Rapture of the Desert: the grandmother edition

When last we left them, Chrys (a ballerina recovering from a terrible fall) and Prince Anton (a prince) were having dinner and dancing at a fancy Regency-style club in London. Then Prince Anton heads out into the night with Chrys in his car: destination unknown.

While they’re driving, we learn a little bit more about both of them.  As is common in many romances, Prince Anton had a strained relationship with his mother.  As in, she divorced his father and deserted him. She was too “selfishly gay” and needed more attention than his father gave her, and so ran away with a “French artist who came to North Africa to paint the Ouled Nail dancers, and the Arabian cavalry, and all the wonders I remember from my boyhood” (55).  Even Anton's tragic past is full of Orientalist motifs!

Anton tells Chrys that in the old days, this journey might be described as a “Cossack abduction, with the man snatching the girl away on the back of his horse and riding full tilt across the steppes with her” (60). Another commonality between Cossacks and sheiks, I suppose. As it turns out, Anton is taking them to Kent (which apparently reminds him a little of certain parts of Russia, due to the scent of apple orchards – UK and/or Russian readers: any truth to this?) to…wait for it…visit his grandmother!

He’s definitely a bit of a jerk, but his grandmother is charming (as is usually the case). She is also wearing a fabulous outfit: “a kaftan of deep-purple brocade, trimmed with braid around the full sleeves […] her hair was covered by a kind of veil, almost nun-like” (64). She has henna on her hands. And she is very happy to see her grandson. 

Anyway, they all have tea and sandwiches together and talk about Madame’s old days as a Russian ballerina and the nature of passion (both for people and for a career). Then Madame shows Chrys her guestroom and leaves her for the night, leaving behind “a subtle insinuation” which seems “redolent of the distant East” (79).

But when are we going to the East, that’s what I want to know?! So many hints, but no action yet!

We’ll see next time…