What Happens in London

the street, eight up to her front door…

Next time he would count the horizontal paces, too. It would be interesting to see how they compared.

He’d quite got over his momentary madness of the night before. Lady Olivia Bevelstoke was astoundingly beautiful; this was not just his opinion, it was a well-accepted fact. Any man would want her, especially one who had been living as monkish an existence as he had these past few months.

The key to his sanity, he was becoming increasingly convinced, was in remembering why he was climbing the front steps to her home. The War Office. The prince. National security…She was his assignment. Winthrop had all but ordered him to insinuate himself into her life.

No, Winthrop had ordered him to insinuate himself into her life. There had been no ambiguity about it.

He was following orders, he told himself as he lifted the knocker at her door. An afternoon with Olivia. For king and country.

And really, she was a damn sight better than that Russian countess with all the vodka.

With such focus on duty, however, one would have thought he’d have been more pleased when he arrived in the sitting room and saw that Lady Olivia was not alone. His other assignment, the incredibly well-postured Prince Alexei of Russia, was right there, sitting across from her, looking smug.

It should have been convenient. Instead, it was annoying.

“Sir Harry,” Olivia said, giving him a bright smile as he entered the sitting room. “You remember Prince Alexei, do you not?”

But of course. Almost as well as he remembered his hulking giant of a bodyguard, standing with a deceptive slouch in the corner.

Harry wondered if the fellow followed the prince into his bedroom. That had to be awkward for the ladies.

“What is that in your hand?” the prince asked him.

“A book,” Harry replied, setting Miss Butterworth down on a side table. “One I promised to lend to Lady Olivia.”

“What is it?” the prince demanded.

“Just a silly novel,” Olivia put in. “I don’t think I will like it, but it was recommended by a friend.”

The prince looked unimpressed.

“What do you like to read, Your Highness?” she asked.

“You would not be familiar with it,” he said dismissively.

Harry watched Olivia closely. She was good at this, he realized, this playacting that masqueraded as polite society. There was barely a flash of irritation in her eyes before she suppressed it, with an expression so perfectly pleasant and sunny that it had to be sincere.

Except that he knew it wasn’t.

“I would still like to hear about your reading choices,” she said cordially. “I enjoy learning about other cultures.”

The prince turned to her, and in doing so, turned his back on Harry. “One of my ancestors was a great poet and philosopher. Prince Antiokh Dmitrievich Kantemir.”

Harry found this very interesting; it was well known (among those who knew of Russian culture) that Kantemir had died a bachelor.

“I also read recently all of the fables of Ivan Krylov,” Alexei continued. “Every Russian of education must do so.”

“We have writers like that, too,” Olivia commented. “Shakespeare. Everyone reads Shakespeare. I think it would be almost unpatriotic not to.”

The prince shrugged. His opinion of Shakespeare, apparently.

“Do you read Shakespeare?” Olivia asked.

“I have read some of it in French,” he said. “But I prefer to read in Russian. Our literature is far deeper than yours.”

“I’ve read Poor Liza,” Harry said, even though he knew he should have kept his mouth shut. But the prince was such a pompous ass. It was difficult not to try to prick the air from him.

Prince Alexei turned to him with unconcealed surprise. “I did not know that Bednaya Liza had been translated into English.”

Harry didn’t know, either; he’d read it in Russian, years ago. But he’d already made one rash mistake this afternoon. He wasn’t going to make another, and so he said, “I think I’m thinking of the right book. The author is… oh, I can’t think of it…begins with a K, I think. Karmazanon?”

“Karamzin,” the prince said brusquely, “Nikolai Karamzin.”

“Yes, that’s the one,” Harry said, his tone purposefully breezy. “Poor peasant girl gets ruined by a nobleman, yes?”

The prince gave a curt nod.

Harry shrugged. “Someone must have translated it, then.”

“Perhaps I shall try to find a copy,” the prince said. “It might benefit to my English.”

“Is it very well known?” Olivia put in. “I should love to read it, if we can find a copy in English.”

Harry gave her a dubious look. This was the same woman who had claimed not to like either Henry V or Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron.

There was the barest hint of a lull in the conversation before Olivia said, “I just called for tea before you arrived, Sir Harry. Will you join us?”

“I would be delighted.” Harry took a seat across from the prince, flashing him a bland smile.

“I must confess,” Olivia said, “that I am terrible with languages. My governesses despaired of my ever mastering French. I have such admiration for those who can speak more than one. Your English is truly superb, Your Highness.”

The prince acknowledged her compliment with a nod.

“Prince Alexei speaks French as well,” Olivia said to Harry.

“As do I,” he responded, since there didn’t seem any reason to hide it. The prince might let something slip in Russian, but he would never do so in French; there were far too many French speakers in London. Besides, after so many years on the Continent, it would have been strange if he hadn’t picked up some of the language.

“I didn’t realize that,” Olivia said. “Perhaps the two of you can converse. Or maybe not.” She let out a little laugh. “I quake with terror over what you might say about me.”

“Only the deepest of compliments,” the prince said smoothly.

“I doubt my skills are up to par with His Highness’s,” Harry lied. “It would be a frustrating conversation for us both, I am sure.”

Again, a lull, and again, Olivia leaped into the breach. “Perhaps you can say something for us in Russian,” she said to the prince. “I am not sure that I have ever heard the language spoken aloud. Have you, Sir Harry?”

“I believe so,” he murmured.

“Oh, of course you would have done, during your time on the Continent. I imagine you must have heard any number of languages.”

Harry nodded politely, but she had already turned back to Alexei. “Would you say something? French I do recognize, even if I can hardly understand a word. But Russian-well, I have no idea what it sounds like. Is it a bit like German?”

“Nyet,” the prince replied.

“Ny-oh!” Olivia beamed. “That must mean no.”

“Da,” the prince said.

“And that must be yes!”

Harry wasn’t sure whether he was amused or nauseated.

“Say something more,” she urged. “I can’t really hear the rhythm of the language from single-syllable words.”

“Very well,” the prince said. “Let me see…”

They waited patiently while he thought of something to say. After a few moments he spoke.

And Harry decided that he had never hated another human being as much as he hated Prince Alexei Gomarovsky of Russia.