“Well, your mother doesn’t think that it’s a lesser title,” Lou said. “She and Mama have exchanged a dozen telegrams; they are both so excited about a prince courting you!”
“Mother is?” Dacia tried to keep the squeak out of her voice, and not look too eager to ask her next question. “What did she say?”
Lou put a soft arm around Dacia’s waist and gave her a little squeeze. “I don’t know the details, only that she wanted you to have the best of everything from Paris,” Lou said. “Let’s go in your room and you can see what we’ve brought you.”
The cousins went into the next room, neither of them needing to talk about Dacia’s disappointment that her mother hadn’t sent her a telegram over the matter. Dacia wouldn’t want to embarrass herself if tears leaked out or her voice shook, but Lou understood, and nothing needed to be said.
The gowns that the maid was spreading out on her bed took Dacia’s mind off her mother completely. They were in the latest mode and utterly gorgeous. Not even the shops in London could deliver that elegant drape to the fabric, that certain something that was so completely French that it could never be mistaken for anything else. Long used to putting her mother out of her mind, Dacia gave herself over to the new clothes: trying on gloves and hats, holding up gowns and posing in the long mirror while Lou laughed and admired them.
But Dacia could still see the faintest traces of a pucker on Lou’s forehead, and there was a little twist of sourness in her own stomach that the tea and biscuits the maid brought could not wash away. She picked up her own new evening gown, a white confection with lavender accents, and held it to her shoulders.
Then she nearly dropped that gown, but this time in sheer excitement.
“Lou! I know what we can do!” She whirled around and put the gown on the bed so that she could take her cousin’s hands. “We’ll both go to the opera!”
“What do you mean? Of course we will, Papa said he would—” Lou’s eyes widened. “Do you mean with Prince Mihai?” Her voice lifted on the name.
“Yes!” Dacia twirled around, pleased by her solution. “Aunt Kate said I might, but Uncle Horia is being such a bear about it that I’ve put Mihai off. If we went together—I’m sure Mihai wouldn’t mind! He’s terribly persistent and he says he’ll do anything to make me happy—and if we both went, it wouldn’t be quite so serious!” She gave Lou’s hands an extra little squeeze, but Lou looked dubious.
“I don’t know,” Lou said. “What if Prince Mihai doesn’t want me there? He’s never even met me.” She hesitated, looking around the room as though not sure how to go on. “And don’t you think it’s rather forward of him to keep asking, when you’ve been putting him off?”
“Not at all! It will be perfect,” Dacia announced, brushing both concerns aside. Another idea lit her up. “He really is so eager to please, you know, that I wonder if he’ll send you an opera cloak, too!”
This didn’t seem to entice Lou, but all the same Dacia immediately went to her desk to write Prince Mihai a note while Lou took a bath. Dacia accepted the prince’s invitation to the opera, writing that she had at last brought the family around to her way of thinking. Feeling even more clever, she wrote that now that her cousin was in residence, she was sure Mihai would want to help her show Lou the sights of Bucharest. She summoned a footman at once to deliver the note, watching to make sure that he got out of the house before anyone could intercept him.
“And now if I could just find out where Lord Johnny is staying,” Dacia mused, “things would be very exciting indeed!”
THE DIARY OF MISS MARIA LOUISA NEULANDER
25 May 1897
Being with Dacia has not assuaged my fears, but rather added to them. Aunt Kate has become a stranger, and I worry that Mama will also. Dacia is obsessed with a minor prince whose interest has polarized the family and caused many arguments. Papa is busy keeping the twins out from underfoot, and Mama seems to find excuses for him to take charge of them, so that he and I never get a chance to speak. I long for his reassurances, but none are forthcoming.
The afternoon after our arrival in Bucharest was the worst yet. I met in private with Grandmother Florescu, whom I must remember is never to be called Grandmother, but to be addressed always as Lady Ioana, a title I did not know she held. She is not merely stern, but threatening, and everyone is afraid of her. She looked me over, gave me a smile that made me cold inside, and told me that I was the Wing as predicted. It seems that even my own mother knows this strange thing and did not say a word to me!
