‘What sort of thing?’ Anne queried, amused.
Lolya grew warmer. ‘You know what I mean. It’s different when it’s young people like Andrei and me…’
‘Colonel Duvierge is hardly a young man,’ Anne said drily.
Lolya frowned. ‘Well, at any rate, what I wanted to say is that it’s all right. I’m glad for you, really, as long as – as long as you really do love him?’
‘Lolya, my dear,’ Anne said solemnly, ‘I promise you that much as you may love Colonel Duvierge, I love your father a hundred times more.’
Lolya’s face cleared. ‘Oh, well that’s all right then,’ she said with a radiant smile. ‘Only you couldn’t possibly, you know! Andrei is so wonderful!’
Anne felt the resurgence of her grave misgivings. The crush Lolya had on the Frenchman ought to have died down by now. Perhaps it was wrong of Nikolai to have removed her from his orbit. Absence seemed to have made the heart grow fonder – fonder, and more serious, in a disquieting way.
‘Lolya, dearest,’ she began, hardly knowing how to tackle the subject. ‘I don’t think you ought to pin too much hope on a relationship with Colonel Duvierge. It’s likely, you know, that he’ll be recalled to France at any moment, if he hasn’t been already. I don’t suppose you can even have had any news of him for many weeks now–’
‘Oh, but you’re wrong!’ Lolya looked smug. ‘Andrei was so upset when I told him I was being sent to Moscow – well, Tula, at any rate – that he made me promise to write to him, and he promises to write back.’
‘Lolya! You haven’t been exchanging letters with him?’
‘Of course – every week! He writes such lovely letters – really long ones, and full of–’
‘But darling, you mustn’t! It’s absolutely out of the question!’ Anne was agitated. ‘Not only is it very improper for an unmarried girl to carry on a correspondence with a man, but it could be construed as treasonable! Don’t you understand that he’s officially an enemy now? There’s no doubt he reports regularly to Bonaparte, and anything you may happen to tell him will be passed on that way.’
Lolya’s eyes narrowed with temper. ‘Don’t dare to call my darling a spy!’ she said hotly.
‘Lolya, that’s his job! That’s what he was sent to Russia for!’
‘You don’t understand! Just because he’s French, you think he must be wicked – but he hates Napoleon as much as we do! All he wants is peace between our two countries so that we can be together and get married. He hates war!’
Anne looked at her despairingly. ‘Don’t you understand, he’s bound to say that so as to lull your suspicions, and make you talk more freely? Oh Lolya, what have you been telling him?’
Her cheeks were bright. ‘Nothing!’ she said angrily. ‘How could you think it? Don’t you think I know better than to give away secrets? Even if I knew any,’ she added with a brittle laugh. ‘Who would tell a chit of a girl like me anything important?’
‘I don’t believe you would deliberately say anything that would help the enemy – of course I don’t!’ Anne said. ‘But consider, darling – your father is a senior diplomat, and your uncle, with whom you are staying, owns the biggest munitions factory in Russia. There’s no knowing what use even an innocent piece of information might be put to.’
‘Oh, you’re just like all the rest,’ Lolya said, turning away. ‘I’m disappointed in you, Anna Petrovna. I would have thought in your position, you’d be a bit more understanding!’
The least useful thing in the present situation would be to alienate Lolya, and lose her confidence. Anne tried to soothe her. ‘I do understand. I don’t want to make you think badly of Colonel Duvierge – only to be careful. Lolya, he has no right to endanger you by asking for this correspondence! Don’t you see? It’s not the action of a man in love.’
‘Of course he loves me! He can’t live without me, that’s why he wants me to write to him!’ Lolya retorted.
‘A responsible man would never ask the woman he loved to do something that might compromise her. Don’t you understand that?’
‘It’s you who doesn’t understand! You don’t know anything about love! I thought you were different, but you’re just like the rest after all!’
‘Lolya, listen to me–’
‘I won’t hear any more. You’re just trying to poison me against him!’
‘Listen to me! It’s you I’m concerned with, and your safety! All the letters which leave from the post office in this city are opened and read by the Governor’s official. At least while you are in Moscow, you mustn’t write to Colonel Duvierge! Please, Lolya, try to understand! Even if the letter were the most innocent thing in the world, the very fact that you were writing to a senior member of the French Embassy would be considered a suspicious circumstance.’ Lolya regarded her sulkily, but said nothing. ‘Please, promise me you won’t write to him from here.’
There was a long silence, while Lolya’s pride fought with her basic common sense, and her old regard for Anne’s judgement.
‘Oh, very well,’ she said at last, ungraciously. ‘If it will stop you fussing.’
‘Thank you,’ Anne said quickly, feeling a rush of enormous relief. It was a concession; now she must turn her thoughts towards how to tackle the rest of the problem.
But the strain of the last few moments seemed to have affected her oddly: she felt her pulse beating fast all over her body, and her hands were cold and damp.
‘I think it’s very hard of you to lecture me,’ Lolya was grumbling, ‘considering I braved everyone’s opinion to come here and see you..’
Anne couldn’t listen to her. She felt rather sick, and the room seemed to be waxing and waning before her eyes. She put out a hand to Lolya, who suddenly seemed very far away, as if at the other end of a tunnel.
‘I don’t think–’ Anne began with difficulty; but a roaring drowned what she was going to say, and as Lolya’s surprised face turned towards her, for the first time in her life, Anne fainted.
The Emperor’s visit lasted six days, and during that time the patriotic fervour which was endemic to Moscow erupted into near-hysteria, which resulted in wealthy merchants accidentally pledging huge sums of roubles for the war effort, and wealthy dvoriane stripping their estates of serfs, and even their houses of servants, to provide a militia for the support of the regular troops and the defence of Moscow.
The Emperor, who had entered Moscow looking distinctly worried, left it with tears of gratitude. Deeply touched by the fervent loyalty of the Muscovites, who were traditionally rather cool and critical, his parting words to Governor Rostopchin were to give him authority to act in any way he thought fit, should Napoleon ever, inconceivably, reach the gates of Moscow. ‘Who can predict events? I rely on you entirely,’ he said, and drove away to visit his sister Catherine, Rostopchin’s patroness, at Tver on his way to St Petersburg.
Lolya’s visit to Moscow lasted three weeks, and Anne saw her often. The subject of Colonel Duvierge was hardly mentioned between them again. Lolya generously set aside their difference of opinion, and they had some very pleasant outings. Anne met Shoora several times out and about in public places, but she would not visit her in her home. Anne found this hurtful, but saw in it no malice, only the results of her upbringing under Vera Borisovna.
Anne and Lolya parted on good terms, with kisses and promises of seeing each other again soon, as Lolya left with her aunt and cousin to visit friends at their dacha in Podolsk, about twenty-five miles from Moscow.
Basil left Moscow at the same time, to attend a house party given by the Grand Duchess Catherine, with whom he was on very good terms. He took Rose, her god daughter, with him. Anne was invited, but declined in view of the fact that the theatre company, including Jean-Luc, had been invited to perform several plays for the guests during the stay. Anne pleaded ill health as an excuse which would not offend the Grand Duchess, and Basil, seeing that she did look rather pale and preoccupied, accepted it, and even offered some unexpectedly warm words of sympathy.