“You would, of course, assume the best of me.”
“If you wished to kill your father you could have done so anytime in the past twenty years.” She paused, wondering if he were truly as calm as he wished her to believe. “Did he follow you to Cairo?”
The golden eyes darkened with a sudden impatience, his hands cupping her face as he regarded her with a sudden determination.
“Count Nevskaya no longer matters. Indeed, nothing matters but you.”
Emma scrambled away, her heart fluttering as she sought to confront him with a measure of composure.
“Wait,” she husked. “There is something I must tell you.”
He stilled, his eyes narrowing as he watched her nervously tug at the sapphire ribbon threaded beneath her bodice.
“Why am I certain I am not going to like what you have to say?”
She licked her dry lips. “I am leaving in the morning for Yabinsk.”
Emma braced herself for a furious response. Dimitri, after all, was a man who expected to make the decisions for others and have them obeyed.
Which made his rigid control all the more frightening.
“Why?”
“It is my home.”
“You intend to spend the rest of your life alone in your cottage?”
With an effort, Emma hid her flinch at the stark truth in his accusation.
The rest of her life alone…
It was her worst fear, but what choice did she have?
“I have my coaching inn to keep me occupied and Anya might come to her senses and—”
“Anya will never return to that cottage and we both know it,” he overrode her, shifting to block her path to the door.
How had he suspected she intended to flee?
“There is no need for you to be so cruel.”
Frustration flared through the beautiful golden eyes. “Obviously there is every need. You are stubborn beyond reason.”
Her chin tilted as she regarded him with a hint of outrage. Deep inside she knew it was foolish to hope that Anya would return to the cottage. And in truth, she was not certain if she could ever fully forgive her sister for her betrayal.
But Dimitri Tipova had no right to criticize her decisions.
“If that is what you believe then you will be pleased to be rid of me,” she muttered.
Dimitri stepped forward, his hands lightly grabbing her upper arms as his features softened with regret.
“Moya dusha, please forgive me, but you must realize that returning to the cottage will not bring back your family.”
A familiar pain tugged at her heart. “I am well aware that my family is gone. You have no need to remind me.”
“Then why are you leaving?”
She heaved a resigned sigh. This man dared to claim that she was stubborn.