The Jewel of St Petersburg

Forty-one

A SOUND LIKE THE HAMMER OF THOR POUNDED THROUGH the city of Petrograd and rattled the windows like bones in a grave. It startled Valentina from her book and woke Lydia, who scurried in her nightdress into her mother’s bed with wide excited eyes. Valentina could feel her daughter’s heart fluttering as she held her close. She looked at the clock. It was nine forty-five in the evening of October 24, 1917.

“Is it thunder, Mama?”

“No, my love. It sounds like a gun.”

Lydia’s eyes grew large as plates. “A big one.”

“Yes, a very big one. I think it’s a ship’s gun.”

“Which ship?”

“I don’t know.” But her blood froze in her veins. She was certain what it was: a signal for the revolution to start.

Arkin could have told her. It was the Aurora.

IT WAS FOUR O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING AND VALENTINA stood under the freezing night sky, watching her world burn. There were no stars, no comets, nothing spectacular to mark the event. But somewhere in the distance above the roofs of the city, a fire was burning a hole in the darkness and its glow stripped away any last shred of hope in her heart that Russia could pull itself back from the brink.

What did it mean? For Jens. For her daughter. For her parents. Their world had gone. The ground beneath her feet was shifting, and her hand gripped onto the wrought-iron gates of her house as if their flimsy metal could stop the universe from crashing down on her.

Jens, are you here in the city? Did you hear the ship’s gun?

She was convinced he was still alive, still breathing in the same night air she was breathing. Why Arkin wouldn’t put a bullet in the brain of the man who had crippled him, she had no idea, but nothing would convince her he was dead. Nothing. She tightened her grip on the icy metal of the gate. It was the way his thoughts seemed to seep in to her mind. She would be stirring kasha in a saucepan, morning porridge for breakfast, and suddenly she would hear him sigh and know he was picturing the way she tucked her hair behind her ear and clenched the tip of her tongue between her teeth when she was concentrating. She would swing around from the stove, but he was never there. Or when she was angry with the urchins downstairs for kicking a ball through a window when glass was impossible to obtain, she heard Jens thinking at that exact moment that the country’s children were illiterate and that the first thing the revolution must bring about was free and compulsory education for all.

She clung to his thoughts. As each one slipped into her mind, she wrapped it carefully as one would a precious object in cotton-wool, collected them the way a lepidopterist collects butterflies. She took them out to listen to again and again while she lay in their bed at night, holding his pillow. Now she watched the fire push back the darkness of the city but her own darkness remained, solid and absolute.

“You’ll not find him in those flames.” The voice came at her out of the night.

“Liev?”

Liev Popkov’s huge form stepped out of the shadows into a pool of lamplight so she could see it was him. Bigger than ever. A patch covered the empty eye socket and black corkscrew curls spilled down over the scar on his forehead. She was pleased to see him. That surprised her.

“No horses now?” He gestured toward the stables where he used to play cards with Jens, and it occurred to Valentina for the first time that he must miss his friend.

“No, I sold them.”

Without even asking, whole families had moved into her stables as soon as they were empty, sleeping in the stalls, wrapped up in straw at night and eating oats from the tubs. She didn’t object. She didn’t care. She wanted to feel something for them, but she couldn’t. People like these were the reason she had lost her husband. Lost her sister. These were the ones Arkin was fighting for. Don’t you see what you’re doing? she wanted to shout at them. Don’t you see that you’re destroying all that is good about Russia, as well as all that is bad?

Quickly she drew Popkov out of the light. “You have news?”

“Yes.”

“About Jens?”

“No.”

She made no sound, not even the faintest gasp, though disappointment was cracking her bones. “Who then?”

He gave a chuckle and she wanted to seize his beard and shake it. “Who?” she asked again.

“A man called Erikov. I’ve heard he has Comrade Lenin’s ear.”

“What’s that to me?”

“His name is Viktor Erikov.”

Her heart stopped. “Viktor Erikov?”

“Arkin has changed his name. That’s why we couldn’t find the murdering bastard.”

“Why would he do that?”

The big shadow shifted. “Because of your family. Because the name of Arkin was too close to Minister Ivanov. He’s putting distance between them.”

She nodded. “Do you know where he is?”

“Not yet. But I will.”

“You’ll tell me?”

“Da. It will probably get you killed, but I will tell you. Stay indoors till then.”

“Where are the revolutionaries?”

