You Belong to Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

laughed. “What a distasteful word, and something I would never do, of course.” And with another smile: “Why don’t you pour us a drink?”
    He returned her smile, deciding to go along with her for the moment. “An excellent idea,” he said, but as he headed for the sideboard where a variety of spirits were kept on hand for guests, he added under his breath, “Obviously I’m going to need it.”
    “I’ll have some of that fine Russian vodka I keep stocked just for you,” she said before he began to pour exactly that for himself.
    The request arrested his hand and made him frown. “You don’t like vodka,” he reminded her.
    “True,” she replied with a shrug. “But it seems…appropriate tonight.”
    She was smiling again. He brought her a small amount of the potent liquor, but he went back to get the bottle for himself and took it with him to the chair opposite the sofa she had settled on. He had filled his glass twice, draining it both times, before he felt fortified enough to say, “All right, Mother, let’s have it. What are you so disgustingly thrilled about?”
    “You’re going to have to leave within the week for a trip to Russia.”
    “And that delights you?”
    She nodded, her smile positively glowing now. “Indeed it does, since you will be collecting your bride while you’re there.”
    Vasili went very still, and the only thing he could think to say to that alarming statement was, “I’m not Stefan, Mother. He had to go and collect a bride. I don’t happen to have one, thank God.”
    “You do now.”
    He shot out of his chair and came to stand over her, the very image of bristling male chagrin. He couldn’t remember when he had ever been this annoyed with his mother. Interfering in his life was unacceptable. She knew that and had always respected it. Lectures and sermons she was allowed, worry and concern she was permitted, but something like this?What the devil had made her think she could get away with it?
    “Whatever you have done, Mother, you can just undo. Whatever embarrassment you’ll have to suffer for it, you’ll suffer on your own. I don’t even want to hear another word about it.”
    Incredibly, she was still smiling, and she didn’t keep him in suspense as to why. “You might have to hear one or two more words about it, dearest—”
    “Mother—” he tried to cut in warningly.
    “—since I haven’t done anything, so I have nothing to undo.”
    “That’s absurd. Of course you—”
    “No, not me. The fact that you have a bride waiting for you is entirely your father’s doing.”
    With that piece of the puzzle supplied, Vasili began to relax. It wasn’t like his mother to indulge in a practical joke, but he supposed there was a first time for everything.
    “And how was he supposed to have arranged this marriage? From the grave?”
    She drew in her breath sharply. “That was uncalled-for, Vasili.”
    “So is this joke of yours,” he retorted.
    “A joke? You insult me even to think that I would joke about something like this.”
    “But it’s been fourteen years—”
    “I know exactly how long it’s been since your father died.” Her tone was clipped, her displeasure with him still strong. “But according to the letter I received, your betrothal wasmade fifteen years ago. That would have been the last time your father was in Russia.”
    “You expect me to believe he did something like this without telling you about it—or me?”
    “I don’t know why he never mentioned it, but he most definitely did arrange it. I can only assume he felt there was ample time to apprise us of it. After all, you were so young back then—”
    “I would have been sixteen, hardly in the cradle,” he snapped.
    As if he hadn’t interrupted, she continued. “But he died the next year.”
    Vasili’s eyes were glowing by now. This was sounding too serious by half for him to merely feel annoyed. “It’s a lie,” he stated emphatically. “There is no conceivable