“You accepted Yuri’s first,” Alba said with spirit.
“And then you sent him away. You told me yourself the engagement was at an end. Now the matter is quite decided. Prince Volkov is no longer a welcome guest in my house. And you, young lady, will marry Bethurst.”
Yuri had seen it coming. He did not join in the collective gasps, for his main concern was Alba and the likelihood of her slipping back into the dangerous black mood of the past few months.
But sheer spirit spat from her brilliant eyes. “I would be very surprised if Prince Volkov was prepared to spend another minute in this house of vile ingratitude and absolutely undeserved insult. For the first time in my life, I am ashamed of my name.”
“Sir, I do think you’ve gone a bit far,” Oscar said uneasily. “You have not even listened to Volkov’s—”
“Did I ask your opinion?” the duke snarled.
Yuri, who was far from defeated in this war and had no intention of giving up, knew discretion was the best tactic at this moment. He bowed to the duchess’s averted face. “I thank you for your generous hospitality, madame.” Another, stiffer bow to the glaring duke and he walked unhurriedly to the door.
“Alba!” snapped the duke, but ignoring him, she walked out of the room at Yuri’s side.
“Yuri, I am so sorry about this,” she said in clear distress. “Ralph has clearly been filling his head with verbal bile, but there is no excuse for his conduct. If it wasn’t that I won’t have him say, or even believe such things of you, I would leave with you now in protest.”
“I think that might confirm his suspicions,” Yuri said wryly as they descended the staircase to the entrance hall. “But you do know this is not the end? I won’t give up and I will marry you.”
She turned, taking hold of his upper arms and lifting her face to his in open invitation. “Yes, please.”
In front of the stony-faced footman, he kissed her long and thoroughly. “You will not let this upset you?” he murmured.
A smile flickered across her rosy lips. “Not in the way you mean. I’ll ride down to the village tomorrow.”
Dropping a kiss on her forehead, he released her and took his hat and cloak from the footman. It wasn’t quite how he’d intended to leave after the duke’s return.
When he got back to the inn, it was to another surprise—an invitation to Mrs. Bethurst’s evening party on Friday.
He didn’t believe he had ever met the lady, so Ralph must have asked her to invite him. Why would he have done that? To announce his own engagement to Alba and rub Yuri’s nose in it? Whatever the reason, he did not trust Bethurst.
It made him think back to the summer and his suspicion that the supposedly strait-laced Ralph had somehow been in league with Cordelia Harley to part him from Alba. His suspicion had been based merely on one glimpse of them in conversation at the ball—and his own dislike—so he had quickly banished it for lack of evidence. Now he wondered all over again.
***
He was eating breakfast the following morning when Oscar walked into the coffee room, crossed the floor to his table and threw himself onto the bench opposite.
“Good morning,” Yuri said quizzically. “Defying parental instruction?”
“No. But I’m sorry about that scene. Never entered my head the old gentleman would put such a false shine on things. For what it’s worth, I know what Gerda’s like, and I thank you profusely for rescuing her—and Alba and Kai. We could have lost all three of them if you had not been there. Which makes my father’s stance not only plain wrong, but utterly incomprehensible.”
Yuri signaled for another cup and poured Oscar some coffee. “He has, I think, been misled.” He pushed the cup and saucer across the table. “How long did Bethurst spend with your father after you ran into him by chance?”
“Oh, no, I think you wrong Bethurst there,” Oscar protested. “Not saying he should marry Alba, because he clearly shouldn’t, but there’s nothing vindictive about him. Besides, he couldn’t influence my father if he tried. No one could, to be honest. No idea where this bee in his bonnet came from—unless his own guilt for not saving Gerda himself. He was fine at the time, you know. We did set out after you, but the roads were increasingly impassable, and then we got your message at Stevenage that she was with you and you were riding directly to Winbourne.”
Oscar shook his head. “His Grace heaved a large sigh of relief and we bolted back to London before the snow closed us in completely.”
“Then when did he change his mind about me?” Yuri asked.
