Another rattle of a machine gun in the opposite direction made me jerk back, banging my head on the stone wall of the building behind us. The pain radiated forward and I saw black dots in front of my eyes. Even after the burst stopped, the sound continued to echo in my head.
We continued on, though it grew more difficult. Sleighs and automobiles had been turned over in the streets, blocking the way. We saw people carrying the injured away, and we heard more gunshots in the distance.
Dmitri flagged down a soldier running by. “What’s happening? Where are all the troops?”
“The Pavlovsky Regiment has mutinied!” the man yelled. The whites of his eyes were showing, and he was only wearing one boot. “They’re joining the revolution! If my regiment is next, I’m going to be there when they do. Those officers will see who is in charge now.” He ran on, trying to rip off his shoulder epaulets as he went.
I looked down to see a trail of blood drops zigzagging down the street in front of us. I heard a strange buzzing and it took me a moment to realize that the sound was inside my own head. A bad taste filled my mouth and I thought I was going to retch. I reached down and picked up a handful of snow and wiped it on my face. The cold helped. I shouldn’t have been so shaken by drops of blood. I’d seen plenty of blood before.
“Charlotte? Are you all right?”
“I just felt strange for a bit,” I said. “Let’s keep going.”
As we got close to the Krestovsky Prison, the crowds grew much bigger and the shouting was louder. When I’d gone by the prison in the past, I hurried, not wanting to look at a place of such misery, especially because the dirty red brick of the buildings always reminded me of dried blood.
As we came even with it, the crowd around us began to cheer. I asked a woman what was happening.
“Soldiers have gone in to let all the prisoners out!” she yelled.
We saw prisoners stagger out, both men and women, all wearing ragged prison uniforms and supporting one another. Some were shielding their eyes as if they were blinded, even though it was nearly dark.
Two men barely managing to support each other had tears streaming down their cheeks. All the prisoners were very thin, and many had white hair, though they didn’t look that old.
“I didn’t know there were so many,” a man next to me said.
“Hundreds of political prisoners were rounded up after the rebellion in 1905,” a woman said. “They’ve been in there ever since.”
Twelve years. Twelve years for speaking against the czar.
“Everyone is going to be free!” someone else in the crowd yelled.
“You fool!” the woman yelled back at him. “They’re letting out criminals, too! Murderers and rapists and thieves. You think the streets are dangerous now. Just wait!”
Some in the crowd ran into the prison and soon reemerged carrying stacks of paper. They threw them in a pile on the ground and lit them on fire. More and more stacks were brought out and added until the pile grew into a giant bonfire. With each flare of the flames, the crowd cheered.
“They’re destroying the records,” Dmitri said. “Very clever. No one will be able to try to round the prisoners back up if the authorities regain control.”
“Even if they tried, they might not have a place to put them. Look.” I pointed to one of the upper windows of the district court building next to the prison. Smoke was creeping out the edges of it. As we watched, more smoke came from an adjoining window, and then the next one filled too, down the line.
More prisoners trickled out of the building, these in far worse shape than the ones who had come before. My breath caught when I saw Raisa emerge holding up a man I knew must be her father, but whom I didn’t recognize. The man she was supporting was completely bald and small and so bent up, he looked like a collection of bones someone had put a prison uniform on.
I realized I was swaying on my feet, feeling so light-headed I had to grab Dmitri’s arm.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes,” I said. “I need to go help someone.”
Before I could take a step, other people rushed forward, and Raisa and her father were soon surrounded. I reminded myself that I had to concentrate on finding Stepan. I could see Raisa later. “We should keep going,” I said.
I took a few steps and then stopped. “Wait. I have an idea. Stepan might have gone to the imperial stables. Papa takes him there once in a while because Stepan loves the horses and we don’t have any left at the dacha. They were all taken by the army. Stepan has made friends with some of the stablemen and knows a lot of the horses by name.”
Dmitri sighed. “If he’s there, I don’t know if we’ll find him on a day like today. I’m sure the place is in an uproar.”
He was right. The imperial stables were huge. With six thousand horses, the place was as big as the Hermitage, and I didn’t know which section of the stables Papa took him to.
I tried to think of another plan. “Let’s stop at home first. Maybe he’s returned, or if he hasn’t, Papa might be home and he would know where we can look.”
When we reached home, Osip wasn’t at the door, but I didn’t bother looking for him. If Stepan had returned, Miles and Hap would know. They were both in the schoolroom.
“Stepan’s not here,” Hap said as soon as we went in.
“What’s happening out there?” Miles asked. “It’s maddening not to know.”
“I’m not sure. It’s chaos,” I said. “Is Papa home?” I didn’t want him out on the streets.
“No,” Hap said. “He’s been gone all day.”
I hoped my stepfather was with friends who would watch out for him. “We’re going to the imperial stables to look for Stepan. I can’t think of anywhere else he might be.”
“I’ll go,” Hap said. “I can move faster than Dmitri with that leg of his.” He held up his hand. “Lottie, I know you’re going to say it’s too dangerous.” That was exactly what I’d been about to say. “So don’t say it,” Hap continued. “I’m tired of you treating me like a child. You don’t have to be the martyr who takes care of everything.”
