Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment again. She was naked, but had temporarily forgotten that mortifying fact. He hadn't. He sat up and shrugged out of his coat, dropping it into her lap as she sat up also. She donned it quickly, savoring the heat inside from his body, even though the coat was still quite damp. For a covering, it was far from adequate, with only a few buttons that would have closed at, Stefan's lower chest, but didn't even begin until Tanya's navel. But at least it was a frock coat, fullskirted, that reached below her knees, so it served its purpose as long as she held it tightly closed.
More sounds were heard in the brush now, as the other two drew near. Tanya found out who had discovered them first when Lazar called out, "Over here. "
Coming back at him was the question, "Did you find Stefan?"
"Yes, and he our little fish."
The "little fish" made a face that no one could see in the dark. She wondered if she could quietly slip away while they were shouting back and forth. The hand she didn't see coming lifted her to her feet and stayed at her elbow to disabuse her of that notion. She wouldn't be getting away again tonight. Stefan was definitely going to make sure of that. But tomorrow...
Chapter 20
It had been a goodly number of years since Tanya had slept outdoors, but she wasn't startled when she awoke to humid river smells and grass tickling her nose. She was used to waking clearheaded and alert. Dobbs had taught her that, for he was his grouchiest in the mornings and quick to slap if an order wasn't understood and acted upon immediately.
She wondered about Dobbs now, and what had happened yesterday when he awoke in the late afternoon and she didn't come running at his first yell — or his third or fourth, which had been the case lately as her independence asserted itself more and more. Who had opened The Seraglio for him? Jeremiah? But he was only good at pouring drinks. He didn't even know how to replenish the supply.
The list grew in her mind, of the things that needed to be done at the tavern that neither Jeremiah or Aggie would know the first thing about. And they had no dancer until April's foot healed. For one or two nights they might be able to get away without entertainment, but then the word would spread and their business would drop drastically.
Panic crept up on her as she began to envision her future livelihood suffering a severe setback because she wasn't there to watch over it. The Seraglio might even be forced to close, or worse, Dobbs might make a deal with someone else. Her entire future could be ruined by this forced absence. Damn Stefan for finding her last night.
They had returned last night to where she had left her clothes, she and Stefan going on ahead, so she had time to dress before the others joined them. Stefan had decided to wait out the night there, and much to Tanya's disappointment, since she had hoped to slip away again while they were all sleeping, he had set up a watch, with each of them taking turns through the night. They had had no fire, no blankets to keep warm, and she had slept in her damp clothes, while the men had stripped down to almost nothing so they could spread their clothes out on the surrounding shrubbery to dry.
Tanya hoped they had had the decency to, now that it was light, but she hadn't looked yet. She had turned over onto her stomach during her sleep, so her own clothes were still damp where she had lain on them. But the men were awake. She could hear lowvoiced conversations, though they had reverted to that foreign language they all knew, so she didn't bother to listen.
They were undoubtedly making plans, deciding which direction to take. She wondered if they knew the area, because she certainly didn't, not on this side of the river, nor on the other side for that matter, not this far from Natchez. But that was their problem. Hers was finding one more opportunity to part company with them, a virtual impossibility because none of them would trust her farther than they could reach.
She finally turned over and sat up, finding them gathered near the water's edge. Vasili and Serge sat on a log, Vasili trying to buff the mud from his boots with a handkerchief. Lazar squatted on the ground counting money, so one or more of them must have been carrying some when they decided to come after her. Stefan stood facing the water, possibly considering hailing some passing river craft. She could have told them that was a good way to get robbed and killed with so many unsavory types traveling the Mississippi these days, an option only for the really desperate. She was desperate, but they weren't, not yet anyway. But then they weren't exactly upstanding honest people themselves, were they? she thought disagreeably. So they would probably fit right in with thieves and murderers.
Her movement had drawn Serge's eyes to her, then Lazar's. When they didn't look away from her, she glanced down to make sure the waistcoat was still covering her breasts adequately. It was. Looking back, she saw Vasili staring at her now, too, and he seemed surprised, almost amazed. Well, what the hell?
"Have I grown two heads or something?" she demanded irritably.
Stefan turned at the sound of her voice, took one look at her, and uttered a curse that burned her ears.
Lazar started laughing at that point, Serge smiled, but they all still stared at her as if they were looking at something that totally defied belief.
Tanya wasn't usually so dense, but she was so used to being properly made up before she faced anyone, even Dobbs, that it didn't occur to her immediately that her camouflage was washed clean away. When she did finally recall scrubbing herself from top to bottom last night in the river, she repeated Stefan's curse, though silently. She wasn't supposed to have run into them again after she did that. And look at their damn reactions. She was rendering them speechless, for crying out loud. Well, not quite.
When Lazar had finished laughing, he said to no one in particular, "It stands to reason that she would look like this with her mother a renowned Austrian beauty and her father one of the handsomest men Cardinia has ever produced. This is what we expected, not the wellworn hag she painted herself. And Stefan warned us she was not as she appeared to be."
"I expected worse, not better," Vasili said.
"You merely call this better?" Serge asked, chuckling now. "They will come from all over Europe to have a look at her, once it is known she outshines even her mother. And to think I felt sorry for—"
Two throats cleared so loudly, Serge was effectively cut off. Stefan, silent so far, stepped forward stiffly to help Tanya to her feet.
"The question is," he said in a tone frigid enough to predict what was coming, "why would a whore hide a face worth her fortune?"
The fortuneproducing face turned bright crimson, which infuriated Tanya even more than the insult did. She was getting sick and tired of blushing every time they dumped their contempt on her. Obviously, nothing was going to stop the insults from coming her way, so she had to stop letting them affect her. She didn't even know why she was reacting this way, when she had been called worse things in her life than a whore and had been too thickskinned to even notice. She definitely needed to toughen up here if she had to pass another day with these four, or start fighting back in kind.
Right then fighting back appealed to her, so even though it had been a rhetorical question, at least not asked of her, she answered anyway, her smile deadly sweet. "I'm only one woman, Stefan. There was never enough time to handle all the customers this face attracted."
Incredibly, color drained from his face, only to come back in such a rush she knew he was flushing in reaction. Well, score one for you, missy. Fighting back is going to be easier than you thought.
But she heard from behind him, "Jesus," and from another the warning "Think before you do anything, Stefan. "
And they couldn't even see that he had turned livid, since he was still facing her. They expected anger from what she'd said. Why? What difference did it make if she owned up to what they all thought anyway? If she told the truth instead, Stefan would probably get just as angry. Maybe she would try that next time.