Challenging Ideas Rodya and Anya’s new dacha was undeniably nice, but as she sat with her siblings and parents and brother-in-law and pretended to sew, Tatiana wished that they were all back at their own dacha. All of them, that was, except Rodya, who could stay here, because Tatiana saw no real reason to have him.
All her traveling this summer had its uses, but she had not yet managed to stay out of the house long enough to get used to Anya not being there when she got back. The girls’ rooms felt strange and out of balance with only three of them in there, and she thought Sonia was faking her enthusiasm for having her own bedroom. They had always shared bedrooms; Tatiana had had trouble sleeping when she had first had her own at Sonora and couldn’t imagine how it would be to not have Katya on the other side of her room at home.
Why, she thought irritably, had everything had to change? They had all been happy, and Anya had been no more expensive to keep after she left school than she had been before. Why had she gotten married and gone off with Rodya so that this was the first time Tatiana had seen her since the wedding, which had happened the very week Tatiana had gotten home from school. And even now that they were all together again, they could not be the way they were, because Anya was sitting beside her husband and Mama and Papa were here and Tatiana and Sonia and Katya were sitting as guests, not as residents.
“…I must say again, it is a handsome property, Rodya,” said her papa, sounding as pleased as though it were his property.
“How are your neighbors?” asked Mama.
“We haven’t met the nearest ones,” said Anya.
“I have,” corrected Rodya. “They are good people, but not here this year.”
This sounded more interesting than most of the conversation. “Do you know why?” asked Tatiana.
Rodya grimaced as though he would rather not answer the question. “Problems with a daughter,” he said sadly. “Marfa – she is a nice girl,” he said, looking at Mama and Papa as though to assure them that he did not have Anya in a place frequented by bad company. “But last summer, she developed an attachment.”
Tatiana made a face, too. “Then I suppose they are visiting her at her husband’s new dacha?” she asked.
“Tatiana,” said Mama, slightly reprovingly. “Do not pester your brother-in-law.”
“It was an undesirable attachment,” explained Rodya. “So this year they have gone to France to visit family, see if she can form a better attachment to marry.”
“Why?” asked Tatiana. “Anya did not ask my opinion to marry you.”
“Tatiana!” said Mama again, this time very sharply, and Katya dropped her sewing.
“Tatya, I told you to eat more fruit at breakfast,” she chided, and Tatiana looked at her in confusion, as Katya had told her no such thing. Katya was flushing as she looked at the adults. “I am sorry, Rodya,” she said to their brother-in-law. “She is impossible when she does not eat.”
Rodya laughed and the room, aside from Tatiana, relaxed. Tatiana would have been furious anyway, but the fact Katya was gripping her wrist to the point it was painful would have prevented her from relaxing too much in any case. “And you are a good little mother,” he said.
“She is,” said Mama. “Katen’ka, take your sister to have some fruit.”
In the kitchen, however, Katya closed the door, then turned around and shoved Tatiana. “Katya!” she exclaimed, outraged.
Katya, however, looked just as angry. “Are you crazy, to speak to Rodya like that?” she asked. “And after Mama told you to stop?”
“He said he did not mind,” said Tatiana defensively.
“You know that was not true,” snapped Katya. “You are just still sulking because you don’t like Anya being married.”
“I am not sulking!” Tatiana glared at her sister. “What did I say wrong?” Katya just glared at her, and Tatiana crossed her arms defensively as her shoulders slumped in defeat, acknowledging Katya’s point. “But I do not see why I should pretend I am happy about it when I am not.”
“Grow up! This is how things are.”
Tatiana flushed, remembering Dorian saying something similar, in different circumstances, not long ago…. “Why should things be how they are, then?” she asked.
“Who are you to think you know a better way?” asked Katya. “Just a silly girl. What do you know? What do I know? Except that we have a good life. So eat some fruit and then come sit with us when you can act like a lady!”