The Rasputin Dagger

by Theresa Breslin

  ‘Good evening,’ I said.

  Galena screamed, dropped the bowl, and then flew at me. ‘Naughty child!’ She hit me on the head with a dishcloth. ‘Sneaking up on a person like that! You have given me a heart attack!’

  ‘Galena, if this is the doctor boy that you speak of endlessly,’ the man said, ‘then possibly he knows the best way to help you recover.’

  ‘I think I do know how to help her recover,’ I said. Overcome with joy, I hugged Galena, burying my face in her shoulder to hide my tears.

  ‘I am Dmitri,’ the man said, ‘and you are Stefan. In the absence of my lady, Nina Ivanovna, may I welcome you to her home.’

  ‘Absence?’ I said. ‘Nina is not here?’

  ‘Nina rode into Yekaterinburg earlier,’ said Galena, ‘to … deliver a package. I would have thought she’d be on her way back by now.’

  Dmitri frowned. ‘Stefan, did you notice anyone on the road?’

  I shook my head. ‘Who was she visiting?’

  Dmitri and Galena exchanged glances.

  ‘There is something amiss.’ I turned to Galena. ‘Why are you concerned? You must tell me.’

  ‘She … may have dallied to talk to the stationmaster,’ said Dmitri.

  ‘I doubt that,’ I said. ‘The railway terminus is chaotic. Soldiers are piling in, but they cannot be moved out because the supply train is overdue.’

  ‘I will go into Yekaterinburg,’ said Dmitri.

  ‘Who was she visiting?’ My voice now shrill with anxiety. ‘What package was she carrying?’ I turned to Galena. ‘Please tell me. I do love Nina, you know. And I believe she loves me.’

  ‘Konstantin and I knew long since that you loved each other,’ Galena replied. ‘The only people ignorant of that fact were the two of you.’

  ‘Then tell me where she is!’

  ‘Nina Ivanovna took some of her father’s story booklets to give to the Imperial Family, who are being kept as prisoners in a house in Yekaterinburg,’ said Dmitri. ‘As you know, she became fond of the son, Alexei. I am beginning to worry that she may have persuaded a guard to let her inside to speak with him.’

  His words stunned me to silence.

  ‘Stefan?’ Galena looked at me anxiously. ‘You have turned pale.’

  ‘There is an order out that every Romanov must be killed!’ I choked on the words.

  The three of us looked at each other in horror.

  ‘I see that you both know the secret of her birth,’ I said. ‘That Nina Ivanovna’s mother was a Romanov.’

  ‘I did not know it.’ A stranger wearing a light overcoat walked unannounced into the kitchen. ‘But it is a piece of information that will serve me very well.’ His cunning eyes raked over me. ‘Allow me to introduce myself. I am the family lawyer, Viktor Ilyich Volkov.’

  Chapter 52

  ‘Nurse Nina! My storyteller!’

  Alexei cried out a greeting when he caught sight of me at the door of their living room. His face showed delight, even though his leg was bandaged and his forehead damp with fever.

  The Tsar was in a corner chair reading some papers while the children were seated around a table, engaged in doing a jigsaw puzzle with their mother. One of the girls turned her head. Her shoulders were rounded, her complexion grey.

  ‘Nina?’ she said. ‘Is it really you?’

  By her voice alone I recognized Olga, the eldest daughter of the Tsar. Her time in captivity had changed her, as indeed it had all of them, physically and mentally.

  The Tsar’s haggard face resembled the melting portrait he’d once drawn of himself upon the window of the Alexander Palace. Although she maintained her courage, the Tsarina was thin as a flower stem. Olga and her sisters had dark shadows under their eyes and an air of listlessness. But they became animated when they insisted I sit with them to answer questions and bring me up to date with their circumstances.

  ‘We live as we must,’ said the Tsarina. ‘And we thank the Lord for anything we receive.’

  ‘And Father Grigory too,’ said Olga. ‘We think he is watching over us from above.’

  ‘He was a martyr,’ the Tsarina declared. ‘Father Grigory Rasputin died for the cause of righteousness.’

  ‘His spirit is near,’ said Maria. ‘I can sense his presence.’

  ‘That must give you comfort,’ I replied politely. My hand strayed to the waistband of my skirt.

