When we stopped to catch our breath, Carter said, “You wouldn’t even know there was a war on here.”
“Except there used to be a stand with an orchestra right next to the ice, and food stalls where you could buy oranges and other lovely treats. I haven’t seen any oranges this winter at all.” One lone stand had survived, selling tea, roasted nuts, and sunflower seeds.
“Even without oranges and bands, this is really something,” Carter said. “People told me that Russia was going to get in my blood and I wouldn’t want to come home. I didn’t believe them, but now I’m starting to understand. I’m not sure I’m ever going to want to leave.”
“Yes,” I said. “I feel that way too.”
“So how long are you staying in Russia?” Carter asked. “I’d think a girl like you would want to travel. See family back home and such. Unless there is some special fellow here.” I heard the question in his voice.
“There’s no special fellow,” I said, though I didn’t meet his eyes. “I don’t want to travel right now. I’m staying here and eventually going to medical school. I hope I can work with the doctor at the hospital someday.”
“Wow! That’s going to add to my story.” He got a small notebook out of his pocket and asked a few more questions. “Tell me about your mother,” he said. “Everyone I’ve talked to mentions how beautiful she was and how smart, but nothing about her background. Where did she grow up?”
I didn’t want to admit I didn’t know. She’d always said the past wasn’t important and refused to talk about it. I didn’t even know if she still had family in the United States. The other foreign women married to Russians didn’t like that she wouldn’t give them enough information to trace her whole history. It was one reason the boys and I had never been invited to dancing classes and other social activities of that segment of Russian society.
I knew another countess who had grown up in America, so I told Carter some bits using that woman’s background, except I changed the state where that woman had been born from Iowa to Indiana and said my mother’s maiden name had been Smith. He’d never figure out that was a lie.
“Let’s skate some more,” I said. “I’ll need to get to the hospital later, so I can’t stay much longer.”
We skated another half hour. I began to think of all the things I had to do, and that made the second time not as much fun. Carter looked disappointed when I called a halt, and I had to promise I’d come skating another time, though I dreaded to think of the reaction from the twins if Carter showed up at the house again.
As we walked away, I noticed that the sky was clouding up. “It’s going to snow again,” I said. “And it will start soon.” I’d lived in Petrograd long enough to be able to predict when snow would start by the color of the clouds.
Carter adjusted his hat, not noticing that practically every Russian we met appeared a bit taken aback by the size of it. “Before I came, I was worried when I heard how much snow fell here, but no one seems to mind it, or the cold. That’s another amazing thing about this city. Okay, only a few more questions. Your stepfather is a real count, isn’t he? As well as a general?”
I wasn’t surprised at the question. Americans were always thrilled with the abundance of princes, counts, and barons that filled the upper reaches of Russian society. “Yes, he’s a count and a general, but there are lots of counts in Russia.”
“Well, I’ve never met one. Do you think he’d give me an interview?”
“About what? He’s been retired from the military for years.”
“About what he thinks of the czar and things like that. His family is very interesting. Is he in contact with his daughter?”
I wasn’t paying that much attention to Carter. I was more interested in the crowds on the streets. They had gotten much bigger. “Of course,” I said. “You saw them.”
“No, I mean his eldest daughter. The one who is in prison.”
I stopped walking, barely noticing that someone behind me walked right into me. “Prison? My stepfather has only two daughters, my little sisters.”
“No, he has another one, who is now in prison in Siberia for the assassination of a government official. She belonged to a radical group, the Socialist Revolutionary Party. It was a group that advocated assassinations as a method to get changes made. Everyone here calls all revolutionaries nihilists, but that’s wrong. There are several different factions, and they all believe different things.”
I stood there, trying to make sense of what he’d just said. “You’re mistaken. It must be someone else.”
“No, I’m sure. I checked it out from old newspaper clippings. The daughter of General Feodor Ivanovich Cherkassky is in prison for murder. Her name is Maria. There can’t be more than one Russian general by that name.” He paused, as if waiting for me to say something. I didn’t. “You look shocked. I guess you had no idea.”
I shook my head, still trying to comprehend what he’d just said. He took hold of my elbow. “Let’s get something to eat and we can talk more,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to try the patisserie on the corner near my hotel. It’s called Pekar’s or something like that. Do you know it? It will be warm and the window is full of pastries. We could both use something to eat.”
I must have nodded because I found myself walking next to him, his hand still on my elbow. All the while I sifted through my memories to see if there had ever been any mention of a daughter. I couldn’t remember anything like that. How terrible for Papa to have to keep such a secret. And I knew he had to feel such shame at it. He was so proud of his service to the empire and proud of his family name. I supposed I should have been angry that no one had told me, but I suspected that that had been my mother’s decision. If she had decided Papa should put it in the past and not tell us, then he’d have gone along with that.
I realized that meant I had a stepsister, of a sort, and she’d be an actual half sister to Stepan and the twins. Right there, I vowed they’d never know if I could help it. They didn’t need to know they had a murderer in the family. None of us needed a murderer in the family.
I didn’t even notice we were at the café until we were ready to be seated. Carter asked, “Shall I order for both of us?”
Again I nodded. When the waiter brought our order, I finally found my voice. “I never knew. Please don’t put that in your story. It has nothing to do with the hospital.”
“So you never even had a clue about the daughter? Who I suppose would be your stepsister?”
“No.” I was amazed Archer and Zarja had been able to keep the secret. They had to have known the girl since they’d been with my stepfather for so many years. How could someone be erased from a family?
I stood up. “I need to pick up my little sisters.” I wanted to be home and I wanted to talk to Zarja.
Later, when I remembered the next few minutes, it was as if time slowed down. I heard glass shattering and then what felt like needles piercing my face. Something landed on our table, flattening a piece of cake in front of Carter and making the table rock. The tea sloshed out of the glasses and I realized that the thing sitting on the cake was a brick. I heard shouts and turned to look back at the street. Through the broken window, I saw a man with his arm raised, holding another brick. Carter was still staring at the destruction to his cake as if he couldn’t believe it. I moved around the table and took hold of his arm.