Princes and Peasants

by Catrin Collier

  ‘Did Glyn write and tell you about the gold medals the Tsar presented to him, Richard, and Alf, for saving miners after a pit shaft collapsed?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘If he did, I didn’t get the letter.’ Edward slapped Richard on the back. ‘Well done, and congratulations.’

  ‘You trained me, sir.’

  ‘In his last letter, Glyn said he was considering making an offer for the house he was renting. I take it he has little intention of ever returning to Wales.’

  ‘He agreed the purchase with the owner when we were in St Petersburg, sir. Wait until you see the place. It’s beautiful and so big it’s almost a mansion.’ Richard placed three sugar cubes in the saucer of his tea glass.

  ‘You both live with him?’

  ‘We do, as does Anna. As Richard said, it’s a large house, which you’ll soon see for yourself. There’s a desperate shortage of accommodation in the town.’

  ‘So I’ve heard.’

  ‘People have been writing home?’ Richard helped himself to a sandwich.

  ‘There’ve been a few complaints about the primitive conditions in Hughesovka,’ Edward concurred.

  ‘Hardly surprising given the highly civilised and luxurious conditions the workers left behind in Merthyr,’ Sarah joked.

  ‘So you’re saying things aren’t as bad as some people are painting them?’ Edward suggested.

  ‘That depends on who’s saying what,’ Sarah qualified.

  ‘Jimmy Peddle’s wife seems to spend a great deal of her time writing to everyone she knows in Merthyr, and from what I’ve heard her letters are less than flattering about Hughesovka.’

  ‘Jimmy Peddle broke his leg in several places,’ Sarah revealed.

  ‘A pit accident?’ Edward asked.

  ‘A drunken brawl. Since then he’s found it difficult to work, but as I said, accommodation is a serious problem,’ Sarah conceded. ‘Many of the Russian labourers and their families are living in holes they’ve dug in the ground and thatched with turf. It’s the lack of housing that led Glyn to rent out rooms. I’m sure he would much rather have his house to himself. As well as us and Anna, a Russian boy named Alexei Beletsky lives with Glyn, he works for Glyn and Mr Hughes, and then there’s Glyn’s servants…’

  ‘Glyn has servants?’ Edward was astounded.

  ‘A cook, two maids, a boy who does odd jobs and helps Glyn’s groom with the horses, a gardener, a laundry maid, and a housekeeper. They have separate quarters at the back of the house.’

  ‘You’re saying that my brother lives like the Crawshays!’

  ‘Not quite so luxuriously.’ Sarah was defensive. ‘He works hard and long hours for everything he has.’

  ‘You’re forgetting Alexei won’t be living with Glyn after today,’ Richard reminded Sarah. ‘He’s getting married and his grandmother, who owns property and an estate just outside the town, has given him a cottage next door to Mr Edwards’s house. In fact it was Alexei’s grandmother, Catherine Ignatova, who sold Glyn his house.’

  ‘Will there be room for me at Glyn’s?’ Edward asked.

  ‘Alexei’s room will be free and, if it’s needed, one of ours for Owen and Morgan,’ Sarah picked up her tea and sat back in her chair.

  ‘And Alice and Betty, and Harriet Maud and her nursemaid?’ Edward asked.

  Sarah remained tactfully silent in the hope that Richard would answer Edward.

  ‘Alice isn’t carrying on to Hughesovka, is she, sir?’ Richard questioned.

  ‘I don’t know what else she can do, other than travel back to Wales alone.’

  ‘The consulate would offer her accommodation until she can secure a berth on a homeward-bound ship,’ Richard suggested hopefully. He didn’t wish Alice ill, but he did wish her as far from him as physically possible.

  ‘I doubt Alice would leave Betty. From the way she coped, or to be more accurate, didn’t cope, with the journey here I don’t think she’s capable of travelling any distance by herself, but that applies to Betty as well.’ Edward set his glass on the table. ‘Glyn did get Betty’s letter to say she was joining him in Russia?’

  ‘Not that Mr Edwards told me,’ Richard replied.

  ‘He never mentioned the birth of a daughter either, and that isn’t like Glyn. I’m sure if he’d known of Harriet Maud’s existence he would have told everyone in Hughesovka about her.’ Sarah placed a pancake on a plate and handed it to Edward.

