Everyone assumed I would follow in the footsteps of my mother: an American actress labeled a gold digger for bewitching an elderly Russian count into marriage and adding her three unruly American children into the bargain. The mothers of marriageable sons were particularly wary of me after Pavel showed an interest, and when the war took him, they saw me as a continuing threat to the others. I couldn’t exactly shout at them that I didn’t want their sons, that I had other plans, which didn’t involve marriage. Pavel had been a little like a dream out of nowhere, and I had no desire for anything like that to happen again, at least not for years and years.
Anna forgot to whisper. “Is the party almost over? Are there any chocolates left? The chocolate mice looked very good. Mama said I could have some if there were any left, but I’m afraid they’ll all be gone.” Her mouth turned down. “The musicians are allowed to eat after the guests leave, and they always eat everything. I promised I’d bring Nadia some if I could.”
“Who is Nadia?” I asked. I thought it was probably the name of a doll and Anna Andreevna wanted the chocolate mice for herself. It was a scheme my sisters would try.
The girl twirled one of her braids. “Nadia is the new helper in the nursery. She’s very nice. She doesn’t pull my hair when she brushes it. She’s never had chocolate mice.”
The taste of a chocolate mouse from one of Petrograd’s best chocolatiers was something everyone should experience. “We’ll have to make sure she gets one,” I told Anna. “I’ll go look and bring a plate of them if there are any left.” If there was enough, I could have one too. A bit of chocolate might tamp down the ache in my head. After that, I could go in search of my stepfather and try to get him away from the card table.
“Hurry!” Anna clutched the railing. “I don’t hear the music anymore. The orchestra will be there any minute!”
The supper room was empty when I went in, but I knew that as soon as the musicians had finished packing up their instruments, they’d be here. Grabbing a plate, I scanned the tables. There had been no skimping on the choices. Even though the party was nearly over, platters full of smoked salmon, eel, and smelts interspersed with bowls of caviar still filled the tables. If I hadn’t been aware of the severe food shortages crippling the city, I’d never have guessed it from the display of abundance.
I realized what had bothered me about the room when I’d been in it earlier in the evening. The artful displays of white roses and ferns cascading down the walls behind the tables were supposed to give the illusion of a series of waterfalls, but they more closely resembled the shrouds we used at the hospital to cover the dead. The fishy smells from the food mixed with the heavy scent of the roses and made my stomach do a little twist. I hurried to fill the plate so I could leave.
No chocolate mice remained on the dessert table, but there were plenty of bonbons. I selected a variety of flavors, piling the plate high. Even without adorable little eyes and ears and tails, the bonbons would taste just as good as the mice.
I was about to go back to Anna when I spotted one lone chocolate mouse that had fallen off a tray. It was missing a tail, but I thought Nadia wouldn’t mind. I put it on the very top of the pile.
I heard the clicking of boots behind me. Someone else had entered the room, and the clicking meant someone in uniform, which meant a man.
Baron Eristov, one of the czar’s closest military advisers and some sort of cousin to my stepfather, came up to the table and stood right next to me. I hadn’t expected to see him at a party, not with the war going so badly. He should have been at the front. We’d lost so many men; every last soldier was needed there. The baron and I had never actually spoken beyond a long-ago introduction, so I assumed I could just give the man a polite nod as I left the room.
I nearly dropped the plate when he spoke. “There you are, Miss Mason. I’ve been looking for you. I was hoping for a chance to have a private talk with you.”
His expression was grim, not the look you’d see on the face of someone who wanted a social chat. Some found the baron handsome, but he’d always repulsed me. Everything about his face was as if someone had drawn in his features with thin lines, except for his mouth. His lips were too big and too pale, like slugs that had been plucked from the ground. I closed my eyes for a second, willing another image into my head before the thought of slugs made my stomach twist again.
When I opened my eyes, he leaned in close and motioned to my plate. “I know Count Cherkassky’s gambling debts are building up and his money is being wasted at that ridiculous hospital, but I didn’t know he was putting his household on such lean rations that you must fill up at parties.”
I felt the heat rise in my cheeks. I wanted to snap at his rudeness, but I suspected he was bringing up my stepfather’s debts to make me react. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. I couldn’t keep quiet about his slur on the hospital, though. “Women need medical care just as much as men, even with a war on,” I said.
He made a snorting sound and then took hold of my elbow. “Shall we sit? I believe you’ll want to hear what I have to say.”
I was too curious to say no, so I let him guide me to one of the small tables set about the room. As soon as I sat down and put the plate on the table, he began to speak. “I’ll get right to the point. Your stepfather doesn’t need the aggravation of three nearly grown stepchildren, especially not ones such as yourselves and at such a time. You should leave Russia, you and your brothers.”
Not ones such as yourselves. The contempt in those words was like an actual slap to my face.
I clasped my hands together so I wouldn’t make throttling motions with my fingers. “I don’t think you are the one to determine what my stepfather needs or doesn’t need.”
“And you are?” The snorting sound came again. “Not from what I’ve seen of your actions. You and your brothers are bringing down the reputation of the Cherkassky family by associating with the wrong sort of people.”
“Which people?” I suspected I already knew the answer.
“The Tamm family and their disreputable theater.” He paused as if he expected me to protest. When I said nothing, he continued. “I suppose it all seems rather daring, especially for a young girl, to attend their parties and meet the radicals who associate with them, but you need to stay away. All the talk of revolution will come to nothing, and in the meantime your connection with them is drawing too much attention.”
“I’ve met no radicals at the Tamms’.” Not exactly, anyway. I didn’t add I had heard the same talk that was everywhere, the endless gossip about the precarious state of the monarchy. We all wanted change. As much as I loved Russia, there were some parts that were terrible. We wanted more freedoms for women, more elected officials who actually had some power, and a change in the laws that allowed the horrific oppression of Jewish people, so, yes, we talked of it, but if I said anything, it would make him more suspicious.
“Why are you worried about our reputation?” I asked. I had no intention of giving up visiting the Tamms, but I was curious as to why the baron was involving himself in our lives.
The man sneered. “I care nothing for your reputation, little girl. Your stepfather’s gambling debts are a problem, but he is a loyal supporter of the czar. However, when you associate with radicals, you become of interest to the Okhrana, and therefore your stepfather draws their interest too. Given the past history of the family, that could be very dangerous.”