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passing gust of wind. Of course Ella had chosen Tatiana for her court. Tatiana’s beauty made her a
jewel and the Romanovs, even those who had entered the family by marriage, collected jewels
compulsively, amassing too many to count. But it was certainly strange that the Grand Duchess would
be willing to forfeit both her dance master and her lady in waiting in one swoop, even if she knew the
depth of their shared desperation.
“Why would she help us?” he asked, not noticing that the base of his wine glass had leaked a
perfectly-formed red circle onto the railway ticket.
She is willing to help because we have, quite by accident, created something she is unable to
create for herself, Tatiana thought. She is helping us because I am giving her the most precious thing I
have in exchange for your safely. Because I am willing to trade my child for this ticket you treat so
carelessly, this piece of paper you slosh wine upon, as if it were a rag. But Tatiana understood that
Konstantin’s pride, as vast and cold as Siberia itself, was forcing him to feign this nonchalance and
she bit the words back. Instead she merely said, “The Grand Duchess can be very kind when she
chooses…and is this not the most glorious day that has ever existed?”
“The most glorious,” he agreed, looking around them. The café where they sat was small, but
prettily situated. There was a flower market across from it, and petals wafted through the air. A cat,
too sleek to be a stray and evidently the pet of the owner, had insinuated his way around their legs as
they sipped their wine. Tatiana had been the one to choose the bottle. It was French, and undoubtedly
more expensive than any he had ever tasted. It was velvet to the tongue, just as everything Tatiana
was saying was velvet to his mind.
“I will go in two days,” he said. “After the ball.”
She shook her head. Her hair was not pinned up as it usually was, but rather pulled to one side
in a fat loose braid, a style very different from what the ladies wore in the palace. It made her look
younger, almost like a school girl, and he supposed it was evidence that no one knew she had slipped
from the palace to meet him here, that she had dared not ring for the services of her maid.
“You must go now,” she said, “when no one expects it. Their attention is diverted to the ball.”
“I am expected to dance. My ladies -”
“There are other dance masters who can lead them in their waltz. I must insist. My husband –“
“Do not call him that.”
“All right then. Let us be in agreement. I will not speak of my husband if you do not speak of