The Midwife of St. Petersburg (5 page)

“A brilliant deduction.”

Konni lifted a note from the table and carried it to him on a small salver. “From Miss Tatiana, sir.”

Alex opened it and read the brief note. “Rasputin,” he muttered.

“I beg your pardon, sir.”

“The magnanimous Crow sisters are bringing Rasputin to meet the guests tonight, and I am blessed to be among the chosen few. From what I’ve heard, Konni, he’s a boor. It bothers me that Tatiana is so taken by him.”

“Yes sir, I quite understand. And all the more distressing when your military advancement is based upon marrying her.”

Alex glared at him. “You make it sound like I’m about to take on a liability.”

“Oh, no sir! Miss Tatiana is very beautiful.” Konni looked as innocent and saintly as ever.

“This marriage arrangement is deceiving no one.” Alex tossed the note onto the table. “Tatiana has her reasons, as I have mine.”

“And now, sir, there’s the duel to be fought. A very worrisome matter.” Konni frowned slightly.

“That couldn’t be helped,” Alex said. “Yevgenyev’s malice goes beyond
Miss Roskova. This is a personal grievance.” He sank into a chair and propped his feet up. Konni refilled his cup.

“I must say, Konni, I was a little surprised to discover Miss Peshkova and her sister were Tatiana’s cousins. She’s not mentioned them before.”

“With good reason, perhaps, sir.”

Alex put a hand behind his head and leaned back. He’d been on business for General Roskov all afternoon, and he was not looking forward to the evening.

Weariness, however, was not his only reason for contemplating how he might quietly escape the ball. The next two weeks could, if he allowed it, develop into a situation he wished to avoid. Alex finished his coffee and scowled at the cup. He pondered the moment of awareness that had occurred when he spoke with Karena Peshkova and marveled at how easily his plans could to be put in jeopardy by the arrival of a lovely girl with a red hat.

“The question, Konni, is what do I do about it, if anything?”

“You have my sympathy, sir. Ambition is a harsh taskmaster. Pardon me for saying so, but you are not the only one who wrestles with it. Miss Tatiana also seems an ambitious woman.”

“If I were smart,” Alex told Konni, “I’d pack my bag now and make some excuse to rejoin the Sokolov twins in St. Petersburg.”

Konni looked at him soberly from across the room, then went to the wardrobe and took out the travel bags. “I could always claim you came down with the Russian grippe, sir.”

“English grippe.”

“As you say.”

Alex drummed his fingers on the arm of the leather chair. He looked up at the ceiling and considered his options.

“I have never been a coward when it comes to women,” he said, “and I won’t start now. Who knows? By the time the clock strikes midnight, this
attraction may have disintegrated. I’ll come home from the ball with a clear mind, amused to think I even considered her.”

“It often happens, sir. Then again, it might turn out the other way. In which case, you won’t come home amused, sir, but smitten to the core by a poisoned arrow—straight to the heart. Then, sir, there’s no hope.”

Alex narrowed his gaze. “You’re most graphic, Konni. Yes … it could happen as you say, but I won’t allow it to happen to me. She’s just a girl. A little girl with braids.”

“Just so, sir.” Konni replaced the travel bags and closed the wardrobe doors.

Alex was sure he’d seen old Konni’s lip twitch with secret amusement.

Konni disappeared into the other room, and Alex leaned his head back against the chair and shut his eyes, hoping to sleep for an hour before going downstairs.

His plans for the future were too important to let slip from his grasp. If he must change them at all, he would do so only if he knew the military would not reward him with the future he wanted. In that situation, he might consider joining Michael in New York.

He stretched like a lazy lynx. What was another beautiful young woman? Brunettes, blondes, redheads—what did it matter? There were many such women. Karena Peshkova was simply one more. Tatiana was enough for any man. After two weeks, the girl with the golden braids and red hat would be a vanishing memory. She would return to Kiev, he to St. Petersburg. The war would come, and this brief episode would fade, carried along with the winds of time.

Alex drifted off sleep.

