Misha occasionally visited his mother Yelena and brother Pyotr, but tried to avoid Praskovia. On the rare occasions he didn’t succeed we heard raised voices in the kitchen quarters. There was a great deal of speculation among both the Russians and the Welsh as to why Misha persisted in living in barracks even on his days off, when his wife helped run a boarding house in town. But then no one really knows what goes on in a marriage except those directly involved. Like Praskovia, I felt it was no one’s business but Misha’s and Alice’s as to why they had chosen not to live together, or whether or not they would eventually decide to have children.
Looking through the photographs, letters, and diaries of those years between 1872 and 1876, I realise now that it was a relatively content and quiet, if not always happy, time for me. Work, interspersed with summer carriage rides and picnics on the steppe, boating on the rivers, winter hunting expeditions in horse-drawn troika sleighs, and parties in Catherine Ignatova’s ballroom in the company of the same relatively small circle of friends, made for repetitive, comfortable, and comforting memories.
Sonya kept her promise and wrote frequently to all of us. A son, Andrei, was born to her and Roman in London in January 1873 and his arrival explained the delay in their return journey. From London they travelled to Merthyr in the spring of 1873 and Sonya sent us more letters from the Welsh iron town than any other place they visited on their travels, principally because, I suspected, Roman wouldn’t allow her to venture out into the Merthyr streets alone. They stayed with the Crawshays at Cyfarthfa Castle, and for the first time since I’d reached Hughesovka I wished I’d been there so I could tell all my old neighbours, like Maggie Two Suits and Jenny Swine, that I knew someone who was acquainted well enough with the Crawshays to receive an invitation to actually stay in the castle.
The Nadolnys remained in Britain for a year so Roman could oversee business interests he’d inherited from his father. They left Britain in 1874 for France, Italy, and Greece, and eventually arrived in Yalta in late 1875, where Sonya gave birth to a second son whom they named Spartak. Then in the spring of 1876 Sonya sent the letters we’d all been waiting for. She and Roman were returning to Hughesovka, but not alone. They were returning as part of a Romanov Grand Ducal party to inspect the works and – everyone in the town hoped – to give Hughesovka a very public royal seal of approval…
But they didn’t come alone. Others came, including the Paskeys with the intention of disrupting the royal visit and destroying John Hughes’s hope of legitimising his iron town on the steppe. They brought death, destruction, and tragedies that affected us all.
The repercussions of that visit echoed down the years and changed many lives. But the one thing it could not change was the progress of John Hughes’s dream that grew more tangible and substantial with every passing day – Hughesovka.
Book One in
THE TSAR’S DRAGONS
series
by
Catrin Collier
In 1869, Tsar Alexander II decided to drag Russia into the industrial age. He began by inviting Welsh businessman John Hughes to build an ironworks. A charismatic visionary, John persuaded influential people to invest in his venture, while concealing his greatest secret – he couldn’t even write his own name.
Hughes recruited adventurers prepared to sacrifice everything to ensure the success of Hughesovka (Donetsk, Ukraine). Young Welsh men and women fleeing violence in their home country; Jews who have accepted Russian anti-Semitism as their fate and Russian aristocrats, all see a future in the Welshman’s plans.
In a place where murderers, whores, and illicit love affairs flourish, The Tsar’s Dragons is their story of a new beginning in Hughesovka, a town of opportunity.
The
LONG ROAD TO BAGHDAD
series
by
Catrin Collier
An epic story of an incendiary love that threatened to set the desert alight as war raged between the British and Ottoman Empires.
The
DAUGHTERS OF HASTINGS
trilogy
by
Carol McGrath
‘McGrath’s research into the medieval quotidian is superb, and beautifully translated into a pastoral fiction in the tradition of Hardy.’
The Historical Novel Society
The White Ship
by
Nicholas Salaman
Based on a true story, this tale of passion and revenge brings the past vividly to life.
Normandy in 1118 is a hotbed of malcontent barons kept in fragile order by their duke, Henry I, King of England. Fresh from early years in a monastery, Bertold – the bastard son of one of those barons – meets Juliana, a countess and daughter of the King. He falls in love, or lust (he isn’t sure), but sees that his chance could come through working in her small court.
Soon, though, he finds himself caught up in a ruthless feud between Juliana and her father. Juliana's daughters are offered as hostages for a strategic castle, and even love is not enough to allay a tragedy that will change the course of history.
For more information on Catrin Collier
and other Accent Press titles,
please visit
www.accentpress.co.uk
ISBN 9781783759590
Copyright © Catrin Collier 2016
The right of Catrin Collier to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers: Accent Press Ltd, Ty Cynon House, Navigation Park, Abercynon, CF45 4SN
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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