The Rasputin Dagger

by Theresa Breslin

  ‘The city is so beautiful,’ her voice carried to me. ‘Despite everything, it is lovely to see.’

  Fair enough that she’d lost interest in studying medicine but, rather than gadding about amusing herself with her friends, the very least she could have done was to stay home and help Galena with the housework. Her attitude confirmed my first impressions – Nina was spoiled and didn’t care to exert herself too much, either academically or physically. For the immediate future, with degree exams looming, my focus was on intensive study sessions and I should have been glad not to act the part of nanny. But, in truth, I missed the friction between us, and her constant barrage of questions, which I’d initially found annoying. I began to wonder what she was doing each day and who she might be with.

  Three days later I found out how Nina was spending her time.

  An influx of wounded soldiers meant that anyone with medical experience, including senior students, was deployed to the wards in the Winter Palace. I was doing post-operative dressings on an amputated arm when I noticed, six beds away, an auxiliary nurse pouring water into tumblers. Something about her movements as she lifted the jug caused me to pause. The white cap which was meant to cover her hair had slipped back, and blonde curls were springing loose.

  How dare she take up a post here without informing anyone! I marched up the ward. ‘What are you doing here?’ I demanded.

  Startled, she slopped the water over the trolley, but recovered enough to state calmly, ‘Replenishing the water tumblers for our patients.’

  ‘Our patients? These men are not your patients. You’re not qualified to attend to patients. You shouldn’t be here.’

  ‘Why not?’ There were red spots on her cheeks, but she stood her ground. ‘You are.’

  ‘I am a doctor!’

  ‘And I am training to be a nursing auxiliary.’

  ‘Who said that you could do this?’

  ‘I made that decision for myself.’ She drew herself up so that her face was almost on a level with my own. ‘The social and political ideology which you so slavishly follow asserts that women should have equality with men. If your great revolution takes place we may even be the first women on earth to vote in a government election.’

  I raised my voice. ‘I don’t “slavishly follow” anything!’

  ‘What is the problem?’ Neither of us had seen the approach of the Matron. ‘Is there something amiss with this patient, Doctor?’

  ‘No, no,’ I said hurriedly.

  ‘You are not talking on medical matters?’ The Matron arched her eyebrows. Then she spied my badge, which showed her that I had not yet attained my degree. ‘Student Doctor?’ She voiced her disdain. ‘You must not harass the female staff, else I will report you to your Head of Studies at the university.’

  ‘I—’

  ‘With respect, Matron,’ Nina said swiftly, ‘we are cousins, and although’ – she assumed a look of wide-eyed innocence – ‘we long for each other’s company, we seldom have time to spend together.’

  Nina’s big lie made me irritable and failed to impress the Matron.

  ‘Even so, it is not appropriate for nurses and doctors to fraternize. I will ignore your conduct on this occasion but there has to be no recurrence. Now, carry on with your work, both of you.’

  I waited for Nina’s shift to finish and then waylaid her as she left the Winter Palace.

  ‘Why have you not said anything about this new career?’

  ‘I didn’t want to offend Dr K as he’d arranged for me to sample the classes at the university. Also, I thought that he and Galena wouldn’t want me to work in these conditions. But I’m doing more good on the ward than sitting in advanced lectures and encumbering you with my presence.’

  I opened my mouth to protest but found I couldn’t disagree with anything she’d said.

  ‘You have been attentive to me …’ She hesitated before continuing, ‘… as much you could be. And for that I thank you, Stefan.’

  My breath caught. It was the first time she’d addressed me using my name. Her saying it like that, with the lilt of the countryside in her accent, caused me to swallow the smart reply which was forming on my lips.

  ‘I know you need to focus on your final exams, so this way of working will suit us both.’

  We walked in silence for a bit and then I asked her, ‘When are you going to tell Dr K and Galena what you are really doing every day?’

  ‘Another week perhaps, when your lectures end and exams begin. Will you keep my secret until then?’

  I nodded. She was right. It did suit me to say nothing and have no interruptions for a week.

  But certain events unfolded which meant that, before two days had passed, Dr K and Galena were, quite abruptly, made aware of Nina’s presence in the Winter Palace.

