An Innocent in Russia

Chapter one ~ 1836-1

Chapter one ~ 1836“Her Ladyship wants you, Miss Zelina!”

Zelina looked up from her book and gave a little sigh.

It was always the same when she was reading something interesting, she was requested to do something else and she was quite certain that, whatever her aunt wanted, it would not be anything pleasant.

Ever since she had come to live at the large mansion in Grosvenor Square she had felt that she was an encumbrance and not wanted.

It had been hard enough to lose her father the previous year and be left alone in their home in Gloucestershire with only her old Governess, who was growing deaf and could do little but sit in front of the fire with her knitting.

But at least Zelina had been free to ride twice a day in the Park, to walk in the woods and to read.

Reading was what she enjoyed more than anything else and the only consolation she had after her father’s tragic death was his huge collection of books that filled every space in the large library.

Now, when her mourning was finally over and she had just turned eighteen, her aunt had sent for her to come to London and, as soon as she arrived, she was aware that it was not because Aunt Kathleen intended to introduce her to the Social world.

Major Tiverton had always complained that his younger sister was a ‘frivolous tiresome woman’ despite the fact that she was surprisingly beautiful.

“She was ambitious when she was in the cradle,” he would say to Zelina. “If it had been possible, she would have set her sights on marrying a King. As it was, she had to be content with that crashing bore, the Earl of Rothbury, and I expect she leads him a pretty dance!”

Zelina had not been particularly interested in her aunt, whom she had not seen since she was a child.

But when her father had died, she realised that, as her Aunt Kathleen was her nearest relative, she was now in the position of becoming her Guardian.

Letters had been passed to and from London not to her but to her father’s Solicitors, who were handling the small amount of money left by Major Tiverton.

Of course there was also the house and the estate and Zelina had cried when she was told that it would be very sensible to sell it so that she might have whatever it fetched as what the Solicitor called ‘a nest egg’ against the future.

“Not that I am sure you will need one, Miss Tiverton,” he had added with a smile. “But even when she does marry, it is always useful for every woman to have a small dowry of her own.”

Zelina had been well aware that in his own way he was paying her a compliment and she would have been very foolish if she had not known that most men looked at her, looked again and a glint came into their eyes.

She thought humbly that she would never be as beautiful as her mother, but at least she was pretty and her father had often confirmed this.

“If there is one thing I cannot stand,” he had said, “it is a plain woman. I am fortunate to have both a beautiful wife and a daughter who is a sublime reflection of her beauty.”

When her mother died, Zelina had found it very difficult to console him and he buried himself in his books just as she tried to do herself when she lost him.

As she journeyed to London, thinking how little she knew about the world that existed outside Gloucestershire, she found herself hoping that there would be a library in her aunt’s house.

There was and it boasted a good number of the latest and most up to date novels, but Zelina found, however, that she had little time to read.

“Good Heavens, child. You look like a scarecrow!” her aunt had exclaimed as soon as she saw her. “Where can you have possibly bought a gown like the one you are wearing?”

“I-I made it, Aunt Kathleen.”

“That is just what it looks like! I cannot allow any of my friends to see you until you are properly dressed.”

Zelina was very conscious that she looked extremely dowdy beside her aunt. Never had she imagined that anyone could look so spectacularly gowned from first thing in the morning to last thing at night.

Zelina loved everything that was beautiful, but there had never been enough money for both horses and gowns.

And horses had come first.

When she had first arrived in Grosvenor Square, it had been so exciting to go with Aunt Kathleen to the shops in Bond Street where she was fitted out with so many different gowns that she wondered if she would ever have an opportunity of wearing them all.

She soon learnt that a fashionable lady in London changed her clothes three or four times a day and so there were complete toilettes for the morning, for luncheon and for teatime and, of course, very alluring gowns for the evening.

But she soon found that she needed not only gowns but pelisses, shawls, bonnets, shoes, sunshades and so many other accessories that she lost count.

She was aware that they would fill to overflowing the small wardrobe in her bedroom and she would most certainly need several more chests of drawers to accommodate the more intimate garments that her aunt had ordered for her by the dozen.

Choosing and ordering her clothes took nearly a week and the fittings even longer.

During this time she was not allowed to appear anywhere where she could be seen by Aunt Kathleen’s many friends and she dined downstairs only when the Earl and Countess of Rothbury were alone, which was indeed very rare.

When she met the Earl, who was now getting on in years and was extremely stout, Zelina found that her father had been right in saying that he was a bore.

He never listened to anything that anyone else had to say, but would talk deliberately and pompously on any subject that might occur to him, regardless of whether or not it interested those who were listening.

Zelina soon realised that her aunt paid no attention to anything her husband said and it was obvious that she lived her own life in her own circle of friends, which included some extremely attractive and attentive gentlemen.

