Cassandra's Conflict (4 page)

'Do you think she'll play with herself?' Katya asked excitedly, remembering how Abigail had delighted them on her arrival.

'I would be most disappointed if she did,' the baron replied. 'This is no Abigail, my dear. Compared to your redheaded house wine this girl is a dark and mysterious claret. A rare wine and one to be savoured slowly. No, we'll get nothing more from this.' He switched off the set by remote control.

'I hadn't finished watching,' Katya exclaimed.

'Of course you had. Enjoy your lunch with her, my darling, and make sure the children behave. At dinner tonight wear the sapphire blue dress with the plunging neckline, and nothing beneath it.'

'We aren't having guests, are we? What does it matter what I wear?'

'The game has begun, Katya; you lose points for asking questions.'

Anger flared in Katya, but she forced it down. If Dieter thought he was annoying her he'd be delighted, and make the game more complicated. Her earlier certainty that Cassandra was no threat had vanished as they'd watched the screen. She hadn't seen such hungry desire on Dieter's face for a very long time, not since he'd first set eyes on Marietta at that wretched ball in Venice, and it had taken five long years for Marietta to vanish from the scene. Five years and her death. She had no intention of letting Cassandra stay around that long.

'You'd better get down to lunch,' the baron reminded her. Katya watched him roll onto his back, and her eyes moved down so that she could see for herself the visible sign of how Cassandra had aroused him. She moved towards the bed, watching him carefully for any sign of irritation or boredom, but there was none, simply an expression of amused tolerance.

'You really want her, don't you?' she asked quietly, sitting herself on the edge of the bed.

'Of course I do! Why else would I have employed her?'

'Tell me what you want to do to her.'

He shook his head. 'That would give too much away. Remember, this is a competition for you as well.'

'But you want to spoil her, don't you? Admit that at least. You want to change her, turn her inside out until she doesn't even recognise herself.'

The baron shrugged. 'If you say so.'

Katya ran a hand up his trouser leg and let her fingers move softly over the bulge at his crotch. 'This tells me you do.'

It was a mistake. He took her hand tightly in his and moved it away, crushing her fingers painfully together as he did so. 'Leave me alone and go down to lunch. I have to see Lucy.'

'Why?' Katya demanded.

'She and I have some unfinished business to attend to. Run along, Katya. I dislike it when you keep asking questions.' She had no choice but to leave.

Katya was in a very bad mood when Cassandra finally came into the garden to join her and the girls for lunch. She tried to disguise it, well aware that Peter, who was helping to serve the lunch, would report everything to the baron, but it was difficult to smile at the younger woman as she approached.

'I'm afraid I'm a few minutes late,' Cassandra apologised. 'I got lost and ended up in the library.'

'It doesn't matter to me, but the baron's obsessed with punctuality. You should remember that in future,' Katya said, signalling for the maid to pass round the plates.

'Of course. I expect I'll soon find my way around. The trouble was, there wasn't anyone to ask. Where do the staff hide away? I never see anyone!'

'They keep to their quarters. Helena, sit up straight and put your plate on your knees. Didn't Abigail teach you anything?'

The four-year-old glanced at Katya from beneath lowered lids. 'Not much,' she said quietly. 'She was always disappearing into your room.'

Katya turned to Cassandra. 'I'm afraid Abigail was rather taken with my clothes and makeup. I often caught her in the bedroom on some flimsy pretext or other. I suppose you have to feel sorry for someone like that but it wasn't nice. That's why she had to go.'

Cassandra's eyes widened. 'Really? The baron said something about her not being keen enough on discipline.'

'Well, there was that too, but really she was thoroughly untrustworthy. The agency chose her for us. This time the baron insisted on doing the interviewing himself. So much wiser I think.'

Cassandra nodded. 'You do need to meet people before you can ...' She stopped as a strange cry pierced the air. It wasn't like the one she'd heard on her previous visit; there was no suggestion of pain in the sound, but it disturbed Cassandra. She glanced at Katya to see if she'd heard it. The other woman's face had gone very white and for a second she was quite motionless, but then her hands busied themselves with her food and her colour returned.

