Katya & The Prince of Siam

It was here one day when, deep in conversation, he saw his hostess was greeting a late arrival – a young girl with glorious red-gold hair standing hesitantly on the threshold. He rose to his feet and bowed as Mme Chrapovitzkaya introduced her: Ekaterina Ivanovna Desnitskaya. The expression of her grey-blue eyes and her air of modest dignity and shy assurance inexplicably went straight to his heart. And now it seemed to him that the genial hum of talk and laughter receded, leaving him alone with her and, while they drank tea, he learned she was seventeen – an orphan – and that she and her brother had left Kiev, their birth place, for St Petersburg, where her brother was studying for the Diplomatic Service at university, while she had enrolled as a volunteer nurse at the Princess Marie Hospital and, upon qualification, immediately intended to leave for the Front.

Every intonation of her youthful voice, each fleeting glance of her candid eyes and movement of her small yet capable hands seemed inexpressibly important to Chakrabongse. His habitual reserve was crumbling, the restraints of rigid discipline in which his youth had been confided were breaking, so that he felt suddenly free as a madman – for if ever a man fell madly in love, it was Chakrabongse at this point in his life. In that instant of losing not only heart but head, the entire pattern of his future altered and, as Byron said: ‘The fates changed horses’.

The idea that, so soon after their first meeting, she would be gone, that young and unprotected as she was, she might be maimed or killed, filled him with utter dismay. While she remained in St Petersburg however, he called on her almost daily, driving to the hospital situated on the Fontanka canal in an emblazoned imperial carriage, causing great excitement among the other student-nurses. But there was no weakening in Ekaterina’s resolve to ignore her impetuous lover and continue steadfastly with her decision to go and nurse the Russian victims of the Russo-Japanese war.

 

III

Katya’s Family

 

Ivan Stepanovitch Desnitsky, Katya’s father.

 

Maria Mihailovna Desnitskaya, Katya’s mother.

 

Ekaterina Ivanova Desnitsky’s father had been Chief Justice of the Lutz Tribunal in the Ukraine, where her mother Maria Milhailovna Khijniakoff’s family owned several large estates. As both her father and mother had been married and widowed previously, Katya – as she was always called by her family – had seven half-brothers and sisters, but only one full brother, Ivan, two years older than herself.

According to family diaries, her mother was a considerable beauty whose first husband, Pyotr Vladimirovitch Verdi, a talented engineer, had matched her in his handsome demeanour and, romantic temperament. The two had been deeply in love. But in 1883, five years after his early death, although courted by many, she accepted the hand of Ivan Stepanovitch Desnitsky who apparently lacked both good looks and charm but made up for them by being ‘serious and practical’.

In Lutz they lived harmoniously together and it was there that Ivan and Katya were born in 1886 and 1888, respectively. Although an excellent mother to her step-children and children, whom she described collectively as ‘yours, mine and ours’, because her husband adored her, ‘he would have no burdens laid on her’. He therefore engaged and instructed the servants and ordered the meals, while ‘Maria read novels late into the night, rose at two and took no part in the running of the household.’ In fact, one afternoon, having just risen from bed, she sauntered through the courtyard and, upon seeing a women unknown to her, the following exchange took place:

‘What can I do for you, my dear?’

‘Please M’am, I’m your cook.’

‘Really, how nice; have you been here long?’

‘Well, it’s been about a month.’

Unfortunately for Maria, she was only too soon deprived of this carefree existence as, in 1888, after only five years of her second marriage, Ivan Stepanovitch died, leaving her once more a widow and this time badly off, as his death occurred before his full pension had been earned.

As Lutz now held only sad memories, Maria removed to an apartment in Kiev where she had relatives and friends, and it was in this beautiful university city with its superb cathedral and noble architecture that the little Katya, who had been only two months old when her father died, was brought up. Although circumstances were straightened, she had a happy childhood and retained a great affection for Kiev itself, for its wooded hill, shady streets and gardens overlooking the Dnieper river far below. There were also long delightful holidays when the whole band of children were taken to visit their mother’s relations on their various estates – Krasnaya Sloboda, Kaptievka, Zubuyanaye, Trotstianka and Yurov.

 

 

Katya aged 14.

 

Ivan, Katya’s brother.