The Masters

by Christopher Nicole

  “He told Sophie, once. And she told me. You’ve been there too! Last night! Georgei took you.”

  “Well...” Now he knew he was blushing.

  “There’s no need to be ashamed of it,” Patricia pointed out. “Sophie says all men go to brothels.”

  “Do they?” He wondered if Charlie ever went to one?

  “Peter and Alexei do. But not as often as Georgei. Sophie says that Georgei spends all his time in the Blue Dragon.” She gave a little giggle. “And most of his money. Sophie thinks it’s disgusting. But then, she thinks all sex is disgusting.”

  But he goes there for boys, Duncan thought. Or maybe he’s just bored with girls. His brain was reeling: he had never heard any woman save his mother use the word “sex” before.

  “Tell me what happens there,” Patricia said. “At the Blue Dragon.”

  “Of course I shall not. Girls don’t want to know about things like that.”

  “I never heard of anything so ridiculous. What about the girls who work there? That girl who waved at you?”

  “I meant, ladies. Bolugayevskas.”

  “Ha! Ladies more than anything. Sophie says that our aunts slept with any man who took their fancy.” She bit her lip. “Oh! I’m sorry. That was a terrible thing to say.”

  Duncan watched the road. “Even if it’s true?” he asked, quietly. Now she was more embarrassed than he had been. And now he wanted to hurt her in turn. “What about you?” he asked. “Do you intend to sleep with any man who takes your fancy?”

  He glanced at her. Her cheeks were still pink, but now there was defiance in her expression. “Well, of course I do,” she said. “Am I not a Bolugayevska?”

  “How many men have you slept with already?”

  “Well...” Her flush deepened. “That is my business.”

  “You mean you haven’t slept with anyone. You’re a virgin. You have to be a virgin, until you’re married. Or no one will marry you at all.”

  She glared at him. “My husband will marry me because I am beautiful, because I am rich, and because I am a Bolugayevska. Not because I am a virgin.”

  “You’ll see,” Duncan said.

  They drove in silence for several minutes. Now the trees were all around them, and the town far out of sight behind them, although the noise still followed them. But that seemed to increase their privacy, their sense of intimacy. “All right,” Patricia said. “Would you like to lie with me? Now?”

  “Me?”

  “You know how to do it, don’t you?” she asked contemptuously. “If you didn’t before, that girl must have shown you, last night.”

  “Of course I know how to do it. But I can’t do it with you.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you and I are first cousins.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. So your mother was once my father’s mistress. But you’re not his child, and I’m not hers. Your father, well, he was my mother’s first cousin, so I suppose we’re second cousins...anyway, who cares?”

  “How did you know my mother and your father had been lovers?”

  She gave a little toss of her head. “Mama told me.” She glanced at him. “Didn’t you know?”

  “Yes, I knew.”

  “Well, then, we already have a great deal in common. Why don’t you stop the trap here.”

  He drew rein without thinking. Above them the hills and the forts were lost to sight behind the banks of fern, out of which the trees clustered thickly. “We couldn’t do it at home,” Patricia pointed out. “There’s always somebody about, and we’re both sharing bedrooms. Besides, it’s more romantic out here, don’t you think’?”

  He watched her climb down from the seat. “Aren’t you coming?” she asked.

  “You can’t be serious. You’re just teasing.”

  “Why don’t you come down here and find out?” she asked. “What have you got to lose?”

  He didn’t want to think about that. He scrambled down. “Tie the horse,” she reminded him. “We don’t want him wandering back to the house, without us. Then they’ll come looking for us.”

  Duncan applied the brake and secured the reins. Patricia had already pushed her way into the depths of a fern brake.

  “Trisha!” He stumbled behind her. “I...we…”

  “You’re scared stiff,” she remarked. “Well, at least I hope you’re stiff.”

  “Trisha!” He caught his arm. “It may not matter to you, but I cannot...” He bit his lip.

  “Fuck me?”

  He had never heard a woman use that word before. “Well...yes. It would be a crime, don’t you see?”

