“Perhaps she wants to crack on with the dusting!” Marianne said as she ran her finger along the balustrade.
“I can’t figure it out,” Delphine mused. “Why did the princess invite us?”
“There doesn’t seem much point to us being here,” Marianne agreed. “We’re not going to see much of real Russian life.”
Being here didn’t affect the others in the way it affected her, Sophie realized. She felt already that she understood so much more about the people who had lived and died here. But how could she say this? She knew they didn’t feel the same, and she felt awkward after the episode at the lake.
“Perhaps she wanted company,” she said. “Friends.”
“She makes a funny sort of friend,” Marianne retorted.
“What do you think they were arguing about?” Delphine asked.
“Werethey arguing?” Sophie wondered. “I thought they sounded as if they were just discussing something.”
“Believe me, since my parents split up, I know when there’s an argument going on,” Delphine said. “Even if everything seems fine on the surface.”
They were at the nursery door. Delphine pulled down on the brass paw. “Weird, this obsession with wolves,” she said, then looked at Sophie. “That wasn’t one of your better ideas,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“Pretending you saw a wolf, to get her attention. It was really lame.”
“Delphine! That’s so mean!” Marianne cried.
“I’m saying it for her own good!” Delphine walked into the room. “The princess looked really fed up with her.”
“I think you should take that back,” Marianne said, following her.
Sophie stood alone. She didn’t know how to enter this room and take on Delphine. She knew she hadn’t cried wolf. Shehadseen the creature. But the effort of trying to understand what she had seen and felt was suddenly too much. Feeling the tears and hearing a sob escape her, she ran back down the corridor. She needed to be alone for a little while before explaining herself to Delphine … No. She would not explain herself. Why should she?
She tried to conjure up her father’s voice as she wandered through the palace, but he had become silent since that first ride in the forest. She didn’t know why, but she wished he would come back.
She wasn’t sure how much time passed before she realized she was lost. She had gone up another, smaller staircase, along a corridor, and found she was somewhere else entirely. But in front of her were mirrored doors that she remembered: the ballroom where they had first met the princess.
The candlelight flickered as she opened the doors, then settled to a steady glow reflected infinitely in the mirrors. She looked up and saw the largest chandelier shiver and tinkle. Light danced around the room and then, to her surprise, a rope dropped down.
“Beestra!”A voice! Aboy’svoice.
She ran toward the rope, looked up, and saw Dmitri staring down. She felt her cheeks flush. She felt embarrassed for him and found herself hoping that he had not seen her watch the princess talk to him after the trip to the lake. Perhaps he had done something the princess didn’t like, but Sophie knew that it was wrong to speak to someone with such obvious contempt.
The chandelier drops chattered and the chandelier swung crazily from side to side as he bent down.
“What are you doing up there?” Sophie gasped.
“We talk! Woman not see us here!”
The princess had called Dmitri “dirty.” No. It would not be good if Sophie was found talking to him.
“I can’t come up there,” she said. “I can’t climb …”
“Put your foot in and hold rope! I will pull you up!” he called, his face earnest.
Miserable after the quarrel with Delphine, Sophie realized she wanted to talk. She grabbed the rope with both hands and slid her foot into the loop.
“Hold tight!” Dmitri called.
And she felt herself being lifted up into the air, the movements punctuated by slight breaks as Dmitri fed the rope through his hands.
