Lorimers at War

by Anne Melville

  That she should attempt to flatter a man whose criminal inefficiency was responsible for so much suffering made Kate feel sick with disgust. But as long as she had the power to relieve that suffering by any action of her own, it would be equally criminal to let pride hold her back. Like any simpering ninny she forced herself to smile at his jokes and blush at his compliments. Whether she could have brought herself to ask him a favour she did not need to discover, for Prince Aminov was doing it for her.

  ‘Bandages? Medicines? Of course she must have them. Who is the idiot who has been holding them up? Well, it will be Lev Ilyich Kharsov. He must be shown where his duty lies. Tomorrow, my dear young lady, you must take tea in my office. At four o’clock. Or five. I shall expect you. Everything will be arranged. And in the evening you must join me in my box at the ballet. The whole of St Petersburg is in a state of civil war, disputing who is the greatest dancer. Is it Pavlova, or Kschessinska? Or even Karsavina? You must form your own opinion, so that you can argue with the same heat as the rest. Till tomorrow, then.’

  Kate’s face was pale with anger as someone else claimed his attention. Prince Aminov misunderstood her expression.

  ‘Don’t worry. He won’t try to seduce you. There will be secretaries in and out of his office all the time. He’ll want them to see that he’s still irresistible to beautiful young women, but that’s all. You must go, in order that Kharsov, whoever he may be, understands that you are a friend of his master. By tomorrow evening, all your difficulties will have disappeared. And now that our business is over, we may give ourselves up to pleasure. Will you dance?’

  Still too disturbed to object, Kate allowed him to lead her through a series of imposing rooms, each crowded with guests. In the first two chambers the white walls and ceilings had been covered with a filigree of gold, so delicate that it might have been spun by a spider. But the walls of the ballroom, and the surfaces of the pillars which supported its high roof, were covered with sheets of mirror, each set at a very slight angle so that the light of the chandeliers was dazzlingly reflected and magnified. Another orchestra was playing here. As Prince Aminov turned to face Kate with a formal bow, she slipped her finger through the loop on her skirt to lift the hem from the floor, and was ready to dance.

  Her French conversation had not disgraced him, and neither did her waltzing. The disquiet she felt stiffened her back and increased the dignity of her bearing, but did not distract her feet from their rhythmic movement. As though she were watching from outside, she was conscious of herself moving around the ballroom with as much grace as any other of this aristocratic company. From time to time she glimpsed her own reflection in the mirrored wall, but hardly recognized it. She, just as much as Prince Aminov, had become a clothes horse and not a person. What she saw had no connection with the way she felt.

  The prince, delighting in the dance, was holding her more tightly than he ought. Only an hour or two ago his closeness would have given her pleasure, but now she resisted it, refusing to remember the flash of desire she had felt as her host rose to greet her. Her mind had established control over her body again, and all the pride she had felt in Prince Aminov’s admiration, all the excitement of her own reaction, had been devoured by an anger which left her at once hot and cold. When the dance came to an end she stood for a moment without moving before raising her head to look steadily at her partner.

  ‘I’m very sorry, Excellency,’ she said. ‘I can’t stay here. I must ask you to be good enough –’

  He interrupted her anxiously. ‘Are you not well?’

  ‘I will say that I’m not well, because I don’t wish to disgrace you by letting anyone guess any other reason. But really I am perfectly well. I ought not to have come here tonight, that’s all.’

  ‘You must explain more than that.’ The orchestra began to play again and he led her out of the ballroom, opening a door at random so that they could talk in private. Surrounded by their host’s collection of musical clocks, Prince Aminov waited to hear what she had to say.

  ‘I can’t give you a good explanation. It’s just that I feel this occasion isn’t a suitable one for the times. When there’s so much poverty in the city and so much suffering and death all over Europe.’

  ‘If princesses never gave balls, the poverty in the city would be far greater,’ Prince Aminov pointed out. ‘Because Princess Radziwill entertains her friends today, there will be money tomorrow in the pockets of servants, grooms, florists, jewellers, dressmakers, caterers, musicians.’

  Kate was tempted to voice her suspicion that princesses took a good deal longer than a single day to pay their bills, but she had no wish to quarrel. Instead, she tried as sincerely as possible to make him understand a little of what she had felt earlier that day.

  ‘I was walking in the city this morning, Excellency,’ she said. ‘You must know far more than I do about what is happening here. But it seems to me that there is an inexorable division – a chasm – opening between the sort of people who are here in this palace tonight, and all the others.’

  ‘The division has always been there,’ he pointed out.

  ‘Then I suppose it must always have been accepted. Until now. I don’t believe it’s going to be accepted any longer. And I have to make it clear which side I’m on.’

  ‘I would like you to be on my side,’ he said.

  ‘You don’t need me. And there are so many others who do. I can’t in honesty say that I’m on your side, because that would mean supporting everything which has helped to create that hell out there on the battlefield. I thought perhaps I could forget that just for one evening, when it seemed that to come here might be of practical use, but –’

  ‘But we have talked of bandages and drugs, and you have remembered.’ His voice was still soft, but it had lost the languid drawl which sometimes gave the impression of insincerity. It seemed to Kate that he was sympathetic, but she did not dare to accept sympathy. Just because she had found him so attractive earlier in the evening she needed now to distance herself from him.

