‘I’ll wait up in case you need something.’
‘No, Vasya, you’re worn out. It’s been a very long day. You go to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.’
He turned his back on her because he couldn’t bear to see the disappointment etched on her face. He was married to a martyr and he was finding it increasingly difficult to live with her self-sacrificing stoicism. He knew what people were saying, not only in the shtetl, but the Cossack village and the town. That marriage to Vasya had been the price Rabbi Goldberg had exacted from him for allowing Ruth to marry Alexei.
It was true.
He thought he’d be able to pay the price willingly, but that had been before he’d had to face Vasya’s servility and interminable and effusive gratitude for rescuing her from her spinster state.
Love wasn’t a factor in Jewish marriages. Every Jewish child was brought up to believe it followed, not preceded, the religious nuptials. He’d believed it himself before he’d returned from Paris after studying medicine. Until the moment he’d seen Alexei drive Sonya into the shtetl in her aunt’s carriage he’d believed “love at first sight” existed only in young girls’ imaginations and fairy tales. Afterwards, he’d almost managed to convince himself that his feelings were no more than admiration for a beautiful girl on the brink of womanhood. Then, when he’d been appointed doctor to the hospital after Peter Edwards’s death he’d found himself working alongside Sonya. Impressed by her kindness and consideration for everyone she came into contact with, patient, staff, and visitor alike, he was forced to admit that, inconvenient as it might be, love at first sight was undoubtedly a reality.
Although he’d never found the courage to confide his feelings to her, he soon realised there was no need for words. The looks they exchanged were enough for him to read and understand her thoughts, just as he was absolutely certain she did his.
He glanced across the road towards Glyn Edwards’s house. Next to it, set parallel to Glyn’s back wall, was the wooden cottage that had belonged to Catherine Ignatova’s huntsman before Hughesovka had encroached on her estate. A light burned in the porch and another in an upstairs room: Alexei and Ruth’s first night as a married couple in their new home. He hated himself for envying their happiness but when he pictured Sonya in her bridesmaid’s gown – so like that of a bride – he couldn’t help it.
He walked around to the front of the hospital, pushed open the door and entered his office. A pile of patients’ files lay on his desk waiting to be updated. He took his notebook from his desk drawer, sat and opened the first file. After a few minutes he was disturbed by a knock.
‘Come in.’
Anna Parry opened the door. ‘Good evening, Dr Kharber, Maxim said he’d seen you walk into the building.’
‘At this time of night I expect Maxim to be watching the front door, given the influx of dubious newcomers into the town.’
‘He is watching the door, but from the street, sir. Two of the Cossack soldiers stationed here are escorting a couple of drunks to the stables. Maxim went with them part of the way.’
‘The drunks were here, actually in the hospital?’
‘Maxim caught them before they reached the door, sir. They’re soldiers out on a night’s pass from the barracks. We know because they were waving the passes around. They were probably looking for beds for the night. One of the student nurses, Naomi Rinskaya, saw them through the window of Yulia’s ward. They were crawling around the grounds on their hands and knees. She fetched Maxim who called the soldiers. I wouldn’t like to be them when they have to face their officers in the morning. Would you like some tea?’
‘Yes, please, Anna.’ He opened his ink bottle and laid out his pens.
‘It was a lovely wedding, wasn’t it? Ruth made a beautiful bride.’
‘She did,’ he concurred.
‘Sonya and I agreed, everything was perfect, apart from Sarah and Richard’s absence.’
‘Any word from them?’ Nathan asked.
‘None.’
‘Let’s hope everything works out for them the way they want it to,’ he said diplomatically, uncertain how much Anna knew about Sarah’s situation. He’d noticed the symptoms of Sarah’s pregnancy before she’d left Hughesovka, and been surprised when Praskovia had confided that Richard had pursued Sarah in the hope of marrying her. Given the disparity in Sarah and Richard’s ages it had never occurred to him that they were lovers. He’d assumed – wrongly – that Sarah’s child had been fathered by her brother-in-law Glyn.
