It was early on a Wednesday morning when Aleksei informed his wife that he’d be attending business affairs in a neighboring city and that she shouldn’t expect him back until late the following day. His announcement and departure bolstered Anna’s confidence that she could leave her charge behind at the manse and nothing untoward would transpire while she ventured out with Ivan. Shortly after the two left, Synnovea sent Ali off with Stenka to attend the needs of Elisaveta’s sister. As she awaited her servants’ return, she retreated to the Taraslov garden, where she began reviewing a book which Ivan had given her earlier in the day, no doubt to keep her aware of his power even in his absence.
It was midafternoon when a somewhat surprised Boris opened the door for his master. “We weren’t expecting you to return until the morrow, my lord.”
“A change of plans, Boris.” Aleksei glanced casually about. “Is my wife here?”
“No, my lord. Princess Anna left more than an hour ago with…”
“The good Ivan Voronsky,” Aleksei concluded for the elder, allowing some irritation to show for the steward’s benefit.
Boris hurried to allay any husbandly jealousy. “They went to visit Prince Dimitrievich at his home, my lord. I’m sure Princess Anna would be delighted if you joined them there.”
“What? And suffer through another boring discussion of that old boyar’s prospects for producing another brood of children in his dwindling years?” Aleksei laughed with a negative shake of his head. “I think not, Boris. At his advanced age, Vladimir should be thinking of dividing his wealth between the sons he has already rather than looking for a new wife upon whom he can spawn new ones.”
Boris chuckled, having overheard for himself the old boyar’s expectations. “I’ve no doubt that it’s the wish of every man facing advancing years to be equally as capable as Prince Vladimir when they reach his age.”
Cocking a curious brow, Aleksei peered at the steward, wondering if he was voicing aspirations of his own. “Perhaps the old prince isn’t nearly as capable as he’d like everyone to believe.”
“That may be true, sir,” Boris agreed, and then heaved a sigh. “But it’s nice for a man to believe there’s some hope.”
Aleksei grinned in agreement. “Absolutely.”
Only a few moments passed before the prince entered the garden and found Synnovea sitting with her chin propped in her hands. Intent upon her studies, she failed to notice him until he spoke.
“My dear child, what are you so engrossed in?”
The softly coiffed head snapped up in surprise, and Aleksei found himself staring into startled green-brown eyes. He smiled as he plumbed the depths of her sudden disquiet. She was as skittish as a young hare that had just been cornered by a wily fox.
“Prince Aleksei!” Synnovea rose nervously to her feet. “We weren’t expecting you until the morrow. My goodness, won’t Anna be surprised!” Her breathless tone readily conveyed her rampant distrust. “I think she should be back any moment now….”
Her words dwindled to an uneasy silence as his dark eyes gleamed back at her in dubious amusement. “Come now, Synnovea,” he gently reproached. “We both know that Anna dallies overlong whenever she accompanies Ivan on one of his jaunts to fame. She has ambitions not unlike his, you know.”
Almost in mesmerized distraction, his gaze dipped to the higher curves of her bosom, which her square, lace-edged neckline coyly revealed. Even so minute a glimpse was more than he had been afforded since he had opened her bedchamber door and found her sleeping on her chaise. Since then, the girl had discreetly garbed herself in sarafans… until today. A crisp, lacy ruff now adorned the slender column of her throat and was daintily fastened with a lavender ribbon, a color found in the flowery lawn of her gown. Below the charming neckpiece, the close-fitting bodice accentuated the narrowness of her waist, while the neckline left him appreciative of the youthful luster of her creamy skin.
“May I join you?” he inquired, presenting his best manners.
“O-of course,” Synnovea replied. How could she deny him? If she had taken the initiative to tell him nay, he probably would have seized her outright.
Aleksei closed the space between them, and in swift reaction, Synnovea skirted around the marble table, where she poured herself a chilled glass of watered wine. Managing a tremulous smile beneath his ever-warming regard, she gulped a sip before she recalled her manners. Reluctantly she swept a hand to indicate the pitcher of wine and a small plate of cakes that Elisaveta had brought out to her. “Would you care for some refreshments?”
Aleksei smiled at her guise of gracious hostess, well acquainted with the ploys of a reluctant maid. She had been most eager to place a barrier between them, as if the tiny table could offer her protection against the encroachment of a passionate swain. “Perhaps a glass of watered wine.”
Aleksei accepted the goblet from her and, lifting his head, gazed out over the carefully tended garden. He wasn’t a man who normally gave himself over to the enjoyment of such simple pleasures, but with Synnovea near at hand he could feel himself relaxing in the peaceful tranquility of the glade. Perhaps if he had wed a woman who would have been content with his wealth and princely possessions instead of being driven with an insatiable ambition to have the best of everything, he might have been satisfied to devote more of his attention to nurturing a love for her. With increasing frequency now, he felt compelled to flaunt his many conquests before Anna. Perhaps unconsciously it was his way of seeking revenge for the disquiet she awakened within him.