  Chapter 14

  One hot afternoon, when Tomas and I came on duty, the ward was a flurry of activity. Orderlies were rushing to and fro, sweeping floors, tidying beds and disposing of soiled dressings. Officials were gathered at the entrance to the Nicholas Hall.

  ‘Important visitors,’ the Matron snapped at us as she hurried by. ‘Straighten your collars and mind your manners.’

  We could hardly do our duties, as the wounded men had been so firmly tucked in their beds. I was told off when I loosened a soldier’s clothing to listen to his breathing.

  ‘Leave off medical examinations for now,’ a doctor instructed me. ‘See! They have arrived.’

  I glanced to the main door. Two young girls were presenting gifts to the Matron while senior staff spoke to two older ones. Then our Chief Medical Officer assembled an escort to take them into the ward. A tall, ornately dressed lady stepped forward to the head of the procession.

  Her image was known throughout Russia and she was unmistakable by her height and bearing. Advancing towards me was the Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna Romanov!

  With no wish to stand to attention, and bow my head or bend my knee as they passed, I slipped into the wide alcove of a grand window, still curtained with the heavy drapes which had adorned the room when it was used for royal receptions.

  From my hiding place I could see the Imperial Family. Leading her daughters, the Tsarina paused now and then to give a prayer card to a wounded soldier. These feeble souls would grasp at her hand and ask her to bless them. This she did with a show of graciousness which I found infuriating.

  A minute later I was joined by Tomas, who’d been working further along the line of beds. ‘We are being subjected to an Imperial Inspection. I hope you wore a clean shirt today, Stefan Petrovich,’ he joked.

  ‘If only this was an explosive device’ – I indicated the catheter bag I held in my hand – ‘then a well-placed lob could wipe out the Romanov succession.’ I was enraged by the Tsarina, in her exquisite hat with plumes of feathers wafting in the air, and the four girls in their dresses bedecked with frills and tucks and flounces, each wearing shoes of fine leather, with strings of pearls encircling their necks. Their faces were plump with good feeding, their hair and skin shining with health.

  They were almost parallel with us when an order rang out.

  ‘Put me down!’ The voice was reedy, but the tone imperious. ‘Now! Nagorny, do as I say. At once!’

  ‘It’s him!’ said Tomas. ‘The child we rarely see or hear of – the heir to the imperial throne.’

  At the rear of the entourage was the Tsar’s son, the Tsarevich Alexei, borne aloft in the arms of a man in sailor’s uniform. With his thin nose and oval face topped with reddish-brown hair, the Tsarevich resembled his mother, the Tsarina. When the sailor hesitated to obey him the boy cuffed his ear. With a sigh the man set him down upon his feet. The reason for him being carried became plain – one leg dragged slightly as he moved. Immediately he hobbled off to catch up with his family.

  ‘Alexei!’ his mother chided him. ‘Your leg has yet to recover from the last blow. I asked you not to walk today.’

  ‘But I want to walk. And I will walk. And run too, if
I wish.’ And saying this, he darted off between the beds.

  ‘Be careful!’ she called after him.

  Her son laughed and moved faster. Then he swivelled round to make a defiant face at his family. The next instant he tripped and fell, his knee colliding with a washstand to land him on the floor with a howl of rage and frustration.

  ‘Aieeee!’ the Tsarina screeched.

  The sound was taken up as a refrain by her daughters. ‘Alexei! Alexei!’ they wailed in unison like a bizarre Greek chorus, wringing their hands and clutching at each other.

  Doctor and nurses flocked to his side. Among them was Nina. A bruise was rising rapidly at the spot where the child’s knee had been knocked – unlike any bruise I’d ever seen before.

  ‘A bed! A bed!’ The Tsarina’s voice, strident over the rest. ‘Lay him upon a bed!’

  For an awful moment I thought they were contemplating tipping a patient onto the floor to make room for the child.

  ‘There is a long cushioned bench in this window alcove.’ The Matron pulled aside our curtain, and Tomas and I were pressed into the far corner as they bore the boy in and laid him down.

  ‘Pillows!’ the Matron called. But Nina had anticipated her wishes and was there with pillows in her hand.

