CHAPTER TWENTY The Gift
The princess would not look at her. “Just go …”
“But, Princess …”
“It’s over.” She looked defeated. It was horrible, worse than when she was being cruel.
Yes, Sophie had hated her for trying to kill the wolf, but she knew the princess had been trying to save her.
And she felt more upset now that the princess, whom she had thought so mesmerizing, looked as feeble as a bird with a broken wing.
“It isn’t over. It can’t be. You’re still a princess.” Sophie felt tears welling. She widened her eyes to stop them from spilling onto her face. “We’ll think of something to give to the general. To make him leave you alone.”
“Nyet.” The princess crossed her arms around her body as if she were suddenly cold.
“No one can help me now. You think the general is a bad man? Compared to the men he will send now, he is an angel.” She was shaking.
“I could leave the palace, of course. But they will find me. Believe me, wherever I go, those men will find me.” Her voice cracked. “I am undone.”
Sophie knew she no longer existed to the princess; the woman was talking to herself.
“We have to think!” Sophie said. She couldn’t leave her like this, not without offering some words of hope.
“The princess … the other princess … well, she wouldn’t have wanted to hide the diamonds from you, would she?
I mean, you’re a Volkonsky, too, so she must have put them somewhere that you would know about. She must have left clues!”
Anna Feodorovna raised her head. “Go on,” she whispered.
“Well, is there anything you’ve found that might lead you to where they are? Anything you’ve heard? Perhaps your parents told you something when you were a child, that you didn’t understand at the time?”
“They told me nothing.” The princess’s voice caught on the last word.
“Where would I leave diamonds if I didn’t want anyone to find them? Where they would be safe?” Sophie paced up and down. “Have you asked Dmitri? Masha? They might have information.”
“Have you been feeding the domovoye with milk and cookies?”
“No … I …”
“They’re not your friends. And if they knew where the diamonds were hidden, they would have stolen them!”
“But they know so much about the palace,” Sophie insisted, even though the princess looked so upset. “They told me a story about how your grandmother, the last Volkonsky princess, nursed a white wolf cub.”
“I told you not to speak to the servants!” the princess cried. “They fill your head with stories, with lies!”
“But Dmitri is kind, Princess. He wouldn’t steal from you. He loves his family and he’s proud of working for the Volkonskys. He wants to look after the wolves … he even knows the words to a sort of lullaby that calms them. He told me … he told me the words …”
The image of the two of them sitting high in the chandelier, watching the light sparkle onto the floor …
“I don’t have time for this madness!”
“About snow and wolves and tears on the ballroom floor in the moonlight,” Sophie said.
“You can’t help me.” The princess turned away.
“My father used to sing me that same tune when I was a child … isn’t that strange?” Sophie said. “Of course, I didn’t know the words, though … how could I?”
“How could you …” The princess turned back, slowly.
“But the light on the floor is so beautiful,” Sophie whispered. “It does look like tears, except …”
She remembered hooking her fingers through that long, gray, dull strand of crystals. Delphine standing in their room at school, her father’s crystal drop held up to her ear, and now strung on Sophie’s neck …
She looked down.
The princess’s eyes glittered, then her fingers darted into the neck of Sophie’s blouse and tugged hard at the string. Sophie felt a sharp burning sensation on her neck.
“It’s just a piece of glass!” Sophie said.
“Please don’t take it. My father gave it to me …
” She thought of how he would hold the glass up to let the light sprinkle around …
sprinkle around … She saw the princess hold up the glass, looking closely at it, and as it began to twirl, the colors in it danced and a tiny memory fell into place.
Sophie gasped, then laughed. Had her worthless piece of glass given her the clue to finding the Volkonsky riches?
“I know!” she said. “I know where they are! Perhaps Dmitri and his family knew all along, too — except they didn’t realize it!”
“You know?” The princess’s voice seemed to catch again. “Are you sure? Is this some childish game?”
“This isn’t a game.”
The princess wrapped her fingers around the glass. “I can tell the difference between glass and diamonds,” she whispered.