I was shocked to hear him speak like that. It wasn’t fair. I wasn’t trying to be a martyr. I just wanted everyone to be safe.
I heard the twins running down the hall, chattering away to each other in the baby language they’d made up. They had mostly given it up over a year ago, so I didn’t know why they’d gone back to it. I looked out. Polina was running after them, calling their names.
When they burst through the door, they flung themselves at me, wrapping their arms around my legs.
“Lottie! Lottie! Come see. Stepan is in the attic and he won’t let us in!”
I should have thought of the attic. I ran up the flights of stairs, the others clattering behind me. When I got to the door I tried to open it, but it was locked. I knocked. “Stepan, are you in there? I need to talk to you.”
There was no reply. I put my ear to the door. I could hear someone moving around.
“Stepan, please let me in,” I said. “I’m not going to make you come out. You can stay in there as long as you want. Just unlock the door.”
Archer had a key, but I didn’t want to ask him for it. I didn’t know how Stepan had gotten in. Papa had ordered it kept locked after Miles had opened some of the trunks.
I heard footsteps moving to the door. I motioned everyone back. “We’re not all going to pile in there,” I whispered.
My words didn’t have much effect. As soon as Stepan opened the door, the twins rushed in. “Stepan! Stepan! We thought you were lost!”
Stepan glanced at me and then looked at the floor. In that brief instance, I saw that his eyes were red. He’d been crying.
“Why are you up here?” Miles asked. “We were worried about you.”
“We need a hiding place from the Germans.” Stepan burst into tears. “If a revolution happens, the Germans will win the war. That’s what Archer says.”
“Hey, Stepan, don’t cry,” Hap sai
d. The twins surrounded Stepan. Nika hugged him and Sophie patted him on the arm.
I could scarcely control my anger at Archer. Everything was bad enough. We didn’t need him to make things worse.
I glanced over at the door. Dmitri hadn’t come all the way into the room. At first I thought the expression on his face was from pain, because even from across the room I could see he was breathing heavily, but then I realized from the way his mouth was set that it was anger.
I was about to urge everyone to go back downstairs when Miles opened a trunk. He pulled out a picture in an old-fashioned frame. “Who’s this?” he asked. I was close enough to see that it was Papa with his first wife and a girl who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen. I recognized the wife because there was a small portrait of her in the library.
The girl had to be the other daughter.
I took the picture from him and put it back in the trunk, trying to signal to him not to ask more questions. “I don’t know,” I said. “It’s not important.” We didn’t need a lost relative at that moment, or at any moment, especially not one who was a murderer. “Let’s go downstairs now. It’s cold up here. Stepan, why don’t you come down and have some tea? You can come back up here later if you want.”
We moved to the schoolroom, all of us, including Polina and the twins. Somehow it felt like we all needed to be in one place. Every once in a while I thought I caught faint sounds of gunfire, but I couldn’t be sure.
At least the twins were completely unaware that anything was wrong. They were delighted to be allowed to play in a room that was usually off-limits, and had soon set up their own little school area. Dmitri stood at the window, looking out, though there was nothing to see except the back courtyard.
I couldn’t sit still, but the room was so cluttered it was hard to move around. “I’ll be back in a minute,” I said. “I want to talk to Zarja.”
Dmitri followed me out in the hall. “I know it’s not my place, but I’ll talk to Archer if you like. He’s got to stop this nonsense about the Germans.”
“Is it really nonsense?” I asked, searching his face.
“Yes,” he said. “If I thought your family was in any danger, I’d tell you. Don’t you know that?”
“Yes.” I almost hugged him, but I stopped myself, knowing I had to keep my feelings for him under control. “Thank you for the offer, but I’ll talk to Archer. He likes Stepan, so when he hears he’s been scaring him so much, I’m sure he’ll stop.”
I went down to the kitchen to find Zarja making soup.
“Where’s Archer?” I asked.
“He’s taken to his bed. He isn’t feeling well. I’m worried, Lottie. He’s never sick.”
She was right. I didn’t remember Archer ever taking ill. “Should we call a doctor?” I asked.
“The fool won’t let me! I don’t like the look of him but I’m not sure what’s wrong. He’s got a blue touch to his mouth, which is never a good sign.”
I sat down on a stool, feeling a little odd, and I realized that the back of my head was hurting where I’d hit it on the wall of the building. The pain increased, as if it had stored itself up until I got home to take effect.
“If he’s not better soon, I’ll get a doctor or send Hap out for one,” I said.
“Yes, that’s a fine idea. Ha! I’d like to see Archer try to boss a doctor around.” She put a ladleful of soup in a bowl. “This will help him feel better.”
When I went back to the schoolroom, Dmitri was the only one who noticed me. He was back by the window, but he turned around when I came in and went over to him.
He spoke in a low voice. “Now that we’ve found Stepan, I need to go see what’s happening. We’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
His voice wasn’t quiet enough. “Who’s ‘we’?” Miles asked. “You said ‘we’ve been waiting a long time.’”
“The political group I belong to, the Constitutional Democratic Party,” Dmitri said. “It looks like we might finally have the chance to make Russia into something better, and I want to be a part of it.”
