“Where did you get that?” Delphine’s hand shot out, and before Sophie realized it, she had the ring on her finger. “Is it real?” she asked.
“Let me see,” said Marianne.
Reluctantly, Delphine slid it off her finger and handed it to her. Marianne took it to the window and scratched it against the glass.
“What are you doing?” Sophie protested.
“Pretty it may be,” Marianne said, offering it back to Sophie, “but a real diamond would have cut the glass.”
Sophie put it carefully back in the pencil box. Somehow she wasn’t surprised. And she didn’t mind, not really. It was just odd, she reflected, how she had brought her piece of glass here to remind her of her father, but she would be taking back another to England to remind her of Dmitri, the wolves, and the Volkonskys.
Delphine, her beautiful tweed coat over her shoulders, announced, “Let’s find the princess.”
From the top of the staircase they could hear the general’s voice in the atrium. “Ann-aaaa!” They looked over the balustrade. He was standing as he had when he had arrived, legs planted apart. There was a pile of carpets and paintings heaped in the middle of the floor. He threw a battered silversamovaronto the heap.
“Don’t sulk, little girls!” His voice made them jump. “Don’t hide in the shadows! Show yourselves!”
“He’s seen us!” Delphine gasped. “What do we do?”
“Come on!” Sophie said, forcing herself to sound determined and sure. “He’s a bully. Like Natalie Bates at school. You just have to stand up to him.”
Marianne pulled on her sleeve. “Are you mad? No one ever gets the better of Natalie Bates. You’re better off just walking away.”
But they descended the staircase slowly.
“So. A delegation! What could you possibly want, dressed in your coats, carrying your bags?”
Sophie cleared her throat.
“Not you!” the man snapped. “I’m not interested in what you’ve got to say! You’ve had your chance … and you wasted it!”
Sophie was so shocked she took a step backward. Marianne was right. You never won against people like this man. They could always make you feel weak and desperate, and in that split second of feeling unsure, they’d finish you off.
“We want to leave,” said Delphine, very bravely. “We were just going to tell the princess.”
“We really do have to go!” Marianne blurted out. She shifted her battered rucksack a little higher on her shoulder.
The man looked at them and nodded, as if he were considering their request. Then he clapped his hands together. “Of course!” He smiled broadly and checked his watch. “You must leave! You are bored. You are wanting to return to Saint Petersburg. You must accompany me on my train!”
“We won’t go withyou!” Sophie said.
“There is no other way to leave!” the general said. “But it’s up to you.”
Sophie looked at her friends. They seemed desperate. It was as if she felt the palace collapsing around her. The general was right; they had no idea where they were. Their phones didn’t work. They were at his mercy.
“Ivan will take us to the train in thevozok,” he added with a sly smile.
Sophie felt Marianne and Delphine sigh with relief. Yes, Ivan would make sure they were all right. He would get them home. Thevozokcould be outside right now! They would be bundled into it and they would be gone.
The princess appeared at the top of the stairs.
“I am leaving,” the general said to her.
The princess looked distraught. She ran to him. “No, Grigor, no. I can find them. Don’t leave.”
“I have taken anything of any worth.”
“No, Grigor,” the princess whimpered. “Please. Take me with you.”
