Russian series 03 - The Eagle's Fate (23 page)

‘Nadya? Can you hear me?’

It was Andrei’s voice, sounding very anxious. Nadya dragged her eyes open, and found that her head was lying on hard ice, and then realised that she was lying on her side, sprawled on the ice.

‘Yes,’ she said, ‘what happened?’ and pushed herself up into a sitting position. Andrei was kneeling beside her, and several other people were scrambling down the tower steps and coming towards them.

‘The sledge tipped off the side and threw you clear,’ Andrei replied, putting his arm around her. ‘Can you move your limbs?’

She tried, and replied, ‘Yes.’ They all functioned quite normally, but her ribs and hip felt very sore all down her left side, and she explored them gingerly with her hands.

‘Does it hurt when you breathe?’

She tried breathing deeply. ‘No, I think I’m just bruised.’

‘You landed quite heavily, but limply, so you probably haven’t done much damage. You’ve a fine bump on your head.’ Andrei now sounded quite cool and unruffled, and she though she must have imagined that he had sounded anxious at first. The other people who now arrived and crowded round were in a state of considerable agitation, and she wished they would be quiet and go away, for her head was throbbing now.

‘Please, don’t crowd so closely! Let her breathe!’ exclaimed Tatya’s voice, and, as the others drew back, she knelt beside Nadya on the opposite side to Andrei and asked quickly, ‘Is she hurt?’

‘I think not,’ Andrei replied. ‘Nothing broken, as far as I can ascertain, but she’s bruised and took a nasty knock on the head—she was unconscious for a few seconds. Best get her home.’

‘You must bring her into my place…’ their host began fussily, but Tatya replied,’ It’s very kind of you, Tolya, but I think it would be better to take her home, in case she has to remain in bed for a time.’

As she was speaking, Andrei had virtually lifted Nadya on to her feet, checked that she showed no signs of falling over, and, with a cheerful and encouraging ‘Well, your legs don’t seem to have fallen off!’, picked her up and carried her to Tatya’s carriage. The driver had seen the whole incident, realised that the vehicle would be needed, and driven up without waiting to be told.

‘Don’t let this spoil everything,’ Nadya begged their host, and he assured her that she need not worry, and turned to Nadya’s partner in the sledge, who had limped up looking white and shaken.

‘I say—I’m terribly sorry! I think the skirts of my coat must have got loose when I shifted a bit, and caught under the runner! I—I think I’ve broken my arm, actually!’ And with that he fainted, effectively taking everyone’s attention off Nadya, so that Andrei, Tatya and Irina were able to escape with her without further delay.

When Andrei lifted her into the carriage, he sat beside Nadya and kept an arm about her waist, apparently to steady her as the carriage swept round on its runners to return the way it had come. Nadya was so shaken that she allowed her head to rest against his shoulder without a though for appearances, it was so comforting and pleasant, and, as he made no move to draw away, she remained so all the way home, when he carried her into the house and all the way up to the bedroom, declining offers to help from Pavel Kuzmich and some of his footmen, and carefully put her down on the bed as if she was a fragile piece of porcelain. Tatya followed him in, then shooed him away, saying, ‘I’ve sent for a doctor, You go and talk to Irina while I help Nadya out of her things’, at which Andrei saluted with ironic smartness and marched himself out.

Nadya’s side was quite a colourful sight, with patches of black, yellow and purple bruising, but no indication of anything more serious. The bump on her head was already subsiding, and the headache no worse. She got into bed and lay still, willing the aches and pains to go away, while Tatya went to remove her outdoor clothes, and then the doctor arrived, inspected the bruises and the bump and peered into her eyes, telling her to watch the flame of a candle as he moved it to and fro in front of her face.

‘No concussion, and no fractures, I’m glad to say,’ he announced, sounding a little disappointed. ‘I recommend tincture of arnica for the bruising, then a glass of hot milk with a mild sleeping-draught, to allow the constitution time to recover from the shock. The young lady may feel some lassitude and stiffness tomorrow, the latter persisting for a few days, but if she turns vertiginous or finds difficulty in focusing her eyes, you must send for me again. Three or four days’ rest, with no excitement or exertion, should complete the cure. No need to remain in bed after today, but she should lie or sit in a quiet room, with no more than three or four other people about her, for another two days at least.’