“I don’t honestly know. He gave me no clue he was going to turn on you like that.”
Yuri finished the last of his ham and laid down his fork. “Tell me about Bethurst. Is he a friend—or victim—of Lady Harley?”
“I’d be surprised, although they probably met at Winbourne in the summer. Why?”
Yuri ignored the question as unimportant. “Oscar…would he hurt Alba?”
“Of course not,” Oscar said, clearly shocked. “Why would you even ask that?”
“Because he seems happy enough to force her into marriage even knowing she loves me.”
Oscar looked uncomfortable. “He wouldn’t be the first man to accept a bride in such circumstances. Or for the bride herself to end up content enough.”
“Most brides-to-be don’t lie in the middle of a frozen lake all night waiting to die,” Yuri said brutally. He threw up one hand at Oscar’s gulp of horror. “No, I don’t believe she would ever repeat such behavior. I think she shocked and frightened herself and will never let herself fall so far again. But I would not give her to a man who simply glosses it over. I don’t believe he cares for her, at all. I think he wants her fortune.”
Oscar gave a lopsided smile. “Funny. That’s what he says about you.”
Chapter Fifteen
Inevitably, Alba’s arrival at the inn later that morning caused something of a stir. She came alone, with only a groom in attendance. Yuri’s heart sang because she looked so beautiful in the pale, wintry sunshine; and because she’d come despite her father’s strictures.
But as he strolled out of the inn and lifted her from the saddle, he felt compelled to say, “Is this wise, to alienate His Grace further by this indiscretion?”
Alba wrinkled her nose. “Perhaps he’ll try to force me to marry you instead.”
There was no sign of her recent frailty, only strength and resolve, and he felt a surge of fresh pride in her.
She turned to the groom. “Refresh yourself, Jem, if you wish. I’ll be about half an hour.”
“Very good, my lady.”
Yuri drew her hand into the crook of his arm and they strolled around the inn yard and the garden behind. Traces of snow remained on the outhouse roofs and the trees and grass that surrounded them. Though the scene lacked the pristine beauty of recent days, Yuri barely acknowledged it. Alba absorbed all his attention.
“How has it been?” he asked. “Have you been scolded mercilessly?”
“No. He keeps dismissing me when I defend you. He summoned the twins though and they confessed their intrigues to bring you here. In short, they exonerated you of His Grace’s outrageous accusations. So, he dismissed them, too. Then he demanded to know why you hadn’t told him all this. And when I suggested you were protecting Gerda from his wrath, he roared that you had no right and sent me away, too.” She sighed, “I have never known him so unreasonable over anything. But I’m hoping whatever Ralph said to him will carry less weight with time.”
“Hmm. Ralph’s game is something of a mystery,” Yuri said. “Like you, I could swear he sowed the seeds of your father’s anger with me. And yet, I am invited to his mother’s party.”
Alba’s face brightened. “Truly? Then at least I will see you on Friday. I am hoping to have won my father round by then. No one agrees with him, even Her Grace, so surely the truth will get to him eventually.” She glanced at him anxiously. “You have not been summoned back to London yet?”
&n
bsp; “Not yet.” He hesitated. “And if he does not come around?”
“I am three-and-twenty years old. I do not need his permission to marry.”
He held her gaze. “You would leave your family without their blessing? Marry me and come to Russia with me?”
A warm glow stained her skin, but her eyes never wavered. “In a heartbeat. Although, I would rather do so with their blessing.”
Yuri felt as if his heart would burst. “You are wonderful, my snow queen,” he said unsteadily, squeezing her hand to his side. He drew in a large breath. “But you must be cold out here for so long. Come inside.”
They had a cup of coffee together in the public coffee room and Yuri enjoyed watching her easy chat with the innkeeper’s wife, inquiring after her family and the business of the inn. But the visit had to be a short one and, despite his reluctance, it was not much more than half an hour later before he helped her remount, said goodbye with no more than a brush of his lips on her gloved fingers, and watched her ride away with the groom trotting behind.
