“Why? You are worthnothing.” He pushed her away. “You disappoint me, Anna. You should have taken that shot — made the kill, as I asked you to. It makes me think you are weak. Come, girls!” he cried then. “Let us get into thevozok— let us all go home!”
He ushered Marianne and Delphine toward the door. Sophie stayed where she was. The princess had asked for her help. She was in tears. How could Sophie leave her?
The princess would not look at her. “Just go …”
“But, Princess …”
“It’s over.” She looked defeated. It was horrible, worse than when she was being cruel. Yes, Sophie had hated her for trying to kill the wolf, but she knew the princess had been trying to save her. And she felt more upset now that the princess, whom she had thought so mesmerizing, looked as feeble as a bird with a broken wing.
“It isn’t over. It can’t be. You’re still a princess.” Sophie felt tears welling. She widened her eyes to stop them from spilling onto her face. “We’ll think of something to give to the general. To make him leave you alone.”
“Nyet.”The princess crossed her arms around her body as if she were suddenly cold. “No one can help me now. You think the general is a bad man? Compared to the men he will send now, he is an angel.” She was shaking. “I could leave the palace, of course. But they will find me. Believe me, wherever I go, those men will find me.” Her voice cracked. “I am undone.”
Sophie knew she no longer existed to the princess; the woman was talking to herself.
“We have to think!” Sophie said. She couldn’t leave her like this, not without offering some words of hope. “The princess … theotherprincess … well, she wouldn’t have wanted to hide the diamonds fromyou, would she? I mean, you’re a Volkonsky, too, so she must have put them somewhere that you would know about. She must have left clues!”
Anna Feodorovna raised her head. “Go on,” she whispered.
“Well, is there anything you’ve found that might lead you to where they are? Anything you’ve heard? Perhaps your parents told you something when you were a child, that you didn’t understand at the time?”
“They told menothing.” The princess’s voice caught on the last word.
“Where wouldIleave diamonds if I didn’t want anyone to find them? Where they would be safe?” Sophie paced up and down. “Have you asked Dmitri? Masha? They might have information.”
“Have you been feeding thedomovoyewith milk and cookies?”
“No … I …”
“They’re not yourfriends.And if they knew where the diamonds were hidden, they would havestolenthem!”
“But they know so much about the palace,” Sophie insisted, even though the princess looked so upset. “They told me a story about how your grandmother, the last Volkonsky princess, nursed a white wolf cub.”
“I told you not to speak to the servants!” the princess cried. “They fill your head with stories, with lies!”
“But Dmitri is kind, Princess. He wouldn’t steal from you. He loves his family and he’s proud of working for the Volkonskys. He wants to look after the wolves … he even knows the words to a sort of lullaby that calms them. He told me … he told me the words …”
The image of the two of them sitting high in the chandelier, watching the light sparkle onto the floor …
“I don’t have time for this madness!”
“About snow and wolves and tears on the ballroom floor in the moonlight,” Sophie said.
“You can’t help me.” The princess turned away.
“My father used to sing me that same tune when I was a child … isn’t that strange?” Sophie said. “Of course, I didn’t know the words, though … how could I?”
“How could you …” The princess turned back, slowly.
“But the light on the floor is so beautiful,” Sophie whispered. “It does look like tears, except …”
She remembered hooking her fingers through that long, gray, dull strand of crystals. Delphine standing in their room at school, her father’s crystal drop held up to her ear, and now strung on Sophie’s neck …
She looked down.
The princess’s eyes glittered, then her fingers darted into the neck of Sophie’s blouse and tugged hard at the string. Sophie felt a sharp burning sensation on her neck.
“It’s just a piece of glass!” Sophie said. “Please don’t take it. My father gave it to me …” She thought of how he would hold the glass up to let the light sprinkle around …sprinkle around… She saw the princess hold up the glass, looking closely at it, and as it began to twirl, the colors in it danced and a tiny memory fell into place.