One in particular was continually calling at the house in Grosvenor Square when the Earl was either at the House of Lords or at his Club in James’s.

Looking back at it afterwards, Zelina realised that her fate had been sealed when he was shown into the drawing room unexpectedly and she met him for the first time.

“Harry!” the Countess had exclaimed when he was announced by the butler. “I was not expecting you.”

“I know,” Harry replied, “but I saw George puffing along Parliament Square and knew that the coast was clear!”

Then he realised that Zelina was in the room and glanced at her curiously.

With an effort the Countess said,

“This is my niece, Zelina Tiverton, who is staying with us.”

Zelina duly curtseyed and her aunt added sharply,

“You have plenty to do in your own room, Zelina. I shall be busy for the next hour or so.”

“Yes, of course, Aunt Kathleen,” Zelina replied meekly.

She walked across the room, conscious that Harry, she had not been told his full name, was watching her.

Then, as she was closing the door behind her, she heard him exclaim,

“That girl is a raving beauty! Why have I not seen her before?”

For two or three days there was an undoubted coolness in Aunt Kathleen’s attitude and she appeared to be somewhat disinterested when Zelina told her that most of her gowns and various accessories had arrived.

Because she had barely spoken to anybody except for the servants since she had arrived in London, she was hoping that perhaps her aunt would now take her to one of the parties or balls that she attended almost every night or even allow her to accompany her in her carriage when she went driving in Hyde Park.

Instead there had been an ominous silence and now, as Zelina rose hastily to her feet, she wondered why Aunt Kathleen wanted her.

It was rather early in the day for her to be sent for.

Because the Countess was out every evening, she seldom awoke before eleven o’clock and only after she had eaten her breakfast and opened her letters was Zelina allowed into her bedroom.

Now as she was walking from her bedroom towards her aunt’s, Zelina looked over the banisters at the top of the stairs and saw that the grandfather clock showed that it was only half past ten.

The Countess’s flamboyant bedroom, which faced the front of the square, was very large and impressive with Chinese wallpaper and a huge bed draped with muslin and silk.

This was, Zelina knew, a copy of a fashion that was currently popular in France and the green of the bedspread was a reflection of the green in her aunt’s eyes. They could be warm and seductive or cold and very disapproving.

As she neared the bed, she thought with a sinking of her heart that cold and disapproving was their expression at this moment.

There was a cluster of letters lying in front of her aunt on the bedspread. She was holding one in her hand and looked at it for a long moment before she began,

“I have something to tell you, Zelina.”

“Good morning, Aunt Kathleen, I hope you slept well,” Zelina said feeling apprehensive because her aunt had not greeted her in any way.

“What I have to tell you,” the Countess went on as if Zelina had not spoken, “is that I have now decided your immediate future and I think you are an extremely fortunate young woman.”

“Decided – my future, Aunt Kathleen?”

“That is what I said and there is no need to repeat my words,” the Countess snapped. “You are going to Russia.”

For a moment Zelina thought that she could not have heard her correctly.

Then, because she was so astonished, she could only stammer,

“D-did you say to – Russia?”

“Yes, Russia! As I have said you are most fortunate and it will be an experience which would make most young women feel overjoyed at the thought.”

“B-but – why Russia, Aunt Kathleen? And what shall I – do there?”

“That is what I am going to tell you,” the Countess said as if Zelina was being extremely half-witted. “After all your Godmother from whom you received your name was Russian.”

“But she is dead – and I cannot even – remember her.”

“That is immaterial, but it should in a way provide you a link with Russia and make you appreciate the country.”

“I am not – going alone?”

“Well, I am most certainly not coming with you, if that is what you are supposing,” the Countess replied. “Let me make it quite clear, Zelina, I have no wish to chaperone you for the rest of the London Season and lug a young girl about with me. You certainly would not fit in with my circle of friends or the life I lead as your uncle’s wife.”

Zelina was intelligent enough to know that what her aunt was saying was that she had no desire to have another woman with her who might, although it seemed unlikely, prove a rival in some way.

Zelina was quite aware that she would be very much out of place among the witty and sophisticated friends who her aunt amused herself with.

At the same time it had never occurred to her now that she had come to London and been given such a large wardrobe of attractive clothes that she would be sent away at once.

The Countess was still carefully reading the letter that she had in her hand.

Then she said,

“I was, of course, thinking of you when I happened to mention to the wife of the Russian Ambassador that you had a Russian Godmother and it was a pity that she was not alive so that you could go and stay with her.”

“She might not have – wanted me.”

“I am quite certain she would have been delighted to have her Godchild with her,” the Countess contradicted her, “and that was what I told the Ambassadress. She agrees with me that it is sad that you should miss the opportunity of visiting Russia and she has therefore arranged it.”