CHAPTER TWELVE The Dinner #2
“But don’t you think it’s interesting to be staying somewhere with such a history?” Sophie said.
Marianne frowned. “I’m not sure. Terrible things happened here, Sophie.”
“But good things happened, too …” Sophie felt the words tumble out of her. She knew she was speaking too quickly. “The last prince saved his family!”
Modern life seemed so limited, so ordinary, so small, when compared to the lives of the last Volkonskys.
Yes, it was tragic (how she loved that word) but surely not as tragic as living a life where nothing much happened?
Just going along in the same boring way, never risking anything — would that not be more of a waste of this one marvelous life she’d been given?
She didn’t want to die like the prince, but she knew in that moment that she wanted a life filled with love and courage.
How wonderful for the princess to be related to someone so brave and noble!
There was a knock at the door. Marianne gasped. “Who is it?”
The princess appeared in the doorway, carrying two large books. She had changed into a heavily sequined dress. As she crossed the room, moving quickly, Sophie had the impression that she was made from sequins.
“I have trouble sleeping, my little English girls, and so, at night, I walk through the palace. I have brought you some treasures.” She went to Marianne’s bed. “For you, a book on cosmology, written by Prince Anton Volkonsky. He built the observatory on this estate.”
“You have an observatory here?” Marianne’s eyes lit up. She took the large book and opened it reverently.
“Of course!” the princess answered nonchalantly. “Would you like to visit it? I sent for new telescope lenses from Saint Petersburg.”
Marianne nodded eagerly, turning the first page with extreme care.
“The skies are dark and a winter long this far north,” the princess said. “The Volkonsky princes always had time to examine the stars.”
She turned to Delphine, who smoothed her hair.
“And for you, Delphine, I have brought some early fashion plates, engravings of the dresses the Princess Maria Volkonskaya wore in the 1850s.” She put the leather-bound volume on Delphine’s lap.
“She was just a poor peasant girl, but she danced like an angel. Prince Alexey gave up his position at court to marry her. He built the theater … sadly the roof was blown off, but it was noted for its painted ceiling. She danced for him every night. She was considered a flaming beauty, with a waist the prince could encircle with his hands, and she was much admired by the Tsar.”
The pages crackled as Delphine turned them. She gasped as she saw four evening dresses on one page.
“Some of these dresses are probably still in the attics. They wouldn’t have interested the soldiers who stole so much. We could go and look for them, if you like?”
“I’d love to,” Delphine breathed, gently lifting another leaf of tissue paper guarding the illustrations.
The princess approached Sophie’s bed. The voluptuous scent of tuberose made everything around her seem richer; even the water-stained wallpapers looked like moiré silk.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and spoke very quietly, so the other girls could not hear.
“I puzzled over what to bring you. I was not sure what you would like. I feel as if I should get to know you a little better …” She glanced at the other girls, who were now engrossed in their books. “Can I trust you?”
“Yes!” Sophie felt a rush of excitement.
It wasn’t just that she had been invited to stay with a Russian princess whose world seemed at once glamorous and mysterious.
The way the princess spoke to her made her feel special.
Sophie wondered if this was why her father had wanted to take her to different places — to meet people as extraordinary as the Princess Anna Feodorovna.
The princess played with the gray diamond rings on her finger, then slipped one off and slid it onto Sophie’s middle finger.
“I can’t!” Sophie said. “I can’t possibly accept anything so valuable!
” She felt panicky. What would Rosemary say?
What would her friends think? They knew she had nothing of value to her name.
They might think … oh it would be horrid …
that she had stolen the ring! No. Better not to take such things.
“It was a gift to me. And now I am giving it to you. Is this not what friends do?” The princess’s gray eyes looked cold. “You would make me feel unhappy if you don’t accept it.”
“But —”
“One day you will give me something in return,” the princess said. She sounded very certain.
“I don’t have anything to give,” Sophie replied.
Delphine looked across, suddenly interested.
“It can be our secret,” the princess whispered as she slipped her hand across Sophie’s, hiding the ring.
“And as for thinking you have nothing to give me … you have more than you think, Sophie.” She paused, a calculating look in her eyes.
“The Volkonsky diamonds are quite distinctive, don’t you think? ”
Sophie looked at the gray diamond on her finger. She felt quite overwhelmed to be wearing something so beautiful and precious.
