I was making progress when a flatbed truck marked CITY OF SAN DIEGO stopped at the end of the driveway. A pickup truck pulled in behind it. Men climbed out and began to load the bodies onto the truck. They didn’t call to me or bid me good morning—maybe that would have been out of place, come to think of it. But they didn’t even look at me.
That was the first odd thing.
Next, no one came to look and remark at this unusual occurrence.
At home, this would have drawn a crowd. Not here, not in this nice neighborhood.
The grim job didn’t take long with four men working. They drove away as quietly as they’d come. I went back to my task.
After another half hour, everything that could be picked up with fingers had been retrieved. Then I didn’t know what to do with my awful wheelbarrow full of people bits.
There was a bench in the backyard. I sat down and stared at the bushes, which had been pruned back. Eli came out to sit beside me.
“Veronika and Lucy are so strong,” I said. “Did you know Alice was… not that way?”
“I absolutely did not. Since I’m so much older, I wasn’t around for a large part of Alice’s childhood. Not all of us are able to handle troubles equally.”
“Peter know?”
“Mother and Peter and Lucy had seen signs that Alice needed a lot of protection. Which they did not see fit to share with me.”
“That explains a lot about Peter,” I said. “Those two men accosting your sisters on their trip to the library, I don’t know if Peter told you, but the treatment of Alice was especially rude. No wonder his reaction was drastic.”
Eli was scowling. “I don’t think so. If I’d been there, I’d have killed them on the spot.”
“Lucky you weren’t, then.” I mulled this over. “The past few days were hard on a tough person, much less a frail one. If Alice gets some peace and calm, this may not happen again. Is there any magic thing you can do to help her?”
“We heal bodies pretty well. Minds, no.”
“She needs time, and someone to talk to who won’t tell her to snap out of it.” Which had been my first instinct. “She might talk to Felix,” I said.
Eli stared at me with disbelief. “Why would she? He’s the least sympathetic person I know.”
“Because Alice knows Felix wants to marry Lucy, so he’s safe. And he’s older than you and Peter, so he’s less likely to go off like a firecracker. And he won’t be impatient with her, like your mom and Lucy might be.”
Eli seemed doubtful. “Why would my mother be impatient with Alice?”
I couldn’t even think of a way to say what I wanted to tell him. “Please take it from me that it might happen, okay?”
“I will, but I don’t understand.”
“I’m not sure I do, but I know it’s true.”
I still didn’t want to go in. When Eli decided to go talk to Felix and his mother, I sat on the back steps to read the newspaper, which had been delivered as though there weren’t dead men piled up at the curb.
All the stories on the front page were about the events of the day before. Since I’d been on hand for most of them, it was interesting reading.
I figured someone at the palace had gone over these accounts before they’d gone to press. The shot that had killed Alexander was “evil and dastardly,” Alexander had been “a hero of the Holy Russian Empire and devoted uncle of the tsar.” His death had emboldened a certain faction to attack the tsar, since Alexander had been such a strong protector of his nephew.
I shook my head. If the tsar wanted to stay in power, he could not be seen to need a strong protector. That just made sense.
The battle on this street was described as a neighborhood skirmish by partisans of both sides, and that was it. No mention of the tsar being present, no mention of grigori bombs, no mention of Captain McMurtry being wounded. This was all good, I figured. Less attention on Eli’s family.
There was one surprise: a really good picture of the tsar, the tsarina, and the tsarevitch. Caroline looked polished, attractive, and motherly, in a suit and good jewelry. Her hair was done, her makeup was light, and she was holding a toddler in a cute outfit on her knee. The little fellow was smiling at the camera, with a toy in his hand. The tsar looked serious and protective in a military uniform, his arm around his wife and his gaze on his son.
“That’s doing it right,” I said out loud. I didn’t know whose idea the picture had been, but it was everything people wanted to see in their leader.
