Tatiana chuckled. “It’s only my children. I would recognise those screams anywhere. They’re terribly difficult to put to bed. Your maid must have taken them for a final runaround.”
Poor, dear Laura. The woman who’d agreed to this horrendous lifestyle.
“Do you think these seasons last a terribly long time?” Marta suddenly asked. She arched her brow towards her beautiful, older cousin, already painfully aware that her question had been outlandish and strange.
Tatiana didn’t make her feel bizarre for the question. She simply said, “I think it lasts a long time if you think of it that way. My advice is this. Why not have as much fun as you can. Live in whatever strange conversations as long as you can. Analyse it all from every single angle. When you’re an older woman like me, you will miss these days. Now, everything in my life is so certain. I must be home. I must ensure dinner is prepared. I must ensure my husband is happy. And I must ensure that my sons become good and powerful men. It’s a great deal to think about.”
“And right now, all I must think about is…”
“Having a good time. And don’t you dare worry about what my mother has in store for you. You can feel and do whatever you wish during this time.”
Tatiana reached across and squeezed Marta’s hand. Again, her sons screeched out towards the moon. A voice that sounded like Laura’s rang out after them. If anything would teach her English, it was this: the necessity to translate how out of control the boys were. This was a fact that made Marta smile.