All this was said to Tatya, as if Nadya was not there at all, but she established her presence by saying, ‘I had hoped to visit the Winter Palace on New Year’s Day’, rather tentatively.

The doctor drew in his breath sharply and pulled a grave face.

‘Most inadvisable, in such crowds—the building is quite packed with people from all levels of society on that occasion! No—you should defer your visit until next year—the public opening is an annual event!’

Nadya refrained from saying that she was unlikely to be able to go next year, or even from thinking it. She snuggled into her feather mattress, trying to find a comfortable position, while Tatya saw the doctor to the top of the stairs and sent Marfa—who was hovering outside—for the arnica and the hot milk. The arnica certainly eased the pain of the bruises, and Nadya was soon drifting off to sleep.

She woke at her usual time in the morning, rose and dressed, despite Marfa’s anxious clucking, and went down to breakfast, where the others greeted her with surprise and pleasure.

‘The doctor said I might come down if I rest and keep quiet,’ Nadya said.

‘How do you feel?’ asked Andrei, helping her to her chair as if she might fall down at any moment, obviously forgetting all about his hands in his concern for her welfare.

‘A little stiff and sore, thank you,’ she replied. ‘The headache has quite gone.’

After breakfast, Tatya had a comfortable chaise-longue moved into the garden-room, and Nadya reclined on that with a plentiful supply of shawls, books, embroidery, and a silver bell to summon a footman if she needed anything else. Vron, the black kitten came to inspect the arrangements and gave them its approval, attempting to steal the bell, but when that proved too heavy, settling on the padded head of the chaise to purr soothingly in the invalid’s ear.

Tatya seemed to think she should send apologies to the people with whom they were expected to dine that evening and stay all day with Nadya, but the latter managed to persuade her that there was no need, as she was quite content to be left. So after luncheon Tatya and Irina went out to pay calls and visit the shops.

Soon after they had gone, Andrei came into the garden-room, carefully carrying a vase full of fine hothouse flowers.

‘These are from the idiot who was on the slide with you,’ he told her disparagingly. ‘He sent apologies for not writing, but he’s broken his right arm.’ He did not add ‘Serve him right’, but the intention was clear enough. ‘There’s another cartload or two from various other people being distributed about the place, but you can look at those later.’

He put the vase on the table, where Nadya could only admire the flowers from a distance, sat down in his usual place, and began to shuffle the pack of cars which lay there with his spills, and then set out a game of Solitaire.

‘How do you feel now?’ he asked, his eyes on the cards.

‘A little shaky and stiff from the bruises. They are quite spectacular today! All the colours you can think of!’

‘You don’t make much fuss,’ he observed.

Nadya chose to consider that a compliment, although it was said without any particular note of admiration, and thanked him, receiving a quick, slight smile in return, followed by a few minutes’ silence as his game refused to come out.

‘Andrei,’ she said on a sudden impulse. ‘May I ask you something?’

‘Certainly, though I reserve the right not to answer you.’

‘Did—did my brother owe you money?’

He put the cards down and very carefully straightened the pack, then turned to look directly at her, leaning one elbow on the table.

‘No. Why?’

‘He was in debt to almost everyone he knew, and the Lombard as well.’ Andrei’s eyebrows flicked at that, for the State moneylender charged a high rate of interest.

‘Did you know your brother well/’ he asked.

‘No, hardly at all. He was eight years old when I was born, and had already been in the Cadet Corps for two years. Of course, he was never allowed home leave until he passed out at eighteen and went into the Regiment. I was at the Smolny with Tatya then, but he never visited me, so in the seven years between his passing out and me leaving the Institute, I don’t believe I saw him more than three or four times.’

‘He
never
visited you?’

‘No. I used to wish he would. Other girls’ brothers would take them out for treats, and I was often invited to go, but I felt so embarrassed when I couldn’t return the invitations. Lev used to come to see Tatya and take us both out every week when he was in Petersburg, and I knew him better than my own brother!’

