Seized by Love (15 page)

Early the next morning the
bedroom door burst open and one small curly-mopped, red-gold head popped into
sight, babbling excitedly in Finnish.

"Momma, Momma, Look
what Uncle Nikki bought—" She stopped abruptly, broke off, and immediately
switched effortlessly into French.

"Uncle Nikki!"
She let out a squeal of delight when she spied him lying in bed next to her
mother.

Katelina tightly clutched a
large china doll with long flowing blond hair in her chubby arms and flew
across the marble floor, her splendid new velvet robe and dimity nightgown
streaming out behind in her impetuous dash toward the huge, gilded four-poster
bed majestically installed on a dais over which four flying cupids suspended a
gold and mother-of-pearl half shell. Katelina was an engag-ing and lively
child, a beautiful little girl with all of her mother's good looks and
devastating charm.

Scrambling into bed like a
frisky, rambunctious puppy, she promptly discarded her doll and threw her plump
arms around Nikki's neck, excitedly entreating, "Will you take Rakeli and
me to the toy shop again today? Please, please!" she implored, her dark
eyes wide with hope and expectation.

The Prince smiled amiably
at the small girl clutching him and said, "You may speak Finnish to me, my
pet, I, too, have a Finnish mother." (He had unwittingly spoken French to
Katelina the past few days and she had responded in kind.)

In the days Alisa had been
ill and recuperating, Nikki had spent a great deal of time with Katelina. The
first time he'd stood in Alisa's room and seen the young child crying
pitifully, it took several seconds for the tableau to register as reality. A
young child crying sorrowfully in his house was so alien that his reaction was
delayed. Nikki hadn't talked to a small child or been within touching distance
of one in years. Having heard the wailing for over an hour since his return
that first afternoon, and surmising that the nanny and maid were unable to stop
the distress, Nikki decided to lend a hand in an attempt to mitigate her
unhappiness.

Nikki was by nature kind
and cheerful, as any of his friends would agree, and altogether capable of
tenderness and gentleness as well, as any of his lovers would concur. Nikki's
phenomenal success with women was not due solely to his remarkable handsomeness
and princely fortune, although, in the glittering society in which he moved,
those were often attributes enough. His conquests were due as much, if not
more, to his charm, his ability to give a woman pleasure in the drawing room as
well as in bed. He could be jesting, tender, gentle, interested, and concerned
as the mood moved him, and this charm was marshalled in an effort to soothe
Katelina's fear while at the same time making his beautiful mistress better
able to recover from her overdose of laudanum.

During the days of Alisa's
recovery, Nikki had offered adventures to the young child that soon took her
mind off her fears. Katelina almost immediately adopted Nikki as a kind of
vice-uncle and behaved toward him with an uninhibited and sometimes
embarrassing affection.

Turning quickly to her
mother as if it were the most natural sight in the world to see her with Uncle
Nikki in bed and hardly pausing for a breath, Katelina rattled on, reverting
back to Finnish. "Oh, Momma, the toy shop is just beautiful. Everything is
most—" She stopped. "Rakeli said I shouldn't be so greedy, didn't
you, Rakeli?" She turned her wide eyes toward her nanny, who had tarried
doubtfully by the door upon seeing Prince Kuzan. Katelina's brief regard for
humble courtesies over, she rushed on breathlessly. "But Uncle Nikki said
that I was a little princess and I could have anything I wanted. Didn't you,
Uncle Nikki?" Katelina beamed widely into Nikki's amused countenance as
she perched on his broad chest.

"That's right,
moppet," said her benevolent "uncle."

"Oh, Uncle Nikki,
could we
please
go again today,
please?"
she begged
delightfully, and gazed with pleading brown eyes into Nikki's face.

"Of course, dear, you
shall have another doll if you like."

"Oh, Nikki, I would
much
rather have a train!" Nikki's eyes twinkled gaily as he shot a sidelong
look at Alisa, grinned faintly, and said, "Already an independent young
lady not content to play with dolls. Very well, minx, the train it shall
be," he finished indulgently.

"Oh, Momma, isn't
Uncle Nikki just wonderful?" Katelina pronounced with all the uninhibited
candor of her five years.

