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4. "Dimka!"

The door was flung open and Dimitri was pulled into a hug by four screaming women, all of whom were babbling to him in rapid Russian at the same time. I stood back, wanting to give them some privacy, so I was surprised when I felt a tug on my arm. I looked down into a pair of eyes that were exactly the same as Dimitri's, except these ones were set in the face of a much older woman. She looked to be around seventy, with a face that was wrinkled, but still seemed strong. When she saw that she had my attention, she nodded. "Yes. You are the one I have dreamed of so often. The one I prayed Dimitri would find, and with you find his home." Then, just as abruptly, she let go and went back into the house.

Watching her leave as suddenly as she'd appeared, I felt five pairs of eyes watching me. Dimitri had a huge smile on his face, yet the other four seemed shocked. Still smiling, Dimitri moved over to me, wrapping an arm around my waist as we turned to face the four women I presumed were his mother and three sisters. "Mama, this is my Roza. Roza, this is my mother Olena, and my sisters; Karolina, Sonya and Viktoria. I see you just met my grandmother Yeva."

He gestured to each of them in turn, and hearing Yeva's name seemed to grab their attention again. Olena came forward with her arms outstretched, and hugged me warmly. "Welcome, Roza. I'm so glad we finally get to meet you. Dimitri talks about you constantly in his letters and phone calls." Pulling back, she kissed me gently on the cheek, but before I had a chance to reply, two sets of arms grabbed me into a bone crushing hug.

"Omigod! You're the Rose Hathaway. We've heard loads about you, from Dimitri and at school! You're a legend, you-"

Laughing, the other woman cut her off. "Okay Viktoria, give her some room to breathe."

Smiling, I realised the two women must have been Viktoria and Karolina; Dimitri's youngest and eldest sisters. Now the only person I hadn't met was Sonya. Looking around, I saw her standing by the door, arms crossed and a frown across her face. Stepping forward to shake her hand, she stepped back, disgust staining her features. "Don't you dare come near me. You're a filthy diseased slut, and Dimitri's a fool for staying with you. Keep away from my daughter too." She stalked back into the house, leaving the five of us outside, shocked.

Stumbling, I stepped backwards, ready to run to the car and drive until I was back at the airport. I'd known something was going to go wrong, and now that it had, I didn't want to cause any more rifts between their family.

A pair of strong arms wrapped tightly round my waist and I was spun to face Dimitri. "No, Roza, don't you dare blame this on yourself. You're staying here, and Sonya will just have to deal with it." His tone of voice was calm, but I could feel the tension in his arms and see the anger in his eyes.

Quietly, I said, "I don't want to upset her anymore, Dimitri. This is supposed to be time for you to relax with your family and catch up. I don't want to ruin that."

Gently, he stroked my cheek. "You won't ruin it. I wouldn't want to be here without you, it's been a long time overdue that you meet them. Come on, we both need to sleep off the jet lag." Kissing me lightly on the lips, he took my hand and led me inside the house.

The first few weeks with the Belikov's were uneventful. I felt like a member of the family, and helped out whenever I could. Even though Olena would chide and fuss, telling me to sit down and relax, it felt nice to be part of a family, helping out with normal everyday life. Helping her to make dinner, clean the house, or look after Zoya helped ease my guilt. Sonya refused to stay in a room if I came in, and had taken to eating in her room with her daughter or waiting until I had left the dinner table, before joining her family; and I hated the tension I was creating between them all. Still, they constantly proved to me that they weren't going to give in to Sonya's protests, and continued to treat me like I was one of them. It was the same when walking around the little town running errands for Olena. Everyone smiled genuinely or said hello to me - the community was very close, and since nobody knew I was ill, I was treated like a member of Dimitri's family. It was nice to be accepted again, by people other than my friends.

Because I wouldn't be at Court for three months, they had given me a stronger version of my pills. I had to take them twice a day, at 9am and again at 5pm. If I missed my doses, my condition began to deteriorate; and I'd have to have an intense course of chemotherapy, which sucked. So when I woke up one morning, and couldn't find my pills I began to panic. Dimitri usually woke 15 minutes before I did, would kiss my face until I woke up, and then make breakfast in the time it took for me to shower and dress.

