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.
His wife had bravely subdued her fear and walked down the church aisle in front of all those aristocrats. Her reward had been humiliation, which he had compounded by resuming his social life, so that she could read about it in the Times.
Rudolf smiled, remembering how she had rebelled by eating those kippers. God, he had let her learn a hard lesson that day.
He loved her but had never spoken the words she’d needed to hear. When he found her, he would tell her he loved her every day for the rest of his life.
After Olga had ruined their wedding, Samantha had wept when she read the Times. His wounded princess had told him she wanted to go home and—
Rudolf sat up straight. Samantha had wanted to go home to the cottage. His princess had gone home.
Rudolf looked at the Venus medallion and put it in his pocket. He was going to the cottage to collect her, and then he was going to give her the medallion to toss in the Thames.
His expression darkened. If Vladimir ever realized what Samantha had done—
* * *
While Rudolf was ordering his horse saddled, Samantha was just awakening. She sighed and touched her belly. “You’ll get your bread as soon as I get up.”
She lay there for long moments that stretched into an hour. She tried to summon her energy, but depression weighed her down. Finally, she rose from the bed and walked into the kitchen.
“You’ll have oatmeal in a little while,” Samantha told her belly, sitting at the table to eat her bread. Tonight, she would remember to bring a piece of bread to bed with her, and then she could eat it before she arose.
After washing and dressing, Samantha made herself a breakfast of oatmeal and tea. It wasn’t the duke’s dining room, but she would survive.
Samantha wondered what Rudolf was doing. Did he know that she had gone? If he did, how was Victoria bearing up under the pressure he was putting on her?
The kettle boiled, and Samantha poured hot water into her teacup. She put the kettle back and sat down, but her spoon slipped out of her hand and fell beneath the table.
Samantha crawled beneath the table to recover the spoon and never saw the cottage door open. Then she noticed the boots planted on the floor beside the table.
Samantha started to rise but hit her head on the table. “Ouch,” she said, and backed out from under the table.
Kneeling on the floor, Samantha looked up into black eyes. Rudolf knelt and touched her head. “Did you hurt yourself?”
Samantha shook her head. She didn’t know what to do and had not expected her husband to find her this quickly or to be so amenable when he found her.
“Victoria did not tell me where to find you,” Rudolf said with a wry smile. “I did my best to frighten her, but she is not as easily frightened as you or the children.”
Samantha smiled at that. “How did you find me?”
“I remembered that you considered the cottage your home.”
Samantha worried her bottom lip with her teeth. “Are you punishing me by sending me to Sark Island without you?”
“How does a mortal punish an angel?”
Samantha blinked and shook her head as if trying to clear it. Apparently, she was having a delusion or dream. That must be it. She was still in bed
and enjoying a wonderful dream.
Rudolf looked puzzled. “What is wrong? Is it the baby?”
Samantha placed her hand on his chest. “You feel solid and real.”
“Of course, I am real.”
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked. “You aren’t the same.”
“I have been an ass,” he admitted.
“Yes, you have.” Samantha nodded her head in agreement.
Rudolf laughed. He yanked her into his arms and held her tightly. His lips descended to hers in a devouring kiss.
“I brought you a gift.”
Samantha smiled in confusion. “A gift?”
Rudolf stood and offered her his hand as he’d done on the night of Emerson’s ball. Samantha dropped her gaze from his black eyes to his offered hand. She placed her hand in his and rose from the floor.
Wrapping his arms around her, Rudolf kissed the crown of her head. Desperation tinged his voice when he said, “Please, Princess, do not ever leave me again. I love you too much to live without you.”
Samantha hid her face against his chest and wept. He had said the words she longed to hear. He loved her. She had never felt this happy in her life.
“I am glad that Grant is not here,” Rudolf said, stroking her back. “He would be complaining about how stupid girls are.”
Samantha laughed and pushed away from his chest. She looked up at him through enormous blue eyes glistening with tears. “I was about to eat breakfast. Would you like a bowl of oatmeal?”
“Did you make it?”
Samantha nodded.
“I would love to eat your oatmeal after you open your gift,” Rudolf said. “Sit down, and I’ll get it.”
With a smile playing on her lips, Samantha watched him step outside and lift something into his arms. He was back in an instant and, after she pushed the bowl of oatmeal aside, set the large box on the table.
“Open it.”
“It’s quite large,” Samantha said. “Did you buy something for the baby?”
“No, I bought this for you.”
“If you buy something for the baby,” Samantha corrected him, “then you are buying it for me.” She opened the lid. The box contained hundreds of hair ribbons in every color imaginable.
She looked up at him, a confused smile on her lips. “You bought me hair ribbons?”
Her heart ached when she saw him swallow a lump of emotion, and his black eyes shone with unshed tears. “I have never seen you with a hair ribbon and thought you might want a few.”
“A few?”
“Do you like them?”
“I love them. I would love anything you gave me.” Samantha reached inside and pulled out a handful of ribbons. “These are very fine hair ribbons.”
“I did not know which colors you preferred, so I bought all of them,” Rudolf told her.
“All of the ribbons in the shop?”
Rudolf nodded. “I cleaned them out and then went to the next shop. And the next and the next and the next. You have a monopoly on hair ribbons at the moment.”
Samantha burst out laughing. She rose from the chair and entwined her arms around his neck. Pulling his head down, she poured all of her love into that single kiss.
“Princess, I want you to know—”
Samantha placed a finger across his lips. “We don’t need to speak about it.”
“Yes, we do.” Rudolf lifted her hand to his lips. “I want you to know that, after I calmed down yesterday, I planned to listen to your account of that day, but you had already gone.”
“Thank you.”
