CHAPTER SEVENTEEN The General
At the bottom of the broad stairs, a man in gray military uniform waited.
He stood with his legs planted slightly apart, as impregnable as a gun battery.
He took off his cap and gloves, put the gloves into his upturned cap, and smoothed his black hair with his hand.
The light from the muslined chandelier fell onto the floor at the man’s feet.
He could have been standing in snow. He tapped his foot, impatient.
Sophie, Delphine, and Marianne looked over the balcony and down into the atrium.
“He’s very handsome,” Delphine whispered.
“They suit each other,” Marianne replied.
“General!” The princess ran down the stairs to join him, her voice light and trembling.
Ivan followed slowly. He looked wary of the general, Sophie thought.
But protective of the princess, too: His hand kept moving toward the top of his hip in a practiced gesture, as if he might still find his soldier’s pistol there.
“Anna! Anna!” the general crooned. “What have you done to me?” His voice was bright, cruel, his English faultless.
He stroked the fur draped over the princess’s shoulder, took her hands, and looked at the diamond rings.
“Very beautiful,” he smiled, but it was like a salute: something he had learned to do.
“I can see that life at the Volkonsky Winter Palace suits you — and that you have been spending my money.”
The princess snatched her hand away as if she had touched something hot. The general laughed. And then, even though he had not once glanced up and did not appear to have noticed the girls standing in the shadows on the balcony, he looked up now and stared straight at Sophie.
“Don’t sulk! Don’t hide! Come down!” he cried.
The girls looked at each other. They knew already he was the sort of man who gave orders and expected to see them carried out quickly. They walked down the stairs toward him.
The general put his arm around the princess. “Anna Feodorovna is the only woman in Russia who could make me travel so far!” He squeezed her shoulder and she winced. “I swear! No other woman in all of Russia can command General Grekov!”
“Grigor,” the princess whispered. “Please … I hate it when you make fun of me.”
The man ignored her; he seemed to enjoy showing off to the girls, displaying his power over the princess.
“She snaps her fingers, stamps her foot. I say … ‘Woman! I have wars to fight! Do you think I can divert my military train just to pay you a visit?’” He laughed, dropped his arm, and stepped away.
“But what am I to do? When Anna Feodorovna summons me, I must come!”
He took a deep breath, expanded his chest, and seemed to fill more than the space surrounding him.
He surveyed the atrium with a long, appraising stare and said, “So! This is the magnificent Volkonsky Winter Palace that I have been told so much about!” He sauntered over to a large gilt mirror, its glass mottled and watery.
He leaned closer to his own reflection. “She promises me bears and wolves and diamonds!” He turned around.
“But so far all I find are three schoolgirls!”
He strolled toward them.
“You must be our French guest,” he said to Delphine. “Just as I imagined you would be … very stylish.”
Delphine flushed. She was about to speak, but the man had already taken Marianne’s hand, raising it to his lips in an old-fashioned gesture of courtesy. Marianne, flustered, grabbed it back.
“Marianne? The clever one!” He laughed. “It’s the glasses! They give you away!” Marianne blinked and moved closer to Delphine.
“So this …” He took a step back, as if to admire a painting.
“This is the enigma! The famous Sophie Smith!” He reached over and pinched her cheek.
Sophie flinched. On his fingers was the perfume of a heavy eau de cologne.
With a shock she saw that his eyes were only pupils, with no color.
“Not much to look at and all alone in the world, with no one to protect her.” He brushed a speck of dust from his immaculate jacket.
Sophie felt her heart in her throat. This man was dangerous. A wolf.
He turned his head slightly toward the princess.
“I hear from my associate that three girls have arrived at the Volkonsky Winter Palace as guests of the Princess Anna Feodorovna Volkonskaya.” He stopped for a moment, as if he might have expected someone to speak.
“I await a telephone call to invite me to the party.” He stared at the princess.
“I don’t have any information for you,” the princess said.
“But they have been here for over twenty-four hours!”
“I haven’t found —”
The man’s voice cut across. “If she knows nothing” — he frowned — “why is she still your guest?”
Why was the general so interested in their arrival? Sophie thought. And who was the associate who had given him the information? She looked at her friends, but Delphine shrugged and Marianne shook her head to show that they, too, were unsure of what was happening in front of them.
