The House by the Dvina by Eugenie Fraser

Author:Eugenie Fraser [Eugenie Fraser]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
Published: 2011-02-10T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 4

1914

On New Year’s morning I was woken by Mikhailo dropping his heavy load of firewood onto the floor. ‘It is a hard frost the New Year has brought us,’ he said, arranging the logs inside the stove.

Outside the frost was bitter. A thick rime like cotton wool hung over the river and the empty streets. Nothing stirred. That day, as the frost hardened, no one left the house and no one called. Our guests and Babushka whiled away the time playing cards, sewing, knitting and reminiscing for hours on end. It was a peaceful beginning to the year.

At the end of January, Irisha, who had been with us since my brother was an infant, left to be married. A young girl – Marusya – joined the household after a short interrogation by Babushka, followed by an adroit scrutiny of her person and especially her hair. Babushka had an innate fear of lice being brought into the house. This fear, amounting to an obsession, sometimes drove Babushka to extreme measures. I remember how on one occasion a visiting relative left her little daughter, Varya, in our care while she went shopping. Babushka, sitting watching us at play, suddenly observed the telltale signs in Varya’s hair and promptly proceeded to use the infallible cure of dousing her head with vodka.

Marusya, according to the prevailing custom observed in all households, had to give her passport to Babushka. Without a passport no servant could obtain employment. Marusya was attractive. Dark, curly hair framed a round face and clear complexion. Brown eyes, unusually large, held a serenity seen often in the eyes of grazing cows. She was compliant, doing everything that was expected of her, but she moved slowly and in a manner which, now, with hindsight, I recognise as sexually provocative. The boys, for some unknown reason, rechristened her ‘Marietta’. One day, soon after her arrival, Yura, who was a talented painter, decided he would like to paint a portrait of ‘Marietta’ and she obligingly complied. The paints and canvas were all set out in Yura’s bedroom. I do not know what form this painting was to take as it never got under way. Babushka, discovering ‘Marietta’ in the bedroom, promptly despatched her to the kitchen and Yura was told to stop his nonsense.

However, Babushka was too preoccupied these days to worry about Marusya. Marga, now in her last term at school, was planning to join the university in St Petersburg the following autumn. Meanwhile the girls in her class were giving coming-out balls and parties. The whole household revolved round Marga. Nastenka was hardly ever away from the house, measuring, sewing, fitting and crawling on her knees, pins in her mouth – sorting the hem, letting out or taking in. Marga had to have several dresses, as not a week passed without her attending a dance or party. Kapochka, through her experience as a dresser in the theatre world, was an artist in hair styling. She spent hours arranging Marga’s coiffure, while Marga, difficult to please, sat gazing into the mirror and Babushka anxiously hovered around.

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