The Rasputin Dagger

by Theresa Breslin

  ‘The idea of a warm pie appealed to the Bear and he agreed to Masha’s suggestion. The pie was made. And while the Bear was eating it Masha looked for an opportunity to escape …’

  Nina’s voice tailed off; for her web of words had brought peace to the child’s mind and the boy was slipping into sleep.

  Chapter 15

  ‘It was the most curious thing,’ I told Dr K as we chatted in his study later. ‘I wouldn’t have believed it if I’d not seen it myself. Nina spun the story out as long as possible until the child, Alexei, became drowsy enough to sleep. And over the course of the afternoon the swelling actually subsided. It was a marvel to watch.’

  ‘And another marvel that it has engendered in you some respect for Nina,’ said Dr K, ‘albeit grudging.’

  ‘I do not disrespect Nina!’

  ‘Stefan, you constantly disrespect her. It’s a tribute to her good nature that she does not lose her temper with you. You act as though she is personally responsible for all Russia’s woes.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ I protested. ‘But clearly Nina thinks she is of a different class, for when she first arrived in this house she expected Galena to serve her and didn’t intend to clear her own dinner dishes. She has no real notion of how people struggle each day to obtain enough food to eat. Even her action in seeking you out is evidence that she anticipated you providing for her. Her attitude to life was that a certain position in society means certain needs should always be met by others.’

  ‘It’s to her benefit then,’ Dr K replied, ‘that she is living with us and we can educate her properly. And it is perceptive of you, Stefan, to see how those who are spoiled expect things always to go as they wish them to.’

  Afterwards it occurred to me that this latter remark might have been directed at myself, rather than at the girl.

  As we rose to go for dinner Dr K asked casually, ‘Am I right in thinking that today is not the first time that Nina has worked in the wards of the Winter Palace?’

  The question was too direct for me to avoid.

  ‘Em … I … I couldn’t say,’ I said, flustered; I realized that by speaking of the incident I’d inadvertently given away Nina’s secret.

  ‘I’m glad to see that you are at least attempting to be honourable, Stefan.’ Dr K placed his hand on my shoulder. ‘Of course Galena and I knew what was going on,’ he said as we entered the kitchen, where Galena and Nina were transferring food from pots to serving dishes. ‘My friends and fellow doctors have already complimented me on my niece’s good work in tending wounded soldiers.’

  Nina raised her head and looked at me.

  Dr K exchanged a look with Galena, lifted the stacked plates and carried them through to the dining room.

  ‘Naughty children!’ Galena wagged her finger at both of us as we sat down at the table. ‘Did you think that in this city, which is really a large village, we wouldn’t find out what you were doing?’

  Once she’d reprimanded both of us, Galena was eager to hear about the Imperial Family.

  ‘Are they truly beautiful?’ she asked.

  I pretended I didn’t hear the question and it was left to Nina to answer her.

  ‘The Tsarina seems too haughty and cold to be truly beautiful.’ Nina’s reply was thoughtful. ‘But her daughters are lovely. They were very considerate of the suffering of our patients. Olga and Tatiana, the elder girls, spoke seriously to the doctors, while the two younger ones, Maria and Anastasia, gave parcels of cake to the Matron to be shared among the wounded. And they chatted to the men and asked them about their families. I saw tears in their eyes as they heard how bravely the men endured their suffering.’

  ‘And their clothes?’ Galena wanted to know every detail – their jewellery, hairstyles, how they walked and what they said. ‘Is it true that the Tsar’s daughters are always dressed exactly the same?’

  ‘Overdressed, I’d say,’ I answered shortly. I’d no wish to waste time discussing the fashion of these parasitical people.

  Nina, however, was happy to provide Galena with the information, and although I wasn’t interested in this, it made me realize how acutely observant she was. She could tell the type of cloth, describe the stitching and embroidery, the fullness of the skirts and the length of the hem, and whether gloves were worn.

  Eventually I was forced to interrupt. ‘That they should display such opulence when their subjects are starving is an offence against humanity.’