  ‘If he knew she existed he would have,’ Edward concurred. ‘I’ve had more than one argument about this with Betty. She said she didn’t want to tell Glyn they had a child until Harriet Maud was old enough to travel because Glyn would try to persuade her to join him here, and after what happened to Peter…’

  ‘Cholera and typhoid are as rife in Merthyr as they are in Russia,’ Sarah broke in defensively.

  ‘You don’t have to explain that to me, Sarah. Betty also said her father took such delight in Harriet Maud’s company that she didn’t want to take the child away from him, which was why she waited until he’d died to join Glyn. My brother will welcome Betty and Harriet Maud into his house in Hughesovka.’ He looked at Sarah and his suspicions hardened. ‘Won’t he?’’

  Richard and Sarah exchanged glances.

  ‘Glyn’s found himself another woman?’

  Sarah decided there was no point in trying to conceal what would become obvious once Edward moved into Glyn’s house. ‘Her name’s Praskovia, she’s his housekeeper and she’s pregnant with his child.’

  ‘Do you think Glyn will ask her to move out when Betty arrives?’

  ‘I think that’s a question only Glyn can answer,’ Sarah said.

  ‘One of us should say something to Betty.’

  ‘One of us should, Edward,’ Sarah nodded. ‘But I’m not volunteering.’

  ‘Nor me,’ Richard rejoined.

  ‘Is there any way of getting in touch with Glyn before we arrive?’

  ‘If we sent him a letter it would be given to us to deliver. All I can suggest is we entrust a note to one of the Cossacks with a fast horse when we get within a day or two’s ride of Hughesovka. With luck he’ll get the news of Betty’s imminent arrival to Glyn a few hours before we reach the town.’

  ‘I’ll write as soon as I’ve finished this pancake. Have the Paskeys reached Hughesovka yet?’

  ‘The Paskeys!’ Richard paled.

  ‘I wrote to tell Glyn they’d signed up to work for the New Russia Company.’

  ‘If they’d reached Hughesovka before I left, I would have heard,’ Richard said.

  ‘When did you leave?’

  ‘Just over two weeks ago.’

  ‘I left before Richard,’ Sarah volunteered.

  ‘You didn’t travel together?’ Edward was surprised.

  ‘I was in St Petersburg when Sarah left. She thought –’

  ‘I thought the age gap between Richard and myself was too large for us to marry,’ Sarah explained. ‘Richard didn’t, and as I’m having his child he persuaded me to change my mind.’

  ‘Then it’s double congratulations.’ If Edward was surprised he concealed it well.

  ‘Thank you, Edward.’

  ‘I hope you’ll allow me to become an honorary uncle when he or she arrives.’

  ‘Not so honorary, Edward. How about a real one?’

  ‘Are you sure the Paskeys are going to Hughesovka?’ Richard broke in. He couldn’t forget or forgive them. It had taken him months to recover from the beating they’d given him before he left Merthyr but he’d eventually come to terms with his injuries, unlike those they’d inflicted on his sister Anna.

  ‘It was all over the ironworks the day after they left,’ Edward divulged. ‘Deputy Perkins couldn’t resist boasting that he’d given the Paskeys references in false names to hoodwink the man who was recruiting workers for John Hughes. Perkins said it was payback for Glyn persuading the police to bring the charges against the Paskeys that had collapsed in court.’

  ‘Charges that should have stuck,’ Rich
ard muttered darkly. ‘If Anna sees the Paskeys …’ Richard recalled the Cossack soldier his sister had shot dead when she’d caught him trying to rape Ruth. Anna had never divulged exactly what the Paskeys had done to her, but that hadn’t stopped him from imagining what she’d suffered.

  ‘You said Anna’s living in Glyn’s house?’ Edward checked.

  ‘And working in the hospital as a nurse,’ Sarah confirmed.

  ‘I know my brother,’ Edward declared, ‘he won’t let anything happen to Anna.’

  ‘He won’t if he’s on the lookout for the Paskeys, but if he hasn’t received your letter he won’t know they’re on their way to Hughesovka,’ Richard observed darkly.

  Chapter Three

  Glyn Edwards’s office, New Russia Company, Hughesovka

  September 1871

  Glyn looked up from his desk when Alf Mahoney, who helped to manage the pits Glyn had leased from the Cossacks and renamed the Edwards Brothers Collieries, walked into his office with Ezra Manning. Both men were covered in dust from the building sites that littered the street outside of the enormous wooden warehouse that served as Headquarters of the New Russia Company.