“I will become angry sometimes over the next forty or fifty years,” Rudolf told her. “When I do, I want you to remind me what an arrogant, insufferable, pigheaded lout I can be.”
“I don’t think I would want to say that to you when you’re angry,” Samantha said, a smile on her lips. “Your expression is always so forbidding.”
“I tried not to love you,” Rudolf said, holding her close. “I did not want to marry you because I wanted to marry you too much. After Zara was born, Olga learned of my less-than-noble origins. She began an affair with Vladimir. I found them in my bed together. That is why I guarded my heart for so long and struggled to keep from giving my love to you.”
Samantha reached up and touched his cheek. “I loved you from the moment you forced me to dance at Emerson’s ball.”
“You will never know how grateful I am to Igor for abducting us,” Rudolf told her, making her smile. He dropped his hand to her belly. “How is my baby?”
“Hungry.”
Rudolf sat at the table, and Samantha served him a bowl filled with oatmeal. After tasting it, he exclaimed, “This is the best oatmeal I have ever eaten.”
“How much oatmeal have you eaten?”
“None.” Rudolf glanced around the cottage and said, “I am going to purchase this cottage. Every year the two of us will return for a week or two and pretend we are ordinary people.”
“That is the best offer I have ever had,” Samantha said, her eyes shining with love. “By the way, you owe me one thousand pounds and whatever Tory paid for the hackney.”
“Your sister is lucky that I am letting her live after she confessed to supervising you climbing out the window and down the tree.”
Finished with his oatmeal, Rudolf stood and offered her his hand as he had done the night they met. Samantha knew what he was asking. She placed her hand in his.
Together, they went into the tiny bedroom. Rudolf pulled her against his hard, muscular body. “Today is yours my love.”
Rudolf kissed her thoroughly while his hands unfastened her buttons. Then he slipped the gown off her shoulders and let it pool at her feet. He looked down at her leg and laughed. “I have never made love to a woman who was wearing a dagger.” He bent down and unstrapped the leather garter that held the dagger.
“My turn, Your Highness,” Samantha whispered.
He stood to let her unbutton his shirt. Sliding it off his shoulders, Samantha placed little nipping kisses across his chest.
Rudolf sucked in his breath at the sensation and pushed her chemise down until she stood naked in front of him. “You are not wearing anything else,” he said.
“Stockings and garters and other fancy unmentionables are for the wealthy,” Samantha said. “While here, I am a simple girl.”
“There is nothing simple about you.”
Rudolf placed her gently on the cot. His hands moved to her swollen breasts with their darkened nipples.
Samantha sighed. Her husband was everything she had ever wanted. Her long-cherished dream was coming true.
Rudolf discarded his boots and trousers and then lay down beside her. The cot was so small he was forced to lie on his side.
Sliding his hands down her body, Rudolf caressed her breasts, the curve of her hip, the wet folds between her thighs. “Princess, lie on top of me.”
When she moved over him, Rudolf cupped each breast and brought them down to hover near his lips. He suckled each lingeringly, enjoying his wife’s throaty moans. She had wonderfully sensitive nipples.
“Ride me, wife.”
“Oh, yes.”
Samantha lifted herself into position and slowly impaled herself, inch by exquisite inch. Then she rocked back and forth while he grinded himself deep inside her.
“You are beautiful.”
Samantha cried out as spasms shook her body. Only then did Rudolf lose himself in her, holding her hips while thrusting upward again and again and again.
Later, after they’d napped, Samantha caressed his face. Rudolf turned his head and kissed her hand. “Husband, there is something I’ve been wanting to ask you.”
“What is it, Princess?”
“Do you remember on our way to Scotland when we went shopping?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you purchase that ostrich feather?”
Rudolf shouted with laughter and hugged her close. “Princess, I forgot I bought that. I will show
you what the feather is used for when we move into Montague House.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, looking into his dark eyes.
“Darling, the feather is used as a toy for adults,” Rudolf told her.
“An adult toy? What is it used—Oh.” Samantha felt her cheeks grow warm. After a time, she said, “We should get up and return to His Grace’s.”
“We can stay here for the night if you wish.”
“I would like that very much,” she answered, “but everyone will be worried.”
Samantha rose from the cot and drew her chemise over her head. Then she strapped the leather garter with its deadly dagger to her leg.
“Is that necessary?” Rudolf asked, watching her.
“One should always be prepared,” Samantha said, reaching for her boots. It was then she noticed the star ruby had darkened to the color of blood, and a chill ran down her spine. She pulled her dress over her head and sat on the edge of the cot.
“My aunt’s star ruby has darkened,” she told him. “Trouble is coming our way.”
Rudolf laughed. “I can handle anything that threatens us.”
Rising from the cot, Rudolf dressed and walked into the main room. After smothering the dying embers in the hearth, he lifted the box of ribbons off the table and followed her to the door.
When Samantha opened the door, Olga stood there. Behind her stood Vladimir with a pistol in his hand.
Olga slapped her hard. Samantha fell back against her husband, who kept her from falling.
“Princess Samantha, I thought you were such a sweet, innocent child,” Vladimir said, gesturing them inside with his pistol. “That angel’s face hid a devious mind. I never would have guessed you would be so wily as to fool us with an imitation.”
Rudolf set the box of ribbons down on the table. Then he stepped in front of his wife.
“Isn’t that sweet,” Olga said. “The bastard is protecting her. Too bad, both of you will be dead in a few minutes.”
“Brother, excuse my wife,” Vladimir said. “She gets carried away sometimes. If you will hand me the real Venus, we will leave you in peace.”
Rudolf inclined his head, reached into his pocket, and produced the black velvet pouch. He handed it to his brother, who placed it into his jacket pocket.
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