  ‘What would you have them do?’ Nina challenged me. Irritation was in her voice – no doubt due to the fact that she suspected I’d told Dr K what she was doing instead of attending lectures with me. ‘Dress like paupers and depress the soldiers even further? The atmosphere in the ward lifted immeasurably when the imperial procession passed through. Whenever they stopped, the wounded men in nearby beds begged for the blessing of the Tsarina.’

  ‘Alexandra Fedorovna Romanov is a housewife – not a divine deity that can bestow a blessing on anyone.’

  ‘But my father blessed me as he lay dying,’ said Nina. ‘I did not believe he was divine, but I was glad to have his benediction upon my head.’

  Dr K winked at Galena, and I spluttered a reply – I wouldn’t be bested in an argument with this ignorant girl. ‘The point is that the value of one of their rings would feed a family for a week.’

  ‘If they dressed as ordinary folk, then they’d lose their aura of majesty.’

  ‘Which is exactly what should happen!’

  ‘People need leaders,’ Nina said waspishly. ‘Also, Matron said to me that the Tsarina and her two older girls are training as nurses. Most days they don their uniforms and spend hours working in a military hospital which has been set up in the village at Tsarskoe Selo.’

  ‘We should not be fooled by this token attempt to identify with the masses. The Tsar is leading his army to disaster.’

  ‘The German Kaiser wanted to expand his empire and intended to take Russian property,’ Dr K pointed out. ‘We had to defend ourselves.’

  ‘The ordinary German does not want this war any more than we do. Neither do the citizens of Britain, Belgium and France. Wars are caused by the greed of royal ruling classes who send their subjects to be killed that they may acquire more land and possessions. Perhaps Lenin is right, and the workers of the world should join forces across national boundaries and refuse to fight.’

  Nina seized on my statement. ‘Are you now agreeing with Fyodor’s opinion when previously you said that he talked nonsense?’

  ‘Was the boy there?’ Galena interrupted to forestall yet another argument between us. ‘The Tsarevich Alexei, was he with them?’

  ‘He was,’ Nina answered her.

  I waited to see how she’d relate her part in the drama of the afternoon.

  ‘He was dressed in a sailor suit. Most becoming,’ she added, and then bent her head to her plate.

  ‘Is he as weak as is rumoured?’ Galena looked from Nina to me. ‘It is said one leg is so twisted that he has to be carried everywhere by an officer of the navy.’

  Still I didn’t speak.

  ‘I believe his health is precarious,’ said Nina. She made a gesture to indicate that she would say no more.

  ‘The child’s health is precarious,’ I said, ‘and his manner is precocious. He has a definite weakness, but upon entering the hospital he refused to be carried and subsequently tripped and struck his knee. A common injury for most children, but in his case …’ I hesitated, unsure whether Dr K would want to pick up on the discussion we’d been having in his study before dinner.

  ‘The Imperial Family does not wish it known openly,’ Dr K explained, ‘but in medical circles it is suspected that the child has inherited the condition known as haemophilia. It means his blood lacks the ability to clot properly; therefore a bleeding of any type can be fatal.’

  ‘So if he sustains a cut on his skin, he could bleed to death?’ I asked.

  ‘Possibly. Although it’s an internal, not an external, bleeding th
at presents the greatest danger. Even an innocent knock against a piece of furniture could cause a deep blood vessel to rupture.’

  ‘When he struck his knee the skin bruised, but not as you would expect.’ I recounted what had happened. ‘Cold compresses and elevation of the limb failed to halt the swelling. I suppose if the internal bleeding continues, as it probably has in the past, then a haematoma forms.’

  ‘Sounds painful,’ murmured Galena. ‘The poor mite.’

  Dr K nodded. ‘The child must suffer agonies as the swelling grows and pushes on his joints and internal organs.’

  With a look of intense pity Nina asked, ‘Is there no medicine that can help his condition?’

  ‘There’s innovative work being done on blood transfusion, but we’re not far enough down that road yet. The ordering of blood groups is complex.’

