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Authors: Susan Johnson

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BOOK: Seized by Love
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Early the next morning
Alisa was shaken awake by Maria whispering frantically, "Mistress Alisa,
Mistress Alisa, you must get up!"

Alisa brought herself up
out of a deep dream of Nikki, and reacted immediately when she saw the
terrified fear in Maria's eyes.

"What's the matter. Is
Katelina ill?" Alisa asked anxiously, sitting up.

"No, my lady,"
Maria said, wringing her hands.

Alisa visibly relaxed,
settling back onto her soft pillow.

"It's much
worse," Maria moaned nervously.

Alarm again sparked in
Alisa's violet eyes.

"Mr. Forseus has returned."
She began looking wildly around the room as if to flee.

"No, my lady."

"What is it, then, for
heaven's sake? Speak up, Maria," Alisa insisted.

"A carriage of
orchids, my lady," Maria whispered qua-veringly.

"A carriage of
orchids? What in the world are you talking about?" Alisa asked
incredulously as she jumped out of bed and rapidly stripped off her nightgown.

"Well, my lady, you
know I always go to the chicken house very early in the morning to gather fresh
eggs for your and Katelina's breakfast. As I was slipping out the side door, I
saw a strange carriage coming up the driveway and ran out to see who it was.
The driver said he was Prince Kuzan's coachman and he had orders to deliver the
orchids, and, Mistress Alisa," she continued, aghast, "there are also
baskets and baskets of strawberries he has instructions to deliver to Mrs.
Forseus as well, and"—she paused to catch her breath—"and also this
letter for you. I told him to wait behind the bend in the driveway so he
wouldn't be visible from the house, but, my lady, you must hurry, the servants
will soon be up."

Alisa had already snatched
the heavy envelope embossed with the golden seal of Kuzan from Maria's hand
before the old servant was finished with her explanation.

She tore open the envelope
and pulled out the single sheet of paper. Swiftly her eyes scanned the heavy,
careless scrawl.

"If you don't meet me
at the meadow in forty minutes, I shall ride over to see you."

The note was simply signed
"N."

Oh, mon
Dieu!
It
must have taken the coachman twenty minutes to drive over here on the
circuitous roads. This left her a bare twenty minutes to dress, talk to the
driver, and cover the distance to the meadow, or else Nikki would be at her
door.

"Maria, quickly find a
dress for me. After I've gone, if any servants question you, tell them I went
to bring blankets and clothes for Mrs. Niemi's new baby. Put those baby clothes
you made in a basket and I'll stop at the Niemis' cottage on my way back.
Hurry, quickly now, I don't have much time!"

Within five minutes Alisa
was dressed and dashing down the main stairway. The door closed quietly behind
her just as the household servants began stirring.

Alisa ran down the driveway
to the bend where, thankfully, the carriage and coachman were still waiting.
Gasping for breath, she addressed the man severely. "You must return to
Prince Kuzan."

"I can't, ma'am. I
have my orders. I'm supposed to deliver these to Mrs. Forseus."

Alisa looked in wonder at
the glistening open landau, the Kuzan signet initialed on the door, the highly
polished green lacquerwork and green velvet upholstery an ideal foil for the
stunning display of enormous, resplendent yellow and lavender orchids, orchids
in baskets, orchids spilling out of shallow basins, orchids carpeting the
floor, interspersed with a prodigious number of wicker baskets containing
perfect red hothouse strawberries.

"I am Mrs. Forseus,
and am on my way to see Prince Kuzan now. If you don't return to his lodge
immediately, I promise you he'll be angry."

"I don't know, ma'am.
Prince Kuzan was quite explicit about my instructions," the man
uncomfortably equivocated.

"I'm sure I'll be able
to change his mind. Please, please, go back!" Alisa implored frantically.

You might be able to at
that, the coachman reflected admiringly as he looked at the beautiful,
breathless young woman before him. He knew Prince Kuzan's susceptibility to
beautiful women and had spent many a nocturnal vigil wrapped in fur robes in
carriage or troika, waiting for the Prince to reappear from some lady's boudoir.

"Very well,
ma'am," he agreed, but added carefully, "if you promise to explain to
Prince Kuzan."

"Oh, I will, I
will!" Alisa finished in a rush of grateful relief. "Thank you."
She waved and disappeared into the forest.

With a quiet cluck of his
teeth and a pull on the reins, he turned the landau around and retraced its
journey.

Alisa ran through the
woods, afraid she'd be too late; would he really come to the house to find her?
Horror! Please, please, make him wait, she prayed silently.

Her heart gave a leap of
pure happiness. She would see Nikki again!

If you had an ounce of
pride, she told herself. Well, she didn't when it came to Nikki. She wanted to
see him with all her heart.