'Yes, I agree,' she continued smoothly. 'It's always better to meet people face to face. You can learn so much from expressions, don't you think?' Her green eyes stared straight into Cassandra's. The effect was hypnotic. The younger woman felt unable to look away, and as she stared at Katya she began to feel strange. Her limbs started to feel heavy, and as her shoulders relaxed she felt a peculiar sensation in the pit of her stomach. Katya leant towards her, putting out a tiny, multi-ringed hand and moving it towards Cassandra's knee. 'You know, Cassandra, there are things I ...'

Helena, staring at her father's mistress in fascination, let her legs slip to one side and the plate fell from her knees and shattered on the patio. The crash of breaking china jolted Cassandra back into the present, and Katya leapt to her feet in a fury.

'You stupid, stupid child! Look what you've done. You wait until I tell your papa about this. He'll be very angry and you'll be punished, won't she Cassandra? I'm quite sure Cassandra knows the right punishment for careless, clumsy, ugly, little girls like you.'

Helena's big blue eyes filled with tears and she clasped her hands together in her lap. 'I didn't mean to,' she whispered. 'It was an accident.'

Christina, apparently unperturbed by her older sister's tears, looked up at the word accident. 'Mama's dead,' she said clearly. 'It was an accident.'

'Be quiet, Christina!' Katya's voice was lower now, but unmistakably menacing and Christina shrank away from her.

'I didn't mean to,' Helena repeated, her bottom lip trembling as she looked at Cassandra.

'Don't worry,' Cassandra said quickly. 'We all have accidents from time to time.'

'Goodness me, I'm afraid you won't last long,' Katya said, her anger suddenly draining away. 'Dieter wouldn't approve of that sentiment at all.'

'But she's only four!' Cassandra said, longing to put her arms round the little girl but not sure if she should. 'It isn't as though she threw it deliberately'

'I want her punished,' Katya said flatly. 'That's all there is to it. She spoilt the lunch.'

'Good afternoon ladies! Is there some kind of problem?' asked a masculine voice, and the baron walked lightly up the steps from the french windows to the patio.

'That clumsy daughter of yours has just broken a piece of the dinner service,' Katya said spitefully. 'She didn't like it because I was talking to Cassandra and she wanted some attention.'

Shocked, Cassandra opened her mouth to protest but then closed it again. She'd only just arrived. She couldn't possibly contradict the baron's fiancee in front of him, and yet it was all so ridiculous and unfair and she knew it was her job to put across the child's point of view. She tried to think how she could tell the baron the truth without appearing to contradict Katya.

'Helena, is this true?' the baron asked his daughter.

Helena hung her head and fiddled with her fingers.

'Answer me, is it true?'

'It was an accident,' his daughter whispered.

Christina tugged at her father's jacket. 'Mama's dead,' she reminded him. His eyes moved quickly from the tiny two-year-old to the watching Cassandra, and suddenly he smiled. 'It's too nice a day to spoil with an argument. I think we'll forget it this time. Peter, clear the mess up. Katya, your masseur's arrived. Lucy will take the children upstairs for a nap while I have a talk with Cassandra here.'

As the girls scampered away and Peter began to sweep up the broken china, Cassandra glanced at Katya and saw that she was absolutely furious. Her eyes were glinting with anger and her mouth was a thin, tight line while two vivid spots of colour stood out on her cheeks.

'Katya, your masseur,' the baron reminded her.

'I wanted her punished,' Katya said icily. 'She spoilt ...'

'I know exactly what she spoilt,' he said. His voice was low and didn't carry to Cassandra. 'You had no business to try and seduce her over lunch. I am not pleased with you.' He raised his voice again. 'Hurry up, darling. You know how Pierre hates to be kept waiting.'

'That's just too bad,' Katya snapped, and she walked slowly back towards the house, emphasising the fact that she intended to keep him waiting.

Cassandra stood up and waited for the baron to speak. She'd thought about him a lot since the interview, and now that she was facing him again her heart was beating rather too fast and she felt ridiculously pleased to see him. He smiled at her, almost as though he was equally pleased to see her.

'Katya always makes a terrible drama out of everything. Now you can see why she would not make a good mother substitute.'

'I expect it's difficult to take on two little girls,' Cassandra said.