***
Alba returned to another storm in a teacup. It was inevitable that her father would discover she had gone out and where she had gone. For that reason, she had not asked Rose or Oscar to accompany her, for they would have shared in his fury. Jem, however, could only do as he was bidden and His Grace’s wrath, therefore, was concentrated on Alba alone.
He met her on the stairs, his eyes like flint. “Go into the library,” he instructed.
Alba had expected nothing else. Prepared for his rage, she lifted her chin and walked obediently upstairs and along the gallery to the library, where he followed her a minute later.
He closed the door with an ominous click. “Where have you been?”
“I went for a ride. And I had coffee at the inn.”
“With him?”
“Yes.”
He threw up his hand in disgust, pacing violently to the window. “A clandestine meeting behind my back?”
“It would not have to be clandestine if you would allow us to continue meeting in the safe respectability of my home. I am engaged to marry Prince Volkov. Besides, it was hardly clandestine as there were so many people around.”
“To witness your folly, to call it no worse! Well, I won’t have it, Alba. If I cannot trust you—as I clearly can’t—you will not leave the park. The grooms and all the other servants will be made aware of my wishes.”
She flushed with genuine anger as well as dismay. She needed to see Yuri. “You would keep me a prisoner here?”
“Yes,” he retorted. “Be grateful your punishment is no worse.”
“Well, at least I will no longer be obliged to attend the party on Friday,” she flung at him, more as a taunt than anything because, in fact, since Yuri would be there, she did wish to go.
“Of course, you will fulfil your obligations,” the duke said.
Alba regarded him with suspicion. “You do know that if anyone tries to announce an engagement between Mr. Bethurst and myself, I shall simply laugh it off? And reveal that I am, in fact, engaged to Prince Volkov.”
The duke stalked to the door. “Which I shall deny!”
“Well, between us, we will certainly give the gossips plenty of fuel.”
The duke swung back to her in fury. “Why do you defy me in this?”
“Because I love Yuri. I made a terrible mistake in letting him go in the summer. I won’t repeat it.”
“Bethurst is a good man. You like him. You always liked him.”
“But I never wanted to marry him, whatever tales he tells now of how he was my first love. He never was.” An involuntary frown tugged at her brow. “In fact, I don’t recall you ever promoting his suit before. You always regarded him as beneath us.”
His grace shrugged with impatience. “Well, he is, in terms of rank and fortune. But he is a good man and I have come to see that he is steady and serious and just the right husband for you. And from Moreland, you may easily visit Winbourne, see your siblings whenever you wish.”
A new suspicion entered her head, so unlikely that she dismissed it. He was merely trying to talk her into accepting Ralph.
She said, “Rose and even Gerda will be married and gone in only a few years. Kai will go away to school and Oxford and make his own life. Oscar and James are hardly ever here as it is.”
“Well, you may come to London easily enough.”
She shook her head. “It isn’t what I want, Papa. It isn’t right.”
“I gave you your head with Harry, and with Volkov in the summer. It didn’t work. Now you will be guided by me.” This time, he walked out of the room, leaving the door open.
“He can’t blame me for Harry,” she fumed later to Oscar in the thawing rose garden. “The man died! And if Yuri was acceptable in the summer, why is he persona non grata now? His Grace cannot believe the nonsense he came out with yesterday.”
“Oh, people can make themselves believe anything if they try hard enough,” Oscar said cynically. “For example, he probably thought your engagement to Volkov in the summer would not last. Though even he might have expected more than a day.”
Flushing, she rounded on him. “You are taking his side?”
Oscar shrugged. “No. I’m saying he is not as unreasonable as you imagine him to be. And you know, this second romance with Volkov is not yet of long duration, either.”
“But it is different now.” Impulsively, she walked back to him from the still blooming rose. “We understand each other so much better. I value every moment with him. And he… He understands me without judging, and I believe he needs me as much as I need him. Oscar, I was only half-alive without him—rather less, on occasions.”