But because I was panicking, I forgot about breakfast. It had been an hour and I still couldn't find my pills. The entire house had been searched, and I could feel the fatigue beginning to take effect as I slumped against the doorframe. This disease was aggressive, and I knew if I didn't have my emergency medication, which had also disappeared, I'd relapse completely.

It was just after one in the afternoon, and none of my pills had been found. I didn't want Dimitri's family to worry, but I could see the concerned looks they were shooting me as I sat at the kitchen table. I was debating over whether to ring Lissa or not; I didn't want to kick up a fuss, only to find them five minutes later, and I knew if I told her something was wrong she'd want me to go back. I'd already called her that morning, but she'd been full of chatter about her wedding, and I didn't want to ruin her mood so I hadn't told her.

After another hour, the fatigue had set in properly, and my joints were starting to ache. I was trying to cover up how badly I'd been hurting, but Dimitri caught me trying and failing to push myself up from the table. In a flash, he'd scooped me up in his arms and laid me down on the sofa, despite my protests.

"Roza, you need medical attention now. Stop arguing with me and rest." Turning his back on me he dialled Christian's number. "Hello? Yes, Lord Ozera, it's me, Guardian Belikov." There was a pause as Christian talked. "Yes, Russia's fine but I need to ask you if you're in Court at the moment. Could you please go to Rose's doctor, and tell him that her pills have gone missing? We haven't been able to find them all day and we need him to send her an emergency packet by tonight." Another pause. "Yes please, if you could call me back as soon as possible. Thank you. Bye."

Turning back to me, I could see the relief across his face. "Christian's going to see the doctor straightaway and he'll ring me back with as much information as possible." He draped a blanket over me. "For now, the best we can do is to keep looking and to keep you as strong as possible. That means no running around after Zoya or Paul when he gets back from school. Don't scowl at me like that Roza, at the moment we have to do what we did when you were first diagnosed."

I was cut off from replying by the sound of his cell phone ringing. "Belikov. What did the doctor say?" I couldn't hear what Christian was saying, but from Dimitri's expression, it wasn't something good. "Well how soon can the doctor get here?" A pause as Christian talked some more, but this time he was cut off by Dimitri. "Three days isn't good enough, Christian! She needs treatment now, by the morning at the latest. Why can't they just send the medication on a jet?" His expression turned furious at the reply. "Why is the queen getting involved? She doesn't want to waste resources unnecessarily? Fine. What advice did the doctor give? Okay, call me if there's any news. Bye." Sighing, Dimitri sat on the floor next to me. "I'm sorry, Roza. Apparently, the queen won't let the doctor fly a jet out to Russia, just to give you some replacement medication. The doctor can't come for another three days because he's booked to perform some sort of surgery which can't be rescheduled. The only advice he has is to stay in bed until they can get to you, and to keep everything as sterilised as possible, since you're now at risk of picking up an infection."

As he finished speaking, the front door opened and Paul came into the room. Seeing me on the sofa, he ran over and kissed me on the cheek. "What's wrong, Aunty Rose?"

I gave him a small smile and patted the space next to me so he could sit. "I'm okay, Paul, I just feel a little bit unwell. Did your mum explain that I wasn't very well before I arrived?"

He nodded and frowned. "Yeah, but you were okay yesterday. Is it because Aunty Sonya had your pills this morning?" Kissing me on the cheek, he sighed, "I have to do my homework now so I can play out with my friends. I'll see you at dinner!" before leaving the room, not realising that Dimitri and I had frozen.

Wow. I hadn't realised Sonya hated me that much that she was willing to go to all that trouble. She must have snuck in early this morning to avoid getting caught, but I bet she wasn't expecting Paul to see. Well I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of seeing me like this.

"Dimitri." He wasn't listening to me. "Dimitri!"

His attention snapped back to me, and I stroked his cheek soothingly. "Don't get angry. That's what she wants, for us to argue, and to split your family even more. I'm not going to give her the satisfaction and you shouldn't either." I kissed his mouth gently. "The doctor will be here in a few days, I can wait that long. Promise me you won't do anything."

Holding his gaze he nodded. "I promise Roza, but if she even hints at it, I can't say that I'll be able to keep my self control."

I grinned, "Neither can I."