“Come, let us check on your Dariya Yevgenievna,” the doctor said. He gave the head nurse instructions to call for his carriage. “I must say it is perplexing,” he told me as we waited by the front door. “None of my patients at the hospital have presented with quite the same symptoms that you describe.”
The sun was just beginning to come up as we raced through St. Petersburg. I knew Madame Tomilov would frown upon me for leaving the school grounds with no chaperone. I hoped, though, that if my parents were informed, Papa would not be too angry. Sick people needed proper medical care. And there was no way they would get it without my interference.
Madame Metcherskey and Madame Orbellani both met us at the front gate. Madame Metcherskey looked contemptuous, her upper lip curling in disapproval as I hastened out of the carriage. Madame Orbellani, however, seemed relieved to see me. “Katerina Alexandrovna, thank goodness, we have been so worried about you,” she said, embracing me before Madame Metcherskey could say anything.
Madame Metcherskey’s eyes widened as she saw Dr. Kruglevski exit the carriage. “Young lady, what is the meaning of this?” she asked.
I stepped forward and introduced the doctor to my instructor. “He is Papa’s favorite doctor,” I said. “I’m sure he can discover what is wrong with Dariya Yevgenievna and the others.”
“Please forgive this foolish girl, Doctor, for disturbing you,” Madame Metcherskey said, glaring at me. I knew I was going to be punished for this stunt. Severely. But I did not mind, as long as Dariya got better. I had faith that Dr. Kruglevski would know exactly what to do.
“There is nothing to forgive, madame,” Dr. Kruglevski said. “If there are ill students within this institute, I must be allowed to examine them. Or I shall consult the tsar to ask permission, and tell him I was denied entrance. Will you be so kind as to take me to them right away?”
Madame Metcherskey began to retort something but closed her mouth into a thin line and turned around. “Follow me, then, if you please. Madame Orbellani, take Katerina to the headmistress’s office, if you will.”
Madame Orbellani laid a hand on my arm as the doctor followed Madame Metcherskey. “Oh, Katerina, why would you run off and do such a crazy thing? Running down the streets of the city before sunrise? What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking of my sick cousin, and a doctor who I know can help her.”
Madame Orbellani sighed as she led me to the mauve sitting room to wait for my scolding. I glanced up at the large portraits hanging in this room. Many princesses had been educated here, and the halls were covered with their likenesses. In this room was a picture of a very young Madame Metcherskey, in her court gown. She had been a beauty when she was younger, and had been a lady-in-waiting for the dowager empress Alexandra Feodorovna. My great-grandmother.
I hated not being with my cousin while Dr. Kruglevski examined her. I was anxious to learn his diagnosis. And what his recommendations for treatment would be.
I glanced at the golden clock on Madame Tomilov’s desk, anxious most of all about my scolding. The longer I waited, the more I was convinced that I would be expelled from Smolny. Thoroughly disgraced, my family would send me away to the South of France and I would never have to worry about Danilo or his sisters again.
A sudden thought struck me.
Perhaps there was a school of medicine that accepted women somewhere in the South of France? Somehow, exile from Russia did not sound so bad.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Now, Katerina Alexandrovna,” Madame Tomilov said, sweeping into the room with her black skirts swishing noisily. “I have been informed of your reckless actions of this morning.” The heels of her boots clicked against the wooden floor as she hurried over to the windows and threw open the curtains, letting in the bright midmorning sun.
“Please, madame, could you tell me what Dr. Kruglevski discovered about Dariya?”
“I would not presume to know,” she said. “The doctor has deemed it prudent to admit your cousin at the hospital for further examinations.”
“Oh! Please let me see her!” I begged. “She will be so frightened in the hospital by herself.”
“Certainly not. I have already sent word to Dariya’s family. In the meantime, we must discuss your inexcusable behavior this morning with your parents. I have also sent them a message, asking them to come and speak with me immediately.”
“My parents are coming here?” That was unheard of, except in extreme cases of misbehavior. Which, of course, applied to me. I wondered if I should start packing up my belongings.
“You are to return to the classroom until I send for you. Do not discuss either your cousin’s illness or your own behavior. I would prefer that you not distress the other students with this news right now. They will learn about Dariya soon enough.” With that she picked up a fountain pen and began writing, ignoring me completely.
Quietly, I got up and walked down the hallway to the large classroom. Augusta stopped me in the hall on her way to her German class. “How is Dariya?” she asked.
“They won’t tell me,” I said, which was partially true. It had been years since any of us had been so ill that we weren’t cared for in the sick wing. Even Princess Marija, Elena’s older sister, had been tended to here at Smolny instead of taken to a hospital. Perhaps that was why she had not survived.
If I tried to stop worrying about Dariya, I began to worry about myself. I was not sure what my parents would say when they arrived and heard what I had done. I took a deep breath as I opened the classroom door.
Augusta was about to ask me another question when Madame Orbellani beckoned me inside. She did not bother to stop the French lesson as I slid into my desk next to Elena’s.
Elena smirked. “You must be mad, Katiya!” she leaned over to whisper. “I cannot imagine being brave enough to sneak out of Smolny like that!”
“Mesdemoiselles!” Madame Orbellani warned. “Écoutez, s’il vous plaît!”
I bent my head down and pretended to study my tattered copy of Voltaire. Madame’s French droning made me sleepy, and I found myself daydreaming, staring out the large half-moon window at the gray January sky. I wondered if Dr. Kruglevski had found out what was wrong with Dariya yet. If it wasn’t influenza, why had it come on so suddenly? Food poisoning came on rapidly—but it seemed to me that more of the students would have been affected. At least none of the other girls had been ill enough to be taken to the hospital. If they all shared the illness, perhaps that boded well for my poor cousin. I hoped that she was on the road to recovery.
“Katerina!” Elena was whispering, trying desperately to get my attention.
Ignoring her, I looked back up at Madame Orbellani, then down at my textbook, and sighed. This was going to be an impossibly long day.
But not as impossibly long as I feared. We were eating lunch in the dining hall when one of the servants summoned me to Madame Tomilov’s sitting room. My parents had finally arrived. Erzsebet looked at me sadly and gave my hand a squeeze. “I’ll say a prayer for you.”
My stomach was twisted into knots. My time of reckoning had come.
Papa was sitting in the red parlor, along with Dr. Kruglevski.
“Where’s Maman?” I asked.
“She has taken to her bed,” Papa said, his voice short and not a little tired. “What is this all about, Katiya? Madame Tomilov says that you left the institute without a chaperone before breakfast and walked all the way to the hospital?”