  ‘The child’s mother wouldn’t allow the doctors near him,’ I said. ‘She claimed that sometimes they make it worse. She mentioned this advice had been given to them by “a special friend of the Imperial Family”. It was obvious she was talking of Rasputin.’

  ‘A Holy Man’ – Galena crossed herself – ‘can do God’s work where humans on earth cannot. Reliable witnesses have said that the child improves when Rasputin lays his hand on him. And such are the monk’s healing skills that he doesn’t even have to be present in the room. Once he sent a telegram to say that he was praying, and within hours the boy was well again.’

  ‘Medical science is more effective than any incantation.’ I was struggling not to offend Galena.

  ‘Maybe not …’ Dr K spoke thoughtfully. ‘If the preferred analgesic is aspirin as a painkiller, then in this case it could be detrimental. There is evidence that aspirin helps patients with heart disease as it thins the blood and promotes freer flow through the body.’

  ‘Administering aspirin discourages clotting?’ I queried him. ‘If the child had haemophilia, then it would stimulate the condition – the very opposite of what is needed!’

  ‘Aspirin would help to relieve the pain, which would cause the boy to be less agitated. So, in that way, the situation would ease, but it may prolong the actual bleeding. However, if left to natural methods’ – Dr K counted the progression on his fingers – ‘then the blood pressure drops, the patient becomes lethargic, and bleeding eases. As long as there’s no major organ damage, then this could manifest as a type of cure.’

  ‘The monk is both placebo and panacea!’ I exclaimed. ‘The boy’s family witness this and believe in his power. And because they do, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. He has imprinted a certain behaviour upon them. By advising the Tsarina to ignore the doctors Rasputin appears to heal him magically.’

  ‘If she believes that the power of Rasputin’s personality can cure her child,’ said Nina, ‘small wonder that the Tsarina is in thrall to him.’

  ‘I believe you were telling him a story, Nina?’ Dr K made his statement a question.

  Nina flashed me a look of hurt betrayal. ‘It was one of the tales about Masha and the Bear which my father and I collected.’

  ‘I heard you spun it out and, by doing so, the patient’s pulse slowed and the swelling subsided.’

  ‘You mustn’t compliment me,’ she said, ‘for it was happenstance and not forethought. I sought to distract him the way you do when a child is ill.’

  ‘By extending the story you reduced his agitation.’

  ‘I extended it,’ she laughed, ‘because I could not rightly remember the details. I must look it up in Papa’s story booklets.’

  ‘I’d be interested to read through your father’s work,’ said Dr K.

  ‘After we’ve eaten I’ll go to my room and bring them downstairs.’

  When we’d finished the kitchen work, Nina contrived to catch me alone in the hall. ‘You told Dr K that I was a nursing auxiliary in the Winter Palace.’ She glared at me, blue eyes blazing. ‘I have never talked about your actions outwith your presence, so in future I’d be grateful if you afforded me the same courtesy.’

  Her being vexed made me uncomfortable but I was not going to back down. ‘You were not the topic of my conversation. It came up because I was discussing the boy as I would a patient’s case with Dr K – as an exchange between medical professionals.’

  ‘You agreed to keep it secret that I was working there. For all your high principles you have a tenuous connection with the truth, Stefan.’ Nina flounced past me to go to her room.

  Huh! I thought. I was not impressed by huffy females. Yet … it was true that she hadn’t mentioned me taking her to the Winter Palace on our first sightseeing day, or the breaking bottles at the political meeting, or the vulgar drawing which had been put into her hand.

  Perhaps I should have spoken to her before telling Dr K of her involvement with the Romanov child in the ward. I recalled agreeing when she’d asked me to keep silent about what she was doing each day and I could see how she might believe that I’d broken my word. The correct thing to do was go upstairs and explain to her that it had not been deliberate – and that Dr K and Galena already knew what she was doing. I put my hand on the banister.

  At that moment the doorbell rang and I went to answer it.

  A coachman stood there. Behind him a carriage was drawn up in the street.

  ‘I am the Imperial Coachman, Sergei Pavlovich, and I have come to transport the woman known as Nurse Nina to the royal estate at Tsarskoe Selo.’ He handed me an embossed card. ‘The Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna Romanov has summoned her to spend some time there with the Imperial Family.’

