the moment, if his terseness was any indication. And she didn’t want any more disgraceful scenes for the servants to witness.

She waited while Dimitri had a few words with everyone who had turned out to welcome him
home. It was ridiculous really, this respect he paid mere servants, but his mother could be thanked for his peculiarities, and he was really too old to try and change him. Tatiana would be a good influence however. The one thing Sonya had no complaints over was Dimitri’s choice of a bride. But this long absence hadn’t helped his suit. He had no time to waste, certainly no time to waste on an English peasant.

Belatedly Sonya noticed her niece’s absence. “Didn’t Nastya return with you?”

“Yes, but I left her to visit with Varvara for a while.” The truth was she had become much too attached to Katherine, which could cause endless problems he didn’t need.

“Is that wise, Mitya? St. Petersburg is not without its social gatherings at this time of year, even if it is almost deserted. Or did I misunderstand your message when you rushed off to bring the girl home?”

“You understood. But you needn’t worry about her much longer. She has agreed to marry as soon as we can agree on a suitable husband.”

Sonya’s blue eyes flared in surprise. “You will give her a choice?”

“She’s my sister, Aunt Sonya. I would like to see her happy in a marriage. You weren’t given a choice, and look how that turned out.”

Sonya drew herself up stiffly. “We needn’t discuss that. Nastya is fortunate that you are so indulgent, but only an exceptional man will put up with her willfulness. There is no telling what ideas she has brought back with her from England. She never should have been allowed to visit there, but then you know my feelings about that.”

“Yes, Aunt,” he sighed.

He knew only too well. She had been ardently opposed to her only brother marrying a foreigner and resentful when he did so anyway. She had never forgiven Petr, and war between the two women broke out immediately when Sonya was forced to return home after her husband died. Jealousy prevented her from seeing the goodness in Anne. As far as Sonya was concerned, everything Anne did was wrong, her views outlandish, and with Anne’s death, these feelings were transferred to England in general. Dimitri was certain the only reason she kept up a correspondence with the Duchess was the pleasure she got in pointing out all of Dimitri’s and Anastasia’s faults, which she attributed solely to their mother, though she refrained from mentioning
that
to Anne’s mother.

“Well, whatever scandal Nastya stirred up in England won’t follow her home, thanks be to God,” Sonya remarked as they passed into the drawing room. “She can make a good marriage here. And speaking of marriage, have you seen Tatiana Ivanova yet?”

A one-track mind. Dimitri was only surprised she hadn’t asked sooner.

“We’ve only just returned, Aunt Sonya, and I came here directly from the ship. But I have my people looking into her whereabouts.”

“You need only to have asked me. She is in Moscow presently, visiting her married sister. But she hasn’t exactly pined away while you were gone, Mitya. I have heard that Count Grigori Lysenko began paying his suit as soon as you left, and the rumor is that she favors him.”

Dimitri shrugged, not particularly concerned. He had never liked Lysenko, not since they had been in the same unit in the Caucasus and he had had the misfortune to save the Count’s life, taking a minor wound himself in the process. His gesture would have been nothing, forgotten, except that Lysenko hadn’t been in the least appreciative, had in fact resented his help, and thereafter had set out to prove himself the better man at marksmanship, hunting, everything. So he wasn’t surprised that Lysenko had set his sights on the lovely Tatiana. But he wasn’t worried. The Count had yet to prove himself anything but a fool.

“I will send word to her that I have returned.”

“Shouldn’t you go in person, Mitya?”

“And appear overanxious?”

“She will be flattered.”

“She will be amused,” Dimitri countered, becoming annoyed by her single-mindedness. “Constant attendance didn’t sway her before I left. It will not hurt to let her wonder for a while if I am still interested.”

“But—”

“No buts!” he snapped. “If you don’t think me capable of winning the fair lady on my own, perhaps I should cease to try.”

It was a warning, plain and simple, and Sonya was wise enough to heed it. Tight-lipped, she turned and left the room.

Dimitri headed for the liquor cabinet and splashed vodka into a glass. He didn’t need his aunt to tell him that he should resume his courtship immediately, but he simply didn’t have the patience for it right now and wouldn’t have until
he had released some of this sexual tension that had him so short-tempered. There were a number of women here that he could relieve his pent-up desires with, but as great as his discomfort was after so long at sea, he didn’t want just anyone. He wanted Katherine. Damn, but it always came back to her.

Furiously Dimitri threw the still-full glass into the fireplace and stalked out of the room. He found Katherine in the White Room, staring uninterestedly out the window. Boris, just bringing in her trunk, hurried the task and left when he saw Dimitri waiting to speak with her.

“I won’t ask if you find the room to your liking. You will just tell me no, and then—”

“Then you will have another one of your fits,” Katherine supplied as she slowly turned to face him. “You know, Dimitri, these tantrums are becoming quite tiresome.”

“Tantrums!”

“Is this going to be another one?” she asked with wide-eyed innocence.

He clamped his mouth shut. She was doing it again, deliberately provoking him so that he couldn’t think, couldn’t remember why he had sought her out in the first place. But he didn’t forget this time. And two could play her game.

“You fail to mention your own temper.”

“Me? Have a temper?”

“No, of course not,” he jeered. “You just scream and shout because it’s good exercise for the lungs.”

She stared at him incredulously for a moment and then began to laugh—warm, honest laughter that filled the room and surrounded Dimitri with
enchantment. He had never heard her laugh before, not like this. It made him realize there was an aspect of her personality he had overlooked—a sense of humor or even, possibly, mischievousness. If he thought about them, many of the things she had said to him, things that had annoyed him, could actually have been gentle teasing.

“Oh, God,” Katherine sighed after a moment, wiping tears from her eyes. “You are priceless, Dimitri. Exercise my lungs—I’ll have to remember that when my brother complains that I’m a tyrant. I do lose patience with him occasionally.”

He didn’t want to break this mood. “And with me.”

“Most certainly with you.”

But she was smiling as she spoke, and he was filled with a curious pleasure. Why had he come? To lay down new rules. To hell with that. He didn’t really want to change her or take away her pretenses, which she so obviously enjoyed. If only he weren’t so sensitive where she was concerned! But if she had simply been teasing him, even just half the time…