Nikki turned to glance
wickedly at Alisa and smirkingly asked, "Yes, Momma, aren't I just
wonderful?"

"Say yes, Momma! Say
yes!" Katelina insisted, bouncing with excitement and delight.

Before Alisa had to answer
that awkward question, Katelina blithely continued her chatter.

"Momma, I'm so
very
glad you're feeling better. Nikki said I must be
so
very quiet for
so
long. I'm glad I don't have to be quiet
anymore!"
she finished
emphatically.

Unable to hold her youthful
enthusiasm in check, she continued bouncing up and down as she inquired
relentlessly, "When can we
go,
Uncle Nikki, when can we
go?"

"After you eat
breakfast and Rakeli dresses you," he answered patiently, "then we'll
leave. Now, go and get ready."

The volatile little body
that gave every indication of a perpetual motion machine grabbed the doll,
immediately slid off the bed, and bounded across the large room. At the door
she paused, one hand in Rakeli's, one plump fist clutching the enormous doll by
her blond hair.

"May I have
strawberries and cake again for breakfast? May I, may I, Nikki?" she
entreated her new and generous uncle.

"Of course, dear,
whatever you like."

"When
can we leave?"
she repeated again with the impatience of her five years.

"In about an
hour," Nikki replied, then, looking down at Alisa, warm, tousled, and
languid in bed beside him, he reconsidered. "Make it an hour and a half,
Rakeli," he said matter-of-factly. The door shut behind the small
whirlwind, and Alisa remarked gratefully in a low, quiet voice, "Thank you
for being so kind to Katelina while I was ill." Nikki took Alisa's hand in
his and very simply replied, "You're welcome." He went on teasingly
with an affectionate grin, "I've had to entertain that little brat for
three days while you have been lazing in bed. Rakeli was at her wit's end, with
Katelina insisting on crying at your bedside and you still in a half-drugged
state, unable to respond to her. Maria couldn't check the tears either, so the
task fell to Aleksei and me to devise some schemes to distract Katelina and
keep her from disturbing you.

"We slid down the
grand staircase on silver trays, dressed her as Empress in lace tablecloths (I
was a reluctant Emperor, I might add, and Katelina manifested the true
impe-riousness of born royalty by ordering Aleksei and me about shamelessly),
we sailed paper boats in the monteith bowls, I had the grooms bring the new
kittens from the stables, and Maria fetched her some new clothes from some
children's modiste Ivan knew of."

Nikki was massaging Alisa's
wrist absently with his thumb.

"Thank God you began
to feel yourself once again yesterday afternoon, because I'd taxed my ingenuity
to its limits and had quite exhausted my meager repertoire of amusements for
children. I'm afraid I'm woefully out of practice. My memories of childhood
pleasures are extremely dim, overborne, no doubt, by the myriad and vastly more
pleasurable adult pastimes. I'm happy to see," Nikki said with a flame of
passion kindling in his golden eyes as he turned to her, "that you have
been restored to vibrant, blooming health once again. I've sorely missed your
warmth these last few days.

"You're my delectable,
enticing bed warmer," Nikki said with a natural proprietary air as he ran
his finger up her bare arm. "You suit me admirably," his husky voice
added.

Alisa felt panic rise
within her at his words. Uncertain, confused, aware of the dangers in
succumbing to Nikki's seductive charm, she wondered how deeply her untutored
emotions had entangled her. Each touch, each caress, seemed yet another strand
woven in the net that was slowly but inexorably enveloping her. Faint with
helplessness at her situation, she was still heavy with love, heedless to all
but desire.

Nikki was caressing her now
with both hands, slowly running his fingers down her soft curves. He bent his
head and touched her warm, inviting lips. And then Alisa had no further time to
reflect as her passions rose to meet his demands.

Sometime later, Nikki rose
from the rumpled bed.