“Of course,” said the princess, “there are other Volkonsky diamonds. You might have seen them?”
“I’ve never seen any diamonds at all,” Sophie said truthfully.
“Are you sure?” The princess’s expression turned sour, as if Sophie had disappointed her in some way. “You shouldn’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying,” Sophie said.
“There are no diamonds in London?”
“Yes, of course there are, but I’ve never seen any,” Sophie said. She had a sudden sense of shame. Perhaps the princess had picked her as a guest thinking that Sophie had the same kind of background as most of the other girls at her school. There really must have been a mistake, then.
“I think if you want to know about diamonds,” Sophie muttered, “you should ask Delphine.”
The princess’s eyes flashed with the same sudden anger Sophie had seen in the ballroom. “I’m not interested in Delphine’s diamonds,” she said, then looked as if she was considering something. “Ivan told me that you had spoken to the boy.”
“I’m so sorry.” Sophie had known it couldn’t last. She had upset the princess. “He looked so cold … I just thanked him …”
“Don’t speak to him,” the princess snapped. “He will tell you lies about the Volkonskys. Like all the old servants who stayed here, he’s just a dirty domovoi.” The way she said the last word was horrible. As if she had mentioned something disgusting.
“Domovoi?” Sophie asked.
“In Russian folklore, domovoye are evil spirits,” the princess said. “They live in people’s houses and cause trouble. They are meant to help with the chores: look after the horses, clean the stove.” She leaned closer. “But they are not like us. They are not to be trusted.”
“He’s a spirit?” Sophie asked.
The princess laughed, but there was no warmth in it. “Oh, he’s not a spirit! But he creeps around the palace just like one. You must be careful. A domovoi will come to your bed at night and suffocate you! You have to ask them, ‘For good? For bad?’ And then they are forced to tell you your future.”
“But does he have anywhere to sleep?” Sophie felt upset that this boy was thought of so badly by the princess.
She remembered the way he had waited for them, the frost on his shoulders, his hand on Viflyanka’s bridle.
He hadn’t struck her as someone who would do anyone any harm.
What was it he had said to her? Voy Volkonsky?
“Where does he sleep? Probably under a step.” The princess laughed again. “Or inside the stove …” She looked at Sophie as if she were deciding what to say next. “I should have got rid of him when I returned to the palace,” she said slowly. “But Ivan seemed fond of him.”
“Why did you bring us here? Why us? Miss Ellis …” Sophie’s words dried up. She thought she had seen the princess’s expression change, just for a second.
“I thought you would like it.” The princess’s voice was calm. “I thought we might be … friends.” A blue vein ran down her cheek, like a thread of cotton.
“I’m so pleased you invited us,” Sophie blurted, then immediately felt stupid.
“You like the Volkonsky Winter Palace?” The princess spoke very quietly.
“Yes!” The word came out on a rush of breath.
“But it is so neglected,” she mused, looking up at the water stains as if she couldn’t quite believe what Sophie had said. “There is nothing here that would interest you.”
“But everything about the Volkonskys is interesting!”
“You’d never heard of them before you came here, had you?” the princess said slowly.
Sophie shook her head. She wanted to be able to say something fascinating, to keep the princess’s attention, but couldn’t think of anything.
The princess leaned across to turn off Sophie’s bedside lamp, and the heavy, velvety scent wound around Sophie once more. “We shall talk more tomorrow. You will tell me everything about yourself. Every little detail, everything you can remember … but now, you must sleep …”
She stood and moved to the door. “Good night, my dear guests! Sleep well on this, your first night in the Winter Palace. Tomorrow we will picnic in the snow and skate on the frozen lake!”
“I can still smell her perfume,” Delphine said, once the princess had closed the door and the sound of her footsteps had faded. She wrinkled her nose.
“She doesn’t seem real.” Marianne put the cosmology book down on the floor and plumped up her already plump pillow. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone who looks like her.”
“But it’s not just how she looks,” Sophie said, sitting up and hugging her knees.
“There’s more to it than that … it’s everything.
This palace … her family … even the wolf cutlery!
It all makes her so fascinating.” She tried to forget the sudden flares of anger, the cold gray eyes that had looked so calculating.
“The princess seems very interested in you, Sophie,” Delphine said.