“Everywhere. The bloody Bolsheviks have occupied the railway stations and taken over the telephone exchange. They’ve even stormed the State Bank. They mean business, so stay indoors.”

“Thank you, Liev.”

A shrug and he turned to leave.

“Liev.” She held on to his arm. It felt like rock. “I’m sorry about your eye. Take care of yourself.”

He growled something inaudible, a deep rumble in his granite chest, and loped away into the night.

STAY HERE, LYDIA. KEEP THE DOOR LOCKED. DO NOT OPEN it to anyone.”

“What if I want the lavatory, Mama?”

“Use the bucket.”

The dainty nose wrinkled in distaste.

“I mean it, Lydia.”

“Where are you going?”

“To find Papa.”

The small heart-shaped face beamed back at her. “Can I come?”

“No. You must be good. Papa will only come back if you are good.”

“I’ll be good, Mama.”

Her daughter put on her angel face, but Valentina wasn’t fooled. “I mean it. Don’t unlock the door. Promise me.”

“I promise.”

She kissed her daughter’s wild hair and made herself believe her.

VALENTINA!”

She stood in Dr. Fedorin’s doorway but glanced warily over her shoulder. The city was quiet now. Like a wolf sleeping after a good night’s kill. But that didn’t mean it wouldn’t kill again.

Fedorin pulled her into his house and shut the door quickly. “You shouldn’t be out on the streets today, Valentina. It’s too dangerous.”

“I just came to find out what you’d heard.”

“My dear girl, the city has exploded in our faces. The Bolshevik revolution is tearing Petrograd apart, and their Red Guard is arresting anyone and everyone who isn’t one of their own. Factory bosses, bankers, and politicians of every kind are-” He stopped as he saw her lips turn white.

“My father is one of those politicians.”

He shook his head in despair. “Don’t go to him, my dear.”

“I have to. What about you?”

“Don’t worry, I’m safe. I’m a doctor. They are going to need me. I see you have your nurse’s uniform on, so that should help to keep you safe, too.”

She opened the door in a hurry. “That’s what I’m counting on.”

IT HAD GONE WELL. BETTER THAN ARKIN DREAMED OF. Kerensky’s government had rolled over like a dead sheep and allowed the Reds to seize power. But-he smiled to himself as he considered Kerensky’s stupidity-tonight would come as a shock. Tonight at the Winter Palace they would all be arrested. Kerensky’s cabinet would be locked in the cells of the Peter and Paul Fortress before the day was finished. He walked around and around his office to ease the ache in his leg and waited for the next prisoners to be brought in.

His mind turned to Friis. Every day he thought of the engineer. And of the Ivanova girl. They were thorns in his flesh that he couldn’t cut out, however sharp his blade. He drew on his cigarette, drowning his lungs in smoke but unable to drown the image of the pair of them that was lodged in his mind, the memory of them running through the rain together, arms linked, unable to keep their eyes off each other.

She’d been right. Valentina Ivanova knew exactly what she was doing. He did think of her every day, just as she’d said he would, but the irony was that if he didn’t have a crippled knee he would probably be dead by now. Valentina had saved his life. He would have been forced into uniform long ago and packed off to the front in the useless war against Germany. He would have been cannon fodder, mown down on a battlefield somewhere, and Valentina would have been free of him. Except for the child, his child, she would always have that part of him. If it was his. He could never be sure of that, could he?

He wiped a hand across his face and stifled the familiar drag in his guts whenever he thought of the child. He was tired. No sleep. Too many fears about tonight and about the knives that would be aimed at his back by his fellow comrades the moment he held a degree of power in his hands.

He sat down at his desk and snapped at the soldier outside his door, “Next prisoner!”

ARKIN DIDN’T RISE FROM HIS SEAT. BUT IT WAS HARD NOT to show Elizaveta that much respect.

“Prisoner Nicholai Ivanov,” he said, “I order you to be taken before the tribunal and tried as a traitor to your country.”

“You sniveling little nobody, what do you and your kind know about this country? I served it loyally for-”

Arkin nodded at the guard, and a rifle butt jabbed at the minister’s face. His hands were roped behind his back so he could not stop the blood dripping from his mouth.

“Don’t.” It was the first time Elizaveta had spoken. “Please don’t.”

He allowed himself to look at her. To gather into his mind the exact shade of the gold of her hair and the smooth texture of her cheek, of her throat.