  She regarded him for several seconds. “All right,” she said. “So don’t fuck me. But if you don’t do something to me, I shall scream.” He turned her into his arms, and kissed her lips. Both their mouths were closed, for a few seconds, then both opened together as their tongues sought contact. “Oh,” she gasped, when he let her go. “Oh! I’ve never been kissed like that before. What are you going to do to me?”

  Duncan gazed at her, and thought of all the things he had wanted to do to Li-su, and hadn’t. “Please!” Patricia said.

  Gently he pushed her blouse from her waist band of her skirt, lifted it, and was left with it in his hands. She took it from him, and threw it on the ground. There was a profusion of straps, holding up the undergarments which concealed her breasts, but Patricia freed these, so that they gathered about her waist. Duncan had never seen anything so beautiful in his life. “Aren’t you going to touch them?” Patricia asked.

  He stroked them, cupped them, lowered his head to kiss them and suck the nipples. “Oh,” she said. “Oh! Wait. Let me take everything off.”

  “Everything?”

  “I want to be naked. I’ve never been naked, with a man. Or in the open air.” He released her and she unfastened various buttons and bows, and slid her petticoats to her ankles. She stepped out of them, wearing only her drawers. These were secured with a buttoned waistband, and this too she released, allowing the garment to slide past her hips.

  It was Duncan’s turn to gasp. He had never seen such perfection, the strong white thighs providing the perfect setting for the curling pale brown vee, somehow set off by the silk stockings, still held up by her garters, and her laced white boots. “Do you like me?” she asked.

  He knelt before her. “You are a goddess.”

  “Do you think I should wear a corset? Sophie says I should, but they’re such hot things. She wears one all the time.”

  “You should never wear anything.” He threw both arms round her and buried his face in her crotch.

  “Oh!” she said again. “I want to see you, too.” He stood up, stripped, while she gazed at him with enormous eyes. This time there was no problem with his erection. “Oh,” Patricia said. “That is simply beautiful. I want to touch it. May I touch it?” He didn’t say no, and she took it in her hands. “Oh,” she said. “Is that what you are going to put inside me?”

  “No,” he said. “I can’t. I mustn’t. Oh, Trisha...” His knees gave way as she drew him down on top of her.

  *

  “Am I not the wickedest woman you have ever known?” Anna murmured.

  “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever known, Your Excellency.” Rurik continued to kiss her breasts.

  “Well, that too, I hope,” she agreed, and sat up. His head fell on her lap, and they were both content that it should stay there, so that he might nuzzle her pubes.

  She wasn’t sure whether or not she should be ashamed. But she was no longer Anna Cromb. She was again Anna Bolugayevska.

  “Will you boast of this conquest?” she asked.

  He sat up in turn, to take her in his arms. She might be fifty-six years old, but he had never known a woman like her. “I will not boast of this conquest, Your Excellency.”

  “Because you would lose your position?”

  “Because, if I did, I would never hold you in my arms again.”

  She smiled, and kisse
d him.

  *

  Patricia left Duncan to unhitch the horse, and ran up the stairs to her room; they had hardly spoken on the drive home, hardly looked at each other. Now it was essential to reach the room she was sharing with her sister before any of the servants, and especially Grishka, their personal maid, saw her.

  What had she done? It had been a moment of utter madness, created by the excitement of the coming clash of the giant ships, and even more by the sight of that so-pretty Chinese girl, who had recognised Duncan, and thus had known him, in the most Biblical of senses. She had to share such an experience. Now...her virginity was gone, and she was glad it was gone. She had been telling the truth when she had said she did not suppose it would matter to her marriage. If she chose to marry.

  More important, it was what Aunt Anna would have done, had she seen a man she fancied. She had conquered Duncan, utterly, as Anna had conquered so many men in her life. He was there to be enjoyed, a conquest, again and again and again. Time enough to consider the future when he had returned to America.

  *

  The family gathered on the roof to watch the Chinese fleet steam out of Port Arthur, north for the mouth of the Yalu; the transports were apparently waiting for them further up the coast.

