Romanov Succession Read Online Free PDF Page B

didn’t chatter; she fell upon the meal. She had always been hearty about everything she did.
    She was his own age—thirty-four—almost to the month; but you couldn’t know that by looking at her. Her stunning beauty was in the bones more than the complexion and objectively there would be no way to tell whether she was twenty-five or forty-five.
    She was the most exquisitely beautiful woman he had ever known.
    She said, “Is there some particular part of my face that fascinates you?”
    â€œAll of it.”
    â€œYou’re still a devastatingly attractive man yourself. You’ve improved with age. Those sprigs of grey around the ears— très distingué. And you’ve never looked so fit.”
    â€œIt must be a product of the spartan life.”
    â€œNow you’re being silly.” She had a rakish look—mischievous. “That American woman was quite right. You put one in mind of Gary Cooper.”
    It startled him and she laughed at him. “In one of your letters to Prince Leon. He repeated it to me with great amusement.”
    â€œHow is he?”
    â€œI think the leg bothers him more than it used to. He’s not young you know—he’s sixty-four, a year older than the Grand Duke. He hasn’t spoken your name in my presence. He’s taken it for granted you and I didn’t want to be reminded of each other.”
    He let it slip by because he wasn’t ready to confront it quite yet. He finished the entrée, hardly having tasted it; he took a breath. “And Vassily? I suppose I should ask.”
    She said, “I haven’t seen Vassily in several years. Not since the last time you saw us together.”
    He was amazed and did not try to hide it.
    Irina said, “Vassily wants a passionate peasant woman—he wants devotion, not questions. I’m far to abrasive for him, I don’t fit his conception of what a soldier’s woman should be.”
    She pushed her plate aside. “It wasn’t very good, was it? The stroganoff. I did warn you. The coffee’s still warm—would you like a cup?”
    He waited until she had poured; they took their cups back to the stuffed chairs at the coffee table. Then he said, “It’s time you came to the point. You’ve implied you’re acting as an emissary from Vassily and now you tell me you haven’t seen him in years. It’s time you sorted it out.”
    â€œI suppose it is. They want you to come back. They need you—they need your skills. As a soldier.”
    â€œWhat the devil for?”
    â€œThey’re planning a war.”
    Finally he said, “You’d better tell me about it.”
    â€œI can’t.” She spread her hands. The half-smile was directed against herself. “I’m only a messenger. They don’t let women into their councils.”
    â€œThen why send you if you can’t explain it to me?”
    â€œI’m only here to ask you to come back to Spain and talk to them—listen to them.”
    â€œThey could have asked me that in a letter.”
    â€œWould you have gone?”
    â€œI’m a soldier, Irina. I can’t just pick up and leave my duty post.”
    â€œThere, you see? That’s why they sent me. To seduce you into trailing along with me back to Spain. Baron Oleg—you know him well enough. Something convinced him that I need only drop a handkerchief and any man in sight will become my adoring slave.”
    â€œYou haven’t dropped a handkerchief, really. Have you?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDid you tell Oleg you would?”
    â€œI suppose I was evasive. I didn’t promise anything—but he drew his own conclusions when I agreed to come.”
    â€œWhy did you?”
    â€œI wanted to see you.” She finished her coffee and put the cup down in the saucer. “Don’t stiffen up. That’s not a handkerchief. I’m being as honest as I’m able.