  Chapter 16

  I spoke the truth when I told Galena, Dr K and Stefan that I couldn’t remember the details of the folk tale about Masha and the Bear of the Forest. During the events of the afternoon I’d struggled to find the words as I tried to ease the child’s distress.

  My travel bag was stored under the bed. I knelt down and pulled it towards me. My hand, groping for Papa’s booklets and manuscripts, connected with the oblong casket. Without thinking I drew it out and unlocked it.

  The dagger lay quietly in its hidden home.

  The sound of my breathing filled the room. The ruby beckoned me with its fiery light. I raised my hand. My fingers curled like a claw and hovered above the handle. I felt compelled, and yet terrified, to touch it. Part of my mind told me that an object had no power over a person.

  Still I reached to pick it up …

  A thrill went through me. I rocked back on my heels. The dagger was snug in my grip, as if it had been made to fit my hand.

  It belonged with me.

  And I belonged to it.

  The sound of someone coming upstairs returned me to reality. I unclasped my hand to replace the dagger in the casket. The imprint of the ruby was embedded in my palm.

  A knock upon my bedroom door prompted me to lock the casket and shove the travel bag under the bed. I thought it might be Stefan come to make peace with me and was pleased because, although we bickered, our conversations were very enlightening. I decided to make him wait while I smoothed my dress and sorted my hair. Then, with my head high, I opened the door.

  It was Galena who stood there. In a voice loaded with apprehension, she said, ‘Dr K would like to speak to you in his study.’

  In the hallway at the front of the house was a man dressed in the livery of an Imperial Coachman. ‘Is this the girl?’ he asked as I came downstairs. When Galena didn’t answer him he directed a question to me. ‘Are you Nina Andreyovna Loskov?’

  I hesitated before saying, ‘Yes’. It was strange to be addressed by Dr K’s family name rather than that of my own father.

  ‘Her Imperial Highness, the Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna Romanov, requests that you come with me,’ said the coachman.

  Despite her beliefs, Galena said dismissively, ‘Coachman Sergei Pavlovich, you will wait here until further notice while we decide our course of action.’

  ‘You cannot disobey the wishes of the Tsarina,’ the man said nervously. ‘Please u
nderstand my position.’

  Galena ushered me into the study and closed the door behind us. Stefan glanced at me as I entered the room. Maybe he wanted to say something conciliatory? But I wasn’t going to make it easy for him so I turned my face away.

  ‘The Tsarina has issued you with an invitation.’ Dr K handed me a card.

  A crested emblem was embossed in gold upon the thick cream card – a double-headed crowned eagle – the Romanov symbol of Imperial Russia. A special monogram printed below it indicated that the missive was from the Tsarina, and that I was summoned to her presence at the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo. Handwritten along the bottom, in a bold, yet awkwardly formed script, was a personal note to me.

  ‘How long do you think this visit will be?’ Galena asked Dr K.

  ‘Who knows? The “Special Friend” referred to in the invitation is the monk, Grigory Rasputin. He could be gone for many days.’

  Galena looked at Dr K. ‘Supposing the Tsarina decides she wants Nina to go and live there permanently? Supposing …’

  ‘You said Nina made a connection with the child?’ Dr K looked to Stefan for an answer.

  Stefan nodded.

  ‘I do feel sorry for the boy, and his mother,’ said Dr K, ‘but they cannot take Nina from us to play nursemaid on a whim. There’s no indication as to how long this visit might last.’

  ‘It will be for as long as she is useful and then they will cast her out,’ said Stefan. ‘It is the way of the Romanovs. They are a plague upon the earth.’

  ‘The Tsarina is like every other mother who grasps at any straw to ease her child’s pain,’ said Galena.

  ‘I appreciate that,’ said Dr K, ‘but there is another fear that gnaws at her mind. She is too old to have another child, so this single boy is vital to their continued existence as autocratic rulers. By a law made by their own ancestor, the Romanov succession cannot be passed down via the female line.’