Princes and Peasants

by Catrin Collier

  ‘You’ve invested money in the boarding house!’ Misha was horrified at the thought that Alice had already dipped into her savings without asking his permission.

  ‘It’s a good investment,’ Alice defended.

  ‘As Alice is going to work with me in running the place, it makes sense for her to have a stake in the business,’ said Betty.

  ‘A wife should live with her husband.’

  ‘And when you’re on duty?’ Betty demanded. ‘You’re the one who’s always saying your work doesn’t allow you any free time to visit Alice.’

  ‘Which is why my colonel has allocated me married quarters so I can see Alice whenever I’m not on duty.’

  ‘And when you are on duty? What’s Alice supposed to do then? Sit and twiddle her thumbs.’

  ‘Keep house, cook, sew, meet the other wives, learn Russian,’ Misha suggested.

  ‘Do you intend to stay in the regiment then?’ Betty poked at the carp on her plate.

  ‘What I do or don’t do is none of your business, Mrs Edwards.’

  ‘It most certainly is my business, Misha Razin, when you’re married to my best friend.’

  Misha ran his finger around the inside of his collar. He felt suddenly and, given the temperature of the room, quite inexplicably warm.

  ‘You were the one who said you wanted to buy yourself out of the regiment, Misha,’ Alice reminded.

  ‘And I will, in my own good time.’

  ‘What are you waiting for, Misha? Alice to give you the money to buy yourself out?’ Betty goaded.

  Furious because Betty had guessed the truth, Misha glared angrily at both women. ‘If I bought myself out tomorrow where would Alice and I live? I’m not giving up my officer’s quarters and servants to move into a common boarding house.’

  ‘It’s not a common boarding house.’ Betty’s colour heightened. ‘We cater for the best people. Managers…’

  ‘And colliers,’ Misha sniped. ‘Don’t try to deny it, I’ve seen them walking in and out of the place.’

  ‘It’s my house too, Misha,’ Alice murmured tremulously.

  ‘How much did you pay Mrs Edwards for your share and what size is your share?’

  ‘It’s a good investment …’ she began defensively.

  ‘Have you signed any documents or handed over any money?’ he demanded.

  ‘Everything was completed and signed legally yesterday,’ Betty informed him. She abandoned her carp, dropped her knife and fork, and crossed her arms over her chest to emphasise her point.

  ‘How much did you pay for your half a share of a bedroom, which appears to be all you’ve been promised, Alice?’

  ‘I own a quarter of the house …’ Alice began hesitantly, intimidated by Misha’s anger.

  ‘How much?’ Misha reiterated.

  ‘I gave Betty a draft against my account for five hundred pounds.’

  ‘Five hundred English pounds. For a quarter share in a house that’s worth,’ Misha did a quick calculation of roubles into pounds, ‘no more than four hundred pounds.’

  ‘There’s a shortage of houses in Hughesovka,’ Betty asserted. ‘I paid a lot more than that.’

  ‘I’m well aware there’s a shortage of houses, Mrs Edwards, but if you gave my wife a quarter interest for her five hundred pounds, that means you must have paid two thousand pounds for a house that’s not worth a penny more than four hundred.’

  ‘I paid more that that,’ Betty blustered. ‘We’ll have expenses…’

  ‘How much did you pay for that house?’ Misha repeated.

  ‘That’s between Jimmy Peddle and me.’

  ‘And my wife, who so generously and gullibly handed you five hundred pounds for a quarter share. You, Mrs Edwards, have robbed my wife of her money. You’ll be hearing from my lawyer.’

  ‘The contracts are signed. As I said, we’ll have expenses to meet in running the place. We have to buy food for the boarders, bed and table linen, pay wages to the servants…’

  ‘Expenses!’ he raised his voices. ‘Five hundred pounds’ worth, which I’ll wager is more than you paid for the house in total. The contracts may be signed but I doubt that five hundred pounds in exchange for a share of a bedroom would be regarded as fair in any country. We’ll see you in court.’

  ‘There is no court here.’

  ‘There is one in Taganrog.’ Misha left the table.

  ‘You really think I’ve been robbed, Misha?’ Alice paled.