I gaped at him. I hadn’t even given a thought to Dmitri’s views, which had been stupid of me. Of course he’d have a side he supported. Every Russian did. I hadn’t heard of the particular political party he mentioned, but since it seemed like there were dozens, it wasn’t surprising I didn’t know it. I wished he’d told me about it. It was a whole side of him I didn’t know.
“Is that something men in the Horse Guard belong to?” Stepan asked. “Can I join too?”
Dmitri smiled down at him. “You can join, but it has nothing to do with the Horse Guard. All my friends from the university belong to it.”
All my friends from the university. Another side of him I didn’t know. How many more were there?
“Osip belongs to it too,” Dmitri added. “But don’t tell Archer. He wouldn’t be pleased with a footman he considered a radical.”
“Good for Osip,” Miles said. “If I had known, I would have gotten him to help me instead of lying to him about where I was going and what I was doing.”
Osip. I’d have never guessed Osip was part of a group. Everyone seemed to have a secret life I didn’t know about.
I sat down in a chair, about to lose my ability to act as if I could handle anything that happened. The day had been too much and my head was pounding. “Is that where you’ve been going at night?” I asked Dmitri. “To meetings?”
“Yes, mostly. We meet in different places. We didn’t realize this would all happen so fast. I’m not sure what is going to happen next. It will depend on what the czar does.”
Papa’s voice came from the hall. “Where is everyone?” he called.
Relief washed through me. With us all together, some of the tension eased.
He came in, and everyone talked at once. He hugged the twins, who were clinging to his legs. “Everything is fine, my little chickabiddies! I’m fine!”
When I looked at him more closely, I didn’t believe that. He was stooped over like he was too tired to stand up straight. His eyelids drooped down so that his eyes were only half open.
“Let’s let Papa talk,” I said, “after he sits down.”
Once he was settled and I’d brought him some tea, he motioned for all of us to listen. “I’ve been meeting with some people to discuss the situation. The unrest is widespread, but the czar has been notified and I’m sure he is on his way back to the city. Once he arrives, everything will get back to normal. We just have to stay calm in the meantime.”
This brought on some sharp questions from Miles. While the two were talking, Dmitri drew me aside. “I’m going now. I won’t be gone long.”
“Will you … will you check on the hospital?” All the time we’d been looking for Stepan, I’d been thinking about it. I should have tried to stop the man with the torch. I should have done something. I didn’t want to think about what I’d do if the place was gone.
“I’ll check,” he said.
“Do you think anything will change when the czar gets back?” I asked. I couldn’t see the city going back to the way it had been before.
He shook his head. “I don’t think the czar’s return is going to accomplish what the general thinks it will.”
I wanted to ask Dmitri not to go, but I held myself back. “All right. We’ll be fine here.”
“I know you will.” He smiled and leaned in close to me. “Do you know what you are?”
I shook my head, confused.
“You are the flame that keeps this house warm, Charlotte Danielovna, the flame that keeps me warm. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
He walked out of the room, leaving me feeling as if the sudden warmth inside me were an actual fire that had been lit.
It was so late by then we were all drooping with tiredness. After everyone went to bed, I sat in my room for a while and then went back downstairs, deciding I’d wait up for Dmitri so Osip wouldn’t have to.
I took Osip’s place in the chair. I
dozed off, and sometime much later a soft knocking woke me up. I stumbled to the door, surprising Dmitri when I opened it.
“You should be getting some sleep,” he said. “You didn’t need to wait up.”
“I wanted to know what’s happening.” I rubbed my eyes.
“The hospital has been badly damaged, but it’s still there,” he said. “Looters have been in, so there isn’t much furniture left.”
I think I only heard the “it’s still there” part. I put my arms around him and hugged him. He held me tight. “Thank you,” I said. We could put it back the way it was. I didn’t care how long it took, but we’d make it work again. “What about the rest of the city?”
I let go of him, and Dmitri took off his coat, brushing the snow from his hair. “Every police station has been attacked,” he said. “They are all in flames or already burned out, and any policeman the mob could find has been killed. A few tried to escape dressed as women, but they were caught. People are saying most of the known members of the Okhrana are either dead or in hiding.”
I couldn’t take in his words, so I made him repeat what he’d said and asked how he knew. After he explained, I wrapped my arms around myself, remembering the image of the men being thrown off the building. I should have felt a tremendous relief that the Okhrana were gone and Miles and I were both out of danger, but the suddenness and the sheer violence of it all made me feel twisted up inside, as if no feeling was the right feeling.
A giant yawn overtook him. “I’m sorry. I may fall asleep standing right here.”
He did look exhausted. I couldn’t keep him up no matter how much I wanted to be with him. We went upstairs as quietly as we could, and when we came to my room, we stopped outside my door. Dmitri was very close to me, and I felt a little tingle run up my arms.
“Good night,” I said.
He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, he leaned in and spoke in my ear, whispering, “Good night, Charlotte Danielovna. Sleep well.”
As he walked away, I leaned against the doorway to steady myself, the warmth running through me again. When I went to bed, sleep did not come easily.
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