“This is no game, Princess,” Sophie repeated. “Get Ivan. And Dmitri …”
The princess looked at Sophie. There was a confused look on her face, as if she didn’t know what to do. But then she picked up an old-fashioned telephone and spoke tersely into it.
They ran through the shadows toward the ballroom, Sophie’s heart bursting with happiness. “It’s so simple,” she laughed. She, Sophie Smith, would save this Volkonsky princess!
Ivan stood at the door to the ballroom. Dmitri was there, too. Sophie ran toward him, excited. But Dmitri just looked at the floor, not smiling.
The princess strode into the ballroom and stood, impatiently tapping her foot.
Sophie took no notice of Dmitri’s sullen face.
He might be cross that the princess had set him such a demeaning task, but all would soon be explained and he and his family would be so happy …
the history of the Volkonskys would come full circle.
“Pull down the rope!” she said. “Quickly! There’s something I have to show the princess!”
The boy frowned, then walked slowly, so slowly, to the side of the room and picked up a long pole. As he hooked the end of the pole into the chandelier, the rope slipped down and danced in the air for a few seconds.
“The wolf princess was so clever …” Sophie said. “She cleaned the chandeliers in 1917 — on the eve of the Revolution! She wasn’t mad — she was making preparations!”
“What are you doing?” the princess whispered.
“Dmitri!” Sophie shoved her foot into the loop. “You’ll have to help me.” The boy didn’t respond. “I can’t get up there on my own!” Without someone to haul up the rope, she would have to climb, sailor style. Dmitri groaned. He was being really silly, thought Sophie.
“Anna! Ann-aaaaa!” The general appeared in the doorway. “What’s going on?” he snapped. “Anna? What are you all doing here? What are you whispering about?”
“Nothing!” the princess said fearfully. “We’re not talking about anything!”
“Are you plotting together?” He walked toward them slowly.
Sophie took a step closer to the princess.
“I am loyal!” The princess spoke fast. “You know that! I gave you the papers the minute you arrived. Everything is yours!”
The man crossed his arms. “And tell me,” he sneered, “how does an empty palace help me?”
“I need more time!” The princess ran toward him, grabbed his arms. The man stood impassive. “Please, Grigor! Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for us!”
“Us? You’ve done everything for us? And what is this ‘everything’? You’ve bought yourself furs … set yourself up here …”
“Grigor!” the princess sobbed.
“And who is this ‘us’?” He uncrossed his arms and roughly pushed her toward the large mirror. “Here we are!” he cried, pulling out his pistol. “The happy couple!”
A soft popping noise, like a champagne cork, and the mirror shattered in a torrent of splintering glass.
“Get me the diamonds, Anna. Then we’ll talk about ‘us.’” With a casual flick of the smoking pistol, he waved toward Ivan. “Put my things in the vozok.”
“I won’t take orders from you any longer,” Ivan said quietly.
“Then you’ll die where you stand.” The general held up the still-smoking pistol, aiming for the middle of Ivan’s chest.
Sophie’s breath caught in her throat. He wouldn’t … he couldn’t …
“Nyet!” The voice came from high up, in the chandelier, which quivered above them.
Sophie looked up. Dmitri was sitting there.
Ivan said something to him in Russian.
“Get out!” snapped the princess to Ivan. “You’re of no use to me now. I rescue you from the gutter and this is how you repay me?”
Ivan staggered slightly. “No use?”
The woman laughed. “Don’t imagine for one second you were ever going to be anything more!”
Ivan shook his head, his eyes pleading, but when the princess said no more, he stumbled to the door.
“Pull me up!” Sophie cried out. “Dmitri! Do as I say!” He was taking too long.
She saw the princess look up into the chandelier, her hand to her mouth.
Sophie knew the general, too, had flicked his gaze upward, but she was too excited to take anything in other than her desire to climb up into the cloud of crystal.
Soon she could rescue the princess, get rid of the general.
The princess would be so grateful to her, and …
yes, they would be friends, wouldn’t they?
She would talk to her about the wolves, explain why they must not be locked up …
Dmitri pulled her up.
