‘Oh, thank God!’ Shoora cried. ‘Kira, why didn’t you tell us?’
But there was no time for recriminations. ‘I must go at once,’ Nikolai said. ‘Vsevka, can you give me a horse?’
‘Of course. Do you want me to come with you?’
‘I’m going with you,’ Anne said firmly.
He stared, seeing at once her determination, trying to gauge her reasons. ‘Nonsense. You can’t, in your condition.’
‘Don’t be silly. My condition is nothing yet. I’m coming with you, so don’t waste time arguing.’
‘I have to ride fast.’
‘If I can’t keep up, I give you leave to abandon me,’ Anne said drily. ‘If Lolya’s there, you’ll need me to chaperone her, don’t you see? What will be the point of rescuing her, if the scandal ruins her? My coming with you will make it all look right.’
And if she’s not there, she thought, I shall be more likely to be able to get information out of Varvara Surina than you, in your rage. She didn’t voice it, but she thought the second possibility was the more likely. Lolya was far more determined than Nikolai had any idea of.
Nikolai, Anne and Adonis reached Kaluga at dusk on the next day and rode straight to the Surin house. The butler was unwilling at first to let them in, evidently doubting the claim to gentility made by a couple who travelled on horseback rather than by coach, and accompanied only by a villainous-looking foreigner. However, when he learned that Nikolai was Lolya’s father, he looked relieved, concerned and guilty in quick succession, and stepped back to admit them, saying that he would see if his master were at leisure.
He had no need to bother; as the party stepped into the hall, Vanya Surin came out of his study to see what the noise was about.
‘Count Kirov sir,’ the butler announced, with an air of passing over the problem lock, stock and barrel to his master.
‘Oh lord!’ Surin said, with an expression of dismay that would have been comical if the matter were not so serious. ‘You’d better come upstairs, sir, and talk to Varvara. I know she and Lolya have been plotting something, but what it is I’ve no idea. She’s the maddest creature!’
‘Is she here? Is Lolya here?’
He looked surprised. ‘No, sir. Were you expecting her to be?’ Nikolai’s heart sank, and for a moment he couldn’t speak. Anne took over. ‘Has she been here?’
‘Oh dear, I don’t know.’ He looked from one to another. ‘I’ve been away for several days on business. I only came home last night. You’d better come up and ask Varsha.’ The implications began to dawn on him, and his handsome young face puckered with concern. ‘You don’t mean – you don’t know where she is? Oh lord! Come up, sir, at once. Will you have some wine? Boris, bring wine, and lay extra covers for dinner. No, no, I insist. You can’t go anywhere tonight, whatever happens. It’s almost dark.’ Varvara was sitting on a sofa in the drawing-room, a picture of feminine contentment, with a lap-dog curled up beside her, a piece of embroidery in her lap, and a box of candied plums on the little table before her. She had a pretty, foolish face, and a great deal of lace about her gown, and when Anne and Nikolai stepped into the room, she dropped her work and put her hands over her mouth with a little, startled gasp.
Her husband looked as stern as it was possible with a physiognomy like his. ‘Varsha, what’s been going on while I’ve been away? And where’s Lolya Kirova? You see her father’s come to find her. What have you been up to, you mad creature?’
‘Oh dear, oh Vanya, don’t be cross with me! It wasn’t my fault, really! I told her it wasn’t proper, but I couldn’t stop her. When Lolya wants to do something, she does it. She said they were going to be married as soon as she got there, and so it would be all right. So, you know, what could I do?’
Anne gripped Nikolai’s forearm warningly. Losing his temper with this goose-witted woman would only delay matters.
‘Where has Lolya gone, Madame Surina? Did she tell you?’
‘Why, to join Colonel Duvierge, of course. They’ve been betrothed all summer, and now he’s going back to France, so she has to go with him. He’s got a house in Paris, near the Opera and a palace in the Bois de Boulogne. I’d love to go to Paris! Lolya says we can visit her there when the war’s over, Vanya – won’t that be nice?’
The war to Varvara Surina was evidently of little more import than a cold in the head.
‘There was another letter, I suppose, from the Colonel?’ Anne asked casually, holding the men silent with a commanding glance.
Varvara grew more confident in the uncontentious atmosphere. ‘Oh, yes, it came on the day after she got here. He was supposed to be meeting her here, you know, and when he didn’t come she was very upset. But it seems they couldn’t come after all, and had to go another way, so he sent her a letter to say he would meet her somewhere – I can’t remember where,’ she added vaguely.
‘Try to remember,’ Anne said gently. ‘It’s important.’
‘Well, I didn’t see the letter, you know,’ she said, looking round-eyed from Anne to Nikolai, who was holding silent only by the greatest effort. ‘Lolya didn’t show it to me. She just said she would have to go and meet him – somewhere – and I said it wasn’t right, because you know if he had come here, I could have chaperoned her until they were married, but as it was, she only had Sophie with her, which doesn’t really count. But then she said they would be married as soon as she got there, by the army chaplain, and she wouldn’t listen to what I said…’
‘Where?’ Nikolai demanded, losing control at last. ‘Where did she go? God damn it, how could you let her just…! You silly, hen-witted creature! Think, damn you! Where?’
‘I say, sir, there’s no need to shout at my wife–’
‘There’s every need! Don’t you realise my daughter has ridden off completely unprotected to try to reach the remains of the fleeing French army? They fought a battle – for all we know they could be fighting again! She’s going to ride through a battlefield full of deserters and wounded men and starving refugees, in order to run away with a Frenchman, and your wife helped her do it!’
‘Oh no!’ Varvara said brightly. ‘She wasn’t going to where the fighting was. She was going to take the short-cut across country and meet him at Medyn.’
Nikolai looked at Anne. ‘There’s a road from there directly to Ghzatsk. If the Grande Armée is retreating down the Smolensk High Road after all, they could meet up with it there.’
Vanya Surin was watching them thoughtfully. ‘You’ll be going after them, I suppose?’
‘At first light,’ Kirov said. ‘I wish to God we could leave now, but…’
‘I’ll provide you with anything you need,’ he said. He bit his lip. ‘I’m sorry, sir, that my wife should have helped Lolya to do something so – so foolish. But you must understand–’
‘Lolya’s very determined,’ Anne said. ‘It would be hard for anyone to stop her once she’d made up her mind.’
Surin looked grateful. ‘Yes,’ he said eagerly, ‘and Varsha’s never really had any influence over her.’
‘You’ll see that Madame Tchaikovsky gets safely back to Tula,’ Nikolai began.
But before Surin could answer, Anne said firmly, ‘No. I’m coming with you.’
Surin looked from one to the other, and then said to his wife, ‘Varsha, come with me into the morning room for a moment. I want to talk to you. Excuse us, won’t you, please?’
Alone with Anne, Kirov said, ‘Anna, this is different. It may be some time before I catch up with her. The snow might start at any moment, and I shall be travelling through rough country. The going will be hard, and it may be dangerous; and there will certainly be some dreadful sights on the way. If I can’t catch them before Ghzatsk, I shall be travelling over the road the French took on their way to Moscow. You can imagine what that will be like.’