  ‘They took Nagorny away,’ said Tatiana. ‘Alexei misses him, but Dr Botkin and two of our personal servants are living with us in this house.’

  ‘And our cook too,’ added Anastasia, ‘which means that Alexei’s food can be prepared as he likes it.’

  ‘There is much to be grateful for,’ said the Tsarina.

  It touched my heart that they were so glad to see me and displaying forbearance while in such reduced circumstances. As I rose to leave the Tsar took me to one side and asked me privately if I knew what was happening with regard to the fighting.

  ‘Your Imperial Majesty—’ I began.

  ‘Nurse Nina,’ he replied, ‘there is no need to address me thus. The guards refer to me as “Citizen Romanov” and I’m told we are spoken of in the town as “Mr and Mrs Romanov and the children Romanov”.’

  ‘Sire,’ I replied, ‘it would make be uncomfortable to address you in that way.’

  ‘In truth,’ the Tsar sighed, ‘I might have had a more comfortable existence if I’d always been plain “Mr Romanov”. Now, please tell me of outside events, and’ – he moved further out of earshot of his family – ‘spare me no details. We won’t share it with my family if the news is bad, but I want to know both fact and opinion.’

  ‘The news is not so bad.’ I lowered my voice to a whisper. ‘The White Army is making steady progress towards Yekaterinburg.’

  ‘We can hear the thunder of shelling. I am familiar with warfare for I spent time at the Front when I led my own army to defend my country against the invaders.’

  ‘Are you aware that Russia has agreed an Armistice with Germany?’ I asked the Tsar.

  ‘I am,’ he said. ‘Lenin and his team have made a shameful peace. Shameful! Shameful!’ He crumpled the paper he was holding in his hand. ‘The Baltic States, most of the Ukraine, Poland and Finland: millions of acres of land and people – the Bolsheviks gave these away. It has made a mockery of the blood sacrifice of my soldiers. Ironic, isn’t it? My wife was accused of being pro-German. They claimed she was a traitor, when now we see that the Bolsheviks’ revolution has been financed by the Germans. My cousin, the Kaiser, should have care, for Lenin’s words have fallen upon German ears as well as Russian ones. His people may rise up against him and the pestilence of Communism be spread worldwide.’

  I thought of Fyodor, who very much desired Communism to be spread worldwide, but as a means to a fairer society.

  ‘Soldiers of the Red Guard are amassing to defend the town,’ I told the Tsar. ‘But to me they look untrained, and I heard that their supply train has not yet arrived.’

  ‘Ah!’ His tone lightened. ‘A glimmer of hope?’

  ‘Yes, sire,’ I said. ‘Indeed, yes.’ I decided not to mention Dmitri’s belief that the Tsar would be sent to Moscow with his family to stand trial for treason.

  ‘My people here may rise to support the White Army.’ The Tsar spoke more confidently. ‘When we first arrived in Yekaterinburg our train had to halt on a line some distance away to prevent a hostile mob reaching us. However, the peasants found out that my son is unwell so they send in some of their own produce. Possibly they are denying their own children some treats in order to do this.’

  With blinding clarity I saw how an observation like that would anger Stefan to the point where he would shake with rage and frustration. He would consider the Tsar’s ignorance of the conditions in which his people lived to be culpable. For myself, I experienced an overwhelming sadness that this man who was responsible for the welfare of millions of people could think that his peasants in their grinding destitution could afford ‘tr
eats’ for their children. Had it not been for the social conscience of my father, Denis the kitchen boy’s family would have literally starved to death.

  ‘There is sympathy,’ I said cautiously. ‘And I too have something that may help you.’ Turning my back to the table where his family sat, I took the dagger from the waistband of my skirt and presented it to the Tsar. ‘This could be sold for money.’

  ‘Rasputin’s dagger!’ he exclaimed.

  ‘His daughter brought it to me after Rasputin died. She said her father had wanted me to own it.’

  ‘Then you must keep it for yourself,’ said the Tsar.

  ‘I believe it belongs to your family and you have greater need than I do.’ I held it out to him.