  ‘My darling!’ The Tsarina showered kisses on her son’s head. ‘I’ve told you many times that you must allow Sailor Nagorny to carry you whenever you are in unfamiliar surroundings.’

  ‘I hate it!’ the child said in a pettish voice. ‘It makes me feel like a baby.’

  ‘He is a baby,’ Tomas whispered. ‘His parents call him “Baby” rather than by his given name. They treat him like one and so he behaves like one. If this petulant child is the future of Russia then we are doomed.’

  ‘It is they who should be doomed,’ I replied tersely. ‘Let us do away with the Romanovs.’

  ‘Stefan, hush!’ Tomas warned me.

  But I couldn’t, for in my head my twelve-year-old self once again saw his mama lying dead in the snow. I spoke louder. ‘Let us do awa—’

  ‘Tsarevich Alexi.’ A pleasant voice cut across me. ‘If you are being carried by the sailor, Nagorny, does that not mean that your head is higher up than everyone else’s?’

  ‘Nina!’ Tomas breathed in my ear.

  She’d been helping the Matron place the pillows behind the child’s head and turned to address him with her question.

  ‘I suppose it does,’ the Tsarevich replied.

  ‘Above your four older sisters?’

  The boy nodded.

  ‘Your mother too? The Tsarina?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Even above His Imperial Majesty?’ Nina’s voice was tinged with awe. ‘The Tsar of all the Russias?’

  A look of triumphant pleasure appeared on the boy’s face. His lips curved in a smile.

  Nina opened her eyes very wide. ‘Why, that is just like the famous Russian folk tale!’

  ‘What folk tale is that?’

  ‘Masha and the Bear of the Forest. Do you know it?’

  ‘I do not.’

  ‘It is a most exciting and intriguing story. My papa told it to me, and his papa told it to him, and on and on, so far back that it is a tale as old as Russia.’

  ‘Was the bear very big?’ the boy asked.

  ‘The bear was gigantic!’ Nina spread her hands upwards to the ceiling. ‘As tall as that chandelier. And’ – she poked the sailor gently in his stomach – ‘five times as fat as your friend.’

  ‘Did the bear eat Masha?’

  ‘Ah … in order to find that out, you would have to hear the whole story.’ Nina gave an impish smile. She lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘On the edge of the forest, on the edge of the world, there was a teeny-tiny cottage. And inside this cottage there lived a little old couple. A man and his wife. They had but one child, and her name was …?’ Nina paused and held her chin as if thinking deeply.

  ‘Masha!’ cried the boy.

  ‘How did you know that?’

  ‘I am the Tsarevich. I know many things.’ He waved his hand at her. ‘Come, be seated and tell me this story.’

  Nina glanced at the Tsarina.

  ‘Yes, yes! Do as my son wishes!’

  The Matron herself brought a chair for Nina to sit upon.

  ‘Once upon a time,’ Nina began, ‘the rivers of Russia were as wide as the ocean, the mountains as high as the moon, and the forests full of trees and bushes with the finest berries you ever did see. There were blue berries and black berries, pink berries and ruby-red berries. The berries were plump and juicy, delicious to eat, sweet to spread on bread and scrumptious when baked in a pie.’

  ‘I like berries,’ the boy said.

  ‘So do I!’ Nina leaned in as if they were in conspiracy together. Taking advantage of their nearness, she subtly adjusted his pillows so that he reclined more upon the bench.

  ‘See what Nina is doing,’ Tomas pointed out in a low voice. ‘How clever she is!’

  ‘From the window of her teeny-tiny cottage at the edge of the forest Masha could see these berries shining brightly among the trees. Her mouth watered at the sight of them glistening on their bushes, ready ripened for her to pick. Bu … ut …’ Nina pronounced these words in a tone of ominous warning: ‘Masha had been told by her parents never, ever, ever to go into the forest on her own. And the reason was that in the deepest, darkest part of the forest there lived a great big—’

  ‘Bear!’ the boy supplied the answer.

  ‘You are an exceptionally smart young man.’ Nina stroked his forehead; tension eased from the child’s body and he sank back into his pillows.

  ‘Did Masha disobey her parents and go into the forest?’

