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CHAPTER ONE
THE VILLAGE OF YABINSK in the Volga River Basin near Moscoas the typical cluster of low, sturdy homes scattered near a wooden church On the distant hills the wealthier citizens built their redbrickboats painted in cheerful colors lined theriver
On the very edge of the village, a three-storied coaching inn with attached stables squatted next to the narrow road leading to Moscow to the south and St Petersburg to the north With a tile roof and recently painted shutters the building ed to appear respectable, if not prosperous It was an ie that was enhanced by the meticulously clean foyer and the small chambers upstairs that smelled of wood polish and dried flowers
Behind the stables was a se nearly hidden behind the stone wall that divided the property
It was little more than a kitchen, a front parlor and two bedchambers in the attic, but it was sturdily built to keep out the worst of the Russian winters and filled with delicate birch and cedar furnishings that were
In truth, Fedor Duscha had been a reat demand by many of the finest noble families The furniture orth a tidy suhter E it off It had been wrenching enough to convert her father’s precious workshop into the coaching inn for a er sister, Anya
On this cool autumn day, however, she barely noted the scrolled settee set beneath theof the parlor or the hutch that held her lish china
Instead, she paced the threadbare carpet, her sto as she sown of brown kerseyaze of Diana Stanford, as currently seated on the settee
Although nearly ten years older than Elish nanny was her dearest friend Eland and after her death there had been a co familiarity in Diana’s companionship
A traditional English rose, Diana possessed fair hair and blue eyes that lent her an air of deceptive fragility Emma on the other hand had inherited her father’s honey-brown hair, which she kept pulled into a knot at the nape of her neck, and a pair of hazel eyes that regarded the world with a grim determination that tended to intie of a woman forced to stand on her own
A necessity for keeping her inn profitable and for raising her sixteen-year-old sister, but decidedly detriers Most of her neighbors conde to run her own business, let alone raise an iirl A proper, well-behaved female depended upon a man Only an overly forward tart would dare to toss aside convention and remain independent
The others found her a source of a that she felt suitably unwelcos
Until today, she rarely allowed their opinions to trouble her
“No, youthe tense silence “Anya ht be stubborn and occasionally impulsive—”
Emma snorted “Occasionally?”