Free Once a Princess by Johanna Lindsey Page B

mark—”
    â€œI don’t care about the damned mark!”
    â€œWe do!”
    Now Tanya sighed. “Then let me put it another way, since you insist on keeping up the pretense. I wouldn’t marry your king if you paid me. So whether I have the mark or not no longer matters.”
    â€œIf you have it, mistress, you will many the King of Cardinia. Your wishes in the matter do not count, since it was your father who betrothed you.”
    â€œA father you say is dead, so it makes no difference to me what he did or didn’t do. And you better believe my wishes count. I can’t be forced to marry anyone.”
    â€œYou can be ordered to, mistress.”
    â€œLike hell!” she snapped. “I don’t take orders from anyone anymore, not even from Dobbs.”
    â€œYou are a Cardinian—”
    â€œI’m an American!”
    â€œWhere you were raised doesn’t matter in the least,” Stefan told her. “You were born in Cardinia, and that makes you subject to your king’s will.”
    If what he was saying was really true, Tanya would be just about petrified by now. Subject to that despicable Adonis? Forced to marry him, when he couldn’t stand her and didn’t care if she knew it? No, she didn’t believe it, couldn’t believe it. But then why weren’t they ending this joke, now that she’d told them she didn’t want their pretty-faced king? It made no sense to go on with it.
    She wasn’t going to. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense,” she said, and turned toward the back door.
    â€œThe mark, mistress!” she was reminded once more, this time furiously. “At the risk of repeating myself, we must know if you possess it, and again, either you describe it to us or you will force us to look for ourselves.”
    She stared hard at Lazar, who was blocking herway just as he’d done earlier. God, did they all have to look and sound so serious? They must have played this joke countless times to make it seem so convincing.
    â€œAll right,” she gritted out, swinging around and heading for the stairs instead. “We’ll play this out your way. But when I return and tell you there isn’t any mark to be found, you’d damn well better leave the premises and…not…come…back!”
    Serge barely got out of her way in time, before she marched past him and up the stairs. Stefan watched the sway of her skirt as she went, and imagined her lifting it in a moment to examine an area he would have become familiar with last night if things had worked out differently. He wished to hell they had.
    The scars on his jaw turned white, he clenched it so tightly before turning away—and catching Vasili’s look. “Don’t say it,” Stefan warned. “I assumed her attitude would change if she thought…Hell, she’s not normal, that girl.”
    â€œI’ll agree to that,” Vasili sneered.
    Lazar chuckled. “You’re just annoyed that she didn’t swoon with happiness at the prospect of winning your esteemed self. And maybe she would have if she had believed what she was told. But in case you didn’t notice, my friends, she didn’t believe any of it.”
    â€œThen she’ll change her tune once she sees the mark,” Serge predicted.
    â€œWe don’t know what she’ll do,” Lazar said. “Who would have thought she’d scorn a king? Andyou heard her. She doesn’t want him either way.”
    â€œAs Stefan said, she’s not normal,” Vasili remarked.
    â€œYes, but even if she finds the mark, I’ll wager she will return and say it isn’t there. Are we to believe that?”
    â€œYou know as well as I that she is Tatiana Janacek,” Stefan said.
    â€œBut she’s so set against us, Stefan, I wouldn’t be surprised if she cuts the mark out just to thwart us. Then we could never be entirely