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From Russia With Love

Chapter Twenty-eight - Spyashchaya krasavitsa

The weeks that followed her first day at the company seemed to slip by quickly from there on, and Dominika soon settled into the rhythm of her new life in America. Her relationship with the Ways had blossomed and she felt closer to them than she ever thought possible, especially Donna, who endeavored to spend as much time with her as she could.

At the ballet school she’d become friendly with the girls who had introduced themselves that first day, Daphne and Harriet. Daphne, the red-head, was loud and boisterous, lacking a social filter, but it was something Dominika admired in her. She wished that she too could be so uninhibited by etiquette and convention. Harriet was quieter, more of a follower than a leader, but a sweet girl and a talented dancer. Dominika liked them both, and enjoyed having female friends for the first time in her life that saw her just like any other girl.

These weeks had also been marked with guilt, as every time Dominika lost herself in the moment and found herself enjoying it, something would remind her of the family she grieved, left behind in Russia. It was painful to know they would have been laid to rest by now, without her there. She didn’t even know where they were entombed. Dominika never spoke of her family with her new-found friends, and she was grateful they never asked.

She spent six days a week at the ballet company, sometimes up to ten hours a day. Each day was broken up into classes, warm-up in the mornings just after sunrise, toning classes, choreography, control and resistance workshops and of course endless drills of dances created by the teachers in order to build strength and discipline that sometimes stretched into the early evenings. When Dominika knew she’d overstay her timetable, she’d text John on the cell phone she’d been given and ask to be picked up at a later time. She felt bad that most of his life seemed to revolve around her schedule, but he waved her off, saying he enjoyed the routine of the job, always having somewhere to go or somewhere to be. It kept him busy.

Her relationship with Gerard had also shifted and changed, despite the distance between them. They wrote letters back and forth across the ocean, and with every one she received, her heart swelled a little more and she fell more and more in love with the idea of being his bride. To be honest, Dominika wasn’t even sure it was still on the cards, but whatever they had, she adored it, and wanted to nurture and watch it grow. She had found herself lying in bed late at night, imagining what it would be like when he came back to America, the first time they saw each other again. Her face would flush with heat in the dark, imagining him kissing her for the first time in so long again. She often wondered to herself if he thought about it, too, wherever he was.

It was so cold outside now she wore a heavy woolen ivory coat as she stood on the porch of her American home, waiting for John to pull up the driveway in his latest project. He’d been telling her of a new project car he’d acquired through an old friend he’d been working on for months that was finally nearly finished. Today was supposed to the day he took it out for its maiden voyage, and Dominika was excited to see the end result after being subjected to every last detail of the damn thing in the passing weeks.

Icy wind blew across the lawn and pushed her hair back as she rifled through her bag, searching for new leather-lined gloves stashed somewhere down the bottom. She slipped them onto her hands just as a sleek white car ambled up the winding driveway.

This car was vastly different from the Bentley, flat and rectangular with a low profile and a bulbous cabin with two seats instead of four. John stopped the car at the front steps, getting out and beaming proudly as he gestured over the car grandly.

“What do you think?” he asked “does it live up to all the hype?”

“Very nice” Dominika replied, approaching it and running her hand along the shiny waxed finish of the bonnet “what is it?”

“1957 Ford Thunderbird” John replied, opening the passenger door “she’s worth a mint now she’s restored”

Dominika slipped into the passenger seat and stroked the red leather of the interior appreciatively.

“Nice, is this original?”

“You bet”

They took off down the driveway, John driving faster than usual. Excited by his new toy, Dominika guessed. It took them less than ten minutes to pull into the company lot today, traffic light. She noticed frost on the grass beyond as they parked in the usual space and pulled her coat tighter around her despite the warmth of the car’s heater.

“Have a good day, Domi” John said as she stepped out of the car, hoisting her bag over her shoulder.

“You too. See you later”

She closed the car door and set off into the building, eager to find her friends. They had warm-up together every morning and also managed to use the time to chat. Daphne was already there, waiting outside the door. She leant against the brick wall, headphones in her ears and eyes closed as she mouthed the words to a song silently. Dominika touched her on the shoulder, trying not to startle her, but Daphne still jumped and spun around, surprised till she saw her friend.

“Hey, you scared me!”

“Sorry” Dominika laughed “what are you listening to?”

“An old band from the eighties, embarrassing music” Daphne smirked, yanking one of the headphones out of her ear and passing it to Dominika.

“I bet you won’t like it”

Dominika pushed the headphone into her ear and blocked her other ear, listening quietly. She turned to Daphne after a moment, screwing up her face.

“My parents listen to this stuff”

She stopped dead in her tracks, realizing she’d mentioned her parents out loud. She quickly pulled the ear piece from her ear and handed it back to Daphne, swishing her hair over one side of her face. Daphne didn’t seem to notice her sudden shift in demeanor as she turned her music player off and stuffed it into her bag.

Miss Rubenstein turned up then, and greeted the class as she unlocked the door to the studio.

“Good morning girls, get ready for an important session today, we have a special guest” Miss Rubenstein said, eyes bright with delight.

“Who is it?” Daphne hissed beside her, nudging Dominika with her elbow.

“How should I know?” she whispered back.

They filed into the classroom behind the teacher just as Harriet appeared, running down the hallway towards them. She was out of breath as she reached the building, going over to stand with her friends.