  That same day a telegram arrived from St Petersburg. Jennie showed it to Anna. MOST SINCERE CONDOLENCES UPON DEATH OF PRINCE BOLUGAYEVSKI. PERMISSION GRANTED TO RETURN BOLUGAYEN WITH FAMILY, PLEASE ACCEPT BEST WISHES. NICHOLAS. TSAREVICH.

  “What does it mean?” she asked.

  “Why, that you are free to leave Port Arthur,” Anna said.

  “I meant, why has it come from the Tsarevich and not the Tsar?”

  “I have no idea, and I also don’t think it matters a damn. I think the sooner we get out of here the better.”

  “You’re going to come with me?”

  “I said I would. If I may.”

  Jennie squeezed her hands. “Then we will leave as soon as there is a ship. I’ll tell Georgei to arrange it. What of Duncan?”

  “Oh, he will come too. We can return to America via Europe.” In due course, she thought. “It will be like a world tour for him.”

  *

  “Isn’t it exciting?” Patricia asked. “Oh, I am so longing to show you Bolugayen.”

  Duncan didn’t know whether he was standing on his head or his heels. So much for his resolutions. They had managed to get away together fairly regularly over the past few weeks, and each time they had loved with the most utter abandon. And he knew he had fallen in love, hopelessly and eternally. Her body was the most wonderful thing he had ever possessed. He wanted her at his side, forever. If only he could determine how she felt. She had never wanted to talk about what they were doing, or allow him to do so. It had not seemed to trouble her in the least. Perhaps she had meant what she had said, that any man in Russia would be happy to marry a Bolugayevska, a virgin or not.

  But what should he do now? He had a desperate urge to tell Mama. To tell Mama that he wanted nothing better in life than to marry Patricia. But he lacked the courage. Mama might just smile indulgently. But she might not. And he could not contemplate the thought of Mama’s anger.

  In any event, how could a man think straight when Patricia was blinking up at him with those enormous blue eyes, and whispering, “On Bolugayen we’ll be able to sleep in a bed. My bed. Every night!”

  *

  “There is a passenger liner calling next week,” Georgei announced to the women. “I have booked us passages. There were only three cabins available, but they are all four-berth. So...”

  “If we four were to share a cabin...” Jennie said. “You wouldn’t object to sharing a cabin with the girls and I, Anna? It is only as far as Shanghai, then we will get a better ship.”

  “Of course I do not mind,” Anna said.

  “Then that will work out splendidly. Olga and Catherine, Elizabeth and Grishka and Collins can have the second cabin. It will be a squeeze, but Olga and Catherine can share a bunk. Georgei, you and Duncan will share the third, with...”

  “Rurik,” Anna suggested.

  “Do you think so? He is only a groom. Nikolai my butler will have to come, and then there is Father Sergei...”

  “Rurik,” Anna said firmly.

  Jennie looked at her from beneath arched eyebrows.

  “Rurik is the son of old Igor Bondarevski,” Anna reminded her. “I would like him to come out with us,” she said.

  Jennie gazed at her for several seconds, then inclined her head. “Then he shall do so. If the boys do not mind.”

  *

  Next morning Anna sat on the roof verandah gazing out to sea. She thought Port Arthur was a delightful spot for a visit, but now her thoughts were entirely centred upon Bolugayen.

  “Ahem,” Rurik said, from the top of the steps.

  Anna only half turned her head. “Why, Rurik,” she said. “Good morning.”

  “I wished to thank you, Your Excellency,” Rurik said.

  “Have you not done that?”

  “I meant, for securing me a berth on the ship.”

  “It was the least I could do, Rurik. But you will behave yourself? We will not be able to...see each other until we regain Bolugayen.”

  “Just to be near you is exciting for me, Your Excellency.”

  “You are a dear, sweet boy,” Anna said. “Now…” she frowned. “Isn’t that smoke?”

  Rurik stared over the trees to the north. “Yes, it is, Your Excellency.”

  Anna stood up. There was a great deal of smoke, but in a single plume, indicating that it came from a single funnel, and therefore that the ship beneath the funnel was steaming as fast as she could. “Fetch up the telescope,” she said.

