Everyone looked at Serafima, who shrank back, and then her mother raised a hand to her eyes and peered out through the lights. ‘Are you there, Serafimochka?’
‘Yes,’ she replied.
‘Meet me in my dressing room,’ Sophia shouted, her voice echoing around the cavernous studio. She certainly didn’t need a loudspeaker, thought Serafima.
In the dressing room, which smelled of tulips, face powder and greasepaint, a flotilla of assistants seemed to be working on different parts of her mother. One was removing make-up, dabbing at Sophia’s face with a sponge; a second was pulling off her boots; a third was setting bouquets into vases while Sophia lay back in a chair smoking a cigarette in a holder.
‘There you are, Serafima! How was it in Turkestan? As you can see, they’re overworking me as usual but it’s not easy for actresses of my age. There are always ingénues coming up, willing to do anything to get the parts and every one of them has a “patron”, some boss to pull strings for them…’
‘Mama, I need to speak to you on your own.’
‘Is it something important?’
‘Yes, Mama.’
‘You can trust my ladies-in-waiting, can’t she, girls?’
‘Of course!’ the assistants trilled.
‘No, it’s really private,’ Serafima insisted. ‘And urgent. Would you mind?’
‘Oh, all right. Leave us, girls.’
When the room was empty, Serafima told Sophia that she had met an American man and they were engaged to be married.
Sophia looked shocked. ‘You don’t have to marry him, surely,’ she said.
‘We’re in love, Mama,’ Serafima said, ‘and we’re going to live in America.’
‘What?’ Sophia seemed stricken. ‘You’re going to leave me and Papa? You can’t do that.’
Serafima smiled. ‘You told me often enough to follow your heart, Mama, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.’
‘And you’re engaged? I don’t see a ring. Is there a diamond?’
‘I tried it on before I went away and it fits me perfectly. But it’s so big that I gave it back to him. I’ll put it on in America.’
‘You gave it back? I’ve never given back a jewel in my life. Oh Serafimochka! Why an American? Your papa and I will never see you.’ Sophia gave a sob and started to cry. Yet to Serafima, even her tears seemed oversized and extravagant.
Suddenly, she dabbed her eyes, the mascara smearing on her cheeks. ‘Congratulations, my darling. But… when are you planning to go? Surely we can meet him first?’
‘Soon, Mama.’
‘But you know your timing is terrible for me, darling, don’t you?’
‘I can’t delay going, Mama.’
Sophia put down the cigarette and took Serafima’s hands in her own. ‘Please delay going abroad. For my sake.’
‘I can’t. He’s waiting for me. He wants to take me to America right away. I want to be with him and when I was in prison—’
‘But you’re home now. You can go abroad with him anytime. I know an actress who married an English journalist and she went to London with him just a few weeks ago. What difference does it make if you wait just a few weeks?’
Serafima frowned. ‘But why?’
‘Because I’m up for the most important part of my life. Papa’s written a special role for me as the Tsarina in
Serafima cursed her mother – her selfishness, her egocentricity – but she loved her too and she wanted her to be happy. Besides, this involved her father too. Did she want her marriage to start with her mother’s unhappiness? Could she build her future on the disappointment of the ones she loved?
‘Please, do this for me,’ Sophia was saying. ‘My life’s no bed of roses. Do you think everything’s perfect with your father and me? Every day’s a Gethsemane! You’ve attracted attention with your Romantics’ Club antics, and I’m alone so much. All I’m asking you to do is wait a few more weeks before you tell people what you’re going to do.’
‘How long do you need?’ Serafima asked.
‘Three weeks and the casting will be decided. Shall we say a month?’
What could change in a month? But Serafima felt a grinding uneasiness come over her. It was true that the Children’s Case had embarrassed her mother. In fact, it could have ruined her career and she had never once complained. She shook her misgivings away, turned and hugged her.
‘Just a month, Mama,’ she said. ‘Just a month, and then Frank and I are leaving for America.’