Lady Ioana also told me that I had a less defiant face than Dacia, which was good, because the Claw always thought too much of themselves. She joked that she had nearly had Radu killed three times. At least, I chose to think of it as a joke. Then she congratulated me on not having a beau, saying that it was for the best, because when the time came, she would find me a suitable mate of my own kind. I felt my face getting redder and redder, and at these words I nearly fainted. So shockingly crass, but she seemed quite unaware of it! I wanted very much to lie, to claim that I had a fiancé waiting for me in New York, but I couldn’t do it.
And now I am to attend the opera with Dacia and Prince Mihai. My mother, who would have been shocked by the very idea of Dacia attending the opera with a young man alone in New York, has sided with Aunt Kate and wants Dacia to find every possible chance to be with Prince Mihai!
I just wish that the very idea of meeting this prince didn’t fill me with terror.
LA TRAVIATA
Despite her misgivings, Lou discovered that Prince Mihai did not at all mind taking her to the opera along with Dacia. He seemed delighted, in fact. He had even sent an opera cloak for her, just as Dacia had said he might. It was lined with pink satin that perfectly matched her gown, though how he could have guessed what color her gown was she would never know. She brushed it aside as a lucky guess, pale pink being eminently suitable for a young lady. All the same it gave her a shiver, as though he had been watching her.
She was not quite as intrigued by Mihai as Dacia was. He was polite enough, and very handsome, but there was something about him that Lou did not like, a calculating look that said that he had more planned than simply squiring a pair of young ladies to the opera. By the time they had taken their seats in Prince Mihai’s box, Lou found herself siding with Uncle Horia and Radu. This was not a good idea, though her reasons were not as prosaic as theirs. She didn’t see Mihai as being above their station, or too old for Dacia (both arguments they had used); she saw him as dangerous, and Lou did not like danger.
Dacia, unfortunately, did.
Dacia loved being at the opera with everyone staring and whispering as they walked by. She loved the way that Prince Mihai raked her with his eyes when she came down the stairs to greet him in her Parisian evening gown. She loved walking with her fingertips just touching his arm, pretending that she was a queen. Dacia didn’t have to say anything of the sort to Lou, Lou just knew it was so. She knew it by the lift in her cousin’s chin, the sway in her walk as they entered the foyer of the opera house, as they walked down the gilded halls to their box.
Lou knew, too, that Dacia was aware that Lou was nervous about the evening. But it wouldn’t occur to Dacia to call it off, because she always thought it was good for Lou to do things despite her nerves. Dacia was convinced that one day she would drag Lou along on some scheme and something in Lou would blossom. Just like that, Lou would become as fearless as Dacia, and they would take on the world together. Lou knew this would never happen, but still she followed where her cousin led. Lou knew deep down that she would always be afraid, and nothing would ever change that, but she followed Dacia for the slim chance that her cousin was right.
Contrary to Lou’s fears, Prince Mihai seemed quite amiable. He had arrived on the very stroke of six and complimented them lavishly on their gowns. He had been effusive, too, in greeting the rest of the household, charming Lou’s mother and winning a smile from Aunt Kate as well. Lou’s father had been wary, th
ough coolly polite to the prince, which said volumes to Lou. Her father had always been quite genial with the young men who had escorted Lou to balls and parties in the past. She took her cue from her father, rather than Dacia, and was polite but as distant as she could manage without feeling rude.
Though even she had to admit that the prince was devastatingly handsome.
Her stomach turned over whenever he smiled at her, and she found herself in a flutter when he first took her arm to go up the steps into the opera house. But then she saw him looking around at the other women in the lobby, and smiling at them when they stared at him, and the flutters stopped. Men who were handsome and knew it all too well did not hold that much of an attraction for Lou.
They took their seats just as the curtain was going up. Lou tried to make herself comfortable in the little gilded chair, wondering why it was that people always needed to cough and rustle their clothing just when everything was going silent. Dacia leaned forward, eager for the music to begin. Dacia loved the opera; it appealed to her sense of drama. Lou preferred lighter music, the kind that tickled you and then soared away.