  The Tsar recoiled from me. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Our hatbands and clothes are secretly studded with jewels, well-hidden. The Rasputin dagger is too obvious for us to carry and would be discovered. And in case’ – he hesitated – ‘I do not want to take ownership of it. Originally there were two daggers. They were kept in a case in the Golden Hall of the Alexander Palace below the portrait of Tsar Ivan. The servants’ nonsense gossip was that one dagger would take a life and one dagger would save a life.’ The Tsar made a dismissive gesture with his hand. ‘Idle tittle-tattle. But the pair was stolen by a certain cousin of mine – a greedy and violent man. He tried to murder his own daughter with one, but she was saved by a young man who, in the struggle to protect her, accidentally killed her father.’

  ‘How do you know this?’ I whispered.

  ‘On the night of the murder they ran away and were never heard of again. But she wrote to the local priest to explain what had happened. He told his bishop who, seeing that the letter was signed by a Romanov, brought it to my attention. I knew my cousin’s nature and took his daughter’s testament to be true. The charge of murder was lifted from the man’s head, but he was wise to remain hidden, for the girl’s brothers would have killed them both if they’d found them. There was a superstition that bad fortune followed the daggers, so when the second one was found among my cousin’s goods and returned to me I gave it to the same bishop as a gift for the Church. He sent the dagger far away, to be kept at the monastery of Verkhoturye.’

  ‘The Verkhoturye Monastery?’ I repeated, my mind in a daze as I heard the final pieces of my parents’ life story.

  ‘I see you recognize the name.’ The Tsar gave a wry smile. ‘It is the same monastery where Father Grigory Rasputin went on retreat. I think the monks gave it to him because it was a source of conflict among them, with some wishing it kept for display and others wanting it sold to provide alms for the poor.’

  I folded the Rasputin dagger into my waistband. There was no doubt that the Tsar’s assessment of the daggers was correct. Stories of their power were built on half-truths and flights of fancy. The monks had got rid of their dagger for a very ordinary reason: it was causing dissent. And as Rasputin liked costume and striking clothes, he was pleased to wear the dagger stuck in the sash across his chest in order to appear dashing and dramatic. All the rest – the visions and trances – were the result of my emotional stress at losing my papa and having to make monumental changes in my life.

  ‘Nina, you may keep the Rasputin dagger,’ said the Tsar, ‘as a token for what you have done for us.’

  ‘I must go now,’ I said.

  ‘If you might stay a little longer’ – the Tsar glanced towards his son – ‘it would please us if you could tell Alexei a story.’

  Given the Tsar’s generosity, I could not refuse.

  Chapter 53

  ‘So Miss Nina is a Romanov on her mother’s side of the family!’ the lawyer gloated. ‘I knew Ivan Izmailov was covering up something in his wife’s background. He would never discuss her family, but it was obvious from her photograph that Valentina was cultured and affluent.’

  ‘Viktor Ilyich Volkov.’ Dmitri moved purposefully towards the man. ‘You are no longer lawyer for this family. Please leave.’

  ‘Mind your place, you upstart serf.’ The lawyer glared at him. ‘When I collect what I came for, then I will leave.’ He pulled a pistol from his coat pocket. ‘After the first time you bullied me out of this house I swore it would never happen again. I will use it,’ he went on with determination. ‘And I do not care who I fire at. Yourself, the young man, the woman …’ He waved the pistol in the direction of Galena.

  Dmitri stopped in mid-step.

  ‘A Romanov, eh?’ the lawyer chortled. ‘Miss Nina will pay a high price for my silence on that subject. Where is she?’

  I glanced at Galena and Dmitri. This man must only have heard the last sentence of our conversation. He wasn’t aware where Nina might be.

  ‘She went to visit friends,’ said Galena.

  ‘And might not return until tomorrow,’ added Dmitri.

  ‘Walk ahead of me to her bedroom,’ said Viktor Ilyich. ‘She won’t have carried the object I am looking for with her. Go on now!’ he ordered as we hesitated.

  ‘What is it that you want?’ Dmitri asked as we filed through the hall and into Nina’s bedroom.

  ‘A dagger,’ the lawyer replied. ‘A scimitar-shaped dagger of ancient origin, its handle studded with a single ruby encrusted in a circlet of pearls.’

  Galena started at his words while Dmitri said, ‘I never saw such a thing among my master’s possessions.’

