Matters gradually improved between them but there were still occasions when poor ‘El-Nick’ found the going hard as when she was shown Katya’s Christmas present from her husband, described in some detail in a letter to Ivan:
‘I must tell you about Lek’s Christmas gift: it is a bonnet or hat-pin. In front there is a whip and a horseshoe; the handle of the whip is decorated with green enamel and the rest is in diamonds. There are sixty-two diamonds in all. It is really a very beautiful thing and surely must have cost a lot of money.’
Unable to resist showing off this marvel to Elena Nicholaievna, she records her as
‘turning red with jealousy that it belongs to me!’
VI
Birth of a Son
Katya and her dogs at Paruskavan Palace.
In April 1907, King Chulalongkorn decided to take a seven-month trip to Europe in order to seek the advice of doctors about his worsening kidney complaint. In his absence, Crown Prince Vajiravundh was appointed as Regent.
Following the departure of the King, Chakrabongse found time each day as usual to call on Queen Saowabha, but for many months, his ceremonial dismissal continued as before. After a time, however, it came to his ears that discreet enquiries were being made about Katya among members of his household. Feeling sure they had emanated from his mother, he suspected that feminine curiosity might at last have triumphed over her anger. In addition, he hoped that she might use the opportunity afforded by the King’s absence to make a first approach to meeting his wife.
He felt certain that Katya, who had made admirable use of the year spent in isolation at Paruskavan, would now make an excellent impression, since she not only spoke fluent Siamese, but had learned the ritual salutations and postures of the intricate court etiquette. She had not however followed the fashion of most Siamese women and cropped her beautiful auburn hair. (This unbecoming treatment of ‘a woman’s crowning glory’ originated from an incident during one of the Burmese Wars. The Burmese had laid siege to a town, which was temporarily undefended as its garrison had made a sortie to engage the enemy elsewhere. The wily Governor’s wife, however, called on every woman in the town to crop their hair short and ‘man’ the ramparts. Astounded at the apparent strength of the defence, the enemy abandoned the siege and retreated in disarray.)
Nevertheless, one evening as Chakrabongse waited patiently in the Queen’s ante-chamber, he was startled and then overjoyed when Khun Puey, Saowabha’s chief personal attendant, bowed low and said the Queen would see him. Then in the course of the first interview they had for many months, she asked him to bring her a photograph of Katya, which request he duly complied with the very next day. Gazing at it thoughtfully in silence the Queen finally pronounced: ‘What a pretty smile she has!’
Following the Queen’s lead, Crown Prince Vajiravudh decided to call on Katya and declared his approval and support of his brother’s marriage, and Prince Rabi, Minister of Justice and one of Chakrabongse’s numerous half-brothers, brought Katya a present of a camera, ‘fearing she must be dull remaining so much at home’.
A few days later an even bigger step in the slow process of reconciliation took place when the Queen suggested that Katya should abandon western clothes and adopt the baggy silk trousers, jungraben and lace blouse worn by Siamese ladies of the time. When Chakrabongse conveyed this remark to his wife, she cleverly suggested that the Queen should provide her with the material for such clothes and within a few days a pile of beautiful silks arrived at Paruskavan palace. A few weeks later, duly attired, the first meeting between Queen and Russian daughter-in-law finally took place – in the garden of Paruskavan. The Queen and Katya strolled around admiring the transformation and the latter cut a beautiful white rose to present to her mother in-law.
Not long after her satisfaction with Katya was to increase still further when she heard that by spring of the following year she would become a grandmother. Christmas was celebrated in some style in the Chakrabongse household and this year the Queen signified her approval by allowing seven of her nephews and nieces to attend the Russian celebrations, together with four children of Prince Chiraprawat, the Commander-in-Chief, Eltekov the Russian ambassador, and the Surayuts. Soon the baby would arrive and in the meantime Katya busied herself reupholstering furniture as she reported to her brother:
‘One day, while I was busy with the furniture, my maid was sent to the Queen to give her roses (I have a lot of roses now). Can you imagine how surprised the Queen was when her questions as to what I was doing were answered by “She is making furniture”. She said I was brilliant … I feel very amused by the thought of how this would be received in Russia if they knew that I, with a house full of servants, had to do such things myself.’
King Chulalongkorn returned from Europe on 17th November 1907. Perhaps Chakrabongse thought his father might now come round to meeting his wife but, throughout this time, although Chulalongkorn was duly informed of the altogether favourable impression made by Katya on the Queen and other members of his family and, though he must have been struck by the less rigid ambience of the English royal court, there was no change in his attitude towards his daughter-in-law. Later it is true, he would sometimes ask after her, he would express pleasure in hearing she admired the lay-out of Bangkok, for which he was responsible, and remark that he was interested that she shared his hobby of breeding Leghorn chickens. Otherwise to the end of his days, he remained firm in his resolve neither to meet her nor acknowledge her publicly.
It is probably true that if Chakrabongse had begged to be forgiven for his marriage, his father’s attitude might have been different, but he was a proud young man and never brought himself to do so. In the course of one particular discussion the King reminded him that when marrying he should have remembered that he was second in the line of succession, and also enquired what titles he would expect a possible son of his to have. Chakrabongse answered roughly, ‘Oh anything. What does it matter? Plain mister will do!’
This petulant remark ceased to be of mere academic interest on Saturday 28th March 1908, for at 11.58pm on that day, Katya gave birth to a son. The exact hour of this event is known as Prince Chakrabongse hoped fervently that his child would come into the world on a Saturday, as both he and the Crown Prince had done. Watch in hand, he was delighted when the infant obliged him — if only by two minutes!
Letter from Prince Chakrabongse to Queen Saowabha about his new born son, noting his appearance and the exact time of his birth.
Prince Chula aged four months.
Two weeks later Katya had recovered sufficiently and wrote of the event to Ivan:
‘The little boy is very pretty but he is already naughty and cries until he gets whatever he wants. He doesn’t want to leave me and for the sake of everyone’s comfort, we have to leave him to sleep with me. The labour was unbelievably difficult and lasted for a long time. First of all because the baby was wrapped around by the cord as if in a knot and this caused him to be in an abnormal position. After the two doctors had done much work they had to give me some chloroform and the baby was pulled out with forceps … he resembles Lek although perhaps his eyes are a little bigger. His hair is black and the colour of his skin is rather white… On the fifth day a Brahmin ceremony was held but it was private and not official. When he is a month old there will be another ceremony and a name must be given to him for which we will ask the Queen.’