The House by the Dvina (13 page)

While Gherman was searching for a house to suit their requirements, Nelly and he lived with the family. In this way Nelly was gradually drawn into it and got to know all the members intimately. Babushka took her everywhere she went. A close bond of affection developed between them.

NellyТs parents, although no doubt loving their children, were not given to displaying their feelings. BabushkaТs warmth and open-hearted nature surprised and gladdened Nelly so that she in turn responded in the same way.

To all friends and relatives Nelly became “Nellynka”, but those outside the family circle referred to her by the more formal patronymic of Elena Avgustovna Ч meaning Helen, daughter of Augustus. She was fond of the two little boys who followed their pretty sister-in-law all over the house.

Yura, now five, was a lively, precocious child whose tawny colouring earned him the nickname “Pyzhik” Ч the baby reindeer. Seryozha, his elder brother, was a quiet, sensitive child. Their sister Marga, aged ten, attended the girlsТ gymnasium and every morning set off to school in a sledge and returned after lunch. Nelly found her attractive in her brown school uniform, with healthy colouring, large expressive dark eyes and wavy hair braided into a long plait down to her waist. At times warm and affectionate, and then in turn withdrawn and silent, she puzzled Nelly.

She was a nervous child, terrified of the dark and unable to sleep alone.

This fear resulted in the governess, Fraulein Valle, having to share her bedroom with Marga.

Fraulein Valle, a young German girl, and Nelly were drawn to each other and became quite friendly perhaps because both were foreigners and far from their own homes. Fraulein Valle was an inveterate smoker, but as Babushka did not approve of a governess smoking in front of the children, she was often forced to find a place where they could not follow her. With NellyТs arrival there were more opportunities to indulge, and when she had a little time to herself she would go to NellyТs room and produce her cigarettes. Soon Nelly also became addicted to the Russian cigarettes.

Both young women liked to sit and chatter together in English and German while they smoked these cigarettes with their long cardboard holders.

What at first surprised Nelly but was later accepted by her as the way of life was the constant procession of friends, relatives, mamkas, old believers and pilgrims who frequented the house. There were also those who could only be described as hangers-on. There was, for instance, Sashenka.

Sashenka, brought up in an orphanage, was a very odd child but endowed with a fine brain. Rejected by the other children, she aroused the compassion of my grandfather, who removed her from the orphanage and saw that she received a higher education. She eventually qualified as a teacher and became the headmistress of a small school endowed by the merchants in the town. This new and fresh school had a separate small wing where Sashenka was provided with a bedroom, living-room, kitchen and the usual back premises. Two old women were likewise given their living quarters and employed to keep the school clean and attend to SashenkaТs wants. This arrangement would have pleased most teachers, but Sashenka had other ideas. She decided instead to adopt the family. Every day at the end of school hours Sashenka could be seen winding her way down Olonetskaya Street. On entering the house, she took over all the duties she considered were her sole right.

She never sat with the family at the dinner table, but removed the plates to the adjoining round table for the maid to carry them away, while she humbly sat all on her own and ate what was passed over to her.

At night, she presided over the samovar at the table where everyone gathered. She poured out the tea and passed the cups. Late in the evening, she vanished. Not to her own little schoolhouse, but to the small landing beside the door leading to the garrett where stood an old wooden chest.

There, on a thin mattress and covered by an old quilt, Sashenka slept. In the early morning she rose and walked back to her school to teach the children.

Sashenka was odd. I see quite clearly the short dark hair brushed severely back from her plain face, the black, mannish jacket, the dangling pince-nez, dowdy skirt and buttoned boots. The children teased her, those who were older insulted her. It was all as nothing. As long as Babushka didnТt reject her, and Babushka never would, she would continue coming to the house.

With the arrival of the young Scottish bride, something crept into SashenkaТs breast. She was overcome by a strange obsession. It expressed itself by an obsequious devotion in every possible way. When Nelly was sitting down to dinner, Sashenka was there pushing in her chair. She was there holding out the shuba when Nelly was preparing to go out, and kneeling on the floor pulling the felt boots over NellyТs feet with loving care. At first amused and later irritated, Nelly was at a loss as to what to do.