“Will you walk with me through the garden, Synnovea?” he invited, continuing around the table. He took her arm and swept his free hand toward the paths that were bordered with flowers. “It has been more than a season of years since I’ve taken time to admire such riotous blooms.”
Hesitantly Synnovea moved along the lane beside him, cautiously giving an excuse for a timely escape. “Elisaveta is expecting me back in the kitchen any moment now. I promised to help her make bread, so I mustn’t be away too long. She’ll come looking for me.”
“A simple walk through the garden doesn’t require too much time,” Aleksei assured her. “I have to leave again shortly anyway. I left some important documents behind when I left this morning, and I had to come back to fetch them. I thought everyone had gone, and then I noticed you out here.” He raised his head and slowly inhaled the sweet, heady fragrance that wafted from several large blossoms adorning a nearby bush. “I had almost forgotten such pleasures exist.”
Glancing over her shoulder, Synnovea noticed that they were no longer in sight of the house, for the draping limbs of a tree now obscured the trail behind them. “I should go back now.”
“Not yet, Synnovea.” His hand slipped downward to clasp hers, and when she gasped in surprise and tried to draw away, he laughed and indicated the path ahead. “Did you ever see the dovecote? It’s just up ahead.”
Hearing a soft cooing beyond them, Synnovea conceded him a cautious victory and allowed him to draw her with him. He released her hand as they approached a white, circular structure where a dozen or more pigeons calmly roosted. Others flitted to and fro overhead. The fluttering of wings warned them of another approaching bird, and Synnovea turned to observe a dove’s flight to a slender perch jutting from an empty cubbyhole.
“This could be dangerous,” Aleksei observed drolly as other birds flew overhead. “Let’s get away before we find your pretty gown spoiled.” Seizing her hand again, he pulled her along behind him down a footpath that turned sharply away from the cote.
Synnovea sought diligently to disentangle her fingers from his grasp, knowing they roamed farther and farther away from the manse. “Please, I should go back now.”
Aleksei held fast as he bade over his shoulder, “Don’t be afraid, Synnovea. Come, I’ve something else to show you.”
He brought her within sight of a small hut nestled against a high wooden fence which served as a barrier around the estate. Drawing her with him onto the wooden p
lanks of the porch, he pushed open the door and would have ventured in, but Synnovea balked at the idea of being hauled into a dark cottage with a lecher. Stiffening her limbs much like a stubborn calf, she braced her feet wide and refused to be dragged forward another step.
“No!” she cried. “Let me go! I must return to the house!”
Aleksei chortled as he stepped back to her with dark eyes glowing brightly. “Come inside, Synnovea,” he coaxed, tilting his head slightly toward the open portal. “Let me make you the woman you deserve to be. No one will know we’ve spent this time together.” His red lips parted in a cajoling smile. “The servants are loyal to me. None of them will tell Anna that I returned home today, so we needn’t make excuses to her.” With a brief nod, he indicated the door again. “No one comes here. The old woodcutter who lives here during the winter won’t be back until fall. We’ll have the cabin entirely to ourselves. You needn’t be embarrassed or afraid.”
“Never!” Synnovea shook her head in passionate fervor. “This thing you ask of me isn’t proper, Aleksei! You have no right to even suggest it.”
“Right? Wrong?” Aleksei tossed his head from side to side like a small boy chanting a rhyme. “Who can argue this is wrong, Synnovea, when we are meant for each other?”
“I can!” she declared hotly. “I want no part of this!”
His shoulders lifted in a languid shrug, evidencing his lack of concern for her reluctance. “I’ll take you as I will, Synnovea. It’s of little consequence to me if you struggle. I know in time you’ll come to enjoy my caresses.”
Aleksei slipped an arm around her waist, but Synnovea snatched away and glared back at him with eyes flashing with feral intensity. “If you force me against my will, Aleksei,” she warned in a low, ragged tone, “I swear you’ll reap my revenge. I’m not one of your little trollops whom you can seize and take at your whim! If Anna won’t listen to my complaints, then I’ll take them to Tsar Mikhail. But know this, Aleksei: I’ll have retribution for any offense you commit against me!”
An abortive laugh displayed his contempt for her threats. Still holding her wrist, he smirked with unswerving confidence. “Do you actually think you can threaten me and dance away to your delight, my girl? Nay, let it never be said. Your words will fall on deaf ears, for I shall make of them a lie and pledge my troth that you speak falsely. Anna will hear no slander from you. So you see how shallow your threats are? Truly, Synnovea, there’s no advantage in fighting me.”
Smiling in haughty arrogance, he seized the front of her bodice and, with a downward jerk that startled a scream from her, ripped the stomacher free, leaving naught but a chemise to hide her bosom between the rent. Aleksei stretched forth a hand to test the delectable fullness, but with an infuriated shriek, Synnovea whirled away. Alas, her attempt to flee gained her nothing, for he caught his fingers in the cluster of curls on top of her head and, hauling her back, lifted her struggling form into his arms.