  ‘I’m ashamed,’ she said. ‘Ashamed that I came here in the first place, and ashamed of asking you to take me away. I know I’m behaving unpardonably. Enjoying your hospitality, wearing your sister-in-law’s dress, your family jewels. A complete stranger, and you’ve been so generous to me! I’m more grateful than I can say, but all the same –’ She sighed, angry with herself and with the whole situation.

  ‘But all the time you have a headache and I have insisted that you should let me take you home. Come, then.’

  They made their way back through the golden rooms, thronged with people who were now not entirely sober. Nor, Kate suspected, was the Aminov coachman, who had not been expecting a call so soon; but fortunately the horses knew their way home. Back in the Aminov palace the prince himself took the sable cape from Kate’s bare shoulders and smiled at her.

  ‘May I ask you an impertinent question? How old are you, Dr Lorimer?’

  ‘Twenty-five.’ Kate had promised herself she would never be the sort of woman who was ashamed to admit her age.

  ‘When I first saw you, you looked older; did you know that? But tonight, for three hours, you have looked twenty-five – or even younger. If I tell you that you ought to wear satins and jewels always I suppose I shall make you angry. But beauty deserves to be adorned. I hope you will stay young for a little while yet, Dr Lorimer.’

  Kate wasted no time in protesting that she was not beautiful, although she did repeat once more her apologies for her behaviour. But when she returned to her room she could not resist the temptation to stand in front of the glass for a second time that evening – for if anything in her life was certain, it was that she would never look like this again. She made an attempt to rebuke herself for vanity, but instead she found herself flushing with pleasure because Prince Aminov had called her beautiful.

  What of it, she demanded, working her self-criticism into indignation. Not to flirt with a young woman was by the standards of his class
to be uncivil. It didn’t mean anything. She didn’t want it to mean anything. Even in England Kate had held strong views about the social obligations of the aristocracy – but most British landowners, when compared with the Russian nobility, might be considered impoverished and full of social concern. Although more fortunate than others, they were members of a community, not merely of a social caste, isolated by its wealth from the rest of society, as was the case in Russia.

  In other circumstances, perhaps, she could have enjoyed a friendship with Prince Aminov, for she found his company congenial and his conversation excitingly different from anything she had enjoyed since she said goodbye to Sergei. In other circumstances, indeed, she could have fallen in love with him. Even as she formulated the thought, she knew that she was being dishonest with herself. She had already fallen in love – but if she could continue to pretend indifference on her own part and attribute insincerity to him, perhaps she could cure herself of the affliction. Circumstances were what they were. The prince was a representative of a privileged class of which Kate could not bring herself to approve. It was unfortunate, but it was final. Slowly she unfastened the tiny buttons at her waist and slipped the low-cut bodice off her shoulders, stepping out of the gown as it fell heavily to the floor.

  That night there was shooting on the Nevsky Prospekt. But the soldiers who fired on the workers during the hours of darkness streamed out of their barracks the next morning, killing the officers who tried to stop them. They joined the demonstration and by their own desertion turned it into a revolution. When the hour arrived at which Kate might have seen her papers stamped at last beside a samovar of tea, her prospective host was already a prisoner of the Duma. In the Tauride Palace, Kerensky took into his hands the power which the lmperial Cabinet had abandoned, and did his best to prevent a massacre. But in the city outside ministries were burned, police stations besieged, and the streets were crowded with students, workers and soldiers, destroying every trace of the old regime.

  Only thirty hours after Kate had stared across the frozen Neva at the beautiful golden spire of the Peter and Paul fortress, she watched again as it fell to the forces of the revolution, and saw the political prisoners and their military guards streaming together across the bridges. Her instinct had been a true one. She herself would never look like a princess again, and nor would anyone else in the country for very much longer. The face of Russia, too, had changed for ever.

  6

  The Tsar had abdicated but the liberal Provisional Government, sharing power and premises uneasily with the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, was no more willing to interest itself in Kate’s medical supplies than the old regime had been. While the struggle for authority continued, no one would spare the time to take a decision about such a trifle, although it would have taken only a moment for someone to stamp a paper of release – freeing himself with a single thump of the nuisance of Kate’s daily attendance at the supplies office.

  Prince Aminov had returned hastily to duty as soon as the troubles began, telling her before he left that she must stay as long as she needed. It was with increasing anxiety on his behalf that Kate read the various proclamations which issued from the Soviet, for their intention and effect was to destroy discipline in the army, robbing officers of any power to enforce their orders and encouraging mutiny and desertion by the abolition of the death penalty. One of these orders provided that local soviets of soldiers or sailors should in future control all arms and equipment. Kate saw how she could use this to suit her own purposes. It would need a good deal of courage, but in the interests of her patients she steeled herself to be brave.