And then there was the incident with the bath. One evening after returning with Babushka and young Marga from the banya, her damp hair streaming down her back, Nelly casually, and perhaps with faint nostalgia, remarked that although the city banya was an excellent institution, she still missed the convenience of the bath in her home in Scotland. This remark wasnТt lost on Sashenka. A few days later a monstrous-looking zinc bath was dragged from the garrett and carried down to the maidsТ bedroom adjoining the kitchen.

This bath was obviously created by the possessor of an original mind who, in a flight of fancy, designed a bath unusually large and high and with a unique action similar to that of a rocking chair or seesaw. Once inside, the bather could enjoy the simulated waves of the sea as the foaming water rushed up to his neck or down to his feet. Unfortunately, any pleasure derived from this contraption was cancelled out by the necessity of possessing great agility and steady feet to avoid falling on the floor when attempting to get out of it.

Nelly was to have her bath. The family displayed a lively interest, but none more ardent and enthusiastic than the chief organiser of the whole project Ч Sashenka. And when the great moment came for Nelly who, like Aphrodite, was to rise out of the foam, Sashenka would be there, holding the bath-sheet, all set to catch and envelop Nelly.

Nelly, by no means anxious to have this bath, duly appeared in the kitchen in her dressing-gown. An eager crowd had collected there. The Russians have very few inhibitions regarding the naked body. The cook and the maids all were willing and anxious to assist the young barynya in her unusual ablutions. Standing at the door was Sashenka holding a bath-sheet. The door, unfortunately, had no lock. SashenkaТs intentions were immediately obvious. Nelly sent for Gherman and when he arrived ordered him to guard the door and allow noone under any circumstances to enter the room. That, she added, stood for him as well. With these words she vanished behind the door, but emerged shortly, red in the face and with an angry glint in her eyes. She passed no comment and hurried up to her bedroom. The experience of floundering up and down in her rocking bath and, in her vain attempts to get out, tumbling out of it, was never to be repeated.

In a street known as the Technical Street, close to his old home, Gherman rented a single-storeyed house of some six rooms. The rooms were spacious and light. The windows in the west wall overlooked the shady garden of the adjoining Technical School. From the french doors of what eventually was to become the nursery, steps went down to a small garden where Nelly enthusiastically planted many colourful annuals. In the courtyard were stables and outhouses. Mikhailo, who was the “kazachok” in the other house, the boy engaged to deliver messages and at the beck and call of everyone, was now promoted to coachman. The two handsome horses Gherman bought were the pride and joy of MikhailoТs life and he spent many happy hours grooming and taking care of them. A young kazachok was engaged to assist him as well as all the others in the house. His name was Pavel Tarasoff. A cook named Annushka, her assistant Manya, and a general servant, Irisha, completed the household.

With amazing adaptability and cheerfulness Nelly accepted the way of life so far removed from what she was accustomed to. She was not dismayed by the long dark days, the terrible frosts and blizzards such as she had never believed to be possible. She coulc not sit beside the comforting glow of a fireplace, foi no such thing existed, but the Russian stoves reaching up to the ceiling kept the house much warmer than her home in Scotland. She sat beside a lamplit table doing her embroidery or reading the novels of her favourite author, Marie Corelli, banned by her parents and often snatched from her hands as unsuitable reading for young ladies.

There was this lack of sanitation, but everything was arranged very nicely. The pride of place in the “little room” was the fine porcelain bath imported from abroad. That it had neither taps nor any outlet did not unduly trouble Nelly. Willing hands filled and emptied it and Nelly had her bath in cosy comfort. Nevertheless, in the end she found it more convenient to follow the custom of the others and regularly attended the banya in the town.

Gradually the house took shape. Furniture, carpets, dishes and the fine glass ordered in Moscow duly arrived. The boxes from Scotland were opened and the contents arranged as Nelly wished. She was now the mistress of her own home and did not ask for more.

Life was gay in Archangel during the first decade of this century and up to the time of the First World War. It was also considered to be the most cosmopolitan town in Russia. I remember my mother recalling her first party. Madame Surkova, the wife of a wealthy brewer, was celebrating her nameday. The invitation was for tea at 9 p.m. That meant, Gherman explained, full evening dress. “Full evening dress for a cup of tea?” was my motherТs comment. “How odd!” When they arrived at the party, their hostess was in the drawing-room, presiding over a silver samovar. “Come here, my dear,” she said to Nelly. “Perhaps you speak to me about your interesting England Ч yes?” My mother was by now accustomed to hearing her beloved country referred to as England.