  ‘I am sorry to tell you that upon this occasion Masha was a disobedient child. In her defence, I should say that usually Masha did do as she was bidden. She set the table at mealtimes, helped cook dinner, washed dishes, chopped wood, hung out wet washing and folded it when dry. And she brushed her hair one hundred times before going to bed. As a rule Masha was well behaved.

  ‘However’ – Nina shook her head sadly – ‘this time Masha was not a good girl. She longed to sample the tasty berries and feel the flavour on her lips and in her mouth. She thought that perhaps she could do this by taking only the eeniest-tweeniest step into the forest …

  ‘Surely there could be no harm in that?’

  Nina slowed and quietened the pace of her storytelling. ‘Masha knew that her mother and father were having their after-dinner nap so she decided to go off on her adventure. She tiptoed out of her room and down the stairs. She tiptoed past her parents snoring loudly in their chairs by the fire. She tiptoed out of the front door and crept towards the forest—’

  ‘Your Imperial Highness!’

  A senior doctor – an eminent professor at the university – had come onto the ward. He called for a screen to be placed around the alcove. ‘I am here to examine your son.’

  Nina stopped talking. The child Alexei’s attention wavered. He saw the professor in his white coat and his face registered stark fear.

  ‘Mama!’ He began to thrash about. ‘Don’t let the doctors hurt me!’

  ‘Hush, hush, my baby, my pet, my lamb.’ The Tsarina flew to his side, where she cooed and fluttered like a pigeon. ‘I won’t let anyone harm you.’ She turned to the professor and asked him to leave.

  ‘I am aware of your child’s condition,’ the professor said in a low voice. ‘It would be best if I could look at the damaged area.’

  ‘Mama, no!’ The child’s agitation increased. He wriggled and tossed on the bed. ‘No needles. No tablets. No spoonfuls of nasty medicine.’

  The Tsarina waved the professor away. ‘A close friend of the Imperial Family, a person that the Tsar and I trust absolutely,’ she stated, ‘has advised me not to let doctors bother my son.’

  ‘She’s referring to that charlatan Rasputin.’ Tomas spoke in my ear. ‘The Siberian monk claims that his power is greater than any medicine
on earth.’

  ‘At least allow me to administer a painkiller,’ the professor tried again.

  Nina stood up, and aside, to give him room.

  ‘Bring back the nurse with the blonde curls!’ the child demanded in petulance. ‘I want to hear the rest of the story.’

  The professor and his colleagues left, with strict instructions from the Tsarina that they must not return.

  Nina was reseated and the story resumed: ‘Masha had brought a basket with her and she went among the bushes collecting and sampling the berries. It wasn’t until sunset that she thought of going home. But when she turned round she realized that she’d wandered off the path and was now lost in the deepest, darkest part of the forest!’

  The Tsarevich gasped. ‘Where the bear lives?’

  Slowly and deliberately Nina nodded, and a curl of hair fell over her forehead. I checked an impulse to reach out and tuck it under her nurse’s cap.

  ‘There was a light glimmering ahead. Masha walked towards it and saw it was lamp set in the window of a very high house with a red roof. Masha thought aloud: “I hope some kindly person lives there who will help me find my way home.” And she went forward and knocked on the door.

  ‘Three times she knocked, but no one answered. Masha peeked in the windows. The house was empty. So she opened the door and stepped over the threshold.’

  The boy’s sisters had moved to form a semicircle around their mother. The five women fixed their eyes intently on Nina’s face.

  And I realized that I was doing the same …

  ‘Masha took seven small steps inside when … suddenly there was a tremendous roar! The most enormous bear appeared behind her. It leaped into the house and slammed the door shut! “I am ravenous,” the Bear growled. It reared up on its hind legs and clawed the air. “I’m going to eat you for my dinner!”

  ‘Now any other person in the same predicament might scream or shout or dissolve in tears. But Masha was brave and resourceful. She knew that she must think of a plan to rescue herself – very quickly indeed! “I am small and thin,” she told the Bear. “Two bites and I’d be gone. A meal of me will hardly fill a hole in your tooth, far less your tummy. I have a better idea.” She held up her basket, which was overflowing with berries. “I could use these to make you a tasty pie for your dinner.”