I nodded. “Yes, Papa. Dariya was taken ill. I’ve been so worried about her.”
“And Dr. Kruglevski tells me that your good sense has probably saved your cousin’s life. Madame Tomilov, I would not have my daughter punished for taking such wise action.”
The headmistress was speechless. Her lorgnette fell from her shaking hand. “Your Highness, our rules are meant to be enforced, for the safety of your daughter, and all of the other girls.”
I was speechless as well. I’d never heard anyone speak to the headmistress in such a manner.
Dr. Kruglevski spoke up. “Madame Tomilov, Dariya Yevgenievna is in stable condition right now, recovering from a very potent poison. If Katerina Alexandrovna had not called for me, her cousin would have certainly succumbed to the poison’s very lethal effects.”
The headmistress looked stricken. “Poison? Mon Dieu, not here at the institute. That is impossible!”
Dr. Kruglevski nodded. “I’m afraid it is so, madame. I have not been able to detect all the components of the poison yet, but I am sure we’ll be able to come up with an antidote soon. I will need to obtain blood specimens from the other sick girls as well to make a comparison.”
Papa leaned forward. “Madame Tomilov, I suggest you move quickly to determine the culprit, before any more girls are harmed.”
The headmistress turned pale as a ghost. “What shall we do? What if it is one of the cooking staff?” She rang a little brass bell on her desk, and soon Madame Orbellani came in.
“Oui, madame?”
“His Imperial Highness and Dr. Kruglevski believe that there is a criminal within the walls of Smolny. Possibly in the kitchen. Dariya Yevgenievna has been poisoned.”
“That cannot be!” Madame Orbellani said with dismay. “Our cook staff has been working at Smolny for years. None in our kitchen would do such an evil thing.”
Papa and Dr. Kruglevski exchanged looks. They must have already discussed this between themselves. “What about the rest of the staff? Has anyone been newly hired?”
Madame Tomilov nodded, frowning. “We took on several new staff members for this school year. However, they all came with excellent references.”
“They must all be brought forward for questioning,” Papa said.
Of course the interrogation of the staff at Smolny revealed nothing and only upset the servants. The cook was indignant and refused to make anything but porridge and brown bread for two days. The truth about the strange illness spread quickly through the institute. Everyone knew that Dariya and Aurora had been poisoned. No one else displayed any similar symptoms after that.
By that evening, Aurora had begun to show some signs of color and was able to eat a little broth. The servant girls quickly showed signs of returning to normal as well. Their cold lights were barely visible to me when I visited the sickroom that night.
I needed to visit the hospital and see Dariya. But now I was forbidden even to take afternoon walks away from the institute. Papa said I was not to leave the school unless accompanied by him or Maman. I would be going home in a few weeks to attend the Anichkov Ball with my parents. It was the one ball of the season where both Light and Dark Court members paid homage to the empress.
In the meantime, I feared Elena would poison someone else. I had to find a way to stop her.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
As it happened, I got permission to leave the institute that Friday. The empress’s permission, no less. The grand duchess Elizabeth was entertaining her Hessian family members for the season and wished to organize a skating party for her sister Princess Alix. Maman said I’d been invited because the grand duchess had noticed me at the Blessing of the Water.
Elena was most vexed. “The tsarevitch will be there!” she wailed. “Promise that you will speak of me to him. Say something like ‘The princess Elena is the most graceful skater I have ever seen. She looks like a swan gliding across the ice.’ ”
I rolled my eyes. “I will do no such thing,” I said as I dressed in my warmest Smolny outfit, a white woolen dress with red braiding. I wore my thickest wool stockings, the ones that scratched my legs like mad. I wished the grand duchess had not spoken with me at the Theophany ceremony.
Dariya, I thought mournfully, would have truly enjoyed an outing like this. At least Madame Orbellani said they’d received a note saying my cousin was doing better. She’d been able to sit up and take a little broth the previous day. I hoped she would be able to return to Smolny soon.
Anya twisted my hair into a low chignon, so as to keep it out of my face while I skated. “Best not anger her, Your Highness,” she whispered, referring to Elena. “You don’t want to be her next victim.”
We were both certain of Elena’s guilt, but what could I do? I had no proof. I could not go to the headmistress and accuse a king’s daughter of attempted murder. Anya was right. Elena could well decide to poison me next. And the Montenegrins could cause far more harm to my family than I could to any of them. I needed to speak with Princess Cantacuzene again. Perhaps she was not so mad after all.
The grand duchess and her sister were in the sleigh waiting for me. The footman held my hand and helped me in. “Your Imperial Highness, Your Highness,” I said, trying to curtsy before I sat down.
“Alix, this is Katerina Alexandrovna of Oldenburg. Katerina, my sister, Princess Alix of Hesse.”
Alix looked just like her older sister, with hair slightly lighter than the grand duchess’s. But her eyes were a clear gray-blue, whereas the grand duchess had one clear blue eye and one with a large brown spot.
Princess Alix smiled shyly and took my hand. “It is a pleasure to meet you,” she said. “Please forgive my English. My French is not so good.”
“Not at all, Your Highness. How do you like Russia?”
She smiled again. “It is very beautiful. Do you like to skate?” She twisted the pearl ring on her finger, then switched to fiddling with the kid gloves in her lap. She looked painfully shy.
I nodded. “I love to skate, but unfortunately I am extremely uncoordinated. You will be able to laugh at me, for I shall fall many times.”
A look of something like relief passed across the princess’s face and then was gone. Suddenly, I realized why I’d been invited on this outing. The grand duchess had noticed my clumsiness at the Blessing of the Waters. I was here to make Princess Alix look graceful.
“The rest of our group is already at the gardens,” Grand Duchess Elizabeth said. She reached over and patted her sister’s hand comfortingly.
They had closed the gardens to the general public for the afternoon, with four large Cossacks standing guard at the front gate. The grand duchess Xenia Alexandrovna stood with her chaperone and her two older brothers—the tsarevitch, Nicholas Alexandrovich, and the grand duke George Alexandrovich. Him again. I would no doubt have to listen the entire time to his accusations that I was filled with dark magic.
The grand duke did not look happy to see me either. After a short, civil greeting, he stayed as far away from me as possible.
A string quartet, bundled in their furs, sat at the pavilion and played music from Swan Lake while we skated across the frozen pond in the center of the park. When I finished buckling on my skates, I took a deep breath, inhaling the chilly air deep into my chest, and wobbled steadily onto the ice.
I skated better that afternoon than I usually did, but I was still able to make Princess Alix look like an angel of grace—until Xenia Alexandrovna decided to show off her fae bloodline. She made both me and the German princess look as clumsy as bears on skates.
Xenia’s eyes twinkled from their normal brown to a startling icy silver as she tossed her fur muff onto the bench. She took off across the ice, her slender arms stretched out as if she could take to the air at any minute. “Nicky!” she called out. “Race me!”