I made myself go into the house, where I found Peter and Felicia reading schoolbooks.
“You’re going back to school?” I said.
“When it reopens. In the meantime, we found Eli’s old books, and we’re trying to learn something. When are you going to Segundo Mexia?” Felicia said.
Not soon enough. “I guess whenever Eli thinks his family is fixed up for the future,” I said. “I guess he will come with me.” I was feeling pretty irritable.
“Of course he will,” Felicia said. “Not only has he told everyone you’ve lived as man and wife, but the tsar kind of told him to get out of town. Where else would he go?”
I didn’t want Eli to come with me because he didn’t have anywhere better to be.
I looked down at my boots. I was so dumb. A few days ago, I’d been content to find Eli alive. Then I’d only wanted him out of jail and free to make a choice for himself. Then I’d wanted him to get out from under the cloud of Alexander, so his family wouldn’t be oppressed. Now I wanted him to have the pick of his future.
Everything had happened, though not as I’d wanted it to, and I was still bitching at fate. I had better whip up some gratitude, and fast. “I don’t like to take it for granted,” I said finally. “Do you think you might come visit me when you all get a break? I don’t know your school terms.”
“We get a month off in the summer,” she said. “If we can get the money for the ticket, I’ll come.”
“I live real humble. It won’t be like here.”
“You’re forgetting where I came from,” Felicia said. She looked away. “How do you think your mother will take me showing up?”
“She’ll be a little down for a day or two, because her memory of our father is bad. But you’re not him. Mom is fair and smart. She’ll be okay.” But that triggered a whole other train of thought. My worry right to hand was about Eli coming back to Segundo Mexia with me, and it was practical: the size of my cabin. I’d have to add on a room. If Eli really intended to stay with me, we needed a proper bedroom, especially if Felicia was going to visit.
I didn’t fully believe any of this would happen. But I felt a little trickle of excitement.
The telephone rang.
“They fixed the line!” Peter said, and jumped up to answer it.
Peter came back looking happy. “The tsar’s new aide called to say that they are sending over workers from the island to repair the lawn and driveway.”
So the repairs would be free. That would be a relief to any homeowner. It was only right of the tsar to take care of the damage to the Savarov property, but assuming royalty knew the right thing to do and actually getting royalty to act on the knowledge… even I knew that was two different things.
I had noted the sound of cars slowing down to have a good look at the house and the lawn, so the stories were spreading. No surprise there.
There was a knock at the front door. Peter went to answer it. The short man standing on the doorstep had a high collar, a monocle, and a mustache waxed out to the tips. It was a sight. A car was pulling around to the back of the house, and a cab was coming up the driveway.
“I am Dr. Josef Bartofsky,” said the man.
“Hello, Doctor,” Peter said, sounding cautious. “I’m Peter Savarov, son of this house.” Peter waited. The visitor clearly hadn’t expected this, began getting indignant that Peter wasn’t moving. Peter was right.
“Why have you come to call, Dr. Bartofsky?” I asked.
“Pri
ncess Savarov asked a neighbor to call me to request my attendance.”
“How do I know that’s true?”
The little doctor gave me a look that said How dare you? without actually speaking the words. “You may go upstairs and ask her if you doubt my word,” he said, with the utmost offense. “She asked me to examine the wounds of Captain McMurtry, and to examine her daughter Alyona.”
Bartofsky made a mistake. He tried to push past me.
Next moment he was up against the wall with a knife to his throat. He could have fought more if he’d been willing to drop his doctor bag, but he kept hold of it like it was a grigori vest.
That made me wonder what was in it.
“What is this?” Eli said from the stairs. He sounded mighty displeased.
The doctor made garbled noises.
“What are you doing, Lizbeth?” Eli asked me in a sharp voice. “This is the doctor recommended to Mother.”
“Can you ask, after yesterday?” That was dumb. Obviously, he could. “Look in his bag. If the right stuff is in it, I’ll let him go.”