She scrambled up onto the metal branches. The chandelier tilted and rocked. Swaying, Sophie clutched on to the gilt bars to steady herself. Dmitri sat opposite her. He didn’t look up.
“Help me!” she said. “I need to reach across …”
Dmitri followed her gaze to the rope of gray crystals with the rusty wire. His eyes filled with tears.
As she put her hand out, he grabbed her wrist. A tear splashed from his eye and onto his scar. “Think what you are doing!” he said.
“I know exactly what I’m doing!” she said. “Let go of my hand. You’re hurting me!”
As Sophie wrenched her arm free, the chandelier shook again.
The particles of light flew around them.
It was all so beautifully clear to her. She unhooked the rusty wire and wrapped the rope of crystals around her wrist, her arm, her neck.
Then, putting her foot in the loop, she smiled at Dmitri to let her down. His face was frozen now.
She heard the voices of the general and Anna. They were discussing something. The princess sounded anxious, as if the general might leave at any second.
“If you don’t help, I’ll just jump!” she cried. And she put her leg into the air. This seemed to send a charge through Dmitri’s body.
“Nyet!” he cried. He let out the rope, feeding it through his hands, and Sophie was lowered to the ground, jumping off at the last minute.
“See?” Sophie called up to him. “They were here all along! Right where we first met. The wolf princess was so smart.” She unwound the rope of stones from her arm. They were too large to be diamonds, surely? The necklace was too long. There couldn’t be many stones in the world as beautiful as these.
The princess and the general were standing quite still. The princess’s eyes glittered and she said one word in Russian: “Brillianty!” The word sparkled and threw light around the room.
In a smooth, quick gesture, she plucked the rope out of Sophie’s hands.
There was the sort of silence you hear after you have dropped a beautiful antique glass.
You know that something precious is about to be broken, something that, once it is smashed, can never be replaced …
and you wonder, in that instant, if somehow, against all odds, you could catch it before it shatters.
The princess stared at Sophie, her eyes cold, almost black. The chandelier shivered and Sophie looked up at Dmitri. He had his head in his hands. The diamonds spilled over the princess’s arm like a rope.
“Long enough to hang a man,” she said.
And then, sweeping Sophie with an expression of icy disdain, she dropped her head back. Closing her extraordinary eyes, she laughed. Everything in the room changed.
“You are very generous. Are you sure you want me to have them?” she said teasingly.
What’s she talking about? Sophie thought. They’re hers.
The princess continued, “Are you quite sure?”
The general, who had been observing everything without speaking, strolled across. The princess swung the diamonds in front of his face, laughing.
He hooked them off her finger and ran them through his hands. “They’re just what you said they would be!” His voice was full of wonder. He held the rope up and looked closely at each stone. “Candlelight-cut, exquisite, no flaws, each one at least fifty carats!”
“They’re not for you!” Sophie screamed. “Give them back! They belong to the princess! Those are the Volkonsky diamonds!”
The man looked surprised. “Anna,” he said calmly. “The little wolf girl says these diamonds belong to the Volkonsky princess!”
The woman smiled up into his eyes. “They do!” she whispered.
They looked at each other and something like a current of electricity seemed to pass between them. The princess smiled as the general reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a sheaf of papers.
“Perhaps these will be useful after all,” he said. He waved them in front of Sophie’s face.
She saw the watermark on the thick white paper, the heavy black Russian letters … and, at the bottom, looking ridiculous in her own handwriting, her name: Sophie Smith.
“There’s no need to tease her, Grigor,” the princess laughed, and took the papers from him.
The general threw the diamonds around his shoulders. They winked in the candlelight, seeming to hold the entire room in hundreds of facets. “Hurry, Anna!” he barked. “We are leaving!”
“I can come?” the princess gasped.
The man shrugged, pulling on leather gloves.
He balled his fist. “Just make sure you dispose of the evidence first.” He took a couple of steps, then turned around.
“Don’t make any mistakes this time, Anna,” he whispered.
“The only wolf you can trust is a dead wolf. That goes for wolf princesses, too.”