They reached the top of a rise, and he halted his horse and turned it a little so that he could look at Anne. She reached forward to stroke Quassy’s neck and turn over a lock of her mane, and then straightened up to meet Sergei’s searching gaze.
‘The worst thing about the treaty,’ he said, ‘is that our Emperor was obliged to side with the French against England. It makes me feel very bad to think that Russia is now England’s enemy; though I’m sure’, he added hastily, ‘that the Emperor doesn’t mean to do anything about it, beyond the boycott of British shipping. This talk about a secret treaty to declare war on England is all nonsense, I’m sure.’
Anne was touched by his concern; and a little puzzled to know what her own feelings were. ‘My dear,’ she said, trying to make light of it, ‘there’s no need to apologise for the actions of the Emperor of All the Russias. I’m sure if he had consulted you, things would have been different.’
Sergei bit his lip. ‘You are all generosity to joke about it, but I hate to think that we are now on opposite sides.’
‘You mean that officially I am now your enemy?’ she teased gently. ‘No, it’s all right -1 am joking you. And, indeed, I hardly know what I feel. I have been four years in Russia, but it seems like half a lifetime. I think I am becoming more Russian every day, and England seems so far away – far away, and lost to me.’
He observed her intently. ‘You miss your home?’ he asked gently. ‘I’m sorry if I have spoken clumsily, and made you remember it.’
She gathered herself together. ‘Don’t look so tragic, Seryosha! England is still there, and still safe, whatever Alexander and Bonaparte may decide between them. While the British navy rules the waves, no harm can come to my country. And the war won’t last for ever. One day I shall be able to go back.’
‘Go back to visit – or to live?’ he asked hesitantly.
She stared unseeingly at Quassy’s ears. ‘I don’t know,’ she said at last. ‘At this moment, I really don’t know.’
There was a silence; and then Quassy tugged impatiently at the bit, and Anne shook herself and smiled at her young companion’s grave expression. ‘Come on, let’s gallop,’ she said cheerfully. ‘I haven’t felt the wind in my face all day. I’ll race you down to the brook and see if that bay of yours is as great a sluggard as it looks.’
Sergei rose to the challenge. ‘He’d beat your mare over any ground! Name your stakes!’
‘The winner shall name them! Are you ready? Go!’
Chapter Fourteen
Anne was sitting on the verandah enjoying a late breakfast of yoghurt, honey, figs, grapes, and the strong, cloudy coffee which had taken so much getting used to, but which she now relished almost more than the usual kind. Sashka was lolling against her knees, picking idly at the grapes on her plate as he took a short respite from the energetic games he had been playing with his cousins since dawn. He had grown visibly that summer, since arriving at Chastnaya, and Zina said proudly that it was the Caucasian air and food, which, she firmly believed, could have made a dead man get up and dance.
His father, Anne thought, half-fondly and half-sadly, would hardly recognise the boy when he saw him again. When that would be there was no knowing. The Corsican general who had made himself Emperor now ruled half the world: with Portugal overrun and Spain become a subject kingdom, the French empire now stretched from Gibraltar to the Russian frontier; from the chilly Baltic to the blue Ionian Sea; and with Russia complaisant and Sweden helplessly neutral, England alone resisted, maintaining the war against the most successful soldier the world had ever known, not in hope of success, but because there was no choice. Already the European embargo on British goods, or goods carried in British ships, had bitten hard: Napoleon hoped to starve his enemy into submission, since he could not invade England’s shores without control of the sea – and that, Anne still firmly believed, he would never have.
Meanwhile, life for her at Chastnaya was very pleasant, and she missed the stiff formality of Petersburg not at all. Like her mistress, she had taken to wearing her hair in a plait, and dressing with simplicity in a cotton skirt, peasant blouse and sandals, or soft boots for riding. Occasionally a feeling of guilt would drive her to gather the children together for a lesson, or to take them out on an escorted ride to teach them the names of the trees and flowers; but otherwise she spent her days in idleness and pleasure, and enjoyed every moment.
Sergei came out of the house, smiled a greeting at her, and flung himself down in a hammock, one leg trailing idly over the edge, one arm hooked under his head so that he could look at her.
‘What are you going to do today, Anna Petrovna?’ he asked. Sashka left Anne’s knee to climb on to the hammock and sit astride his half-brother, who held him off gently with one strong hand. ‘Don’t kneel there, Sashka! I’ve breakfasted on quails and champagne and I should hate to lose them!’
‘Quails and champagne?’ Anne said with a quizzical smile. ‘Is that the way you Guards officers live? What luxury! I suppose that’s what you learned in Kiev?’
‘That, and how to dance and make love to the Ukranian girls,’ he smiled from under his eyelids. ‘I am an excellent dancer, you know, Anna. They all said I was a pleasure to dance with.’
‘I’m sure you are,’ Anne said, sipping her coffee.
‘So, will you entrust yourself to me tomorrow, at the dance after the muster? I think we should make a very pretty couple.’
Anne raised an eyebrow. ‘You want to dance with me?’
‘Why not?’
‘I should have thought you would want to dance with Zinaidia and her friends. They are closer to your age, and Zinaidia is very pretty. That’s what I’d call a pretty couple.’
A pink spot of vexation showed on his cheek, but he kept his eyes on Sashka, who was pretending he was a horse, and slapping his thigh to drive him on faster. ‘What nonsense you talk! Anyone would think you were a matron in a cap, to hear you. The difference in our ages is nothing. I regard you as my contemporary; Zinochka and her friends are giggling schoolgirls as far as I’m concerned, and I have no interest in them.’
She saw his dignity had been touched, and did not want to upset him further. ‘I am rebuked,’ she said calmly. ‘I shall dance with you, with pleasure, if that’s what you want.’
He sat up abruptly, swinging Sashka down in one movement, and regarded her with bright eyes. ‘Do you mean it? Any dance?’
‘Any dance,’ she smiled. ‘You choose. Now I think I’ll go and put on my riding boots, and take Quassy out to look at the view from Picnic Point.’
‘Good idea! May I come with you?’ Sergei said at once. ‘Here’s a thought: why don’t we take a picnic with us, and go the long way round, by Valley of the Horses? After tomorrow you won’t see the great herds grazing there, so you ought to go and look at them once more. Then we can take a nuncheon under the trees, and ride back through the woods, which will be nice and cool in the hot part of the day.’
The plan was very appealing, but there was something in the eagerness in Sergei’s eyes that made Anne hesitate. He did not look at her as she would expect a boy to look at the governess, his father’s employee; but then, she reminded herself, he was not a boy any longer, and it would be as well not to forget that again. She met his eyes, and felt a strange flutter inside herself, which she immediately and sternly crushed down.
‘What a good idea,’ she made herself say lightly. ‘We could take Nasha and Sashka, too. Would you like that, Sashka? How kind your brother is, to think of it! Run and find your sister, and we’ll send for the horses, and get Kerim to make us up something to eat. We could carry it in saddle-bags, so as not to have to take a groom with us.’