“Just made it” she panted “my bus was running late”

“You’re just in time, apparently there’s some big mystery guest visiting today” Daphne said, bending down to rifle through her bag again. She plucked out her pink ballet slippers and sank cross-legged to the floor as the other girls prepared themselves to the same.

Dominika had traded in using her beautiful lilac slippers Donna had bought her for the generic ones supplied by the company, wanting to preserve the beautiful original pair that reminded her of being a young, amateur ballerina. She carried an old pair she’d been using for the last week in her bag, but she knew the shank was almost broken, and she wanted to start the important day with new shoes. Dominika retrieved a pair of the plain pink satin slippers in her size from a long shelf on the west wall of the room and knelt on the floor, flexing them back and forth to soften the soles.

She chatted idly with her friends as she prepared her shoes, scoring the soles with a sharp retractable knife the company kept for just that purpose. She pulled her little sewing kit from her bag and slipped one of the shoes on her foot, threading a needle and weaving stiches of fine thread into the sides of the slipper, customizing its shape to suit her foot. When she was happy with both shoes, she took them off again and put them on the floor beside her, flexing her feet in anticipation.

Dominika taped her toes with the small coil of white tape she kept in her sewing kit to prevent blisters, dusting her feet with powder to help them grip to her new shoes. She tied them to her feet eagerly, stretching her arches when they were secure, adjusting them to her liking. The shoes groaned in protest, stiff and unworn, but the feeling was exciting. She loved breaking in a new pair of shoes, and that never seemed to change, regardless of the fact she sometimes went through a new pair of shoes each day.

As each girl readied herself for the class, she’d stand and begin to stretch using the bar, waiting for the other students to join. When everyone was ready, Miss Rubenstein began her instructions, demonstrating each movement to the class as they went. Dominika stood between Daphne and Harriet, eyes glued on the teacher as she mimicked her perfectly, muscles warming.

Gentle piano music continued to play as the door to the studio opened, a man with dark hair greying on the sides entered the studio and strode over to Miss Rubenstein, shaking her hand. They spoke in whispers for a few minutes before their teacher addressed the class suddenly, clapping her hands together.

“Girls, this is Nikolai Dragunov, most of you will know him already, but for the newcomers who don’t, he is the director of our company, please make him feel welcome”

The small group clapped reservedly, a sense of unease about them. Dominika could feel the tension but she had no idea what caused it. Was this man disliked by her peers?

“Mr. Dragunov is here today to watch your warm-up and choose potential candidates to audition for roles for our biggest production of the year” she turned to the older man “would you like to fill the girls in on the details, Nik?”

“Ladies, this year our starring production will be The Sleeping Beauty originally written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and performed onstage in Russia in 1890. I’m sure the majority of you will have at least heard of it”

Dominika jumped with excitement internally, instantly remembering scenes she’d preformed from the very same play as a younger teenager. She’d had a ballet teacher who particularly loved that piece and had taught Dominika to dance many of its key roles. Her favorite had always been one of the leading characters, that of Princess Aurora, the King and Queen’s daughter. She had identified with that role beyond the blatant similarity of royalty and she loved the character’s graceful, unrestrained style of dance that allowed her to let go a little. Butterflies beat against her chest imagining herself dancing as the Princess on the company’s colossal stage, the applause of thousands of people roaring in her ears.

“Continue, please, ladies” said the director, taking a seat in the center of the mirrored room. The tension seemed to mount in the air as the music played, each girl rigid with every ounce of disciple she had to muster, putting on a show. Dominika moved carefully, exercising control in each of her positions as she progressed from one pose to another.

She kept focused straight ahead but still noticed Miss Rubenstein and Mr Dragunov talking quietly. The female teacher nodded and left Nikolai in his seat, starting to wander up the wide aisle between the two rows of ballet dancers. She looked back at him for a moment and shrugged, Nikolai nodded, smirking, and Miss Rubenstein touched the girl she stood next to lightly, moving to the next.

She worked her way through both rows of dancers, touching what seemed like every second girl lightly on the shoulder as she went, always looking back to the director for instruction. As she passed Dominika, the Princess was sure she was going to be missed, but sure enough, Miss Rubenstein paused, looked back for a moment and then touched Dominika so lightly on the shoulder she wasn’t sure if it had happened at all. She grinned happily as the teacher patted Daphne, too.

At the end of the line, Miss Rubenstein gestured to the director who rose to his feet, smiling broadly at the group of nervous dancers in front of him.

“Thank you for letting me watch you, ladies. Those that Miss Rubenstein touched, please meet me in the Linden studio at the end of your classes today. The rest of you, thank you for time”

Dominika watched him turn and leave before she looked to her friends, eyes blazing with excitement. Daphne spoke before she could even open her mouth.

Sleeping Beauty?” she said, incredulous “could he have picked anything more abstract? I’ve never even heard of it!”

“I have” Dominika said softly “it’s a beautiful piece”

Daphne rolled her eyes and pulled her black baggy jumper over her pastel pink leotard.

“We’ll see”

Notes

Thank you, readers <3

Comments

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Jackie Jackie
12/15/17

Thank you for the update!! It was a surprise & wonderful!

I’m so sorry to read about your husband. What a difficult & heartbreaking thing to go through. Thinking of you.

Jackie

Jackie Jackie
12/14/17

I love this story!! It’s so good!

Has it Really been two years since an update?

Jackie Jackie
11/30/17

I literally screamed when I saw this update.

AccidentalMurder AccidentalMurder
11/25/15

You've got quite a few loyal readers that will stick w this story no matter how long the break is.