"We must hurry and
dress if we hope to meet Katelina's schedule." Saying this, he turned and
walked stark naked with a most unaffected composure to the door of the
adjoining dressing room. Pausing in the open doorway, he reached one long arm
out for the bellpull, remarking, "I'll ring for the servants to draw your
bathwater. I hope rois-terous Rubenesque nymphs and black onyx Turkish sunken
tubs don't offend you, but our ancestor Platon was not distinguished for his
refinement and leaned rather toward an erotic purism." Neither expecting
nor waiting for an answer, Nikki shouted for his valet and strode out of the
room.

Fifteen minutes later Nikki
sauntered back in, the valet bustling after, easing a crisp white shirt onto
the muscular shoulders.

Alisa swiftly pulled up the
sheet and covered her shoulders.

"Aren't you out of bed
yet? Tut, tut, dear, Katelina will be fidgeting."

"I know. I'll get up
directly. But the bed felt so comfortable."

"You'll like the toy
shop. They have the best selection in the city." As the valet hovered
about, buttoning the gold shirt studs, adjusting the turquoise cuff links,
straightening the soft collar to the right degree of perfection, Nikki carried
on an easy conversation explaining the direction of the establishment where
Katelina's train was to be found, noting the beautiful day, discoursing
convivially on Katelina's impetuous charm, until he suddenly realized Alisa's
responses to these mundane observations were rather stilted. Glancing over to
the bed, he saw an obviously distressed and embarrassed figure clutching the
bed linen to her chin.

"That will be all,
Georgi." He crisply dismissed the valet.

"Yes, my Prince,"
said the diminutive man, and quickly left the room.

Walking over to the bed,
Nikki leaned over and kissed Alisa's cheek. "Forgive me. I didn't realize
Georgi disturbed you."

"It's silly, I'm sure,
but, well… I'm not used to having a manservant in my bedroom."

"Of course, dear. I
should have considered. I'll dress myself from now on."

"Oh, no! I don't want
to cause trouble for your valet… and… how will you manage?" Alisa
stammered apologetically.

"Nonsense! Georgi will
find his extra leisure no hardship, I assure you, and I'm perfectly capable of
dressing myself. Men don't have all those frippery buttons and laces women do.
Now, come, my sweet, into your bath, or Kate-lina will complain vehemently at
the delay. I'll go and explain to Georgi."

In an incredibly short time
Nikki returned through the dressing room doorway extremely well-turned out in a
fastidiously tailored coffee-brown frock coat of exquisite fit across his broad
shoulders, a finely tucked open-neck lawn shirt, brown brocade waistcoat, and
pale biscuit trousers resting the required bare half inch from the ground over
his brown kid half boots.

Alisa was being dressed by
Maria while Katelina sat upon a tufted hassock, watching with a very unusual
and quiet patience. Alisa was turned out in her only dress, which had been
miraculously washed and pressed overnight, a navy and green striped silk serge
skirt and a green silk blouse clasped high under her neck with a cameo brooch.
Nikki had instructed Maria to find a wrap in his mother's wardrobe, and Maria
was now arranging the soft folds of a navy blue pelisse edged in silk braid
over the voluminous skirt.

Alisa's golden coppery hair
had been arranged simply, pulled back and up on top of her head, long curls
falling down her back, soft tendrils framing her delicate face. Studying Alisa
critically from head to foot, Nikki said, "We must see to some clothes for
you, Alisa. I'm afraid the gowns left in Mother's room are sadly out of date.
However, that pelisse will do. And you, moppet, look quite elegant." He
grinned as Katelina jumped from her seat upon hearing Nikki speak and rushed
toward him. Maria had found on her shopping expedition a dress of white organza
with pale green ribbons that fit Katelina admirably as well as a short green
coat and an enormous pale yellow straw sailor hat decorated with long green taffeta
streamers.

"Shall we,
ladies?" Nikki inquired with an elaborate flourish, and Katelina tumbled
out of the room a full five yards in advance of Rakeli, who ran after her
impetuous young charge.

The landau, with its top
down, stood ready outside the main entrance, its coachwork freshly beeswaxed,
its four horses so well groomed, their gleaming chestnut coats seemed to have
been brushed with oil. After everyone was comfortably seated, the coachman, in
his best livery of green velvet, set the animals into a fashionable
high-stepping trot.