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“Do you waltz?” Trevor asked Emma.
“Why on earth would you ask that? I don’t hear a band.”
He chuckled. “I am asking on behalf of the Queen. We were just discussing Ella’s last letter in
which she spoke of rehearsals for an imperial waltz, one featuring the ladies of the court and some of
their attendants. Her Majesty had the very inspired suggestion that you and Alix might join in this
presentation.”
Emma leaned against the ship railing. The sailors had said they were within minutes of St.
Petersburg now and the yacht had been held back to a fraction of its power. Trunks and valises were
beginning to be brought up on deck, stacked all around them. It still seemed unreal, perhaps because
there were no clear signs that they were indeed approaching a city. Marshland stretched all around
her, as far as the eye could see. Young green reeds poking up from blue water, pine trees clinging to
small spits of land, the loud and hopeful birds trailing the yacht, screaming out as they dove and rose
in the still air.
Emma wrinkled her nose. “It smells.”
“So it does.”
“All this stagnant water. It seems the entire city would be full of contagion.”
“You can mention your concerns to the tsar when you meet him.” Trevor leaned over the railing
too, clasping his hands close together and bringing his shoulder to where it almost touched hers. “But
in the meantime, I believe we were talking about the waltz.”
“I waltz well enough, I suppose, at least for a schoolteacher. But I don’t understand what she’s
asking.”
“There’s a grand ball scheduled in a just a few days. To mark the summer solstice and the
return of the composer Tchaikovsky to his motherland after a triumphant tour of the continent. There
will be performances of all sorts, including some sort of exhibition waltz featuring, just as I said, the
imperial ladies and their attendants. Her Majesty believes it would be a simple matter to have you
and Alix invited to join them.”
“But why should we do that? If Ella wrote her about rehearsals, presumably they’ve been
going on for weeks, which suggests a rather elaborate presentation, does it not? And yet the princess
and I are to arrive at the last minute and join the troupe?”