  ‘Without a doubt. You may think of this woman as a friend, Alice, but she’s a thief and I intend to make sure the entire town knows it.’

  ‘You really won’t move in with us, Misha?’

  ‘I have no intention of setting up married life with a third person sharing our bedroom.’

  ‘Then buy yourself out of the regiment and set up your own home,’ Betty snapped.

  ‘All my money is tied up in investments,’ Misha lied. ‘I have no intention of taking it out until I have a promise of a larger return in interest.’

  Betty turned to Alice. ‘I warned you not to marry him. He’s nothing more than a Flash Harry. He only married you because he expects you to give him enough money to buy his way out of the regiment. It’s as well you invested your money with me. It’s safer…’

  ‘Can Alice retrieve her money any time she wants?’ When Betty didn’t comment, Misha added, ‘I thought not. Now you have it you won’t be letting it go until the court makes you. As for the regiment, I will resign my commission when my business is viable and not a moment before.’

  ‘But you just asked Alice to move into officers’ quarters with you,’ Betty reminded

  ‘Temporarily, and only until I can get my business up and running. As soon as I have, I will leave the regiment, but not before I buy a house for Alice, with the money I will reclaim from you with the court’s assistance.’

  Realising Misha was serious about making an official complaint, Betty attempted to mollify him. ‘There is no need for you to buy a house. When Jimmy Peddle and his family move out you and Alice can move into one of the bedrooms, so you can just go ahead and open your business.’

  ‘I’ll not live in the same house as you.’

  ‘Misha, it’s my house too…’

  ‘It may be partly yours, Alice, but you’ve paid dearly for the privilege and it’s not an investment I would have allowed you to make.’

  ‘Allowed!’ Betty repeated. ‘With her own money.’

  ‘We’re married and that makes it our money. Money Alice has thrown away.’

  ‘It’s a husband’s duty to keep his wife. I expect you to pay something towards Alice’s keep.’

  ‘You have made enough money from my gullible wife, you will not be getting any more from me.’

  ‘The five hundred pounds Alice gave me is just for the business…’

  ‘And I will ensure that Alice uses the remainder of her money to hire a trustworthy Russian lawyer. Good day to you.’ Furious that Betty Edwards had outmanoeuvred him, Misha turned to Alice. ‘I have booked a room here for us.’

  ‘Waste of good money if you ask me,’ Betty said.

  ‘No one was asking you, Mrs Edwards. It’s time for us to retire to that room, Alice.’

  ‘But the rest of the meal?’ Alice reminded him.

  Misha signalled to the waiter. ‘I will order them to deliver dinner to us later.’

  ‘Have you started buying horses?’ Betty made a final attempt to prove to Alice that Misha had only married her for her money. ‘An officer like you must have a tidy nest egg.’

  ‘Now you want to see my bank balance as well as my wife’s so you can steal from me too? You won’t find me quite so foolish or accommodating, Mrs Edwards.’

  ‘I believe that finances between husband and wife should be open and above board. Alice has told you to the penny how much money she has, it’s only fair that you reciprocate.’

  ‘As you said Mrs Edwards, finances are between husband and wife.’ He addressed the waiter who’d res
ponded to his summons before turning back to his wife. ‘I will see you in our room, Alice.’

  ‘But our wedding breakfast? You can’t just leave it.’

  ‘I don’t like the company at our table. I’ve reserved room twenty-one on the second floor.’

  Betty watched him walk out of the dining room. ‘Your husband has a temper, Alice. Best to curb it from the outset, otherwise your married life is not likely to be a smooth one.’

  ‘I should follow Misha, after all it is our wedding day.’

  ‘Finish your meal,’ Betty advised. ‘He’ll only be after one thing. I can see our next course being wheeled through the door. Whole roast suckling pig with buckwheat. You don’t want to miss that.’

  ‘I should ask them to take some up to Misha.’

  ‘It can keep until dinnertime. We have a lot to do before we move out of here tomorrow, it’s time we started talking about it and making plans for the business.’

