He hooked them off her finger and ran them through his hands. “They’re just what you said they would be!” His voice was full of wonder. He held the rope up and looked closely at each stone. “Candlelight-cut, exquisite, no flaws, each one at least fifty carats!”
“They’re not for you!” Sophie screamed. “Give them back! They belong to the princess! Those are the Volkonsky diamonds!”
The man looked surprised. “Anna,” he said calmly. “The little wolf girl says these diamonds belong to the Volkonsky princess!”
The woman smiled up into his eyes. “They do!” she whispered.
They looked at each other and something like a current of electricity seemed to pass between them. The princess smiled as the general reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a sheaf of papers.
“Perhaps these will be useful after all,” he said. He waved them in front of Sophie’s face.
She saw the watermark on the thick white paper, the heavy black Russian letters … and, at the bottom, looking ridiculous in her own handwriting, her name:Sophie Smith.
“There’s no need to tease her, Grigor,” the princess laughed, and took the papers from him.
The general threw the diamonds around his shoulders. They winked in the candlelight, seeming to hold the entire room in hundreds of facets. “Hurry, Anna!” he barked. “We are leaving!”
“I can come?” the princess gasped.
The man shrugged, pulling on leather gloves. He balled his fist. “Just make sure you dispose of theevidencefirst.” He took a couple of steps, then turned around. “Don’t make any mistakes this time, Anna,” he whispered. “The only wolf you can trust is a dead wolf. That goes for wolf princesses, too.”
“I won’t come with you!”
“I don’t think you have a choice!”
As Sophie was pulled toward the door, the chandelier shivered. She looked up. Dmitri parted heavy ropes of crystal and stared down at her. The expression on his face made her feel ashamed. She had disappointed him. But what could she do? The diamonds were Anna Feodorovna’s, and although Sophie hadn’t wanted them to be given to the general, they were not Sophie’s to keep. Dmitri turned his face away. Anna Feodorovna held Sophie firmly by the elbow and they walked down the corridor. In her other hand, she held the papers tightly.
“I don’t understand.” Sophie had a sour taste in her mouth. She swallowed.
“You are a silly, stupid little darling,” the princess told her in that musical peal of bells that was her voice. “I had hoped that I would bring you here and then … oh, then … the magic would start!” She sighed.
They were moving down a narrower corridor with a much lower ceiling. It was more desolate than anywhere Sophie had seen in the palace.
“I should have got rid of you when I had the chance,” the princess continued.
Why couldn’t Sophie understand? The princess was speaking English. They weren’t difficult words. But what did she mean by them?
“Got rid of me?” Sophie said slowly.
The princess sounded exasperated. “But Ivan interfered. I would have said it was an accident, of course, that I was aiming for the wolf and you got in the way, but I suppose there would have been too much fuss anyway. Even though we are so far away, stories get out. Your idiotic friends would have told tales. How annoying that your stupid headmistress insisted they come, too. And then who knows? Someone might have remembered something about you. They might have claimed to be related to you and the whole situation would have been unmanageable.”
“Princess,” Sophie whispered. “You’re hurting my arm.”
The woman took no notice. Her face was set straight in front of her. Sophie tripped and almost stumbled, but the woman’s grip held her up. A draft soughed up the blighted corridor. Shadows flung themselves over the two figures like cloaks.
“Please let me go.” Sophie thought she might cry.
Perhaps the wolves had heard them, for they sent up a lupine chorus that became louder as the princess dragged Sophie on, laughing as the wolves cried out.
“I should have had them shot when I arrived,” she said. “I’ve had a constant headache from their stupid noise!”
There was a sour, dank smell in the corridor.
“What have I done?” Sophie felt her arm burning from the princess’s tight grip. At Sophie’s words, the princess looked as if she had been slapped on the cheek. She pulled Sophie closer to her and stared into her face. Sophie saw a blue vein throb in the woman’s temple.
“Don’t you understand?” she whispered. Sophie watched the woman’s pale tongue. “All these stories about the wolf princess.Youare the wolf princess, you little fool!”
“But …”
