“Does Anyone Here Speak Russian?” the Duke Asked — His Little Girl Pointed at the Maid Serving Coffee
Chapter 17
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Ashkam House had not given a great dinner in four years, and on Saturday it gave one that London talked about for ten.The candles in the great dining room were lit at 6:00. Forty places were laid down the long table under three chandeliers, and the Ashkam silver came out of its green baize for the first time since the old Duke's funeral.Count Pavel Arsenyev came at 7:00, a broad, white-bearded bear of a man with a diamond star on his coat, and with him the Countess, small and dark and shrewd. The Marquis of Thursby came with Lady Thursby in diamonds, and Lady Cressida in white satin with a wreath of silver leaves in her golden hair, looking, everybody agreed, exactly like a duchess already. Felix came. Half the Cabinet came. And everybody knew, because everybody had been told, that before the evening was out, the Duke of Ashkam would rise in his own drawing room and announce his engagement.Anna spent the dinner upstairs in the nursery, as was proper, reading to Sonia in Russian and listening to forty voices rising up the stairwell like the sound of the sea.At 9:00, a footman came to the nursery door."Lady Cressida's compliments, miss," he said, not quite meeting her eye. "And Her Grace's. You're wanted in the drawing room to pour the coffee for the Count."Anna stared at him. "There are six footmen in this house.""Yes, miss." He looked wretched. He held out a bundle of brown cloth. "And Lady Cressida says you're ought to wear this."It was her apron. Her own brown apron from Pello's, with the scorch mark on the hem. Someone had gone to Birchin Lane to fetch it.For a long moment, Anna stood with it in her hands. She could refuse, and she knew exactly what would follow if she did: Cressida would say, with that lovely laugh, that the coffee girl had grown too grand to pour coffee, and that would be in every drawing room in Mayfair by Monday, too.She tied the apron on. She kissed Sonia, who was almost asleep, and told her to stay in bed like a good girl. And she went down the great white staircase, past the portraits in armor, to the drawing room.The double doors stood open. The room blazed with candles. Forty people in silk and satin and orders and diamonds stood about in knots or sat on the gilt sofas. At the far end by the fire, the Count and Countess sat with the Dowager and the Marquis. And Lady Cressida stood beside them like a lily in a glass.The Duke was at the mantelpiece talking to Lord Thursby with his back to the room, but Cressida saw her."Ah, Count! Here she is!" she cried in English, and then again in French, so that every head turned. "The famous coffee girl! I promised you the greatest curiosity in London. Ashkam found her in a coffee house in the city, pouring for the tallow merchants, and she speaks Russian, I'm told, like a native. I dare say she learned it from the porters on the docks!"