  Hotel Hughesovka

  April 1872

  Misha paced impatiently from one end of the hotel room to the other as he waited for Alice. He was furious with her for investing in the boarding house without discussing the transaction with him first. He was aware that Betty Edwards wielded considerable influence over his wife, but he hadn’t realised quite how much until that morning. After Betty’s gibes about him only marrying Alice for her money, which had been too close to the truth to sit comfortably with his pride, he suspected that Alice would think twice about handing over the remainder of her money to buy him out of the regiment – and even if she did, there certainly wouldn’t be sufficient left over to set himself up as a horse-trader.

  He’d married for money, only to be disappointed, and was now saddled with a wife who, although widowed, he doubted would be as competent sexually as the whores who serviced the officers in the barracks, and was likely in the long run to prove far more expensive.

  He had to wait a full two hours before Alice entered the bedroom, hours that only served to escalate his temper and vodka consumption.

  ‘Where have you been?’ he growled when she finally walked in.

  ‘I finished our wedding breakfast. It would have been a waste not to. It was very good, the roast suckling pig was excellent. I asked them to keep you some in the kitchen and bring it up at dinnertime. Misha,’ she reached for his hand. ‘This is our wedding day.’

  ‘Precisely, and you didn’t think to be entirely honest with me in every way beforehand.’

  ‘I have been honest. You know to a penny how much money I have. I thought my investment in the boarding house would be a pleasant surprise. You can’t really believe that Betty set out to steal from us.’

  ‘That is exactly what she’s done, and she deliberately set out to do it before we married because she knew I would never let her fleece you. A husband has the legal right to control his wife’s money. You never mentioned that you were thinking of giving it to Mrs Edwards to invest in a boarding house of all things. I would never have allowed you to do it.’

  ‘Betty said I will make it back in five years or even less. And should we decide to sell the business I will have my original investment returned to me plus a percentage of whatever profit we make. Given the way the town is growing the house is bound to accrue in value. And I have £500 left. Isn’t that enough for you to set up in business?’

  ‘Now that you intend to live in a boarding house and share a bedroom with Mrs Edwards I’m not inclined to put in the work needed to start a business. What’s the point in my working for a future for my family if my wife prefers to set up home with another woman. I may as well stay where I am, living comfortably in the barracks.’

  ‘Misha, please, I’ll give you a draft for the rest of my money.’

  ‘For what’s left after you’ve given most of it to Mrs Edwards, you mean.’

  ‘Betty explained that she needs the money to run the business.’

  ‘She’s played you for a fool and you can’t even see it. I’ve only ever heard her talking about her business, never about your business. You’d better give me your copies of the contract you signed so I can get a lawyer to check them.’

  ‘Betty has them.’

  ‘Then get them from her. Now.’

  ‘Betty’s talking about opening another business – a shop this time. She’s promise to look after us and I’m sure she will. Once you’ve bought yourself out of the regiment and set up as a horse trader you can invest the profits with Betty. She’s a good businesswoman, Misha.’

  ‘I would as soon think of investing in a cockroach farm.’

  ‘Misha, this is our wedding day!’

  ‘Thank you for reminding me,’ he snapped caustically. ‘Undress.’

  Alice froze. Her first husband had been old, but not too old to demand what women in Merthyr referred to as ‘husband’s rights’, which in her case had consisted of somewhat embarrassing fumbling beneath the sheets at bedtime.

  ‘Didn’t you hear me?’

  ‘Yes, Misha…’

  ‘Undress and kneel on the bed.’ He reached for the bottle of vodka he’d asked for when he’d booked the room. He’d almost emptied it while waiting for Alice to join him.

  ‘Misha…’

  ‘You’re my wife. Didn’t I just hear you promise to obey me?’

  Alice turned her back so he wouldn’t see the tears – and fear – in her eyes. ‘I need help.’

  ‘What’s the matter now?’

  ‘I can’t unfasten the buttons at the nape of my dress.’

  He finished the vodka in his glass, then hooked his fingers into the neck of her dress and pulled. It tore from the neck to the hem. Alice screamed.

  ‘Not so loud,’ he hissed. He pushed her face down onto the bed and locked the door.

  She looked up at him over her shoulder, terrified of the monster he’d become. He grabbed her legs and pulled her down to the edge of the bed.

