Harlequin Historical September 2018--Box Set 1 of 2 by Louise Allen

Author:Louise Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

‘Not ever,’ Stepan corrected without hesitation. ‘The books for the Lady Frances are in order and there are receipts for the goods imported just last week.’ It was easy to speak with conviction. Each word in those sentences was true. ‘All duties have been paid, as you can plainly see.’ He didn’t want the captain to find a reason to search further. Not that there was anything to find. The other books had been removed from his office and safely tucked away elsewhere. But what he did not want to happen was a repeat of what he’d seen in the street: windows smashed, the wilful destruction of property and perhaps the attempt to wilfully harm his person. If they came for him, he would fight.

Perhaps Anna-Maria sensed it, as well, as he and the captain stared one another down. She came forward from the window with purpose. ‘Stepan, this is the new protocol,’ she explained with one of her light touches on his sleeve. ‘Captain Denning is reviewing everyone’s books.’ She flashed Denning a smile Stepan did not like at all, especially when the captain’s stern expression seemed to soften.

Stepan looked past Anna-Maria. ‘The new protocol? Then, I assume you have a warrant for this invasion of private property?’

‘I am the warrant, your Highness.’ Denning rose from behind the desk, but Stepan was willing to challenge the quality of that authority.

‘I find it suspect that you could not wait until I returned, so that I might assist you with your questions, but instead you had to search when there was only Miss Petrova on hand, who knows nothing of my business interests. Is that your “new protocol”, Captain? Preying on lone women? Smashing merchants’ windows and beating helpless, unarmed men senseless in the streets? One would think you were looking to make examples of some very specific targets; unarmed men and foreigners simply trying to make a new life. Be careful it doesn’t make you appear to be a bully, Captain. No one likes a bully, not even the army. They won’t promote you for it.’

Anna-Maria’s hand on his sleeve tightened. ‘Stepan, I volunteered. I had no idea when you’d be back, but I knew you had nothing to hide. I offered up the books to Captain Denning in hopes of being a peaceful example.’ Her brown eyes searched his, pleading silently for co-operation and for caution. He saw a hundred stories in those eyes. She was thinking of Kuban, of how it had been at the end when the Tsar’s tyranny had targeted them at last; she was thinking of Nikolay, bloody and broken, of Illarion in chains, of Ruslan’s father dying in prison because he would not recant, of her own father nearly imprisoned for Dimitri’s broken betrothal to an eastern Pasha’s daughter. Only the intervention of her cousin, Yulian, and his willingness to marry in Dimitri’s stead had stopped it. Now Stepan saw her fear for him in her gaze. She understood how vulnerable they were as outsiders.

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