The Jewel of St Petersburg

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

One - TESOVO, RUSSIA JUNE 1910

Two

Three - ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA DECEMBER 1910

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-one

Twenty-two

Twenty-three

Twenty-four

Twenty-five

Twenty-six

Twenty-seven

Twenty-eight

Twenty-nine

Thirty

Thirty-one

Thirty-two

Thirty-three

Thirty-four

Thirty-five

Thirty-six

Thirty-seven

Thirty-eight

Thirty-nine - ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA FEBRUARY 1917

Forty

Forty-one

Forty-two

Teaser chapter

PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF KATE FURNIVALL

The Girl from Junchow

“An engrossing adventure that sweeps readers in lush waves of drama and romance.”

—
Library Journal

“Furnivall deftly evokes the details of a bygone era.”

—
Publishers Weekly

The Red Scarf

“This romantic confection can make a reader shiver with dread for the horrors visited on the two heroines imprisoned in a labor camp and quiver with anticipation for their happy endings. Furnivall shows she has the narrative skills to deliver a sweeping historical epic.”

—
Library Journal

“Furnivall again pinpoints a little-known historical setting and brings it vividly to life through the emotions and insights of her characters. Beautifully detailed descriptions of the land and the compelling characters who move through a surprisingly upbeat plot make this one of the year’s best reads.”

—
Booklist

The Russian Concubine

“I read it in one sitting! Not only a gripping love story, but a novel that captures the sights, smells, hopes, and desires of Russia at the dawn of the twentieth century, and pre-Revolutionary China, so skillfully that readers will feel they are there.”

—Kate Mosse

“The kaleidoscopic intensity of British writer Kate Furnivall’s debut novel,
The Russian Concubine,
compellingly transports us back to 1928 and across the globe to the city of Junchow in northern China... Lydia is an endearing character, a young woman with pluck and determination... With artistry, Furnivall weaves a main plot that hinges on Lydia’s love affair with Chang An Lo, a Chinese youth who is a dedicated Communist at a time when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists are gaining ground... Furnivall’s novel is an admirable work of historical fiction.”

—
Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Furnivall vividly evokes Lydia’s character and personal struggles against a backdrop of depravity and corruption.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“The wonderfully drawn and all-too-human characters struggle to survive in a world of danger and bewildering change... caught between cultures, ideologies—and the growing realization that only the frail reed of love is strong enough to withstand the destroying winds of time.”

—Diana Gabaldon

“This stunning debut brings the atmosphere of 1920s China vividly to life.... Furnivall draws an excellent portrait of this distant time and place.”

—
Historical Novels Review

Also by the author

THE RUSSIAN CONCUBINE
THE RED SCARF
THE GIRL FROM JUNCHOW

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright © 2010 by Kate Furnivall

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Furnivall, Kate.

p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-18813-2

1. Young women—Russia (Federation)—Saint Petersburg—Fiction. 2. Aristocracy (Social class)—Russia (Federation)—Saint Petersburg—Fiction. 3. Saint Petersburg (Russia)—Fiction. I. Title. II. Title: Jewel of Saint Petersburg.

PR6116.U76J48 2010

823’.92—dc22

2010012308

http://us.penguingroup.com

To Carole and Wendy
with love

Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful to Jackie Cantor for her patience and humor while bringing this book through its birth pangs, and to all her team at Berkley, especially Pam Barricklow, a true miracle worker. Many thanks also to Amy Schneider for her impressive skill in polishing the manuscript.

Brilliant thanks to my agent, Teresa Chris, for her constant guidance, as perceptive as ever, and to Patty Moobrugger for her support.

My gratitude also to Elena Shifrina for her enthusiastic assistance with research and the Russian language, and to Susan Clark for her musical advice. I am indebted to Marian Churchward for transforming my scrawl into a readable manuscript and for sharing my chocolate biscuits.

Huge thanks to my husband, Norman, for his encouragement and understanding, and especially for his cool ideas.

One

TESOVO, RUSSIA JUNE 1910

V
ALENTINA IVANOVA DID NOT INTEND TO DIE. NOT HERE. Not now. Not like this. With dirty feet and tangled hair and her life barely started. She looked down at her fingers in the fuzzy green gloom of the forest and was surprised to see them so steady. Inside she was shaking.

She always paid attention to fingers rather than faces because they told so much more. People remembered to guard their faces. They forgot their hands. Her own were small, though strong and supple from all the hours of piano playing, but what use was that now? For the first time she understood what real danger does to the human mind, as flat white fear froze the coils of her brain.

She could run. Or she could hide. Or she could stay where she was, molded to the trunk of a silver birch, and let them find her.

Dark figures were flitting silently from tree to tree, swallowed by the sullen vastness of the forest around her. She couldn’t see them now, couldn’t hear them, yet she knew they were there. They seemed to vanish like beetles into the bark, invisible and untraceable, but each time she flicked her head suddenly to one side or the other, she caught their movement at the corner of her eye. A trail of air, thin and secretive. A shift of light. A break in the twilight of the forest floor.

Who were these people? They carried rifles, but they didn’t look like hunters. What hunters wore black hoods? What hunters had face masks with narrow slits for eyes and a jagged hole for a mouth?

She shivered. She wasn’t willing to die.