“Madam Ivanova.” He could hear the respect in his own voice, but he couldn’t hide it. He focused on the two sheets of paper on his desk, one with the name of Nicholai Ivanov on it, the other with Elizaveta Ivanova. He picked up a pen but rested the tips of his fingers on her name. It was the nearest he could come to touching her. “You are also to be tried for treason because you assisted your husband in his exploitation of the proletariat to fill the Romanov coffers.”

She said nothing. Still he couldn’t look at her. “Take them away.”

“Immediately, Comrade Erikov.”

But when the guard seized her husband roughly by the arm, Elizaveta said, “Wait.”

The guard hesitated, the habit of obedience running deep. With her hands tied behind her back, she turned to her husband and kissed his cheek. “Good-bye, Nicholai. God bless you. We won’t see each other again in this lifetime.”

“Elizaveta, my wife, I need-”

“Take him away. Let her remain,” Arkin ordered.

“Elizaveta,” Ivanov cried out as he was dragged from the room, “I love-”

The guard slammed the door behind him. For a long moment Arkin and Elizaveta gazed at each other, alone in the room.

“I can’t save you,” he said at last.

“I know.”

She smiled at him as intimately as she had on the lacy pillows of the Hotel de Russie. No sign of sorrow or regret in the curve of her full lips as she stood in his office.

“Chyort!” He threw his pen down on his desk and moved across the room till he was close enough to touch her, but he kept his hand at his side. “Elizaveta, I would if I could. But you are a government minister’s wife. God knows, I would save you if I could.”

Her blue eyes glittered with pleasure. “I know. Don’t worry about me.” Her elegant clothes were dirty and ripped on one sleeve. He wondered what rough hand had torn it. “I want to look at you one last time,” she said quietly.

He touched her then, his fingers on her pale cheek. She tilted her head and gently leaned into his hand. “Take care of yourself, Viktor. These are such dangerous times and I want you to”-she swallowed and turned her mouth to kiss his fingers-“to be safe. I hate all that you stand for, I hate what you Bolsheviks will do to my country, but”-she lifted her head-“I can’t hate you.”

“Elizaveta, I shall do all I can to save you from the tribunal’s wrath, but-”

“No, Viktor, do nothing for me, I beg you.” She spoke the words slowly and thoughtfully, as though to impress their meaning on him. “I have lived more in these last years than ever before in my life. Lived more and loved more. That is enough for me. You brought me a joy I didn’t know existed. Spasibo.”

He smiled at her, a tender smile that did not attempt to hide from her the sharp ache under his ribs. “Spasibo,” he echoed.

“God keep you,” she murmured, and walked to the door.

WHEN VALENTINA RETURNED HOME, LYDIA WAS KNEELING at the top of the stairs throwing dried sultanas one by one to the two ragged boys in the hall below. Valentina didn’t waste time on scolding her but seized her wrist, pulled her into their room, and knelt down in front of her so that their eyes were on a level.

“Lydia, I have an appointment to see a man, and I want you to come with me.”

“Is it Papa?”

“No. Dochenka, my daughter, don’t look so sad. If we do this right, we’ll be seeing Papa soon.”

“You say that every day.”

“Well, today it’s true.”

She dressed them carefully, plain dresses, plain coats, no frills, no furs. She tucked Lydia’s fiery locks under a brown headscarf and then pulled a felt hat down on top of it. “You must look like a workman’s daughter today.”

They studied their drab clothes in the mirror.

“You look beautiful in yours, Mama. But I look ugly in mine.”

Valentina swung Lydia up into her arms and kissed her forehead. “You couldn’t look ugly if you tried, my angel. Now listen to me. There are things I want you to say.”

I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD,” VALENTINA SAID.

Valentina had walked into Comrade Erikov’s office and stared at Arkin’s face, at his gray uniform, at the new arrogance in his eyes, and for the thousandth time wished she had stuck Dr. Fedorin’s scalpel into his throat that day of the duel on Pistol Ridge.

“I thought you would have died of gangrene,” she said.

“I am not so easy to kill.” But his eyes were not on her, they were on the child.

“Viktor, this is your daughter, Lydia.”

Arkin’s face remained blank. Not even a smile for the child. Valentina shuddered inwardly as she released her daughter’s small hand and saw her skip forward to stand like a little elf before the tall figure behind the desk. Valentina’s throat tightened at the sight of her young courage.

“Dobriy den, good afternoon, Papa.”

A pulse jumped into life at the edge of Arkin’s jaw. His gaze faltered as he reached down and touched the top of the small head with tentative fingers. “How do I know she’s mine?”