‘You’ll forgive me mentioning it, but your family was wealthy then, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes, but Maxim—my brother—gambled, you see. I don’t know when it started-perhaps when he was still a Cadet—but by the time he had been two years or so with the Regiment, he owed so much money that he had to go to my father for help. I didn’t know about it until later, of course, and I thought it very odd when Father suddenly sold one of our estates. Maxim promised he wouldn’t gamble any more, but he did, and every year or so after that, he would apply to Father again, eventually without even apologizing or thanking him. When Father told him it must stop, he said it was his right, as the heir, and if Father refused, he’d tell his creditors that Father cared nothing for the Family Honour! Apparently Mother agreed with him, and between them, they made Father give in…’

‘You knew nothing about through all that time?’ Andrei asked. He was giving her his full attention, and seemed very interested.

‘I was away from home still, you see, but I began to realise that something was amiss when I was about sixteen, although I had no idea how bad it was.’ Andrei said nothing at this point, but something made her feel impelled to add unwillingly, ‘Father cut my allowance by half, and I suppose he felt I should have some explanation of his reasons.

‘Then Maxim was killed. I was in the middle of my come-out Season when it happened, and, of course, we had to leave Petersburg and go into mourning. We went home, to our Tula estate, and my mother suddenly announced that she was going to enter a convent—she loved Maxim very much, you see, and I don’t think she could bear to go on in the world without him. Father paid over all the money from her marriage-settlement to dower her, and then he told me how bad things really were, and what had been happening. Even he hadn’t realised how much Maxim owed, for it appeared that he’d never told the whole, and only settled the most pressing debts in the past!

‘The Lombard took all that remained of our land in settlement of what he owed the State, and the rest took everything we could get from the sale of our Petersburg house and Father’s collections of books and pictures—the Emperor bought most of those. Then we sold the Moscow house and all its furnishings, my mother’s jewels, family portraits—even my silver hairbrushes!

‘With the little that remained, Father bought a small house in Moscow, and invested the rest to bring in a modest income. He thought the shares he bought should do well, for they were in a company which traded with England, and people who really knew about such things said they were making good profits.

‘Then the Emperor met Bonaparte at Tilsit and signed that treaty with him—and part of it was a promise that Russia would join his Continental System, and refuse to trade with England! It was a terrible shock, and poor Father—he had an apoplexy and…and died…’

She paused for a moment to calm herself, then continued, ‘Even the little house had to go then, and the last of the furniture. Father’s man of business was very kind to me—he saw to it all and used the money from the sales to arrange my annuity, and didn’t even charge me for his trouble! There were a few pieces of furniture left, not good enough to see, and with those I moved into the cheapest respectable lodgings I could find—and that’s how things were until I had to leave Moscow…’

There was silence for a moment, and then Andrei asked, ‘What happened to the shares?’

‘Oh, I kept them—the certificates, that is. They’re not worth anything, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away. They’re in the iron box which Tatya’s men brought from Moscow.’

Andrei fiddled with the bandage on one hand, and then said, ‘Your brother had a lot to answer for.’

‘I suppose there was some weakness in him—I don’t know. They say that gambling can become like a disease…I hardly knew him, so I can’t really judge what he was like. I—I thought perhaps he’d owed you money, and the debt had been overlooked and not paid.’

‘No I never met him,’ Andrei hesitated, then went on. ‘Perhaps I’d better tell you. The difficulty is that it’s a secret matter—not my secret—but I don’t think it likely that you’d ever tell anyone else.’

‘Of course not.’

Nadya was unsure whether to be glad or sorry that she was at last to find out what Andrei had against her family. She waited apprehensively while he considered for a moment or two, then began abruptly, ‘I had a brother too, you see, the same age as yours. They were in the Cadets together, and passed out into the Regiment at the same time. Vanya was the family hope—the eldest—and must go into the Regiment, whilst I went into the Corps of Pages, and expected to serve at Court in some way, although one can go into almost anything from the Pages.

‘I think Maxim and Vanya were quite good friends to begin with, but later—some time during ‘06—they both became involved with the same woman.’

‘Anna Volkhova?’ Nadya asked with sudden enlightenment.