Ivan stepped out of the shadows, glancing at Sophie anxiously.
“Ivan!” the general cried. “The war veteran! Our noble hero!”
“That’s enough, Grigor,” the princess snapped. “He has helped me.”
“Don’t worry, Ivan!” the general said. “I am here now! The princess will be properly looked after.”
Ivan glared at the man. “I have looked after her properly — and our guests.”
Sophie wanted to agree, but her voice seemed to have stuck in her throat.
“But it’s just a joke.” Then the general frowned. “Forgotten something, hussar?”
Ivan stood to attention and saluted. The action was swift and assured, but his eyes were dead.
The general nodded and turned to the princess. “You have it? I’ve come a long way, and I don’t want my journey to be wasted.”
“I have all the paperwork,” she said. She tilted her chin up, a defiant expression on her face.
The man roared with laughter. “Anna … Anna …” he cried. “Do you think I’ve traveled a thousand miles for paper? No. You’d better have something more substantial to show me.” He leaned toward her. “The diamonds, Anna. You promised me diamonds.”
“You didn’t give me enough time —”
“Ah yes! Time!”
Sophie edged closer to Marianne and Delphine. She wanted to tell this man to stop, but even as she formed that thought she felt powerless. She knew she wasn’t brave enough to make him stop, and even if she tried, he would simply ignore her and carry on.
“You sound like a dying man on a battlefield!” The general smiled callously. “Faced with a rifle and certain death, they all cry out for more time!”
Sophie knew he was wrong. What about Prince Vladimir Volkonsky?
When faced with those soldiers in the gallery, he hadn’t asked for more time.
He had been happy to give his life, to save his family.
But against words like family and love, the general would set power and money.
She knew there was no point saying anything to this man whose gaze swept now across the faces of the girls.
In his cold eyes, Sophie saw the expression of some ancient, ruthless god who blighted lives for amusement.
Trying to change his mind would be like trying to change the course of an avalanche with a teaspoon.
She took all of this in very quickly, just as she had understood the nature of the wolf at the lake.
“I should have given the job to Galina Starova,” the general hissed. “Far more reliable. Far more ruthless.”
Galina Starova? What was she to the general? Sophie looked at Marianne, but neither she nor Delphine appeared to have heard what the general had said. Had she even heard it?
“Let’s find a quiet corner, Princess …” General Grekov spat the title. “We can discuss business matters more easily in private.”
He linked his arm through the princess’s and steered her up the broad staircase toward the White Dining Room.
“Bring me food, brave hussar!” he called out. “Traveling makes me hungry!”
Ivan’s eyes were fixed on the retreating form of the princess.
“I can’t hear you, Ivan!” the general jeered.
“Yes. Sir!” Ivan cried out. He looked toward the girls, his kind face pained. “Why did she bring him here?”
“Did she bring him here, though?” Sophie whispered. “It looks more as if he just decided to arrive.”
Marianne added, “He doesn’t look like the type who would wait for an invitation.”
The general’s voice floated down the stairs. “Little English girls?” It had a sickening singsong tone to it. “No plotting! Come in here and sing for the grown-ups!”
The girls walked slowly back up the stairs, candles flickering around them.
“And anyway,” said Marianne, “why should Sophie know anything about the Volkonskys?” She sounded as confused as Sophie felt.
Sophie glanced down the corridor toward the gallery. The door was still open. Where were the white wolves now? The princess needed her protectors. But somehow she knew that even that savage creature she had seen at the lake would not be enough to save the princess from this man.
The princess sat next to the general at the far end of the table. He played with a knife while he waited for his food. The princess looked sullen and moody. Her face is no longer beautiful, Sophie thought.
“She is in trouble,” Marianne whispered. “She’s done something wrong.”
“I wouldn’t want to make the general angry,” Delphine added under her breath.
“Don’t stand in the doorway whispering!” the general cried. “I don’t like females who talk in quiet voices. It makes me feel they’re plotting!” He turned to the princess. “Anna knows I believe in openness and honesty. Anything she says or does must be seen and heard by me …”
The princess stared at Sophie as if she wanted her to say something to the general. But what? What could Sophie say that would make this man leave them alone?
Ivan appeared with a large silver tray.