  ‘Ezra, I last saw you in my father-in-law’s pub in Merthyr. Welcome to Hughesovka – although as you see the town has yet to be built, hence the racket.’ Glyn indicated the window as he left his chair and shook Ezra’s hand. The non-stop hammering of carpenters, shouts of workmen, and braying of pack animals and horses wafted in, a loud and occasionally deafening mêlée.

  ‘I admit the town, if it can be called that, isn’t what I expected, sir.’

  ‘Give us time, Ezra.’

  ‘I will, sir, and thank you for the welcome, although you might want to send me packing when you hear what I have to say.’

  ‘Doubt it, good men are treasured like gold here and from what I recall my brother Edward saying about you, you’re the best. Please, sit down, can I get you anything, tea – blinis?’

  ‘Blinis?’ Ezra repeated.

  ‘Pancakes, and very good,’ Alf explained.

  ‘Ask Vasily to bring a plate of them and tea for three please, Alf.’

  Alf did as Glyn asked before returning and taking the chair next to Ezra.

  ‘You’ve brought more workers from Merthyr?’ Glyn asked.

  ‘Almost a hundred, sir.’

  ‘Colliers and ironworkers?’

  ‘About forty ironworkers and fifty or so colliers. Most good men.’

  ‘Most?’ Glyn looked uneasily from Ezra to Alf. ‘I heard the Paskeys were on their way here?’

  ‘How did you hear that, sir?’ Ezra asked.

  ‘My brother wrote to me.’

  ‘Ianto and Mervyn were on the boat when it left Southampton, sir,’ Ezra began hesitantly, unsure how Glyn was going to take the news. ‘But when we left I didn’t realise who they were. I signed them up as experienced ironworkers in Merthyr. They used the name of Jones, Ianto and Mervyn Jones. I thought they looked familiar but they’d wound scarves around their mouths to hide most of their faces. They said they were getting over diphtheria. It had broken out again in China…’ Ezra referred to the roughest area of Merthyr.

  ‘Let me guess: they had good references from Deputy Perkins?’

  ‘They did, sir. And with Mr Hughes wanting to recruit so many experienced men, that’s what threw me. I was prepared to take on almost anyone who could show a good reference. I admit I was swayed by Deputy Perkins’s letter of recommendation and didn’t look beyond it, or too closely at either of the men. I could kick myself for not recognising them, but when I signed them up, both Paskeys had pulled their caps down low over their faces as well as pulled up their mufflers. I should have demanded they uncover…’

  ‘You weren’t to know they’d try to join us in Russia,’ Glyn interrupted. ‘Frankly, until I received my brother’s letter it never occurred to me that they would attempt the journey here. Not with Alf, me, and Richard Parry here, ready and waiting to give them what they deserve.’

  ‘No one would give them a job in Merthyr, sir. Not after what was said about them in court.’

  ‘The case against them was thrown out?’ Glyn checked.

  ‘Only because the judge said he needed more evidence, sir. Everyone in town knew the Paskeys were as guilty as sin. That poor girl…’

  ‘If I catch sight of them…’

  ‘The Paskeys are here, in Hughesovka?’ Glyn cut Alf short.

  ‘That’s just it, sir. No one has seen them since we berthed in Taganrog,’ Ezra explained. ‘They picked a fight with a couple of the crew on board the boat after we left English waters. Some of the boys say it was over a card game, others say the Paskeys stole the crew’s money and drink…’

  ‘Alf and I have a wedding to go to this afternoon, Ezra.’ Glyn nodded to the painfully thin young man who brought in a tray and handed round glasses of tea and plates of pancakes. ‘Thank you, Vasily.’

  ‘Yes, sir. Well, to cut a long story short there was a fight and the Paskeys came off worse. They were both knifed…’

  ‘Badly hurt?’ Glyn asked hopefully.

  ‘Bad enough for the captain to take them to a seaman’s ward in a charity hospital in Taganrog.’

  ‘How were they injured?’ Glyn wondered if their wounds would make them easily identifiable if they did turn up in the town.

  ‘Ianto was stabbed in the neck and chest and Mervyn the hand and arm. They both lost a lot of blood. The crew were Spanish, sir, a race rumoured to be vicious with a knife and…’

  ‘You’re sure about the injuries?’

