‘Oh, Anna! It’s the most beautiful thing! And Papa’s so mean, he won’t let me wear a tiara, even though there are three of Mamochka’s that are meant for me; and your ball is a formal one after all, and the last of the season, and everyone will be wearing tiaras. You will won’t you?’
‘Of course. But that’s different: I’m a married woman.’
‘But Papa says I must wear flowers in my hair,’ she made an indescribable face. ‘Honestly, Anna, he seems to forget I’m almost eighteen, and a grown woman!’
‘Flowers are perfectly suitable or a girl in her first season,’ Anne said. But quite suddenly she remembered the earrings her father had sent her for her seventeenth birthday, and how deliciously grown-up she had felt wearing them. She had more earrings now than she could calculate – diamond, emerald, ruby, pearl – but nothing could ever quite thrill her like that first pair!
‘Well, it wouldn’t be my first season if Papa hadn’t had to be away so much,’ Lolya was arguing absurdly. ‘I’d have been out long ago. Kira came out when she was seventeen, and Varvara Salkina came out when she was sixteen, and she’s betrothed now.’
Anne looked at her sadly. ‘Oh Lolya, don’t be in such a hurry to grow up! You only ever have one chance to be young and happy.’
Lolya looked sceptical. ‘Old people always say that, just as if young people don’t have anything at all to worry about! I dare say we have far more troubles – and more important ones, too! I think it’s because you all have such fun being grown-up, you don’t want to share it with us.’
Anne smiled. ‘Do you think I have fun?’
‘Yes, of course you do. You have your own house and your own carriage, and you can go anywhere you want, and wear what you like and eat what you like. And you have your husband and your darling baby. Well, I want all those things too! I don’t want to wait for them. It’s so stupid being too young for things, and having to behave oneself and be mimsy and silly and pretend to be shy! Oh, look – here it is!’ Her attention was distracted and she flung out a hand. ‘Please stop, Anna, and tell me if it isn’t the handsomest thing you ever saw!’
It was the Court jeweller’s shop to which Lolya was directing Anne’s gaze. In the centre of the main window, artistically displayed on a fold of crimson velvet, was a pair of hair-clips in the shape of sprays of flowers. The blossoms were diamonds, the leaves cut from emerald, and the whole was exquisitely set in white gold.
‘Please say you’ll persuade Papa to buy them for me for your ball! If I have to wear flowers in my hair, well, those are flowers, aren’t they? And one ought to be fine for the Emperor, you know.’
‘Oh, Lolya,’ Anne laughed, ‘of course I won’t do any such thing! They must cost the earth. And besides, if your father wants you to wear flowers, then you must. It’s not for me to try to overset his decisions, even if I could.’
‘Of course you could,’ Lolya said simply. ‘Papa thinks the world of you. He’s always talking about you, and about how clever you are and all that sort of thing. You could persuade him if you wanted to.’
‘Well I don’t want to,’ Anne said, and told her coachman to drive on.
‘Very well,’ Lolya said with suspicious meekness. She didn’t even sulk or pout, but began a new conversation in a perfectly cheerful, agreeable voice. Anne wondered what was coming next.
The open square before the Winter Palace was already thronged with people, the peasants on foot, the dvoriane in sleighs drawn up side by side to enable the occupants both to watch the parade and to gossip. They were only just in time. The coachman dextrously beat a lozenge-coach to the last space on the near side, and Lolya was still bowing and waving to the occupants of the neighbouring carriages when there was a burst of applause from the far side and the regiment marched into the square.
‘Aren’t they splendid!’ Lolya cried with simple fervour. Anne had to agree they were. The officers rode out in full dress uniform, their fur-trimmed pelisses flashing with braid and loops, their hats splendid with plumes and gold lace rosettes; the horses stepped delicately, necks arched, with silver shells flashing on their bridles, and gold vandyking on their richly-coloured shabracks. The men marched behind proudly, arms reflecting the sun, their boots glinting as the legs swung forward all together, left and right, so that the ranks looked like strange insects, caterpillars rippling along a leaf.
They were parading in order to receive the Emperor’s blessing before they marched off to the border, and Anne was aware from diplomatic sources that the public review was meant to calm fears that a war was imminent; curious reasoning, she thought. Suddenly a great double cheer went up, signifying that the Emperor and his train had appeared, and craning her neck, Anne saw he was in his favourite pale blue uniform of a colonel of Hussars. She had a good view of him now: tall, romantically handsome, ruddy-cheeked and fair-haired as he swept off his hat in acknowledgement of the cheers. His expression was one of great sweetness: above all it was possible to feel for this Emperor, as perhaps for none other, a great affection. He sat his horse well, as she had had cause before to remark; and his attention never seemed to waver as the soldiers marched and wheeled about the square before him.
Lolya had been silent for quite a while, when she drew a deep, heartfelt sigh, and said passionately, ‘Isn’t he the handsomest creature you ever saw? Honestly, Anna Petrovna, don’t you think he’s the most divinely handsome man in the world?’
‘The Emperor?’ Anne said, a little startled. She would have expected a much less personal adoration of the Emperor of all the Russias from a young girl like Lolya.
‘No, no,’ Lolya said, colouring. ‘Of course the Emperor is very handsome too, but I was talking about Colonel Duvierge. That’s him on the bay horse, next to General de Tolly. He’s one of General de Lauriston’s aides.’
‘I know who Colonel Duvierge is,’ Anne said drily. ‘I’ve met him several times. What I can’t understand is how you know him.’
Lolya looked pink and conscious. ‘I know lots of diplomatic people. Why shouldn’t I? I met Colonel Duvierge when Papa took me to the Embassy Ball. He’s the most charming, handsome–’ She caught Anne’s amused look and said hastily, ‘He likes me to. He danced with me twice, and twice again at the Salkins’ the next evening.’
‘I see,’ Anne said neutrally. ‘Well, he’s certainly an agreeable young man, from the little I know of him.’
Lolya looked at her sidelong, cautiously. ‘Are you sure you won’t ask Papa to buy me the diamond sprays?’
‘Certainly not.’
‘Not even to please me?’ Anne quelled her with a look. ‘Well in that case, Anna Petrovna,’ she went on, taking a deep breath, ‘I have a great, great favour to ask you, and you have to say yes now, because you wouldn’t do the other thing, and this favour is the really important one, because if you don’t grant it, I shall really and truly die.’
‘Nonsense. Of course you won’t.’
‘Well, then, I shall go into a decline, and become terribly religious and join a nunnery, and you’ll have ruined my life and you’ll be very sorry and that will ruin your life.’
Anne laughed and held up her hands defensively. ‘Well, then, what is it? I warn you, if it’s anything improper–’
‘Oh no, darling Anna, of course it isn’t! This is it: you have invited General de Lauriston to your ball tomorrow, haven’t you? I know you have, because Gran’mère thinks it’s disgraceful and says she wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people didn’t cut; only of course they won’t because the Emperor’s coming.’
‘It was the Emperor who asked me to invite him,’ Anne said. ‘He doesn’t want Bonaparte to accuse him of ill-treating his ambassador.’