Playing the piano too was easy for her, and her ability to languages helped her to master English and French without difficulty. All other subjects, such as geography, arithmetic, the history of the princess studied, of course, but without much zeal. It was much more interesting to her to sneak from a classy lady to read French love stories, which, incidentally, were strictly forbidden to be read by smolyanka.
But the young ladies, and then they are the young ladies, in order to clog their young, inexperienced heads with all kinds of romantic nonsense, and then, at night, in a mysterious whisper, discuss what they read with friends, dreaming that one day, each of them will have the same handsome hero as in the novels , and will take with him on a white horse.
So, what was forbidden was readly carefully passed from hand to hand, and even the members of secret political societies could envy the young ladies in the art of hiding evidence. Not once, in Adele’s memory, were they caught red-handed, that is, with a novel in their hands!
By the time when the young Princess Vyazemskaya was handed the certificate of graduation from the Smolny Institute, she received a pretty decent education and could well have been presented to the court or even applied for the post of maid of honor, which corresponded to her princely title.
But papa had her own plans for her daughter. Six years ago, Prince Vyazemsky received the post of first assistant ambassador of the Russian Empire to Britain and moved to London, and two years ago he acquired a luxurious mansion in Regency Park.
Mikhail and Adeline spent all these years in Russia, under the supervision of an old aunt, their father's cousin. Adeline gnawed at the granite of science in Smolny, and her brother attended a male gymnasium, and after that - the imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.
The young prince studied brilliantly and with all his heart strove for knowledge, which caused considerable pride of his father. By birth, Michael was enrolled in the imperial hussar regiment and managed to get the rank of lieutenant. The uniform went perfectly and the young man proudly wore a hussar uniform, evoking the admiring sighs of young ladies and ladies at balls and receptions.
Now that the princess’s education was completed, the father immediately called both offspring to his home in Britain. For Mikhail, he was preparing a career as a diplomat, and for Adele he was thinking about finding a rich and eminent spouse in the future, maybe even from the royal family, who knows? According to Andrei Alekseevich, his daughter was a real beauty and could well be paired with some duke or even a prince, since there were a dime a dozen of them in Europe.
No matter how biased the judgment of a loving father, he was not far from the truth: Adele really grew up a beauty. She was like a mother, having inherited from Elizabeth Rutland her thick wheat ringlets and light, as if porcelain, skin, but at the same time she took from her father dark, well-defined eyebrows and huge brown eyes under her long eyelashes, bent like an expensive French doll. This rare combination of brown eyes, dark eyebrows and eyelashes with blond hair involuntarily caught the eyes of those around her. And if we add to her bright appearance her natural grace, a slender figure and a charming smile, it became clear that the young Princess Vyazemskaya would become one of the most popular debutants this season.
Usually young girls from high society were taken to the public from the age of sixteen, and Adele had already missed two seasons in St. Petersburg, but, firstly, she did not want to go out for the first time without her father, and secondly, it was impossible for studying in Smolny.
At the end of the year, she should be eighteen years old, so her first appearance in society is planned here - in London. The ball season should begin very soon, thank God, she will have enough time to sew herself a new wardrobe for the most fashionable Parisian magazines for ladies.
Right today, she will go shopping and find out who is the most fashionable fashionista in London. By the way, in this matter, aunts and numerous cousins, who will definitely appear here today, will be able to enlighten her. Surely the father has already informed everyone about the arrival of his heirs.
Suddenly the dawn silence was broken by the cautious creak of the opening door, and a short, dark-haired girl with a long braid entered the room, dressed in a dark blue dress and a long white apron. In her hands she carried a small copper basin and a tall porcelain jug with water for washing. This was Nastya, the serf girl of Vyazemsky and the personal maid Adele, as well as the main attorney of all the secrets of her young lady and the constant accomplice of various minor dirty tricks of the young princess.
Seeing Nastya, Adele quickly jumped off the windowsill, which frightened the girl, who clearly did not expect to see the lady in bed.