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to gain her attention.
    “I beg your pardon.” She looked down her nose at him, which wasn’t easy when he was a half-head taller than her.
    He didn’t let go of her. “Hoity-toity, ain’t you? But I like that.”
    He wore a suit, even carried a cane, but his manners left much to be desired. He was rather good-looking, but Katherine didn’t take that into account. Never in her life had a stranger laid a hand on her before. There had always been grooms or footmen surrounding her to keep that from happening. She was at a loss how to deal with this, but instinct made her jerk her arm back. His grip held.
    “Go away , sir! I don’t wish to be bothered.”
    “Now don’t put on airs, luv.” He was grinning at her, liking the sudden challenge. “You’re just standing here with nothing better to do. It won’t hurt you to pass the time.”
    Katherine was appalled. Was she supposed to argue with him? Not likely. She had already made her wishes known.
    She drew back the hand that clutched Lucy’s sturdy little reticule by the string and let fly at him. The fellow let go of her to jump back. Heavoided being hit, but in doing so, collided with another man waiting to cross the street. That man shoved him away forcefully, with a sharp oath that stung Katherine’s ears and brought vivid color to her cheeks.
    The moment her accoster righted himself, he glared at her. “Bitch. A simple no would have sufficed.”
    Katherine’s nostrils flared angrily. She very nearly stooped to his level to tell him what he could do with his misplaced indignation. But she had too much breeding for that. She gave him her back, then groaned when she saw that Elisabeth had moved on during the commotion and was nearly half a block away now.

Chapter Four
    A nastasia fretted at the delay. It seemed as if their coach had been stuck on this busy corner for a half-hour, waiting for an opening in the heavy congestion on Regent Street so that they could cross over and continue on their way. Their uncle’s townhouse was only a few blocks away. She could have got there quicker if she had walked.
    “I hate this city,” Anastasia complained. “The streets are so narrow and always so crowded compared to St. Petersburg. And no one ever hurries here.”
    Dimitri said nothing, not even reminding her that this was where she said she wanted to stay. He simply sat staring out the window. What did she expect? He had hardly said two words to her during the entire journey to London. But then he had said more than enough before they left the Duke’s country estate.
    Anastasia shivered, remembering his rage. He hadn’t beat her. She almost wished he had. His anger had been just as nerve-racking.
    After he had ranted and called her every kind of a senseless fool, he had said scathingly, “What you do in bed, and whose bed you do it in, is not my concern. I have allowed you the same freedom that I enjoy myself. But that is not why I’m here, is it, Nastya? I am here because you had the temerity to scorn Grandmere’s wishes.”
    “But it was unreasonable for her to send me home for such a minor thing.”
    “Quiet! What is minor to you is not minor to these English. This is not Russia!”
    “No, in Russia Aunt Sonya monitors my every move. I have no freedom there.”
    “Then I will do well to put you in the care of a husband, who will perhaps be more lenient.”
    “Dimitri, no!”
    The matter was not open to discussion. He had made his decision. And even that was not the blow she had been anticipating in retaliation for the inconvenience she had caused him. It came just before he turned to leave her.
    “You had better hope to God that my plans have not been ruined by this unnecessary trip, Nastya,” he told her brutally. “If they are, you can be sure the husband I find for you will not be to your liking.”
    And then he had been most congenial for the four days he had stayed to visit with the Duchess. But Anastasia could not forget the threat hanging over