  Viktor Ilyich had heard Galena’s intake of breath. He regarded them both with narrowed eyes. ‘You I believe,’ he said to Dmitri, ‘for Nina’s father kept it concealed and I only ever saw it the once. ‘But you’ – he pointed the pistol at Galena – ‘you have seen this dagger in Nina’s possession, haven’t you?’

  Galena didn’t answer him. As if in a dream, she walked forward and picked up an embroidered sash which lay discarded on the bed.

  ‘You have no claim on anything or anyone in this house,’ said Dmitri angrily.

  ‘By refusing to give me that dagger you put yourself and everyone in the house at risk,’ said the lawyer. ‘I will report you to the Soviet Council in Yekaterinburg.’

  ‘You’d be advised to stay well clear of the Soviet Council,’ I said. ‘Dr K told us that you embezzled the money for the grain which was harvested to feed the army. The old Imperial Government would have imprisoned you for that offence. Our new Soviet Government has proclaimed that anyone who steals from the State can be executed without trial.’

  The lawyer was not the least downcast by my statement. ‘It depends on how “facts” are presented. When your doctor friend alerted me to that hazard, I reported myself to the Yekaterinburg Soviet Council to tell them exactly what I had done.’

  ‘That you were a liar and a thief?’

  ‘That I was a patriot, for I had taken the wealth of the landlord to redistribute it to the people.’

  Dmitri laughed out loud.

  ‘You may laugh,’ said Viktor Ilyich, ‘but not for long. I told them that I’d been waiting and hoping for the Revolution and, as a sign of good faith, I gave them a large sum of money. Each man has his price. Over time I won their trust. See!’ He opened his coat to reveal the uniform of the hated Cheka. ‘I am favoured personnel with a special pass to the merchant’s house if I choose to go there.’

  ‘The merchant’s house?’

  ‘The place where the Imperial Family are imprisoned.’

  ‘I didn’t realize they were held as prisoners,’ I said sarcastically. ‘The official story is that they are being kept somewhere for their own protection against mob rule until a case is prepared against them.’

  ‘You’re not another dupe that thinks our ex-Tsar will be brought to formal trial?’

  ‘If not that, then what is the Bolsheviks’ intention?’ I knew the plans that were being put into place regarding the Romanov family, but I was trying to keep this man talking while I edged closer, that I might spring suddenly upon him. I glanced at Dmitri, hoping he would understand my intention. He tilted his head a fraction and I guessed he too was readied to pou
nce.

  ‘It will become clear soon enough,’ the lawyer said smugly. ‘I am preparing papers to verify that what will be done is perfectly legal under emergency measures that have been passed by the Soviet Government in Moscow. I am the official lawyer for the Yekaterinburg Soviet branch, so you’d better do as I say.’

  ‘But you have not informed the Yekaterinburg Soviet of the existence of this dagger, have you?’ I said.

  He shifted his feet and I knew that what I said was true.

  ‘And you will not inform them, for you do not want to share its value.’

  Again I saw that I’d correctly judged the situation.

  ‘So your threats are empty. You cannot speak out, for you will lose the thing you most desire.’

  Viktor Ilyich raised his pistol and aimed it at Galena. ‘I will shoot her if you do not find the dagger and give it to me now.’

  ‘It is impossible for us to do that,’ said Galena. She indicated the sash which lay on the bed. ‘I only caught a glimpse of the object which was wrapped in this. On the day before we got on the train to come to Yekaterinburg I saw Nina sitting on her bed, holding what I thought was a large brooch with a ruby stone. She hid it so quickly from my view that I didn’t recognize it as a dagger. But I do believe that Nina has taken it with her, for she was going to visit the Imperial Family and had mentioned bringing them something of value.’

  ‘The dagger is not here?’ Disbelief was in the lawyer’s tone.

  But there was no doubting Galena’s conviction that what she said was true. She sat down on Nina’s bed and began to weep. ‘It is not here,’ she said, ‘and now Nina is in terrible danger. The girl with a thousand kindnesses in her heart, who risked her life more than once to help others.’

  ‘I will not be thwarted in this!’ Viktor Ilyich shouted. ‘If Nina has indeed smuggled the dagger into the merchant’s house, then I will use my pass to enter and confiscate it. And while I am there I will denounce her as a Romanov. She will suffer the same fate that is being meted out to the Imperial Family tonight!’