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“I intend to take a photograph,” she said.
“For what?”
“For my own edification,” she said icily and then, just before he gave way to a sputter she
added, “and of course my husband the Grand Duke Serge also takes an interest in my photography.”
At the words “my husband the Grand Duke Serge,” the entire scene before them changed. The
officers on the floor stood, looked up, took a beat to absorb the identity of the woman above them
with her camera, and then, to a man, leapt back. The two bodies on the floor suddenly lay in the
center of an empty circle, looking small and pitifully alone.
Ella lowered her head and looked through the lens. “It would be better if I had my cloth,” she
murmured, “but this will do,” and then there was the loud pop of a shutter closing, followed by
another. With a satisfied sigh, Ella carefully lifted the camera from the triangular stand.
“Thank you,” she said to the men below. “You may carry on now.”
She is the kind of woman, Tatiana thought, who says phrases like “Pardon me” or “thank you” in
a tone of voice that makes even words of supplication sound like an order. The men below seemed
somehow shamed by her surface politeness. They moved back around the body but silently, almost
furtively. What would it be like, Tatiana thought, to have that sort of power? To be able to not only
change people’s behavior but to change how they feel about themselves, to level the proud and
correct the arrogant, all with a few casually spoken words?
The grand duchess and her lady in waiting proceeded up the staircase, Ella carrying the camera
and the woman carrying the stand. As she reached the step where Tatiana waited, Ella paused.
“Our discussion has captured my interest, Tatiana Orlov,” she said. “I believe we shall meet
again, very soon.”
Tatiana curtsied and the two women swept past her, Ella holding the camera out in front of her
as if it were a crown, the lady in waiting clumsily banging each step with the wooden stand as they
ascended. Tatiana waited until she was sure they were gone to slip the rest of the way down the stairs
to the railing.
“Will there be an investigation?” she called to the bald man.
With Ella gone from the room, his attitude had reverted back to its previous level of charm. “An
investigation of what?” he asked roughly.