‘I hope so too. It would be wonderful to have another wedding in the Ignatova church.’
‘You think Richard and Sarah will marry?’
‘You don’t?’ Anna challenged.
‘As I just said, I want whatever they want for themselves,’ he reiterated.
‘You must have an opinion.’
‘I try not to voice them lest you Welsh call me a “nosy parker”.’
She laughed. ‘Well, to repeat my opinion, and Sonya’s, Alexei and Ruth had a beautiful wedding and I hope Richard’s will be as wonderful.’
‘Unless Richard and Sarah choose the same bridesmaids as my sister, their wedding can’t possibly be as wonderful. What about your wedding and Sonya’s, when the time comes? Will you marry in Mrs Ignatova’s estate church?’
‘Sonya might,’ Anna said seriously, ‘but not me. I want a career as a nurse.’
Nathan recalled Anna shooting the soldier who’d tried to rape Ruth, and Anna’s insistence afterwards that she wasn’t sorry she’d killed the man. Sarah had explained that Anna had been attacked before they’d left Wales, and from the way Sarah spoke, he’d assumed she meant raped. An experience like that would be enough to deter any young girl from all thoughts of men and marriage. He changed the subject.
‘You are already a brilliant nurse. The fact that you’re here now on night duty after an exhausting day as a bridesmaid is testament to your dedication.’
‘Not really,’ Anna qualified. ‘We’ve no serious cases on the wards requiring night nursing, so it will be an easy shift.’
‘Unless a case is admitted.’
‘There’s always that possibility.’
‘And you also have a cantankerous doctor to cater for who demands tea at regular intervals,’ Nathan hinted.
‘It’s your fault for keeping me gossiping. I’m on my way.’ Anna went into the kitchen, opened the range and removed a small shovelful of hot coals, which she poured into the base of the samovar. After topping the embers with wood and paper until the fire blazed, she filled the kettle and placed it on the coals to boil. She opened the teapot, filled the infuser with tea leaves, and set it aside.
When Ruth, Miriam, and Yulia had first shown her a samovar, she’d thought it a ridiculous, complicated way to brew tea. But she’d since had to admit that tea tasted richer, stronger, and far better brewed that way. She looked into the wards while she waited for the water to heat up. All the patients were asleep, but Yulia and Naomi were sitting at the Nightingale desk in the centre of the men’s ward updating medicine charts.
‘Tea?’ Anna murmured.
‘Please,’ Yulia replied.
Anna opened the door to the women’s ward, where Miriam was checking the patients. She mouthed ‘Tea?’ and Miriam nodded.
Anna returned to the kitchen. The kettle was boiling. She filled the teapot with water, raked out some of the coals to lower the temperature, set the teapot on top of the kettle to brew and laid out three trays.
‘I saw Ruth and Alexei when they came home this evening. They looked so happy.’ Yulia joined her and lifted plates down from the shelves.
‘They were, and it was good of you and Miriam to start your shifts three hours early this evening so I could go to the wedding breakfast and ball.’
‘We were both free to go to the church this afternoon. The service was beautiful. I can’t wait for Father Grigor to marry me.’
‘You want to marry Father Grigor?’ Anna deliberately chose to misunders
tand her.
‘I wouldn’t mind, he’s a nice kind man.’
‘You’re talking about a priest who’s at least thirty, if not forty, years older than you.’
‘I’m talking about kindness, and I’d settle for that from any man as long as it was accompanied by a little money.’
‘Money always helps.’
‘Ruth will have no worries married to Alexei. I heard his father cut him off without a kopek but his grandmother is as rich as the Tsar.’
‘I doubt she’s that rich.’ Anna qualified.
‘You know what I mean. Ruth will be able to buy as many new gowns as she wants without worrying about the cost. I envy her that, and Alexei adores her so he’ll shower her with fine clothes and jewellery.’
‘She won’t allow him to. She knows the value of a rouble.’
‘Don’t we all,’ Yulia said gloomily. ‘Don’t you want to be rich, Anna?’