  Rurik hurried off and returned, not only with the telescope, but with the rest of the family.

  “Let’s have a look!” Georgei levelled the glass. “A Chinese cruiser. She’s taken a pasting.” They all took turns with the telescope. There was no doubt that the cruiser had been hit, several times, and they could see the blackened evidence of a fire on board. “I must get down there,” Georgei said. “Coming, Duncan?”

  “You bet.”

  “I’ll come too,” Patricia said.

  “No!” Jennie snapped. “We don’t know what will happen down there.”

  “But Mama...”

  “You’ll stay here. And you two, be careful.”

  “We’ll take horses,” Georgei decided. “They are more manoeuvrable than the trap. You’ll come too, Rurik.”

  “Yes, Your Excellency.”

  The three men galloped down the road to the town, where the warship was just bringing up, alongside. Instantly gang planks were run out, and sailors began escorting or carrying wounded ashore. “There is one battered ship,” Duncan commented.

  “Find out what happened,” Georgei told Rurik.

  The groom saluted, and pushed his way into the crowd, while the two young men watched the ship’s officers gesticulating as they related events to the Captain of the Port and his subordinates. Rurik was back in a few minutes. “There has been a great battle, Your Excellencies, off the mouth of the Yalu River. The Chinese have been utterly defeated. Several ships have been sunk. It is a disaster.”

  The remnants of the Chinese fleet drifted in over the next twenty-four hours. In fact, only two ships had been sunk, but the Chinese had been defeated, at least morally. The two battleships were afloat, but both had been damaged, and worse, they had both run out of ammunition: had the Japanese pressed home their advantage they could both have gone down or been captured. And no Japanese ship had been sunk, although there were claims that several had been badly damaged. The effects of the disaster on Port Arthur were enormous, the confidence with which the Chinese had entered the war being utterly shattered, and to make matters worse, the Chinese fleet steamed away to the more secure harbour of Wei-hei-wei on the Shantung Peninsula. They were afraid of being blockaded, and indeed only the day after they had gone Japanese ships appeared
outside the port. When a Chinese merchantman attempted to leave, she was fired upon, and had to put back. “We’re sailing on an English ship,” Jennie told her children. “The Japanese aren’t going to stop her. There is nothing to worry about.”

  But when three days later the English ship had not appeared, while more and more Japanese warships had, she sent Georgei down to the port to find out what was happening. He returned in some agitation. “Tang Su-tung says he no longer expects our ship. It seems that all foreign vessels have been warned to keep away from Port Arthur, as it is a war zone.”

  “But that is outrageous,” Jennie declared. “Are we to be kept here, virtual prisoners in a war with which we have nothing to do?”

  Georgei gave a savage grin. “Tang suggests we sit it out. Did you know that Ping-Yang fell two days before the Battle of the Yalu? The Japanese have conquered all of Korea. Tang is convinced that the Peking Government will have to sue for peace, and quickly.”

  “But if before then they attack Port Arthur...”

  “Oh, the Governor means to defend it. He is not afraid of this. Port Arthur is impregnable.”

  Jennie consulted with Anna. “I think we should leave,” Anna said.

  “Leave? But how? We cannot fly!”

  “Surely we can ride.”

  “Ride? Ride where?”

  Anna pointed. “North. Over the Neck and into Jehol. From there we can get into Manchuria and then down to Peking.”

  “You want us to ride through Manchuria?”

  “Why not? I’m sure we can recruit a sufficiently large party not to be afraid of bandits. And surely the governor will give us passports which will make us acceptable to any Chinese troops we may encounter.”

  Jennie shuddered. “It’s an impossible idea. I mean, it’s virtually the end of September. It’ll be snowing in those mountains in a few weeks.”

  “Jennie,” Anna said. “You have lived most of your life on Bolugayen in the middle of Russia. And for six months in every year you have been shut in by snow. Are you afraid of a little in Manchuria?”

  “We will have to ask the children,” Jennie decided.

  *

  “To ride, through Manchuria, to Peking!” Patricia exclaimed. “How romantic! Don’t you think it is romantic, Duncan?”