The afternoon was filled with last-minute preparations. Karena enjoyed her soak in the tub, then arranged her long, fair hair into the latest fashion
with assistance from the able hands of Madame Zofia’s personal maid. Having accomplished that intricate task, and well satisfied with the effect, Karena put on her modest peach and ivory dress with lace trim. This was her best evening dress, the one she wore to the opera in Kiev when Papa Josef took the family once a year to see Tchaikovsky’s
Swan Lake
.

As Karena stood for Natalia to button the clasp at the back of her neck, the bedroom door opened and Tatiana breezed in, smiling.

“Silk stockings, darlings!” She dropped two new pairs on the large, satin-covered bed.

“Ooh, delightful,” said Natalia, picking up a pair.

Karena admired Tatiana’s gown. It was a splendid creation of wine and black velvet. Tatiana appeared aglow with satisfaction, convincing Karena that she had news.

“
He
will be here tonight, after all. This was quite a feat on my part, I can tell you. I can hardly wait to introduce you to him.”

Karena was so excited she hugged her cousin. “Tatiana, this is wonderful! I’ve talked briefly with him before, but I’m sure he’ll not remember me. I usually see him from afar.”

“You’ve met him before? But when?” Tatiana asked, pulling away to stare at her.

“In Kiev, when I’ve gone on medical errands.”

“Oh, I see. Well, I suppose I should not be too surprised. By now, his reputation would have grown.” Tatiana glanced in the mirror and straightened the diamond brooch worn just below her shoulder. “The czarina adores him. The czar, too, for that matter. Everyone will hear how he’s come to my ball. They’ll be so envious. The news will burst like a firecracker all over St. Petersburg.”

Karena looked up from smoothing a final wrinkle from her dress, confused.
Is Dr. Zinnovy truly that influential?

“It was the Crow sisters who introduced us. He’s the talk of society in
St. Petersburg. Many there would die to have him at their parties, but I won out.”

Karena realized her mistake. “Then you are not discussing Dr. Zinnovy.”

“Zinnovy? Oh, you thought I meant the doctor.” Tatiana smiled. “No, of course not. I was speaking of the starets.”

Karena’s enthusiasm melted, but she forced herself to look interested for the sake of her cousin.

“Everyone in St. Petersburg is discussing Rasputin. It couldn’t be otherwise with the czarina relying on him. He’s graced of God.”

Graced of God
. The words caught Karena’s attention.

“Not that I am his disciple yet, but Mother is beginning to take him seriously, thanks to the czarina’s good friend, Anna Vyrubova. Anna introduced the czarina to Rasputin. The Crow sisters are bringing him. They know everything there is about holy men. They are going to arrange a table talk tonight.”

Karena wrinkled her nose. “Whatever is a table talk? A religious study of some sort?”

“I don’t know exactly. As I say, I’m just learning. But the Crow sisters are experts at this sort of thing. They’ve been traveling with Rasputin on some of his pilgrimages. You know—cooking, washing him—”

“Washing him?”

Tatiana shrugged and smoothed her hair before the gilded mirror. “I don’t know what that means, but it’s all holy, you can be sure. Anna Vyrubova can tell us everything we want to know. Anna is Rasputin’s main disciple. She saw Rasputin heal the czarina’s son. Think of it.” She turned to Karena, a spark of shrewdness in her dark eyes. “The little czarevitch, Alexei, has a blood disease, you know. A
bleeder
, they say.”

“A hemophiliac, you mean,” Karena said. She’d spent many hours studying her mother’s medical textbooks. Madame Yeva had attended the
Imperial College of Medicine and Midwifery in St. Petersburg. Karena had already decided that once she’d gained her legal certificate in midwifery, she would seek as much information as she could on various diseases and their cures. If little else, she could keep a journal of all she learned and use it among the peasants in her village.

“Imagine,” Tatiana said, “actually healing poor little Alexei. Yet Rasputin already has enemies at court. There are some in the
Duma
trying to convince Czar Nicholas to send him back to his village of Pokrovskoe. The czarina will never allow that to happen. If anyone wishes to be included in her inner circle, they’d best embrace Rasputin or expect to make themselves enemies of the Romanovs. I, for one, will embrace him.”

