“No,” Vika says at the same time.
I raise a brow.
Vika laughs. “Ignore her. She’s been in a mood all afternoon.”
“I wonder why,” Katerina says.
The housemaid nearest the staircase chooses that moment to vanish with impressive instinct. Good woman.
Vika reaches for my sleeve. “Come in. We were just having coffee.”
“We were not,” Katerina says.
I look at her. “Then this is already better than lunch.”
That almost gets me a reaction. Almost.
Instead, she folds her arms and says, “You do enjoy making an entrance.”
“No,” I say. “I enjoy the truth. The entrance is just logistics.”
Vika smiles as if I’ve said something charming. Katerina looks like she would prefer to throw a lamp at my head.
Vika steps back just enough to look up at me. “I wasn’t sure you’d come.”
“I said I would.”
“Yes,” she says, pleased. “But men say things.”
Across the room, Katerina says, “And women apparently throw themselves at guests before they’ve even taken off their coats.”
Vika turns her head, still smiling. “You could at least try not to sound jealous.”
Katerina gives her a flat look. “You could at least try not to look ridiculous.”
The lunch left too much hanging in the air. This is better. Easier, somehow. Katerina annoyed is easier to deal with than Katerina quiet.
I take off my coat and hand it to the maid, still looking at her.
Katerina notices that too.
“Was this your idea?” she asks me.
“No,” I say.
That answer throws her off for half a second.
Then her eyes narrow again. “But you came anyway.”
“Yes.”
Vika drifts back to my side as if she belongs there, which she doesn’t, and says, “Honestly, Katya, must everything become a problem when you’re in the room?”
Katerina folds her arms. “Only the stupid things.”
The maid appears with drinks. No one takes one except Vika, who accepts hers as though she’s hosting. She probably thinks she is.
I glance around the room once.