Still, it was an excellent performance, with marvelous singers and a lavish set. Even Lou quickly became engrossed, and so it wasn’t until the intermission that she noticed that Lord Johnny was sitting in a box directly opposite them. He was blatantly watching them, rather than the stage, through his opera glasses.
When Prince Mihai summoned a waiter to bring them lemonade, Lord Johnny stood and made as if to leave his box, his eyes still on Dacia. But someone stepped from the shadows at the back of the box and put a hand on his shoulder, stopping the impulsive young lord and causing him to sink back into his seat with an anxious air.
Lou’s every muscle went rigid. She felt a frisson of horror run through her, and her palms began to sweat in their white silk gloves. She wanted to say something to Dacia, but couldn’t form any words. She was afraid, too, that if she moved she would draw attention to herself.
Too late. The man with Lord Johnny looked across at their box, and despite the distance, he looked straight into Lou’s eyes and made a little bow. Lou leaped to her feet as the frisson of horror turned to an electric shock, and grabbed Dacia’s arm, dragging her cousin out of the box and into the corridor. Without speaking a word, Lou pulled Dacia through the crowd of elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen returning to their boxes, and into the ladies’ retiring room, where she at last let go of Dacia’s arm.
“Lou! What on earth are you doing? Are you ill?”
Lou put her hands over her face and burst into tears. “He’s here,” she sobbed. “He’s here, and he saw me!”
“Who’s here?” Dacia looked alarmed. She backed Lou gently over to a sofa and helped her sit, positioning herself close beside her cousin, but turned so that her narrow back blocked Lou from prying eyes as much as it could.
“That man.” Lou hiccupped. “That Awful M-m-man! The one who called me a hou—I can’t even say it! The one who called me the Wing,” she managed to gasp out.
“What?” Dacia gasped. “Are you certain?”
“Yes,” Lou said, finally beginning to recover. She pulled out a handkerchief and hopelessly patted at her face a little. She wasn’t wearing any cosmetics, but she wished she were. She knew that her face would be red and blotchy, which the handkerchief could hardly repair.
“Where did you see him?” Dacia had a militant gleam in her eye.
“Directly across from us . . . in a box with your Lord Johnny,” Lou said, admitting the last with great reluctance.
Dacia’s mouth opened and closed with a little click. “He was with Johnny? You’re very certain?”
Lou nodded.
“Well, then,” Dacia said. “This changes everything.” Dacia rose to her feet.
“What are you going to do?” Lou also got up, with much less grace. “Please don’t do anything dramatic, Dacia! Please?” Her cheeks flushed at the thought of what Dacia might do to retaliate on her behalf, and wished she hadn’t said anything. A militant Dacia could be amusing or appalling, often at the same time.
“I am not going to do a thing, dear,” Dacia said, kissing Lou’s cheek.
Lou gave her a suspicious look, but Dacia only put on her most innocent smile in return.
“Prince Mihai, on the other hand, is a different matter,” Dacia said. “I’m sure if I mention it to him, he would feel honor bound to respond to the insult.” She took Lou’s arm and led her out of the retiring room and into the deserted corridor. The second half of the opera was well under way, but Dacia did not seem at all bothered by missing it.
“Dacia, please don’t tell the prince,” Lou whispered as they reached the door to the box. “It would only embarrass me more.”
Her cousin had to think about that for a moment, but then she agreed with a nod. “All right, dear. But you must know that I have already told Radu, I was so upset when I received your letter. And I think that it’s a good idea to let one of the men of the family know that this boor is in Bucharest. Radu will be with us the most often when we go shopping and the like, so he would be the one to protect you if this cad approaches again.”
“Very well,” Lou said. “It will be a relief to have Radu there to defend me.”
“I agree,” Dacia said in her offhand manner that so frequently insulted even while it doled out praise. “Radu may be under Lady Ioana’s thumb, but in a brawl I’d still put my money on him.”