Alisa broke from the
shelter of the birches into the meadow, the dew lacy and sparkling on the
grass, the early morning sun casting long shadows across the glistening meadow.
Suddenly she saw the tall figure of Nikki leaning against a tree, restless,
impatient, fitfully slapping gloves to thigh as he moodily contemplated the
toes of his boots. Alisa stopped abruptly, confused emotions coursing through
her.

Looking up at the slight
sound, Nikki beheld Alisa hesitantly arrested at the edge of the grove, her
gold-red hair tousled, loose tendrils falling around rosy, flushed cheeks, her
breasts heaving with the exertion of the headlong rush through the woods, her
yellow flower-printed linen dress damply clinging at the hemline from the dew's
wetness.

Their glances met.

In his eyes she saw some
strange emotion. Was it relief? The transient expression vanished in an
instant. Nikki smiled and started forward, opening his arms wide in wel-come.
Alisa hesitated, then dropped her basket and ran flying into his open arms.
Nikki enfolded her in a crushing embrace.

"Thank you for
coming," he murmured against her hair in an odd voice. "Forgive
me," he quietly added as he clasped her tightly, burying his face in her
hair, taking in the smell of her, the scent and feel of clean, silken hair and
sweet young flesh, the exquisite sensation of her body against his.

As Alisa clung to him,
tears of joy ran freely down her cheeks. She was lost to the world in his arms,
oblivious of right or wrong, or duty or conscience, aware only of a thrilling
happiness.

For them the world held
promise once again.

"I can't stay
long," Alisa whispered nervously.

"I know. May I see you
this afternoon?" Nikki asked with a husky urgency.

"Yes," she
answered, surrendering heedlessly, renouncing with a giddy delirium any thought
of propriety.

"At one, then, I'll
meet you here. Hours to wait. That will be hell," he groaned softly
against her ear.

"I must go!" she
fearfully murmured.

"I'll walk you
back," he insisted quietly, still not releasing her from his strong arms,
not wanting her to leave.

"No! You mustn't.
Please! If someone should see you," she pleaded, lifting her lids to gaze
into Nikki's warm, golden eyes, already kindling with an insistent passion.
"I'll be here at one," she promised.

Rising on tiptoe, Alisa
brushed Nikki's mouth softly with trembling lips, turned, pulled free from his
grasp, and fled, picking up the basket that had been abandoned at the edge of
the meadow. She still had her errand to complete.

Chapter
Five
THE BLISSFUL INTERLUDE

 

Nikki was waiting long
before one, thinking only of holding Alisa again, of feeling the warmth of her
body against his.

When she came and saw him,
her face lit up as he knew it would, no coquetry, no pretensions, just a
guileless, naive happiness, her marvelous violet eyes shining with pleasure,
her gaze disconcertingly direct.

Nikki took both her hands
in his and, surveying the smiling face, bent his head and tenderly kissed the
tip of her nose.

"What do you want to
do today?" he asked gaily. "This is our first day together. Come to
my lodge. I've sent everyone away but the servants. My home, my servants, my
estate, and I are at your disposal." His warm smile caressed her. "Anything
you want you shall have, anything you want to do, I will do," he offered
with a joyous expansive-ness.

Alisa looked up into his
handsome face and shamefully blushed.

"Well, if you insist,
we shall do that first," he teased.

The music room, Nikki's
favorite, immediately caught Alisa's fancy. Alcoves strewn with embroidered
pillows fronted each large gothic framed window; the walls and vaulted ceiling
were entirely mosaicked in glittering lapis lazuli, gold and ultramarine green
tiles, portraying sinuous, entwined vines, flowers, and birds. The effect was
breathtaking.

When they walked into
Nikki's sitting room, a large portrait gazed down on them—his mother painted by
Win-terhalter. She was small, dark, beautiful, seated in a gilded chair with
Nikki at eight years, sturdily erect, angelic, childishly handsome at her side,
his toys scattered on the rug before them. A great tenderness flooded through
Alisa when viewing the child that he had once been.

"Your mother is very
lovely," Alisa said as she looked at the young woman depicted many years
before.

"Yes, she is,"
Nikki agreed. "You must meet her sometime soon," he continued with a
marvelous, open assurance.

"Oh, no! I
couldn't," Alisa protested in embarrassment.

"Nonsense.
Maman
is a Tzigane and has a very realistic outlook on life. She'll adore you, just
as I do. Come here now," he said impatiently, "enough talking and
sight-seeing. Let me hold you." He pulled her through the doorway into his
bedroom, transformed since the return of the landau into a bower of orchids.

Thus began the first day of
a week of afternoons they were able to spend together; a carpe diem existence,
two mutually obsessed creatures making love through the warm springtime hours,
both avoiding thoughts of the future. Particularly for Alisa, this decision to
disregard the future was absolutely essential to her present happiness. Nothing
must spoil these few days with Nikki.

BOOK: Seized by Love
3.23Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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