Shouldering the door aside, Aleksei pushed his way into the cottage and kicked the portal closed behind him. With nary a pause, he crossed to a narrow cot in the corner and dropped her upon it. As she lit, wolf pelts seemed to enfold her and threatened to smother her as they flew over her face. Fighting her way free, Synnovea scrambled to her knees and quickly apprised herself of her surroundings. She glimpsed an opening between Aleksei and a small table standing near the head of the cot and lunged for it, intent upon slipping through the breach. Promptly he stepped to block her path, but she eluded his reaching hands and sprang to the opposite end of the bed, from whence she crawled hastily toward an open niche. He was there to meet her and thwarted her attempts again and again. Finally she sat back upon her heels, gasping air into her lungs, and glared up at him.
Casually Aleksei began slipping out of his kaftan. “You see? There’s no escape for you, my beauty.”
Tossing aside the garment, he faced Synnovea, garbed in nothing more than a thin shirt and leggings that clung closely to his scrawny legs. His wide shoulders and the roomy kaftans had made him seem heavier and more muscular than he actually was, for he bordered on thinness and was rather straight from his chest downward. Hardly the sort of physique she had been admiring lately.
Aleksei watched his captive carefully as her eyes flew about the cabin in an anxious quest for escape. She darted toward another opening, but again he caught her and, this time, shoved her back upon the pelts. She gnashed her teeth in frustration and tried to claw him, but he chortled in amusement at her attempts and batted her arms away. Holding her thus, he jerked the cot away from the wall and settled astride the narrow bed, pinning her beneath him and stilling her wildly thrashing limbs.
Synnovea was hardly subdued. When he lifted himself to tug up her skirts, she was bent on wiggling out from under him. Aleksei expected as much and immediately resettled himself across her legs.
In his eagerness to drag her petticoats out from under him, he failed to notice the slender hand closing around a honing stone that had been left on the table beside the bed. Nor did he see her fist swinging upward in an arc away from the nightstand. Synnovea forced every bit of the strength she possessed behind the blow, catching her would-be debaucher squarely against the side of his nose with the edge of the stone, setting it abruptly askew.
Aleksei’s pained yowl seemed to shake the hut right down to its foundation as he reeled backward from the blow. He clasped his hands to his face, a vivid array of colors bedazzling him as an unbearable agony blinded him to everything else. Several red droplets splattered onto his white shirt, and as his sight cleared and he spread his hands, he gaped down in slack-jawed awe at the splotches. He could hardly believe his blood had been spilled by so slender a maid, yet the anguish was too intense for him to doubt the fact. Emitting a groan, he pressed a finger beneath his nose and tried to curb the dribbling flow, but alas, it could not be stemmed. The slightest touch sent sharp, splintering shards of excruciating pain shooting upward from his nose into his brow. From there, his torment expanded and seemed to reach to the very ends of his nerves. The anguish was too great to bear, and losing all desire to fulfill his lustful cravings, he lifted himself from the bed and stumbled in an agonized stupor to the washstand, where he snatched a towel and pressed it tightly beneath his nose.
Synnovea dared not pause. Amid a flurry of flying skirts, she leapt from the bed and raced through the door. No one witnessed her frantic entrance into the manse, but it wasn’t until she had locked the door of her bedchamber firmly behind her that she felt safe from Aleksei and whatever revenge he might seek. Oblivious to the heat, she waited with bated breath until at long last she heard his carriage rumble away. Then she went to the window to watch and saw his stallion trailing behind at the end of a tether. That fact lent her some hope that he wouldn’t be back for several days.
It was the third Sunday after Synnovea’s arrival when cooling breezes finally brought a welcome respite from the hot, sweltering days of summer. Scudding gray clouds chased across the early-morning sky and gave some hope to hearts yearning for rain. In only a few weeks the weather would begin to take on a chill and the intense heat would be but a memory.
Aleksei had returned two days earlier, giving the lame excuse that he had broken his nose after a fall from his stallion. For the sake of his handsome profile, he had endured the torment of his nose being righted by a physician, but by now, it could be determined that a definite lump would mar the previous sleekness of it and no doubt serve to remind him by whose hand he had acquired the wound. A dark purplish swelling around his nose and beneath his eyes tarnished his handsome visage, evidencing the depth of his injuries, and he was wont to liberally indulge in strong intoxicants to ease the pain that still plagued him. He was no longer doubtful of Synnovea’s ability to do him ill and, for the time being, was reluctant to challenge her stilted reserve, fearful that another such blow would see him completely undone.
On this particular Sunday, Aleksei had announced that he would remain at home, for his va
nity prevented him from pursuing other light-o’-loves until his swollen nose dwindled in size and the bruises faded. Earlier, Anna had made arrangements to go with Ivan to a private chapel belonging to the immensely wealthy boyar, Prince Vladimir Dimitrievich. The ancient widower had his heart set on another marriage, and since neither Ivan nor Anna wished him to be distracted from their discourse by the presence of a comely young maid, the possibility of Synnovea accompanying them to the chasovnyas was simply out of the question. Yet, while her husband remained abed, Anna didn’t trust Synnovea to stay behind either. Thus, she was left with no other choice but to allow the girl to arrange her own sabbatical, as long as it was well away from the Taraslov manse and the invalid, Aleksei.