THE ICE KING

UK, Mills & Boon Masquerade Historical #48, January 1980 The Prince Nikolai Volkhov is known at the Czar Alexander's court as "the Ice King" ­ as famous for his cold reserve as for his lack of interest in feminine wiles. Why, then, should he seem to take such an interest in Tanya, a penniless orphan, almost on the shelf?

Snatching at her last chance of gaiety in St. Petersburg before she resigns herself to a bleak, hopeless future, Tanya no longer trusts in good luck. She knows that Prince Nikolai's attentions can mean nothing but heartbreak ­ because, like a fool, she has fallen in love with a man of whom she knows nothing...

US, Masquerade Historical #45, July 1980 The Front: She'd resigned herself to her dismal fate

Tanya had no money, and now with the death of her uncle, no home. The solution was a virtual prison sentence: she must take a job as companion to a reclusive and ailing old woman in a remote Russian Village.

But fate granted her a reprieve. Kindly relatives offered her a season in St. Petersburg, and Tanya was thrilled and grateful.

St. Petersburg was the city of her dreams. She was determined to pack a lifetime into that one all-too-short visit.

And the disturbing Prince Nikolai was there to see that she did!

Back: He was acting like a jealous man

But the moment the thought entered her head, Tanya dismissed it as utterly impossible. A person had to have feelings in order to be jealous, and Prince Nikolai hadn't earned the name Ice King for nothing.

He seemed devoid of all emotion ­ particularly love. What had happened to him, wondered Tanya, to turn his heart so cold that no woman had been able to thaw it?

The answer to the question was shocking, and it turned Tanya's feelings into a confused mixture of pity...and love.