“Does Anyone Here Speak Russian?” the Duke Asked — His Little Girl Pointed at the Maid Serving Coffee
Chapter 11
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The drawing room went perfectly still. Cressida's cup stopped halfway to her lips. A slow pink tide rose from the swansdown at her throat to the roots of her golden hair. Felix choked on his tea.The Dowager on the far sofa put down her own cup with a small, precise click, and Anna could not tell, then or afterwards, whether the look on that closed face was outrage or something that might in time become respect."How extraordinary," said Cressida at last, quite coolly. "A coffee girl with French. One forgets that they pick things up like parrots."And that was the moment the drawing room door opened and the Duke came in.He was still in his riding boots, and he stopped on the threshold and took in the whole room in one look: Cressida on the sofa, Felix with his handkerchief pressed to his mouth, his mother sitting very straight, the doll face down on the cushion, his daughter hiding behind a coffee girl's skirt, and the coffee girl standing by the tea table with two red spots high in her cheeks and her chin up."Lady Cressida," he said, and bowed. "Felix. Mama.""Ashkam!" Cressida had recovered her smile. "We have been getting to know your treasure. She's quite a wonder, you know. She pours, and she speaks French, and I'm told she cooks porridge.""She does all of those things," said the Duke. "She also speaks Russian, which is the only one I care about."He crossed the room. He did not go to Cressida. He went to his daughter, crouched down on the carpet in his riding boots, and said something to her. It was only one word, and he said it badly, with an English accent so thick that Anna winced. But it was Russian. It was the word for "little daughter":"Dochka."Sonia peered out from behind Anna's skirt, astonished. Then she laughed.It was the first time anybody in that house had heard her laugh—a high, startled peal like a small bell. And she let go of Anna's skirt, ran to her father, caught hold of his ear, and said something very fast and very bossy into it.The Duke looked up helplessly at Anna over his daughter's head."She says," Anna told him, and her own voice was not quite steady, "that you say it like a cow."And the Duke of Ashkam began to laugh, too, crouched on the drawing room carpet with his daughter's arms round his neck, in front of the most beautiful woman in England, who was not laughing at all.That night, he came to find her in the schoolroom.She was sitting by the last of the fire, mending Sonia's stocking, because she had never in her life been able to sit with her hands empty. The door stood open onto the corridor, where a candle burned on the landing and a footman dozed in a hall chair, as was proper.The Duke knocked on the open door."Miss Fenwick, forgive me. I wanted to ask you something, and I did not want to ask it in front of my mother."