“Your voice does still matter.” I stood back up. “Thank you for supporting the hospital. It would make Mama happy if she knew.”
He gave me a faint smile. “I’m glad you are keeping it going, though I know it is a big responsibility for a girl your age. I hope it’s not too much.”
“Dr. Rushailo and the more experienced nurses are really the ones who do the most work,” I said. “I should go, though. We are short of help.”
“Yes, go. Everything is fine here, especially now with the new tutor.” He chuckled, and I was happy he didn’t seem as upset. “Physics experiments with glasses! What an idea!”
I left him still chuckling. Out in the hall, Osip was cleaning the floor where the wet snow had been tracked in.
“Why was the baron so furious at you?” I asked. “He’s never even seen you before, has he?”
Osip shook his head. “I suppose because I made myself noticeable when I laughed at Miles. Servants aren’t supposed to do anything that draws attention to them. At least that’s what Archer tells me all the time. That won’t be true much longer.”
“Watch your words.” Archer’s voice rang through the hall. I hadn’t heard him come in. He was wearing a coat and a hat, which struck me as odd. I rarely saw Archer leave the house. “I have never seen the Cherkassky name so disgraced,” Archer said. “I will speak to you later. I will be out for about an hour. See to your duties.” He walked out the door, not acknowledging my presence.
Osip made the same rude gesture at the door he’d made earlier. “When revolution comes, he will regret all he’s said to me.”
“Do you really think there will be a revolution?” I asked. I didn’t know why I was asking Osip. He wouldn’t have a better idea of the situation than anyone else, but I wanted to hear something that would convince me we weren’t always going to be stuck waiting and wondering.
“How could there not be? The people are done with being crushed under the czar’s rule. Everyone talks of nothing else.”
I decided I could trust Osip. I told him about the man watching the house. “Would you let me know if anyone approaches you asking questions about us? The baron has this bizarre idea that I’m one of the dissidents working for revolution.”
Osip laughed. “You! Doesn’t he know you spend all your time at the hospital?”
“You’d think he could find that out. If he comes back, you should be careful too. I’m afraid he’s working with the Okhrana. Don’t do anything to draw attention to yourself.”
“I’m not afraid of him!”
“I know, but that may not matter.” I had a question that needed to be asked no matter how odd Osip thought it sounded. “What time did the tutor return last night?” Someone at the Tamms’ had to have reported the playwright almost right after he’d spoken those words. It sounded as if he was arrested right after the party and interrogated so quickly. I really didn’t want Dmitri to have been that someone.
Osip didn’t act like he thought the question unusual. “He came in around four o’clock and then was back out early this morning. From the pain on his face when he walks, he should stay in one place more.”
I thought so too, but I couldn’t exactly demand he not go out. Even though Dmitri didn’t seem to be friends with the baron, that didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t both working for the secret police. It was a giant organization, and I’d heard they purposely kept the knowledge of who was working for them secret, even from their own members.
Was Dmitri that good an actor that he would come into our home and pretend to want to tutor my brothers as a means to spy on us? I didn’t think he was, but I wished I could be sure. If I was wrong, it could be disastrous for all of us.
Chapter Nine
I FILLED ANOTHER basket with food to take to the hospital and went out. I assumed I could take a tram partway, but none of them were running, and there were no droshkies on the streets. There should have been droshkies everywhere. I stopped a woman passing by a tram stop and asked her if she knew what was happening.
“The drivers for hire are afraid to come out on the streets. They’re afraid something is going to happen. And the trams have stopped because they aren’t getting paid enough.” She noticed my nurse’s veil under my hat. “Do you have any news about the war? Do the soldiers tell you how it’s going? I haven’t heard from my son in months.” Her voice broke and she covered her mouth with her hand.
“No, I’m sorry. Our hospital only treats women.”
Her shoulders sagged, and she shuffled away from me without another word.
There were so many soldiers around, the city was almost like an army base. One of the squares had been turned into a drilling ground for new recruits. As I walked, I watched them take turns racing at a bizarre stuffed figure that had wooden poles sticking out all over it. Each time a recruit reached it, he would try to stick it with his bayonet without barreling into one of the poles.
I couldn’t watch. I knew what damage a bayonet could do to an actual human being. The squares should have been full of vendors out with little carts selling fruit from the south and handmade toys and baskets, and people laughing and talking with their friends. There was no more of that, and the only sounds were the shouting of the officers. Our city had been turned into something so ugly I barely recognized it. I was beginning to fear that Papa was wrong about everything returning to normal soon.
When I got to the hospital, Galina came to find me as I was putting the food away in the pantry. “Charlotte, Irina Igorneeva’s husband is here. He’s demanding his wife come home. She’s crying.”
I tried to contain a sigh. We’d had this same sort of situation too many times before, even the very first day the hospital opened. I remembered my mother getting angry at a man for ruining the little celebration we’d had.
As I followed Galina into the ward, I heard the man before I saw him. He was shouting, of course. They always shouted. The other patients were trying not to notice the scene playing out at Irina Igorneeva’s bed. Her husband was not a big man, but I stopped when I saw his black uniform. He was a policeman. We’d never had to deal with a policeman husband.
I didn’t want to approach him, but I knew the others would be waiting for me to do something. It had always been my mother’s job, and they had just expected it to become mine. Because my mother and I were foreigners and patrons of the hospital, the husbands were less likely to try to bully us.
The man turned on me when Galina explained who I was. “She needs to come home now!” he said. “Other women have babies and get right back to work.”
I took a deep breath and tried to sound stern. “Not all women can get out of bed right away. It will just be a few more days before she’s home.”
He made a sound almost like a snarl and motioned to his wife’s breakfast tray. “It’s her job to stand in line for food and get something on the table for me. She’s just lying here being treated to all this food while working men don’t have enough.” He grabbed a hunk of bread off the tray and stuffed it in his pocket.
I’d learned from watching my mother that harsh words were the best way to stand up to these sorts of men. “If she leaves now, she’s likely to collapse at home,” I said. “Then what will you do? Now I want you to leave. We have work to do and your wife needs to rest.” I moved so that I stood directly between him and the bed and crossed my arms over my chest. I was too close to him, and I could feel sweat forming on my back.