“A brawl?” Lou shuddered at the very thought, but Dacia had already gone into the box.
Lou could only follow, accept her now warm glass of lemonade, and take her seat with her eyes firmly on the stage. She tried her best not to look at Lord Johnny’s box, but during the grand climax of the opera she suddenly could not bear it a moment longer, and quickly peeked in their direction.
Her peek turned into a long look of surprise. The box was not empty, as she’d hoped, but both men were sitting right against the rail, leaning forward and ignoring the action on the stage completely. Their eyes were fixed avidly on someone in the box with Lou, but it wasn’t her, and to her even greater surprise, it wasn’t Dacia either.
Both Lord Johnny and That Awful Man were staring right at Prince Mihai.
Lou tried to get Dacia’s attention without alerting Prince Mihai, but Dacia, after first arranging herself to present her best side to Lord Johnny, was once more caught up in the music. She stared at the stage in unfashionable wonderment, blissfully unaware of the Romanian prince, the British lord, or That Awful Man, until the curtains dropped and she applauded the performers with gusto. Lou applauded as well, but kept watching Lord Johnny and That Awful Man out of the corner of her eye. She saw them talk to each other briefly once the opera was over, but by the end of the curtain call they had slipped out of their box, much to Lou’s relief.
Once in the lobby Lou craned her neck but couldn’t see either young man. But her attention was soon taken by a number of other young people who came to introduce themselves. They all seemed quite as enthralled by Prince Mihai as Dacia was, approaching him with great deference and only speaking once he acknowledged them. He introduced Lou and Dacia to what must have been every member of young Bucharest society, and the cousins found themselves agreeing to accept calls from a number of people who appeared quite surprised to find that the Florescu family had fashionable young daughters.
Even Lou was glowing with the fun of it all as they got into the carriage. In New York they’d had friends, but they were friends that they’d known for years, and there was hardly a line of new people eager to make their acquaintance. Lou temporarily forgot her nerves and found herself looking forward to being invited to parties and balls. For one thing, it would keep them out of the house and away from Lady Ioana, who had been far more terrifying than That Awful Man, though it felt disloyal to the family to admit such a thing, even in her own head.
“Our carriage, my beauties,” Prince Mihai said, and helped them into his elegant barouche. Lou’
s father had asked for the prince to bring them both home immediately after the opera, and not take them to a ball or dinner, so they waved to their many new friends they passed, and went home considerably earlier than the rest of Bucharest’s fashionable population.
“Back so soon?” Lou’s mother came to the front hall to greet them, smiling up at Prince Mihai through her lashes. Lou found herself blushing a little at her mother’s obvious flirtation with the prince.
“Ah, gentle lady!” The prince kissed her mother’s hand, but Lou noticed that Mihai lifted her mother’s hand high so that he did not have to bow to her. She realized that all night, throughout all the introductions, he had never once lowered his head to anyone. A bit vain of him, she thought cynically. He was not a ruling prince. Wallachia wasn’t even a country anymore, just one of the Romanian states. “Your good husband asked me to bring your beautiful daughter and niece home promptly after the opera, and prompt we are! I would never wish to anger your family.”
“Of course you wouldn’t,” Lou’s father said, coming out of the library. “That would be a very bad idea.”
Lou and Dacia shared puzzled looks, but Lou saw a flash of rage cross Prince Mihai’s fine features, twisting them into something ugly. And her mother was blushing bright red, her mouth set in a thin line.
“No, it would not be at all wise to anger a family that includes so many lovely young ladies,” Prince Mihai said, recovering his composure. “Though I am now a bit sorrowful that I might have to share them.”
“Share them?” Despite the strain between them, Lou’s parents spoke in concert.
“Oh, Uncle Cyrus!” Dacia spoke, her face lighting up. “We’ve met so many fine young people tonight. Everyone in Bucharest was at the opera, or so it seemed, and Prince Mihai has introduced us all around. We’ve had many promises of calls, and invitations to parties! We’re going to have such fun, aren’t we, Lou?” She put her arm through Lou’s, and Lou managed to smile.