So that was their motive for arranging Rasputin’s reception tonight. News of the Roskov family receiving him as their honored guest would find its way into the private chambers of the czarina. But what did Madame Zofia and Tatiana expect to gain from the czarina’s favor?

“Who would have ever thought Siberia would give the Romanov family and holy Russia such a gift from God as Rasputin?” Tatiana asked, her eyes meeting Karena’s in the mirror.

Karena looked at her, troubled and uncertain. “Do you really believe that?”

“Of course. Why not? Anna is a witness. She was there in the czarevitch’s bedroom when Rasputin healed him.”

Karena wished to avoid controversy as much as possible—after all, she was here as a guest. She was also aware that she didn’t know enough about the Bible to be able to refute such a belief. “If it’s true, then it would be most thought provoking,” she finally said. “However, Sergei says—”

“Sergei says, Sergei says.” Tatiana’s eyes flashed with quick temper. “Your brother is a cynic. A Bolshevik, as well. Oh yes, he is—don’t protest. You’re always defending him. He’ll end up in the Siberian mines someday soon if he doesn’t keep a civil tongue about the czarina. That street
disturbance in St. Petersburg would’ve brought about his arrest if my parents hadn’t intervened with the czar. There Sergei was, shouting on the street with the revolutionaries supporting the factory workers’ walkout.”

“But he’s not a Bolshevik,” Karena said firmly. “He became involved by accident.”

“He
is
a revolutionary. He was expelled from the university and sent home last month.”

Karena was surprised. “How did you know? Papa Josef tried to keep it quiet.”

“You forget my father is a general in the Okhrana. The czar’s secret police know everything. With all the assassination attempts on Czar Nicholas, they must stay vigilant.”

While Tatiana’s father was in the Okhrana, she had no right to private information. Karena only knew about Sergei because he had confided in her about the trouble he was in with Papa Josef. How had Tatiana heard? Surely Uncle Viktor would not discuss his highly secretive work at the dinner table with two women as talkative as his wife and daughter.

Tatiana’s mouth turned. “No, I didn’t snoop in my father’s records, though that would be easy. He brings home files. Especially anything to do with friends and family. He wishes to protect us all, you see. No, it was Alex who asked me about Sergei. He was riding with the Cossacks at the time. They’d been sent in to break up the demonstration. He saw Sergei there and mentioned it to me just this afternoon.”

Karena remembered Kronstadt was now in the Okhrana. “Why is he inquiring about Sergei?” she asked cautiously. Sergei’s part in the factory demonstration posed no threat to anyone. He’d even been permitted reentry into the university this September.

Tatiana gave her a once-over. “He wanted to know if you shared your brother’s interest in the Bolshevik Party.”

“Sergei is highly opinionated about everything, and the gathering
lured him. He was punished, and it’s over now. And you know very well I have no interest in either Marx or Lenin.”

Tatiana smiled. “Of course I do. Let’s not discuss it anymore. Come. It’s time we went down. Where’s Natalia?”

“Coming,” Natalia called from her bedroom. She hurried out a moment later holding a pendant on her palm, her face flushed pink with exasperation and excitement.

“I can’t close the clasp.”

“Here, let me.” Tatiana reached for the pendant. There was a flash of red and white, and Tatiana’s breath caught. Karena stared at the glimmering jewels, an unusual ruby and diamond pendant in the form of a tulip, an emerald at the stem.

“It’s stunning.,” Tatiana breathed, transfixed.

Karena looked sharply at her sister. “Natalia! That belongs to Mother. It was her aunt’s from Finland. She didn’t allow you to take it, did she? Why, I’ve only been permitted to see it once.”

Natalia lowered her eyes, her cheeks crimson. “It’s kept in the safe. I borrowed it. Don’t worry so, I’ll return it. Stop looking at me like that, Karena.”

Karena couldn’t help herself. “Mother doesn’t know you borrowed it?”

“No. She wouldn’t have let me take it, and you know it.”

“Natalia,” Karena began, then lapsed into silence. She didn’t want to embarrass her sister before Tatiana any more than she already had.