  ‘You’re hurting me.’

  He closed his fingers painfully into the back of her neck, hauled her up, and pushed a pillow beneath her head. He grabbed the waistband of her drawers and tore them from her. ‘Don’t move.’

  He unbuckled his trousers, dropped them to the floor, and raped her.

  Chapter Thirty

  Catherine Ignatova’s house

  April 1872

  Catherine sat quietly in a chair next to the hearth in the library, ostensibly reading while covertly watching and listening as John Hughes, Dmitri, and Roman played cards. When the clock struck ten John laid down his hand and scooped up the coins from the centre of the table.

  ‘Thank you, Roman, I must have won as much as two roubles from you tonight. Another few centuries of nightly poker and I might make a slight dent in your purse! But you can’t have it all ways. You know what they say, lucky at cards…’

  ‘Lucky bridegroom is enough for me,’ Roman shuffled the cards together. ‘Did you lose much, Dmitri?’

  ‘A few kopeks. Not as much as you,’ the lawyer commented.

  ‘I’m for bed.’ John rose to his feet and stretched. ‘Tomorrow I’ll see how much of my apprenticeship in Crawshay’s works in Merthyr I remember. I’ll attempt to puddle a perfect pig of iron for you to take to Grand Duke Konstantin when you honeymoon in St Petersburg, Roman. My gift to him and a foretaste of our production.’

  ‘I’ll ask Sonya to wrap it in ribbons,’ Roman joked.

  ‘And decorate it with roses, white ones,’ John smiled.

  Catherine set her book aside and left her chair. ‘A final nightcap, gentlemen?’ She saw John hesitate. ‘A small one.’

  ‘You’ve persuaded me.’ Roman went to the tray on a side table and poured four small vodkas. He handed them out.

  ‘To our hostess,’ John toasted as Roman and Dmitri joined him in touching their glasses to Catherine’s.

  ‘To brides who permit their bridegrooms to plan a working honeymoon,’ Catherine countered.

  ‘My fiancée is very understanding,’ Roman smiled.


  ‘You’re not married yet,’ John warned. ‘He finished his vodka. ‘Goodnight, Catherine, gentlemen.’

  ‘Sleep well,’ Catherine called after him and Dmitri who followed John out of the door.

  ‘I think I’ll read for a while, if you don’t mind.’

  ‘I don’t mind, Roman.’ Catherine returned to her chair. ‘Please, join me, the fire is warm and the flames invite dreams.’

  Roman picked up the book he’d chosen.

  ‘What are you reading?’ Catherine asked as he took the chair opposite hers.

  ‘Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons.’

  ‘Very apt, considering the conflict it depicts between those who support the new industrial Russia and those who adhere to the old Russia of class constraints, serfdom, and peasants tied to the land. Both Alexei and Sonya have recommended the book to me, I’ve been meaning to read it for some time.’

  ‘Something stopped you? This is a first edition, you own it and it’s ten years old.’

  ‘I order all the latest books to be delivered from Moscow on publication but I rarely find the time to read them. Perhaps I will be able to catch up in advanced old age.’

  ‘When everyone within a day’s ride stops turning to you in the expectation that you will solve their problems for them?’ he teased gently.

  ‘Something like that.’ She remembered why she’d lingered after John and Dmitri had left the library. ‘I’d like to talk to you.’

  ‘About Sonya?’ he guessed.

  ‘To be more precise, her mother. Your insistence on taking Sonya to St Petersburg after your marriage could cause problems for both of you given Sonya’s parentage,’ Catherine said seriously. ‘People have long memories, especially when it comes to scandals.’

  ‘You think people will connect Sonya with her mother, although she uses her father’s name?’

  ‘Infamous people excite gossip that can sometimes come too close to the truth. Koshka is infamous,’ Catherine reminded him.

  ‘As is Elizabeth Komanskaya for leaving her husband and setting up home with your brother, but I doubt anyone not directly concerned realises the two are one and the same person.’

  ‘You’re sure Taras Komansky didn’t recognise Koshka when she had him thrown out of her house?’ Catherine asked.