I could feel Eli’s unhappiness pushing at me. But he did look. “The usual things,” he said. His face was stiff and cold.
I’d embarrassed Eli in front of someone he knew.
But I was right, dammit.
“Ease up,” Eli said, impatience snapping in his voice. He was as on edge as I was. Because of Alice? Or something else?
Be it on his head. I stepped back, giving him a very unfriendly look.
At that moment, I didn’t feel at all like building another room onto my cabin.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
While Eli made polite with Dr. Bartofsky and gave me the cold shoulder, I flew up the stairs to “our” room. I did not slam the door. Felix came in without knocking. I glared at him.
“I think Bartofsky’s an ass, too,” Felix said. He sat in the chair Eli had occupied the night before, while I slumped on the bed. “And it was reasonable to want to search his bag since you didn’t know him. Bartofsky doesn’t like grigoris, and he doesn’t want to believe there are people who haven’t heard of him.”
“How come Veronika thinks McMurtry needs a physician when he’s got you all to heal him?”
“The doctor is Alexei’s show physician,” Felix explained. “Alexei doesn’t want to admit he has to have the help of grigoris to live, though everyone knows it. His bleeding disease is feared and not understood by most Russians. Or most born Americans, for that matter.”
I sure didn’t understand it, so that made sense. “But Bartofsky is such a dick,” I said. Then flushed. That was something I’d never said out loud before. My sister was a bad influence.
“I’ve heard worse,” Felix said. “I will never understand you, Lizbeth.”
“Likewise.”
He laughed, a sort of bark. Felix didn’t do laughing very well. “So why is Eli angry?” he asked.
Felix was focused on Eli, as usual. “I wouldn’t let Bartofsky in unless someone verified he was who he said he was. Bartofsky tried to get past me, and I didn’t let him. I guess that’s it.”
“Did you hurt the doctor badly?”
“Hardly at all. But Eli got on his high horse. He was all, ‘This is what my family does, how dare you be rude to this court-sent doctor.’ ”
“Your Russian accent is terrible. The man is the real Bartofsky, I know him,” Felix said.
“I just wanted to check what was in the bag,” I said. “That’s what I’m supposed to do.”
“Bartofsky carries the bag everywhere. Most medical doctors do,” Felix said, with the air of someone trying to be fair. “I have never seen inside one, myself.”
“Did you get to have a talk with Alice?”
“What?”
“I suggested to Eli that Alice might talk to you.”
Felix looked at me with some surprise. “Why?”
“Familiar but disinterested,” I said. “Alice had a different reaction from her mom and Lucy about the incident with Brightwood.”
Felix’s black brows drew together. “That would be a terrible ordeal for any woman.”
“It triggered something in Alice that it didn’t in the other two.”
“If you think confiding in me would help her, I would be glad to listen to her.”
I liked Felix a lot better when he said that. “I think she might tell you what her fears are. And if she does, she might get better.” I shrugged.
“You know, Eli was scared and embarrassed.” Felix offered me this like he was repaying me for my confidence in him.
I got angry all over again. “It’s embarrassing to have a little sister who breaks down in tears? He’s not scared when I go to rescue his sisters and brother from an armed force, but he’s scared when a girl can’t stop crying?”
“Yes. Eli loves you,” Felix said.
Flattest voice I’d ever heard.
“He loves me some of the time,” I said. “Other times, he’s a little scared of me.”
“That, too.”
“Some days he’s my friend and companion and his name is Eli,” I said. “Sometimes he’s Prince Ilya and I’m the lowly peasant hanging on his coattails.”
“I don’t think he’s ever imagined you hanging on to him. More likely, he’s imagined you walking away.”
I could and I would, if Eli put his foot wrong. And maybe that was what Felix saw when he looked at me.