‘I am rich by the standards I was brought up in. I have enough food to eat, I can buy all the clothes I need, and I can afford to rent a room in a fine house. What more do I want?’
‘Balls, parties, jewellery…’
‘You can only wear so much jewellery, and parties and balls would get boring if you went to them more than once in a while. We went out every night when Mr Hughes, Mr Edwards, and Mrs Ignatova took Richard, Alexei, Sonya, and me to St Petersburg. After the third night all I wanted to do was curl up in front of the fire with a book.’
‘You’re odd.’
‘Probably,’ Anna agreed as she cut two pieces of the cake Yelena, Glyn’s cook, had sent over the day before. She put them on plates and set them on a tray together with two glasses of tea. ‘This is for you and Naomi. I’ll take Miriam and Dr Kharber theirs. Do you want help with anything on your ward?’
‘No thanks, once we’ve finished the charts I’ll be looking for things for Naomi to do. It’s good to have a quiet night once in a while, but the busy ones pass more quickly.’
‘They do,’ Anna agreed.
Yulia returned to her ward. Anna left Miriam’s glass and plate of cake on her desk and carried a tray into Nathan’s office. He had his head down and was hard at work so she set it next to him quietly.
She stopped as she walked back through the entrance hall and looked across the road. Lights burned in the porch of Glyn’s house and his downstairs bedroom but the rest of the house was in darkness. It was hardly surprising as Alexei had moved out that morning, and Richard and Sarah were away.
She watched the house for a few minutes wishing things didn’t have to change. She was going to miss Alexei, his pranks and smiling face. Seeing him next door and around the town wouldn’t be the same as living in the same house as him. She wondered if Richard had succeeded in catching up with Sarah before she sailed for Britain. If Richard married Sarah would marriage alter them – and their relationship with her?
Why couldn’t everything remain just as it was?
She returned to the kitchen, poured a glass of tea, and cut another slice of cake for Maxim, then took them into the hall. Maxim wasn’t in the room off the porch that the hospital porters used for their breaks. She looked out of the window and saw him standing at the gate. She opened the door, walked down the path, and joined him. ‘Are the drunks still around?’
‘No, the soldiers left them in an empty stall in the stables to sleep off the vodka. I wouldn’t like to wake to their headaches tomorrow. The soldiers thought they heard something out back when they returned, so they’re patrolling the fence of the hospital grounds. At least that’s what they said they were going to do. It could be just an excuse to drink the flasks of vodka the drunks hadn’t finished. Can you see anyone up there, next to Mr Hughes’s lumber pile?’ He took the tea and cake from her.
Anna squinted into the darkness. ‘Nothing, but it’s black as coal along there. I could take a lantern and go and look?’
‘You will not,’ Maxim countered. ‘I can’t go far from the hospital because I’m the only one on duty but when the soldiers return I’ll ask them to take a walk in that direction. I’m sure I saw someone flitting about.’
‘What did they look like?’
‘All I could make out was a black shadow.’
A dog barked further down the street. ‘You probably saw an animal,’ Anna reassured Maxim.
‘If it was a dog, it was walking on its hind legs.’
‘Another drunk looking for somewhere to sleep it off?’
‘Perhaps. Thanks for the tea, Nurse Parry. Now go back inside and be sure to close all the doors and windows. Lock them all except the front door. I’ll watch that.’ He accompanied her to the door, closed it, then stood guard in the porch and lifted his rifle from his shoulder.
Glyn Edwards’s house, Hughesovka
September 1871
‘That was a day to remember.’ Praskovia draped her shawl over a chair in the enormous bedroom she shared with Glyn that also served as his study and their private sitting room.
‘I’m only sorry that given the Russian Orthodox’s church’s attitude towards divorced men I won’t be able to give you a wedding as memorable.’
‘You asked Father Grigor if he would marry us?’
‘I talked to him about our situation in confidence, but that’s all I could do – talk – given that legally I’m still married to Betty.’
‘You know that I’m happy just to be with you, Glyn.’ She placed a tray of glasses and brandy next to his chair. ‘Can I get you something to eat?’
