Robin Bridges: The Gathering Storm

With a frightened whisper, Anya crossed herself. “Holy Mother of God!”

One of Princess Elena’s sisters had died two years earlier at Smolny. If she was indeed one of the ghosts rumored to haunt these halls, then why didn’t she appear to her sister in our dormitory? Unless the ghost was too frightened of her own sister to haunt her.

“There are no ghosts at Smolny,” I said, thinking that if there were, I would certainly know. “Anyway, Elena is dancing with the tsar’s son tonight. The tsar and the empress would never allow him to dance with a witch.”

Dariya sighed. “And how do you think Elena managed to catch the tsarevitch’s eye in the first place? You and I both know she’s using magic.”

Our silver-haired headmistress, Madame Tomilov, swept into our room just then with a basket of white corsages, one for each of us. “Here we are, girls. Time to take a flower for your dress.”

Dariya and I helped each other with ours. “Don’t give me that one, Katiya,” my cousin said as I reached for one. “It’s yellow,” she whispered. “You know it’s bad luck to give someone a yellow flower.”

“It’s just a little brown around the edges,” I said.

“Just pick another one, please, Katiya?” she begged.

I sighed heavily and gave her my flower, pinning the faded rose on my own dress.

Dancing at St. Petersburg balls was extremely formal. We spent hours in class every day practicing the steps for the quadrille and the mazurka. We spent even more time dancing than we did studying French, the official language of the Russian court and the language spoken by all polite society. I hated the difficult polonaise, but it was one of the favorites of our empress and was usually the first dance at every ball.

Only the eldest students of Smolny, the White Form, were allowed to attend the annual Smolny Ball, given by the empress in our honor. The younger girls, the Brown and Blue Forms, would have to wait several years for their turn. The Browns moped sadly as we finished getting ready. “I wonder what the empress will wear,” one of the Browns said wistfully. She begged us to wake her when we returned so we could tell her every last detail.

Madame Tomilov frowned at everyone, as if she could scare us into being on our best behavior. “Be mindful of your futures, ladies. Everyone will be watching you tonight. Do nothing to stain your reputation or that of Smolny Institute.”

I amused myself by thinking up ways I could do just that. Not that I would, of course. But the thought was so tempting!

The sleighs arrived to carry us to the Winter Palace for the ball. Dariya and I, wrapped in our woolen cloaks, our hands tucked into warm fur muffs, climbed into the first one in line. Three more girls piled in, and we were almost full. Then Elena rushed over, giggling as she joined us in the now-crowded sleigh. “This night is going to be unforgettable,” she promised, shoving Aurora Demidova into Erzsebet of Bavaria. Ignoring the girls’ complaints, Elena smiled. “Can’t you feel the magic in the air?”

My cousin rolled her eyes at the Montenegrin princess. She muttered under her breath, “No good can come of this, Katiya. I have a horrible feeling about tonight.”

I shivered, feeling nothing but the bitter cold. I was certain that, witch or no witch, Elena would not do anything foolish. But as I looked back across the line of sleighs, full of excited young girls, I had a terrible vision. A brilliant bluish-white light illuminated each girl’s face.

This vision was, unfortunately, very familiar.

Death would be dancing with us at the ball that night.

I crossed myself and prayed it would touch no one I loved.

Princess Elena caused a stir when she opened the ball with the tsarevitch Nicholas Alexandrovich, the heir to the throne of Russia. She looked like an angel gliding across the marble floor in her white dress. We all looked like angels, all in the same virginal white with our hair coiffed perfectly in braided chignons.

“It’s heaven on earth!” Dariya said with a sigh.

Boys from the Corps des Pages, the elite military academy, lined up in chairs directly across the cavernous ballroom from the girls of Smolny Institute. They looked very smart and very handsome in their black military uniforms. Dariya had spent the entire sleigh ride to the palace considering which of these cadets were foreign princes and which ones were the most suitable to marry. As Elena and the tsarevitch finished the opening polonaise in the enormous Nicholas Hall, the young men rushed toward us to claim our hands for the next dance. The meat market had opened for business.

Rumors flew from one end of the room to the other, from the youngest Smolny maid to the oldest lady-in-waiting, about a possible engagement between Princess Elena and the tsarevitch. Her father was the King of Montenegro, and a close ally of the tsar, but there were many more princesses of larger and more important countries for Russia to make alliances with. As coldhearted as it may sound, this match seemed improbable to me. But Elena already looked like she was in love.

I kept my eye on Elena throughout the night, even as I danced one tedious set after another. A grim-looking, pale young cadet was my first partner. He barely spoke two words to me when I tried to be polite and ask about his lessons at Vorontsov Palace. But our dance was over soon, and with a quick, halfhearted bow, he slipped back into the crowd.

Another cadet replaced him, and then another. Their faces blurred together in the wild crush. It was not much different from dancing with my fellow students during our lessons. The ballroom was a flurry of white dresses and black uniforms, all of us twirling under the bright lights of the glittering chandeliers. It grew hotter and stuffier with each dance, and the petticoats under my gown became sticky and damp.

The entire ballroom had begun to smell of sweat. The heavy colognes and perfumes everyone wore did nothing to disguise it. I wished I had a fan to keep the stench away from my nose. I settled for a glass of lemonade.

The dance master called for the mazurka and Dariya squealed. “This is my favorite! Oh, Katiya, I don’t know why I was worried about tonight. I never dreamed the ball would be so wonderful!” She blushed when a handsome blond cadet took her hand and led her onto the dance floor. I smiled, happy for my cousin.

The tsarevitch did not dance the mazurka but stood beside his mother, the empress. Elena danced with the pale and grim cadet I’d partnered with earlier.

“Duchess, would you do me the honor?” I spun around to see the tsarevitch’s younger brother the grand duke George Alexandrovich standing before me.

I placed my gloved hand in his. “The honor is mine, Your Imperial Highness.”

He led me onto the dance floor and bowed as the music started. Like all the other girls, I curtsied deeply in response to my partner. Then he put one hand lightly on my waist and we were off.

Dancing with the grand duke was nothing like dancing with fellow students in Madame Metcherskey’s class. Very conscious of his hands touching me, I felt a strange light-headedness as we promenaded around the ballroom.

I must confess: like Dariya, I’d always been fond of the mazurka. The boys stamped their feet and the girls kicked their heels and it was so much livelier than the other dances. And the music the orchestra played was by Glinka, one of my favorite composers.

The grand duke did not speak as we completed our circuit of the ballroom. He did not speak when we crossed hands and turned clockwise.

There was no need for us to make polite conversation. As he got to one knee with one hand on his hip, the other barely holding my fingertips as I pivoted around him, the grand duke looked up at me, his eyes sparkling under the brilliant lights. The faintest hint of a smile was beginning to form on his lips. He was having fun after all.