  ‘I saw them myself, sir,’ Ezra asserted. ‘But when I went to fetch the Paskeys from the hospital in Taganrog ready for the trek here, one of the English-speaking nurses told me they’d left the hospital with a Russian.’

  ‘Did she say who the Russian was?’ Glyn asked.

  ‘She said she’d never seen him before and he didn’t give his name.’

  ‘So the Paskeys were in Taganrog and could be on their way here?’ Glyn mused thoughtfully.

  ‘They’d have more sense,’ Alf asserted.

  ‘I’m not so sure. Alert every foreman, Alf,’ Glyn ordered. ‘Tell them to inform me the moment any man or men answering their description turns up looking for work at an Edwards Brothers or New Russia Company site.’

  ‘I’ll do that, sir, but their description will fit half the Welshmen here. Middling height, stocky build, dark hair, brown eyes.’

  ‘Mervyn will have a scar on his right hand. His middle finger and palm,’ Ezra volunteered. ‘The cut was deep. And Ianto has a scar on the left side of his neck and another on his chin from an old fight back in Merthyr.’

  ‘That may help.’ Alf made a note in his pocket book before finishing his tea. ‘Not that those two are likely to be looking for honest work even if they do reach Hughesovka. The only “work” the Paskeys ever did in Merthyr was crippling people, usually at Deputy Perkins’s command.’

  ‘They were good at that, sir.’ Ezra confirmed.

  Glyn left his chair and looked out of the window at the dusty unmade road that stretched down towards the hospital. ‘I’ll warn Anna Parry, but the last thing I want is for her to see the Paskeys swaggering around the town.’

  ‘None of us want that, sir.’ Ezra set his tea glass back on the tray next to Alf’s on Glyn’s desk.

  ‘I can’t understand why they weren’t put away for life after what they did to Miss Parry,’ Alf said with feeling. ‘Not when the women in the court were there when it happened and willing to testify.’

  ‘They were in the court off John Street, Alf, but they didn’t actually see the Paskeys rape Anna. They saw them leaving one of the houses covered in Anna’s blood after they’d finished with her. Just talking about it makes me angry. She was twelve years old at the time …’ Glyn clenched his fists in an effort to control his temper.

  ‘Between us we’ll keep the Paskeys away from Miss Parry, sir. That’s if they do turn up. Given what people think
of them I don’t think they’d dare show their faces in this town.’

  ‘I wish I could be as sure as you, Ezra. I really do.’ Glyn returned to his desk. ‘Have you found a bed in one of the dormitories, Ezra?’

  ‘Better than that, sir, a bed in Jimmy Peddle’s house.’

  ‘I heard he and his wife are taking in lodgers.’

  ‘They are at the moment, sir, although his wife’s not happy. She was only telling me before I came here that if she has her way they’ll be going back in the spring.’

  ‘Jimmy Peddle’s leg hasn’t healed properly after that fall he had outside the beer shop a couple of months back,’ Alf elaborated.

  ‘I heard it was a fight, not a fall,’ Glyn interposed. ‘Word of warning, Ezra, be careful where you step here, especially at night.’

  ‘I’ll remember that piece of advice, sir.’

  ‘Here’s another,’ Alf added, ‘watch the company you keep.’

  ‘People here can’t be any worse than the ones in Merthyr.’ Ezra looked from Glyn to Alf. ‘Can they?’

  Dr Nathan Kharber’s house, hospital grounds, Hughesovka

  September 1871

  ‘I will not, I cannot, allow you to take your sister from this house into a Christian church. It is an affront to God and the name of Kharber.’ Asher Kharber stepped in front of his nephew Nathan and raised his fist. Given the disparity in their ages and heights, Asher looked ridiculous but none of the people who’d gathered in Nathan’s sitting room were laughing.

  ‘I am my sister’s guardian, Uncle,’ Nathan asserted. He spoke quietly, softly, but there was no mistaking his determination.

  ‘Your parents are spinning in their grave.’

  ‘The decision has been made, Uncle Asher. Ruth has converted to Christianity and within the hour she will marry Alexei Beletsky.’

  ‘I forbid it.’ The old man stamped his foot on the wooden floor sending shock waves that rattled the furniture and the dishes in the cupboards.

  ‘This is my house, Uncle Asher,’ Nathan reminded. ‘It is not for you to forbid anything within my walls.’