Read Online The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin, Andrew Bromfield - Free Book Online

forbade us to gossip about Kokorin, but I have learned something rather curious.”
    He stopped for a moment, pleased by the effect this had produced, and everyone turned to look at him.
    “Don’t be so tiresome, Anton Ivanovich, tell us,” said a fat man with a high forehead who looked like a prosperous lawyer.
    “Yes, don’t be tiresome.” The others took up the refrain.
    “He didn’t simply shoot himself, it was a case of American roulette, or so the governor-general whispered to me today in the chancellery,” the plump gentleman informed them in a meaningful tone of voice. “Do you know what that is?”
    “It’s common knowledge,” said Hippolyte, shrugging his shoulders.
    “You take a revolver and put in one cartridge. It’s stupid but exciting. A shame the Americans thought of it before we did.”
    “But what has that to do with roulette, Count?” the old man with the diamond star asked, mystified.
    “Odds or evens, red or black, anything but zero!” Akhtyrtsev cried out and burst into loud, unnatural laughter, gazing challengingly at Amalia Bezhetskaya (or at least so it seemed to Fandorin).
    “I warned you that I would throw out anyone who mentioned that,” said their hostess, now angry in earnest, “and banish them from my house forever! A fine subject for gossip!”
    An awkward silence fell.
    “But you won’t dare banish me from the house,” Akhtyrtsev declared in the same familiar tone. “I would say I have earned the right to speak my mind freely.”
    “And how exactly, may I inquire?” interjected a stocky captain in a guards uniform.
    “By getting plastered, the snot-nosed pup,” said Hippolyte (whom the old man had addressed as ‘count’), deliberately attempting to provoke a scandal. “With your permission, Amelia, I’ll take him outside for a breath of fresh air.”
    “When I require your intervention, Hippolyte Alexandrovich, you may be sure that I shall request it,” Cleopatra replied with a hint of malice, and the confrontation was nipped in the bud. “I’ll tell you what, gentlemen. Since there is no interesting conversation to be got out of you, let’s play a game of forfeits. Last time when Frol Lukich lost, it was quite amusing to see him embroidering that flower and pricking his poor fingers so badly with the needle!”
    Everyone laughed merrily, apart from one bearded gentleman with a bobbed haircut whose tailcoat sat on him slightly askew.
    “Well, my dear Amalia Kazimirovna, you’ve had your fun at the old merchant’s expense…Serves me right for being such a fool,” he said humbly, with a northern provincial accent. “But honest traders always pay their debts. The other day we risked our dignity in front of you, so today why don’t you take the risk?”
    “Why, the commercial counselor is quite right!” exclaimed the lawyer. “A fine mind! Let Amalia Kazimirovna show some courage. Gentlemen, a proposal! Whichever one of us draws the forfeit will ask our radiant one to…well…to do something quite extraordinary.”
    “Quite right! Bravo!” The cries came from all sides.
    “Could this be rebellion? Pugachev’s revolt?” Their dazzling hostess laughed. “What on earth do you want from me?”
    “I know!” put in Akhtyrtsev. “A candid answer to any question. No prevaricating, no playing cat and mouse. And it must be tête—à—tête.”
    “Why tête—à—tête?” protested the captain. “Everybody will be curious to hear.”
    “If ‘everybody’ is to hear, then it won’t be candid,” said Bezhetskaya with a twinkle in her eye. “Very well, then, let us play at being candid—have it your way. But will the lucky winner not be afraid to hear the truth from me? The truth could prove rather unpalatable.”
    Rolling his r like a true Parisian, the count interjected: “ J’en ai le frisson d’y penser. * To hell with the truth, gentlemen. Who needs it? Why don’t we have a game of American roulette instead? Well—not