I’m not sure I want to do this, she said to herself, closing her eyes. But it was too late. How far would she fall? Best not to look.
An arm pulled her up into the chandelier. “Sit on the side!” Dmitri said.
“I’m not good with heights …” Sophie looked straight ahead as she searched for somewhere to sit.
“Hold on!” Dmitri warned as the chandelier tilted. “Be careful!”
She lowered herself carefully onto a horizontal piece of metal.
“Lean back!” Dmitri said, showing her how he was leaning against a gilded metal bar. Then he stared at her. “You cry?”
“No!” Sophie brushed her cheeks with her hands.
The boy frowned, but said nothing more.
“I saw you,” Sophie said after a few seconds’ silence. “In the woods. You’d been hunting.”
The boy shrugged. “Food. I can find everything I need in forest. Even in winter.”
Sophie thought about asking him what he had done, why the princess had been angry with him. Then she thought it might embarrass him. And hehadinvited her up into the chandelier, trying to be friendly. She didn’t want to break anything.
“I saw something else as well …” she said instead, then wondered if she should be saying this. Was she going to make a fool of herself again?
“What?” Dmitri was watching her closely, but his face showed no emotion.
She knew she didn’t have to tell him anything. Perhaps she should stop now. But then what would she do? Go back to Delphine and Marianne? They didn’t understand, and she needed to tell someone.
“I saw …”
“A wolf?” the boy whispered.
“Yes!” He understood. Sophie sighed with relief, and the chandelier shook, making the crystals shiver and clink together. “The princess didn’t believe me,” she added. “And Delphine said I was making it up to get attention.”
The boy didn’t say anything immediately. He flicked a crystal with his finger. “You like that woman?”
Dmitri wasn’t looking at her, so it made it easier to be honest. “I think she’s the most amazing person I’ve ever met. She’s like a diamond, isn’t she? She’s so brilliant you can’t take your eyes off her.” She felt she shouldn’t also say that she felt unnerved when she was around the princess, likely to blurt things out or be eager and gauche. She didn’t mention how the woman had made her feel scared. Dmitri didn’t need to know that. She didn’t want to offend him by saying anything wrong about the princess.
Sophie moved her foot away from Dmitri’s. They had to sit very close to each other and she felt awkward being unable to move any farther away.
He reached into the pocket of his worn trousers, brought out a battered cigarette, and held it out to her. “You smoke?”
“Of course not!”
He shrugged as if not smoking was equally fine. He stuck the cigarette between his lips, but didn’t light it. Sophie knew it was just a prop, meant to make him look older. After a few seconds he took it out and put it behind his ear.
“Where are you from?”
“London,” she said. “The place with the red buses?”
He nodded.
“At least, that’s where I live now. I used to live in the countryside … I think … when my father was alive …” She knew she had started to rattle on about things the boy could have no interest in. But she wanted to talk to Dmitri; there was a quietness about him that made her feel she could tell him things without feeling self-conscious.
“My guardian, Rosemary, she said she’d tell me more about my parents when I’m older. She didn’t approve …” Sophie stopped when she saw Dmitri frown.
“Approve?”
“She didn’t like my father. He was a poet. No money!”