‘After all we’ve consumed in Catherine’s house today, no thank you. I’ll burst!’ He sat down and pulled her on to his lap. ‘I have something to tell you.’
‘Something serious?’
‘I had a letter from my wife. It arrived when I was in St Petersburg.’
‘She must have said something to trouble you, if you’ve waited until now to tell me about it.’
‘I put it off as long as possible because I wanted to enjoy our time together without thinking about her. Unfortunately we won’t be able to do that much longer. She sent it as she was leaving Merthyr. She’s on her way here.’
Praskovia could feel her heart beating. It was so loud she was amazed she could hear herself speak. She was suddenly very cold and very frightened. She couldn’t imagine a world without Glyn. ‘You want me to leave your house so your wife can move in?’
‘No, absolutely definitely not. No! And there’s something you should know about this house. It’s not mine. It’s yours. I had Mr Hughes’s lawyer transfer the deeds to you after you told me you were having my child. So the house is in your name and you can throw me – and all the others – out any time you choose. I’ve also had your name added to my bank account so if anything happens to me you’ll be able to access my money and you, your family, and our child will be able to continue living here. The lawyer’s clerk is bringing the papers here tomorrow morning for you to sign.’
‘But your wife?’
‘Is well provided for. I bought Betty an annuity years ago –’ he saw the look of confusion on her face. ‘I paid a large sum of money into an investment scheme which sends money every year to Betty. It’s more than enough for her to live very comfortably. I’ve also redrafted my will, and left her a penny so she and the lawyers will know that I want everything I own to go to you. There is however one other problem. Apparently Betty gave birth to my child – a daughter – after I left Merthyr.’
‘They are both coming here, to Hughesovka, to see you?’
‘I told you my marriage to Betty is over, Praskovia. It is. I wrote and asked Betty for a divorce before I received her letter but I have no way of knowing whether she received my request or not because she never answered me. Our letters could have crossed in the post. However, if she did receive my letter, it could be the reason why she’s decided to come here. Perhaps she thinks our marriage can still be saved. Which it most certainly can’t,’ he added.
‘But she will want to stay in your house…’
<
br /> ‘I’ve just told you, it’s your house. Not mine.’
‘You can’t just give me a house, especially not this one. It’s large, beautiful, and aristocratic…’
‘And yours.’ He locked his arms around where her waist would have been if she wasn’t pregnant. ‘I’ll visit the hotel in the morning and reserve a room for Betty and our daughter. When they arrive I’ll tell Betty she can stay only as long it takes me to book return passage for her to Merthyr.’
‘What if she refuses to leave you?’
‘I’ve already left her, Praskovia.’
‘Glyn, I love you. I can’t imagine a life without you, but if she feels the same way – and now there’s your child…’
‘I told you about Betty from the outset, Praskovia, because I want no secrets between us. I’ve made my choice and it’s you and our child.’ He laid his hand on her swollen body. ‘This is your house and you can do whatever you wish within its walls, but no matter what happens I’d rather you didn’t invite Betty inside, because if you did I’ve a feeling she’d never leave. That would be embarrassing for you, everyone in this house, and especially me.’
‘So you want me to pretend your wife doesn’t exist?’ She climbed from his lap went to the bed and turned it down.
‘No, I want you to leave Betty to me when she gets here so you can concentrate on running this house and making preparations to welcome our child.’
‘I’ll try, Glyn.’ She bit her lip. ‘But…’
‘But?’ he echoed.
‘I can’t believe you’re really mine. That you love me and want to stay with me when you have a wife.’
He went to her, wrapped his arms around her and held her close. ‘You’re all the wife and woman I want, Praskovia. I told you about Betty’s letter because you’d only find out about it when she reached here. Now, I’d like to forget about her – at least for what’s left of tonight.’
‘There’s been no news from Richard and Sarah?’
‘None, but I forgot to mention that my brother Edward and Richard’s two younger brothers are travelling with my wife. They’re probably hoping that we can find room for them here.’
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