"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"But I seriously doubt that Stefan meant it. He hasn't exactly been in a good mood lately, in case you hadn't noticed. And when he gets like this—"

"He made the observation before we left Danzig. "

Losing on that point, Vasili tried another, his voice actually scolding. "You don't just go around asking men to kiss you, Princess."

That had her blushing again. "If this weren't important, I wouldn't. But that is why I asked you instead of someone else, to keep it in the family, so to speak. Now, will you just do it and get it over with?"

"No, I will not," he said flatly, with finality.

"Why not?"

"Because Stefan would kill me if he found out."

"He wouldn't do any such thing," she scoffed.

"I would just as soon not put it to the test, thank you. "

She was surprised. She really thought he would help. "Very well, I'll just have to ask someone else."

She turned to leave. He reached out and grabbed her arm. He looked totally flustered now.

"You must have some past experience to go by for this comparison. At least one man who has kissed you before Stefan. Rack your memory, for God's sake."

"I did. The few other kisses I've had were stolen, and necessarily brief, because I tended to draw my knife very quickly."

Vasili gave in then, but with complete ill grace. "Oh, very well. " He leaned forward to place his lips on hers for all of five seconds.

When he leaned back, Tanya was shaking her head at him in disgust. "You know what kind of kiss I meant, Vasili. That wasn't it."

He flushed furiously now and grabbed her hand, pulling her along behind him across the camp. "Where are we going?" Tanya demanded.

"If I am going to do this properly, it isn't going to be for public consumption that Stefan will be bound to find out about." And then he looked back at her suspiciously. "You aren't intending to tell him, are you?"

"If I do, I won't mention names."

That must have satisfied him, for he said no more. His destination was the other side of her coach, which she slept in when they camped out in the open like this. No one was near it now, but when she retired, there would be at least four attendants sleeping in front of either door, including the two women who were acting as her maids, as well as a number of guards set to watch the coach all night long. She might not have felt like a princess before they reached Europe, but she was being treated like one on this trip, with servants galore keeping her from lifting a hand to her own care.

Vasili stopped as soon as he was certain no one could see them, and immediately drew Tanya into a lover's embrace. The kiss began hesitantly on his part, but he soon got into the spirit of it. And Tanya was determined to participate as well, to relax, to open her senses to feel the experience. That was easy enough, since she was getting good at this sort of thing. Vasili, on the other hand, was an expert at it, quite as good as Stefan. But that's what she had hoped for, to really put it to the test.

The experiment ended about five minutes later, when she tapped Vasili on his shoulder. He released her and stepped back, running an agitated hand through his golden locks.

There was a soft glow in his eyes that was quickly extinguished as he gave her an inquiring look. "Do you have your answer?"

She grinned. "Yes."

"Well?"

"You don't really want to know, do you, Vasili?"

Her beaming expression told him plain enough that he'd failed to stir her. He burst out laughing.

"You never have been good for my selfesteem, Princess, so spare my feelings in this case."

Chapter 44

Tanya had waited impatiently for Stefan to return to camp last night. He and Serge had supposedly only gone to the village up ahead to get news of the area they were nearing, and to arrange to have breakfast prepared and waiting for their large group when they passed through the village in the morning, as well as more food they could take with them for a noon meal.

Lazar had told her this part of the country was known for its hill bandits and other types of lawless individuals. Because it was so remote and almost primitive in nature, it was ignored by the countries surrounding it: Austria; the kingdom of Poland, or what was left of it, since Poland was now under Russia's control; and Russia herself.

Unfortunately, the northern route leading to Cardinia cut right through this area. But it could be traversed in only half a day. And Tanya was assured that heavily guarded travelers, such as they, were never bothered. Not that she was worried about it. She had also been told, almost from the beginning of the overland trek, that the land's natural inhabitants were a danger, too, for bears, wildcats, and wolves roamed the forests and sometimes beyond. It had been stressed again and again that she was never to venture off alone for any reason whatsoever. But she hadn't given that much thought, either, with so much else on her mind.

When Stefan had finally returned to camp last night, she had tried to speak to him, but he had put her off, saying he was too tired. When she tried again in the morning before they broke camp, he said he was too busy, it would have to wait until that evening — when she would probably hear that he was too tired again? Like hell.

It was then that she remembered all the warnings about how dangerous it would be to leave the group. She also remembered how thoroughly upset Stefan had been that time she'd jumped into the Mississippi River, just because she had put herself at risk. She decided that if she couldn't get his attention by asking for it, she'd get it another way — by turning up missing.

Of course, she had no intention of putting herself in danger. She wouldn't have to go far from the coaches to be "missing," certainly not beyond shouting distance. She just didn't have to answer when she was called. And she didn't have to show herself until Stefan was good and upset. Then that devil would damn well talk to her.

She also realized that what she intended might actually put Stefan's promise to the test, that he was likely to be livid with rage, just as before. But that only added some exciting possibilities to the plan, which made her even more determined to do it. And she didn't wait until that evening. She'd just as soon not go off in the dark, anyway. She chose that very afternoon, when they stopped to partake of the cold fare from the village.

Tanya waited until everyone had almost finished eating, since there was no point in going off into the woods for longer than she had to. She even finished the meat wrapped in thick bread and butter that had been brought to her. But as soon as her maids started cleaning up in preparation to leave again, she slipped behind the coach, waited another minute to make sure no one had seen her, then dashed into the woods.

She wasn't sure what she was going to say in her defense when she let herself be "found." She ought to just put the blame where it was due and tell Stefan the truth. No, that wasn't, after all, a good enough excuse to ignore all the warnings she had been given. Just because he was ignoring her? She could tell him that she'd wanted to be alone, to think, to decide if she was going to marry him or not, and then had fallen asleep. After all, she needed a reason to explain why she wasn't going to answer when she heard them calling for her. Being asleep solved that.

At any rate, she had a while to think about it, ten minutes probably, before they would be ready to continue on their way. Then she had a moment's unease when it occurred to her that they just might leave, thinking she was inside her coach already. But she laughed it off. They wouldn't be that careless. And someone usually rode with her.

But at that point, she decided she'd gone into the woods far enough. She looked about for some type of cover other than a fat tree trunk, though a trunk would do just as well for her purposes. Then she spotted what looked like a building just a little farther on and headed toward it. On closer inspection, she saw that at one time it had been a house or a farm, but was now in ruins, long abandoned. As shelter, it fell short of the mark, with most of the roof and one wall caved in, but as a place to "fall asleep," it was perfect. Only Tanya hadn't counted on anyone else being there.

When she came around the building to get out of the wind, she saw the three ponies first, once wild by the look of them, then the three men leaning up against the wall of the ruins. She no sooner let out a gasp of surprise than the man closest to her was hauling her forward and out of sight of the way she had come.

"Now just a—"

A hand over her mouth cut off Tanya's protest. An arm around her waist lifted her off the ground and didn't let go. Her wrists were swiftly being tied together by another man, who also had a gag ready for her mouth. It had all happened too quickly, before she could think, before she could get at the knife strapped to her thigh.

"What if she isn't the one?"

"She is," said one of the men with confidence. "You sent me close to watch them and I watched. She is the only lady in that party."

"Then she wouldn't be out here alone. She wouldn't be this far from the road at all."

"Who cares what she's doing here when what she did is make it easy to earn the payment."

"Then if you're sure, I say kill her here and be done with it."

"You would say that, Pavel," he was told with unmistakable disgust.

"Why bother taking—"

"Take a good look at her. I would keep her before I'd kill her. Besides, it's Latzko's decision, not ours. We don't even know if the payment is good yet, and I'm not killing anyone for nothing."