Young maids with trays of cups and tiny cakes mingled with the guests.

Then the samovar was whisked away and tables were wheeled in, loaded with three shades of caviar Ч grey, black and deep orange, marinated herring, smoked salmon, ham pate, lobsters and cheeses. This was accompanied by an assortment of vodka and a liqueur much favoured by ladies Ч ribinovka, distilled from rowan berries.

The night wore on. When everyone appeared satiated, the tables were removed. Nelly took this to be a sign that the party was drawing to a close. She signalled to Gherman, who was in conversation with a group of men. He merely shook his head and continued talking. Exactly on the stroke of midnight, the butler announced dinner. Nelly was escorted in by her host and placed beside him. There followed a gargantuan feast Ч consomme with mushroom pirozhkies, sturgeon in wine, partridge breasts in cream, pancakes stuffed with caviar, a meat course, and then ice-cream of various flavours and fruit. Back in the drawing-room coffee was served. In the ballroom young people were taking to the floor. The married ladies sat gossiping for a while, but in the end left in their sledges. Their husbands retreated to the study where they played cards long after their wives were home and sleeping. At six oТclock breakfast was served after which the last of the “Tea Party” returned to their homes, changed and departed for business as usual.

During her sojourn in Russia, my mother corresponded regularly with her family, but especially with her brother Henry. Much of her correspondence with him was written on picture postcards of the town and of aspects of life there. She wrote mainly about domestic matters Ч the purchase of two new horses, a trip in a troika, Shrove week and pancakes, colouring Easter eggs, the Easter service, the weather, holidays, mosquitos in the garden.

And then one of momentous significance: “Dear Henry Ч I have received such glad news. Papa and mama are coming for a short visit. They are sailing from Leith on a cargo ship and returning on the same ship. Papa has suddenly decided to visit Russia, but perhaps you already know this? It will be lovely to see them again if even for a short time. I am so excited. Love, Nelly.” Soon after this postcard was sent off to India, my grandparents arrived in Archangel. Later it transpired that grandfather, true to himself, had one day surprised the family during his lunch hour by casually announcing that he had booked two berths on a cargo ship sailing from Leith to Archangel. Granny, who had never been out of the British Isles and harboured a secret longing to see something of the world outside them was overjoyed. This was also a heavensent opportunity to go on a special shopping spree, as only a few days earlier Nelly had written saying that she and Gherman were expecting their first child in early December.

A great welcome awaited them. A trip was arranged on a paddle steamer, of a few daysТ duration, along with Nelly and Gherman. My grandparents admired the rugged scenery and were duly impressed by the wealth of the timber regions. Their visit coincided with the arrival from Finland of my Aunt Olga and Uncle Oscar, accompanied by the entourage Ч six little daughters, a governess, a nanny, a wet nurse and Aunt OlgaТs own old mamka.

To mark this unique occasion, Babushka invited friends and relatives to meet my Scottish grandparents and threw a luncheon party. Tea was served later in the garden and a photographer invited to take a photo of the gathering. “It will be a memento of this happy day to be passed down to the children,” Babushka had remarked. A memento it is, of a hot summerТs day in early June so many years ago. The children sitting on the grass, their elders behind them and the pride of place given to the two old peasant women, my Aunt OlgaТs old mamka, and old Nanny Shalovchikha Ч she who had witnessed the retreat of NapoleonТs army through Smolensk.

My grandparents enjoyed their stay in Russia, and the warm-heartedness of all whom they met. They admired the garden and the house, they liked the broad streets and leafy gardens and the general peaceful atmosphere of a town where as yet life was close to nature. What left astrong impression on my grandfather was the singing of the workmen toiling to rebuild the pier. They laboured hard, dragging the beams with their bare hands down to the edge of the water. Their natural ability to sing in perfect harmony, to sustain them in their work, surprised my grandfather. He kept giving them money and gesturing for more songs, and they, to please this well-dressed “Angliski Barin”, went on singing.