“I’m going to talk to Alice,” Felix said abruptly, shoving himself up and out of the chair. “You should be proud. You’ve done what you set out to do, Lizbeth. You’ve freed Eli from his captivity, you’ve reinstated his family’s status with the tsar—at least to some extent—and in the process you’ve saved his mother and sisters and brother from terrible fates. You’re a hero. If you just hold on a little longer, everything will work out.”
He shut the door quietly behind him as he left.
After a few minutes, I heard Alice crying. But it was normal, not the awful silence of her earlier fit. I did not move. Felix could handle it.
I looked at the clock on the wall to find out it was noon. I should assemble lunch, but I wasn’t their damn cook.
But who else would do it? Who else could do it?
There was a radio in the kitchen, so I switched it on to listen to the news. There wasn’t any. It was all music and weather reports. That seemed real fishy. I began trying to fix a lunch because I was bored and I was hungry. There was a ham in the refrigerator, and for the first time I realized how lucky we were that the electricity was still working. There was a slightly stale loaf of bread, so I sliced it and toasted it. I found some pickles and some mayonnaise in the refrigerator that seemed good. It was store-bought. Wouldn’t be as good as my mother’s.
There were potatoes, too. I peeled and cut them up and fried them. Veronika came in, looked shocked to see me in the kitchen again. Who did she think would show up to cook? I’d killed the maid.
“I am a terrible hostess,” she said.
Even grumpy as I was, that struck me as funny. “Yeah, all the explosions and gunfire. I’ll never come back,” I said.
She smiled back, and I felt more comfortable.
“The tsar’s yard people are coming,” I said.
“Peter mentioned they’d called. Thank you, Lizbeth. And thanks for breakfast and lunch. You are keeping us going. My ad was in today’s paper, but I can’t imagine anyone will be eager to work here.”
“You need to get groceries,” I said, trying to sound like it was just a suggestion. “Not from Heedles, because it’s wrecked.”
“Of course.” I was relieved when Veronika opened the pantry door, looked over the shelves, and began to make a list. I made her a sandwich, too, and put it on the kitchen table. I ate my own, and watched her sit to devour everything on her plate.
“Thanks,” she said, dabbing at her lips with a napkin. “That was really good.”
It took no great skill to make a ham sandwich and fries.
> Eli came in, looked around him absently. I got up and made another toasted ham sandwich. There were some fries left. I put the plate on the table, he thanked me, and he sat to tuck in to the food. After a couple of mouthfuls, Eli said, “I saw Dr. Bartofsky out. I stayed with Ford while Bartofsky looked him over and said that he would be fine, in time. I listened in for a few minutes while Felix talked to Alice. He is doing a good job. And I made our plans to leave town.”
I looked up at him, my mouth open. This, after he had been such an ass about the doctor?
“Really?” I said, and I may have sounded a little edgy. “Now we’re leaving town together? Then I believe we need to have us a talk.”
Eli glared at me. “I have been having a talk. To the priest at Holy Savior.”
“What?”
Eli jerked his head at his mother.
“I want a proper marriage ceremony,” Veronika said serenely.
For a second, I thought Veronika had decided to marry Captain McMurtry. But I caught on in time to save myself from that blunder.
I decided the best thing I could do was sit there without saying a word. I turned to Eli, who still looked grim in a very un-groom-like way. I raised my eyebrows. His turn.
He nodded. “If you will have me.”
I stared up at him. And I knew his anger was directed at his mother, for insisting on something he was not sure I would want to do. And maybe he was not sure he would have chosen to get married in such a rush. But he wanted me.
I felt my face turn hot, and I knew I was flushing. He knew what I could do, what I would do. He knew so much about me. And he wanted to marry me.
“I will,” I said. “Providing you know that you have the right to get mad at me, and you have the right to think I’m wrong. But you don’t have the right to treat me like you did today.” I gave him a very level look.
Eli blinked. Then he looked relieved. “Good,” he said. “I agree. I was an ass.”
The Russian Cage Page 22