The Firebird

‘She grows like that,’ said Gordon dryly. ‘Feed her as you like, she’ll eat it all and more besides and stay as slender as a reed. It will be books you must supply her with, for truly she reads more than any lass I’ve ever known.’

The general’s eyebrows lifted as he asked, ‘Indeed?’

Vice Admiral Gordon answered with affection, ‘Aye, she fills her mind as she does fill her stomach, with whatever is to hand. I have found her as deeply engrossed in accounts of the methods for training good soldiers and seamen as in any lighter diversion.’

The general turned to Anna. ‘So you have an interest in our military ways?’

It was not ladylike, she knew, to wish to learn about such things, but she did not feel judged by General Lacy’s gaze, and so she answered him, ‘I find such things of interest, General, yes.’

‘Then I shall very much enjoy your stay with us,’ he said.

A woman’s bright laugh sounded from the doorway just behind him. ‘You must not encourage him,’ she said to Anna, ‘for he has been known to lay the dinner table out as a great field of battle, so that he can illustrate his tactics.’

The general’s wife was pretty for her age, which must have been approaching forty. Even in her mourning dress she made a lively figure, and her tone and dancing eyes were just as friendly as her husband’s. As she offered her small hand to Anna, she remarked in Russian, ‘You will doubtless think us very odd, and wish to reconsider your decision when you’ve been with us a few days.’

Anna doubted it, and said as much aloud, in Russian also, adding, ‘Truly, I am honoured by your invitation, and I’m very pleased to help in any way I can.’

The general’s wife glanced upwards at her husband, and they shared a private smile before she told him, still in Russian, ‘You were right.’

‘Did I not tell you?’ Switching smoothly into English, he advised his wife, ‘Sir Harry does not praise without good cause.’ And then to Anna, he explained, ‘Sir Harry Stirling told us yesterday at dinner that your Russian was as clear as any Muscovite’s.’ The general looked at Gordon as he added, ‘He did also bring us news from his associates in London’s Russia Company. It seems our friend’s suspicions were correct, and we may yet receive a less than welcome visitor.’

Vice Admiral Gordon’s frown appeared more thoughtful than displeased. ‘Do we know when?’

The general shook his head. ‘It is but in the wind, at present. But we can continue to prepare. Have you the time to sit awhile, and smoke a pipe? Then come, my friend. No doubt the ladies will be happy to be rid of us.’

With that he bowed and took his leave, and Gordon brushed a kiss on Anna’s cheek and warmly squeezed her hands, and searched her eyes a final time as though to reassure himself that she was fine with the arrangement. ‘Send word if you have need of me,’ he told her, in the brusque voice that she knew was how he masked his deep emotions. ‘I will call on you a few days hence to see that you are settled.’

And with that he turned and left the room, discussing something in low tones with General Lacy while the general’s wife regarded Anna with an understanding smile. In a gentle voice she said, ‘It is a hard thing, is it not, to leave one’s home and come to live with strangers?’

Anna thought of all the times she’d done exactly that: the first time that was lost to her, obscured within her earliest of memories, when her mother had released her to the care of others who could guard her safety … and the time when she’d been swept up in the arms of Captain Jamieson, and carried from her cottage in the snow, along the cliffs above the Scottish sea … and when those same strong arms had last embraced her as he passed her to the sole care of the Irish nuns at Ypres … and when she’d journeyed to Calais in Father Graeme’s care … and when she’d climbed aboard the carriage heading from that town, with Gordon sitting at her side, and half a year of gruelling travel yet ahead of her. So many homes, she thought. So many strangers. And yet all of them had brought her something she would not have missed for all the world, nor yet exchanged for idle comfort and security.

She gathered up her bundle of small treasured things more closely and replied with perfect honesty, ‘’Tis not so hard, with people who are kind.’

The general’s wife seemed pleased by that. She gently laid her hand on Anna’s arm and said, ‘Come, then, and let me show you to your room.’

She felt faintly confused when she woke. Not because she was in a new room, with the windows and furnishings in unfamiliar positions, but because she had the certain sense that she was not alone.

She rolled against the blankets, looking warily around, and met a pair of large blue eyes that peered with curiosity from just above the level of the mattress.

When her heart had leapt and settled once again within her chest, she drew a breath and smiled. ‘Hello.’

She had not yet met any of the children. Or at least, she had not yet been introduced to them. She’d heard them last night, certainly, but they had supped in private with the servant who was charged with taking care of them. ‘My dear,’ the general’s wife had said, when Anna had enquired about the children, ‘it would never do to have them all descend on you at once, for though I love my children dearly, they are rather overwhelming.’

Anna had returned the smile.

The general’s wife, she’d learnt, was from Livonia, and of high birth, and owned her own estate there that she’d shared with General Lacy since their marriage. She had lived there until lately with the children while the general led his army on campaigns, but since he’d now been two years in St Petersburg and it appeared his duties would require him to be here a while longer, she’d decided that the family should come join him. ‘Children need to have their father near,’ she’d said, and it was clear that General Lacy loved his children, for he’d spent much time in speaking of them, with so much enthusiasm Anna could now scarce recall the blur of names and ages and accomplishments.