'Ah, you play the diplomat! Very good, my dear. But tell me, what was the truth of it all? Did Helena want attention or was it an accident?'

Cassandra took some steadying breaths and looked straight at her employer, determined to be truthful with him from the start. 'I thought it was an accident. It isn't easy to balance plates on knees even when you're an adult.'

'Good!'

'Also, she was very upset. Usually when children want attention they make scenes, but they don't shed real tears, just tears of fury.'

'So Katya lied?' he asked softly.

'No, I'm sure she thought it was deliberate.'

'Are you?'

Cassandra was confused. Actually she wasn't sure. It had seemed to her that Katya had been furious about something else and had taken it out on the little girl, at the same time taking a perverse pleasure in the child's distress, but she knew she couldn't possibly say that. 'Perhaps there are undercurrents between the two of them that I don't know about,' she said at last.

The baron nodded his approval. 'Well said. Perhaps there are many complexities of emotion in this house that you have yet to learn about, but that will all be part of your education, won't it? You plainly have an abundance of commonsense as well as all the other more obvious virtues.'

His eyes travelled down her body and then back up again, quite slowly and without any attempt to disguise his appraisal. Cassandra was amazed to find that she didn't mind, that she even stood slightly straighter beneath his gaze. When he looked into her eyes again his expression was neutral. 'I think you will do very well,' he commented, almost to himself, then he put out a hand, touched her lightly on the cheek and turned back to the house. 'There is a timetable in your room. Study it and then commence your duties. You will dine with us at nine tonight. The children should be asleep by then, and if they do wake one of the nursery staff will see to them. Dress is formal.'

Left alone in the garden, Cassandra felt totally confused. She'd expected a long talk with the baron while he outlined the way in which he wanted her to structure his daughters' days; instead, he'd spent no more than five minutes with her in which nothing had really been said and yet she felt strangely changed.

Now that he'd gone she could still feel the gentle touch of his fingers on her cheek, and recall the way his eyes had scrutinised her, and how her body had tightened beneath his gaze in a way it had never tightened when Paul had looked at her.

Even now her nipples felt hard against the fabric of her bra, and she was more aware of her body than she'd ever been. The long skirt that she was wearing seemed to be brushing insistently against her legs and without realising what she was doing she moved her hands down over her hips and thighs, just as Katya had done when she came down the stairs towards her that morning. It felt good, and she lifted her face to the sky and let the sun's rays touch her face, warming it until the glow began to spread down her throat as well.

From an upstairs window, Dieter von Ritter watched the tall, slim young woman as for the first time she began to be aware of her body as something that needed more than food and clothing and his own body stirred. When he'd let his eyes travel over her he'd been picturing her as she'd been on the screen, her unawakened body pale and slim and, best of all, unaware of what was to come.

That had been all he'd expected to get from the examination, a quick frisson of pleasure, but it had become much more. She'd seemed to come alive beneath his very gaze. He'd seen how the pulse beneath her ear had started to quicken and he'd known then that this was going to be a very special game. It was going to take every ounce of his self-discipline not to hurry her through the tests, but he knew that the savouring of each moment should be extended to give them all the maximum amount of pleasure possible. And pain too, of course, but to him they were the same thing, and they would be to Cassandra, he was sure of that now. There would be no repetition of the tears and pathetic whimperings of Abigail. No, this girl would understand and rise to the challenge. It was a long time since he had felt such excitement.

The door to the upstairs study opened and Pierre, the masseur, stood in the doorway. 'Do you wish to join us, Baron? Madam is ready now.'

The baron blinked and looked away from Cassandra. 'Yes, I wish to join you,' he said sharply. 'Tell Katya to fetch Peter as well.'

Katya was pleased when Pierre told her that the baron wished to join her. Lately he'd seemed less interested in her body, and even the fact that Peter was to join them didn't spoil her pleasure. Peter always added to their pleasure.

It was only when the baron came into the tiny but well-equipped gym that Katya's pleasure began to fade. He looked thoroughly irritated. Not angry, that could often be stimulating, but as though she was spoiling something for him and that hadn't happened for a long time. At the beginning it had been part of her learning programme, but it was something she'd left behind a long time ago and she had no wish to experience it again.