  She went as usual the next day to the offices of the General Staff, and as usual found them swarming with petitioners like herself. Also as usual nowadays was the presence of the troops who lounged in the huge entrance hall with red ribbons tied round their arms, content to show themselves without posing any great threat to anyone. There was a junior officer ostensibly in charge of them. Kate had had plenty of time during the past few days to study his increasing nervousness and the care he took to give no direct orders which might lead to trouble.

  She began by making a fuss at the desk of the man who had so often before told her to wait. He did so again, but this time she did not move far. Instead she climbed on to the desk and made a speech.

  Even in Russian the words came fluently, fuelled by the frustrating weeks in which she had had time to rehearse them. Her appeal was made directly to the soldiers. She was speaking on behalf of their comrades at the front, she told them, men who were dying for lack of the drugs withheld by these other men who had been careful to keep themselves at the greatest possible distance from danger. The property belonged to the soldiers in the hospital. It had been refused them by ministers and generals but now it was true, was it not, that generals no longer had any right to obstruct the needs of the people. She herself knew where the goods were held. If they could not be extracted by the production of the right piece of paper, they could be taken without permission, by force. Kate promised that they would be handed over to those who needed them and were entitled to have them. She appealed for help. Looking straight at the young officer, she asked him to lend her a section of his men.

  As she had calculated, he hesitated and her point was won. Ten men were instantly ready to follow her. Anxious not to delay, lest the impetus of her vehemence should be lost, Kate nevertheless needed to press further demands on the officer. When she returned, an official permit for the transport of the goods must be ready, she told him, and an escort to help load and guard them. She expected the necessary papers to be prepared within the hour.

  They would be ready: she felt no doubt of that. The men were anxious to exercise their new powers over officers, and the officers would wait for more important issues than this one on which to make a stand. Striding out victoriously, Kate led the way to the warehouse.

  Three hours later she returned to the Aminov palace to collect her bags. Was it only the triumph of her achievement which made her feel that spring was on the way at last? After weeks of bitter cold, the sky was filled with pale sunshine; the snow was melting and it was possible to fill her lungs with air which seemed almost warm. She was singing aloud with happiness as she approached the palace door.

  It was open. That was unusual enough, but the scene inside was more unusual still. The floor of the entrance hall was awash with wine and half a dozen of the servants were sprawled around in a manner which made it clear that what had not been spilt had been drunk. From their quarters behind closed doors came the sound of singing and shouting. Kate found herself tip-toeing through the confusion and up the stairs, uneasy lest some obstacle might arise at the very moment when success was in sight.

  Still quietly, she opened the door of her bedroom and then was alarmed into silence. Prince Aminov, standing in the middle of the room, was pointing his revolver at her.

  He put the weapon away as soon as he saw who it was, and apologized for frightening her.

  ‘I needed to speak to you, and there was no other room in the palace where I could feel safe from discovery while I waited. Even this room will not be safe for long. You must leave Russia at once, Dr Lorimer. I have come to warn you, in case you are not aware how dangerous the situation has become. You should go immediately to the British Embassy and arrange for your government to get you away. It may be that these people have no good reason to attack foreigners but they have ceased to be ruled by reason.’

  ‘What has happened, Excellency?’ Kate asked. She could see that he was shocked and upset, and at first she assumed that it had been caused by some event on the battlefield.

  ‘Mutiny has happened,’ he said. ‘Murder has happened. My brother has been killed – on his own ship, by his own men! And the Imperial Guard itself has proved disloyal. Who could have believed it? I was ordered back from the front to command the garrison at Tsarskoe Selo, but when I arrived I was greeted by a disorderly mob who first of all demand
ed that I should join them and wear the red cockade. And then they recognized me as a member of the nobility. I was lucky to escape with my life. And when I return here, thinking that at least I can rely on the loyalty of my own people to protect me, I find – I find –’

  ‘They’re drunk, Excellency. This isn’t their normal behaviour. It’s not the expression of their true feelings.’

  He shook his head in disagreement. ‘There are different kinds of drunkenness. If all they wanted was their own pleasure, they would have drunk only vodka. They don’t like wine. They are consuming it only to show that I am no longer master in my own house. The same thing has happened in our theatre palace at Tsarskoe Selo – it has been completely sacked. Not looted. Spoiled. The chandeliers cut to the ground, the pictures slashed, the panelling defaced. Now I shall never be able to show you the theatre where Alexa sang. But what does all that matter beside my brother’s murder? You must understand that he was not like me. I am a reluctant officer, serving because it is my duty. But he – his ship was his whole life. What has happened to loyalty?’ He buried his head in his hands for a moment. ‘But for you now the important thing is that you should go. Go back to England. That was why I waited, in case you did not understand how grave the position is.’

  ‘No!’ Kate cried. ‘It’s impossible. I have my supplies at last. After waiting so long, I can’t leave now. I must take them to the hospital. It is you who should leave the country.’

  ‘There is no way of doing so. The British and French will send ships to take away their own people as soon as the ice breaks, but they will not use precious space to save Russians from each other.’