“Alba, it isn’t me you need to convince.” Looking harassed, Oscar dragged his fingers through his hair. “Look, I can see the difference in you. I’m not blind. But neither is His Grace. He rarely does anything without a reason, and I think you need to know what that reason is before you even think about doing anything rash or silly.”
***
In the next few days, Alba thought a lot about her brother’s unexpectedly wise words, and she did try on several occasions to talk to her father and discover the root of his new dislike of Yuri and his equally new preference for Ralph. But His Grace would not be drawn, merely laid down his wishes as law once more.
Nor did the duchess seem to know what had prompted his change of heart. She, too, had been scolded for welcoming Yuri into the house, and her description of his rescue of Alba and Kai as well as Gerda fell on stony ground.
“He has made up his mind, Alba,” she said, not without sympathy. “You might as well go along with it.”
“I can’t,” Alba said sadly. “And you know I won’t.”
Rose was sympathetic and appalled by her father’s decision. But like the duchess, she assumed the die was cast and there was no other course to follow. Only the twins were of practical help, escaping to pass notes between Alba and Yuri. Those brief, often funny notes, were Alba’s only joy in the days before the party.
Then, on Friday, as dusk fell, the twins brought her the verbal message that Yuri was waiting for her by the gate.
Her heart lurched with disappointment as well as excitement, for although she was desperate to see Yuri again, she was sure this urgent assignation meant he could not be at the Bethursts’ party, for whatever reason. Perhaps he had been summoned back to London to receive the Regent’s reply to the Tsar.
It was easy enough to escape the house at that moment, since everyone else was preparing for the party. Wrapped in her old wool cloak with the hood drawn completely over her hair, Alba flitted out of the side door and ran down the pedestrian track that ran parallel to the main drive, but was more in the shadows of the trees. She didn’t bring a lantern, for it wasn’t yet quite dark.
The gates were closed which, no doubt, was on her account. She could see no sign of anyone. She took hold of the wrought iron bars on either side of her, peering into the shadowy
undergrowth.
“Yuri?” she breathed.
A figure detached itself from a tree and was with her in three strides, his hands covering over the spars.
“It’s a long time since I lurked in the darkness for an assignation,” he teased.
She pressed her forehead to the gate. “I don’t wish to hear of your past amorous exploits.”
“Indeed, why would you? My heart never beat as it does for you.” Unexpectedly, his lips found hers between the bars. His kiss was sweet and hungry.
“Are you going away?” she whispered against his mouth.
“Not yet. I just saw the twins with Miss Ellington returning home and, on impulse, made this silent suggestion to them. They’re very quick.”
“Alarmingly so, but I don’t like using them like this.”
“No, it has to stop,” he agreed.
“Tomorrow, I shall speak to my father one more time. And whatever the outcome, I’ll ride down to the inn, either to tell you he’s relented or to go away with you. If you still want me to.”
His answer to that was another fervent kiss that made her weak with longing.
“Go,” he said hoarsely. “Before I climb over the gate and have my wicked way with you among the trees.”
Nervous laughter bubbled up. “I’m never sure if you really mean these threats of yours.”
“Oh, I do. I’ll show you tonight if you can escape your duennas.”
“I’m not sure I could escape them for that long,” she said doubtfully.
He let out a shout of laughter, which he quickly muffled. “I love you, my snow queen.”
“And I you,” she whispered. She pressed her lips to his once more and then turned and fled back up toward the house, her heart singing because she would see him again in only a few hours. Then she paused. “Yuri?” she called.
“I’m still here.”
“Take care. It makes me uneasy that they invited you.”
“I always take care.”
***
Yuri had set out from London in too great a hurry to pack many clothes, but, at least, he had been able to buy a few necessities in the village that enabled him to wear something while Mrs. Hicks, the innkeeper’s wife, cleaned and brushed his uniform. She even brought a glass of brandy to his room when he was ready to depart and smiled her approval of his appearance. Though she frowned when she saw him buckling on his sword belt.
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