She had been told by Vasili that Stefan had a mistress. She just never dreamed she would have to meet her. Nor had it occurred to her that Stefan probably had no intention of giving up his mistress. Why should he, after all? He was being forced to marry Tanya, but standing right here was a woman he gave his affections to by choice.
It was fortunate that Stefan prevented the woman from plastering herself to him again, because Tanya honestly couldn't say what she would have done if she had to watch them kissing again. He put his arm around her waist instead and turned her toward Tanya, and in that moment of green eyes meeting blue, Tanya knew this little demonstration of devotion had been staged for her benefit. Stefan's mistress must feel threatened by her. What a joke.
Any satisfaction she might have felt from that realization was ruined by Stefan's expression. He was so delighted to be reunited with his mistress again, he didn't even try to hide it. Tanya didn't consider that his obvious pleasure had come from hearing that his father still lived.
"Princess Tatiana, may I present to you Lady Alicia Huszar? Alicia wanted to meet you before the rest of the court, because she desires to be one of your personal attendants when you are queen."
Over our dead body, missy. No, over hers, Tanya corrected herself. But she'd rather die than be as obvious as they were about their feelings right now. Stefan was not going to know she was peagreen with jealousy. So she didn't dare say a word. She merely nodded to acknowledge the introduction.
Alicia was forced to offer a perfunctory bow now that Tanya's identity had been established. Tanya was a royal princess, after all. To do even that must have galled her, but Tanya couldn't find any satisfaction in thinking that either.
"I'm sorry, your Highness," Alicia said, pretending surprise she couldn't possibly feel. "I didn't even notice you standing there. "
Liar. She had seen them arrive from one of the windows, or Tanya would eat her new shoes. But she didn't say so, not directly anyway, since she still didn't trust herself to say anything to the redhead. She glanced at Stefan instead and raised a slim brow to accompany an expression as skeptical as she could make it.
He at least got the message, or she assumed he did, for he took his arm away from Alicia and frowned at her, perhaps finally realizing that she hadn't kissed him just in greeting, something he was no doubt accustomed to, but she'd done it in front of his betrothed.
Stefan, to give him his due, would want to be discreet, at least until the marriage was an accomplished fact. He probably hadn't counted on Tanya suspecting anything about his sweet Alicia. But did he really think she would accept his mistress as one of her attendants? His mistress, for crying out loud! If that was the way things were done in Cardinia, Tanya wasn't leaving Danzig.
For his part, Stefan was as embarrassed as Tanya was furious. He had left Alicia here with the promise that she wouldn't be supplanted. He had had no intention of giving her up for a woman he was being forced to marry, and although he would marry her, he had intended it to be in name only.
But he hadn't counted on his reaction to a plain-faced Tatiana, his delight that she wasn't what they'd expected, his anger that she was a whore. All he should have felt was satisfaction that she was what he could bring back to his father with the taunt, "Here is the princess you would bind me to, but neither of us will ever know if her issue is royal or bastard." Instead he had been fiercely glad that she would be his, had desired her from the first moment he saw her, and by the time her beauty was revealed, it was too late. His emotions were already thoroughly involved with her.
Now he knew exactly what he wanted, and it was more painful than he could have imagined, knowing that he'd never get it. She even teased him about it, perhaps not cruelly. since she didn't know how he felt, but it had hurt just the same that she could deal with the subject so frivolously. Tell her that he couldn't live without her, that he loved her madly? He'd actually found the only peace he'd known since meeting her by staying away from her on the ship, because every time he was near her, his passions were roused to either anger or desire. And he had no control over what she made him feel. Anger, lust, jealousy, love, it all went hand in hand where Tanya was concerned.
Love her? "Madly" was an apt word. God, what an utter fool he was!
Chapter 37
Dinner that night was an excruciating affair of tempers tested to their limit, at least for Stefan. He had been unable to have a private word with Alicia, and when he did, he still wasn't sure what he was going to say to her. On the one hand, she was the most amiable mistress he had ever had, and he would hate to lose that. On the other hand, he had absolutely no desire for her at present.
That would change, undoubtedly, when he stopped torturing himself over Tanya. But Alicia wasn't the type of woman who would just sit back and wait while he agonized over another. It wasn't even fair of him to ask. It wasn't fair of him, either, to put her aside when he had assured her that wouldn't happen. That he was undecided on what to do not only was aggravating, it wasn't like him.
Then he had found himself actually walking the floor in a state of nervous unease when Alicia had taken Tanya upstairs to show her to her room. The two of them alone together, one woman in the habit of wielding knives, though thank God she no longer wore them, the other in the habit of protecting what was hers, and Alicia still considered him hers. It didn't bear thinking of, what could happen. But nothing did, at least nothing that either of them cared to let him know about. And that, incredibly, annoyed him more than the fact that he'd worried about it.
Even Sandor's man not showing up to speak with him, after Alicia had assured him the fellow would put in an appearance, had infuriated Stefan, especially since he had prepared a missive for the man to take to his father. But the man must have merely noted his arrival and left to return to Cardinia immediately, without even asking after the princess, whom Sandor would also be anxious to hear about.
And what was he going to tell Sandor in the end about Tanya? The truth? Only half the truth?
Sandor was going to blame himself for Tanya's deplorable upbringing. Stefan half blamed him himself. To have sent only one person with the child, and not to have taken into consideration that something might happen to that single guardian... no, he couldn't tell his father the entire truth. He was going to be upset enough that Tanya hadn't been raised properly. He didn't have to know just how improperly she had turned out. But Stefan had never lied to him before. That he would start doing so, and for a woman, was intolerable.
Obviously, he was in a mood to be irritated by the slightest little thing today, but he supposed, after all those weeks at sea, he was due to let off a little steam. No, it seemed more that Tanya was going to ensure that he did. First her strange behavior in her cabin, then again in the coach. He had expected her to be a little different after he'd been told that she no longer doubted her identity or theirs, but all that inane chatter? And such drastic mood swings? If she had set out to exasperate him, she couldn't have succeeded more thoroughly, for trying to figure out what she was up to — and he didn't doubt she was up to something — was unbelievably frustrating.
And what the devil did Vasili think he was doing, making over Alicia tonight as if she were his mistress instead of Stefan's? For Tanya's benefit? Since when did Vasili want to protect Tanya's feelings? And Alicia was only halfheartedly playing along with it. But Tanya wasn't stupid. And she had witnessed that kiss. And she didn't care. That was the most annoying thing yet today. She didn't give a damn that she was sitting at the same table with his mistress. Any other woman would, if only for the sake of form, but not his future bride.