“Because I swear to you that she is. I was already pregnant when I married Jens Friis.” Valentina thanked God that Arkin had not been around to know the date of her daughter’s birth.

He took his hand away, but Lydia continued to stare up at him with round eyes.

“That means nothing,” he said. His voice was flat. “She could be Friis’s brat.”

“No.” She glanced away as if embarrassed. “Jens and I always took care that I wouldn’t become pregnant.”

“You could be lying.”

“I am not lying, I swear it on my child’s life. Look at her mouth, it’s yours. Look at her chin. It’s small but the shape is yours.” It was a lie, but she could sense how much he wanted it to be true.

“Her hair?” His hand moved toward the hat.

But Valentina had told Lydia that her hat must not come off. Without hesitation Lydia seized his hand, clutching it tight, and rested her small cheek against it. Her gaze fixed on Arkin with the naked yearning that only a child can possess.

He didn’t snatch his hand away but studied her intently. “Her eyes aren’t mine. Nor are they yours, for that matter.”

“Her eyes are strictly her own. Much of Lydia is strictly her own.”

In the chilly office he crouched down on one heel, the other leg stretched out stiffly to the side, and examined her closely, his expression guarded. But he allowed his fingers to lie captive in the small hands.

“So you are Lydia,” he said to her. His voice was kind.

“And you are my papa,” Lydia said softly. She tipped her head to one side and smiled shyly, then suddenly threw her wispy arms around his neck, hooking them together as if she would never let him go. She uttered a low mewing sound. “Papa.” She kissed his cheek.

Valentina watched. Stunned. She had not instructed her daughter to do this, but as she watched the man she hated, she saw him melt. His bones grew soft in her daughter’s grasp, and a small part of her hatred melted with it. With the child’s cheek nestled against his own, his eyes lost their hard-edged focus and his features seemed to blur as though the structure under them had crumbled. For a long moment man and child remained locked together, and then he kissed her forehead briskly, rose to his full height, and retreated behind his desk without looking at either of them. He took out a form, wrote on it, and held it out to Valentina.

“Here,” he said. “A permit to leave Petrograd. Now go.”

She read it. Looked at Lydia. Tore it up. “My husband’s name is not on it.”

“No.”

“I will not leave Petrograd without him.”

“If you stay in this city, the Red Guards will come for you eventually, Valentina, however much you hide inside your brown coat. You are the minister’s daughter and they will hunt you down. Don’t risk our child’s life.”

“If Jens Friis stays, we stay.”

“Don’t be so foolish, Valentina. Think of Lydia.”

“If he dies, we die.”

“I cannot save you all.”

“Put his name on the travel permit if you want your daughter to live.”

The moment was agony. She thought she had lost him. He seemed to withdraw into himself, and the room became a dead and empty place. But abruptly he fixed his eyes on hers.

“Does your mother love Lydia?” he asked.

Valentina trod warily. “Yes, of course she loves her grand-daughter.”

He nodded but didn’t look at Lydia again as he wrote out another form and handed it to Valentina. “Take it.”

Jens’s name was on it alongside hers and Lydia’s. “Spasibo. Thank you.”

“But I warn you, after he is released, they will come for him whether his name is on the permit or not. You have an hour, maybe less, before others will override this permit when they know he is here in Petrograd. He worked for the tsar, and such treachery will not be tolerated.” Anger kicked into his voice. “The time of reckoning has come for people like him, people who think they are protected because they are liberal minded and well skilled. As if his intelligence is enough of a shield.”

“Jens worked for the people of Russia, to help them. What are you Bolsheviks going to do, destroy everyone with a brain who can think for themselves? What hope is there for Russia’s future if you do that?”

“Russia has a great future ahead of it now. Without its tyrants at last.”

Valentina took Lydia’s hand and pulled her close to her skirts. “I hope we do not meet again, Arkin.”

“So take the child and run. It’s what you’re good at. It’s what you did so well in the forest, hiding from tree to tree.”

She stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

He smiled with satisfaction. “Don’t you know even now? I was in the forest with you that day you stumbled into our preparations. I was the one who bombed your house at Tesovo.”

DID I DO WELL, MAMA?”

“You did very well, dochenka, my daughter.”

“Will Papa be angry with me at home because I called that other man Papa?”

“No. He will kiss you a thousand times.”

“So why are you crying?” Her small hand chafed her mother’s. “Don’t cry.”

“Hurry! We must be quick. We have only an hour.”

“For what?”

“To leave Petrograd.”