“Why, you...” Pobrebski struck at her, seizing her arm. “I’ll teach you to interfere in my affairs!” he bellowed.
Anna lowered her head and bit his hand. He gave a yowl of pain and released her, but grabbed for her again when he saw her make for the door, seizing her shoulder and spinning her round. She drove her shoulder into Pobrebski’s chest, and when he released her and staggered back, charged him again. He hit the balustrade surrounding the verandah, and she had every intention of tumbling him over it and then summoning the servants to have him thrown off the property. Thus she hit him with her shoulder at the same time striking at his face. Pobrebski gave a shout and reared away from her. His thighs lodged on the rail of the balustrade, and then he kept on going. He vanished, crashing to the ground some twenty feet beneath the verandah.
“Aaaagh!” Nathalie screamed. “You have killed him!”
“I have taught him a lesson, you mean,” Anna said. “Laying hands on me!” People appeared from all over the place: Boris hurried back up the steps; Collins stood in the doorway, holding Anna’s hat and coat. Grishka looked out of an upstairs window. Grooms ran along the path beneath the verandah. “You had better hitch up another trap, Boris,” Anna said. “I doubt General Pobrebski will be able to ride.”
Boris goggled at her, and then looked down at the grooms, who were looking up. “Your Excellency,” one of them called.
Anna stood beside Boris to look down. “What is it Msitislav?”
“Your Excellency, this man is dead.”
*
General Stoessel himself rode out to the house. He sat on the verandah while depositions were taken from the servants. Nathalie had retired to her wing, but she too had made a deposition. Anna drank champagne. “This is a very serious business, Your Excellency,” Stoessel said.
“General Pobrebski assaulted me,” Anna said.
“The Princess Bolugayevska denies that.”
“She is lying.”
“It is your word against hers.”
“Well, then, someone will have to decide who is telling the truth. I am perfectly willing to await the end of this siege, and submit the case to the Tsar.”
Stoessel sighed. “It is not as simple as that, Countess. I am under orders to defend Port Arthur to the last man and the last bullet. I am required to make my people do this. There is already unrest in the port. Now you have murdered my military commander.”
“I did not murder him,” Anna said. “I did not intend to kill him.”
“But you did. And you have admitted that you intended to throw him over this balcony. Now you must understand the situation I am in, Countess. I must make everyone understand that I intend to be absolutely ruthless in my defence of Port Arthur. But however ruthless I am seen to be, my people will not fight for me if they discover there is one law for the rich and another for the poor.”
“Just what are you trying to say, General?” Anna inquired.
“That, regretfully, Countess, I am going to have to put you under arrest.”
“Very well,” Anna said. “I am under arrest. I shall not leave this house, or at least its grounds.”
“I am sorry, Countess; that will not do. I must take you into Port Arthur and place you in gaol.”
Anna’s head came up. “Are you mad? I am the Countess Bolugayevska, not some common malefactor.”
“You will have a cell to yourself.” She glared at him. “I am sorry,” he said again.
“Oh, very well,” Anna said. “It will be an experience. How long will I have to remain in this cell?”
“Until your trial. I will try to expedite this.”
“My trial? I have told you, this is a matter for the Tsar.”
“And I have told you that it cannot wait. Your trial will be held her in Port Arthur, as quickly as possible.”
“You really mean to take the time and the trouble to try me while trying to defend this place?”
“It will not take long. Port Arthur is under martial law, and you have caused the death of an officer in the Imperial army. You will be tried by a court-martial composed of the senior officers of the garrison.”
“How absurd. And no doubt these senior officers will find me guilty. What do you propose to do then?”
“I am afraid, Countess, that if you are found guilty, you will have to be executed.” Anna stared at him in total disbelief. Stoessel stood up. “I have my duty to perform,” he said. “Now, you will have fifteen minutes to pack a change of clothing, then you will be taken into the port under arrest. Have you anything to say?” For the first time in her life Anna Bolugayevska was speechless.
*
“I regret to have to inform you, Your Highness,” said Colonel Apraxin, “that the situation is serious.”
Alexei didn’t need to be told. Moscow trembled to the sound of gunfire and the sound too of thousands of voices, shouting. He had only arrived in the city the previous day. “Those are soldiers rioting?” he demanded.
“Yes, Your Excellency. They are conscripts for Manchuria. Well, most of them were drunk when they arrived here. They should have been put on the trains right away. But there had been some damage to the rolling stock — sabotage in my opinion — and so they were kept waiting here while the damage was repaired, and in that time these radical agitators got amongst them and began talking treason, and feeding them more vodka...”
“What radical agitators, Colonel?”
“Oh, Communists, anarchists, call them what you like. The city is full of them.”
“How is that? Is there not an Okhrana office in the city?”
“Oh, indeed, Your Highness. The Okhrana commandant is waiting to see you now.”
“Then show him in.”
“And the rioting soldiers, Your Highness?”
Alexei sighed. If they were drunk and rioting it was because they were simply terrified. But he could not allow his personal sympathy with such unfortunates to interfere with his duty as Governor of Moscow. These men had to be returned to their duty. “Turn out the garrison,” he said, “and put these rioters under restraint. Shoot any man who refuses a direct order to return to his barracks.”
Colonel Apraxin gulped. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“And send the Okhrana man in,” Alexei said.
“Your Highness!” Alexei looked up, and frowned. The man looked just like a ferret. “Captain Anton Reddich. at your service, Your Highness.”
Alexei leaned back in his chair. He did not like the look of the fellow. And the thought that he belonged to the outfit who had once raped and tortured his sister and his wife filled him with revulsion. This man could even have been one of those who actually laid hands on Sonia. But he dared not allow himself to think like that. He needed the Okhrana to control the city. “Thank God you have arrived, Your Highness,” Reddich was saying.
“What have you discovered about these Communists who are suborning our soldiers?”
“A great deal, Your Highness. It is my opinion that they are aiming at much more than merely suborning our soldiers. They seek to overturn the government.”
Alexei frowned. “You cannot be serious.”
“I am afraid, Your Highness, that these are desperate people. They have been known to us for a long time...”
“Then why have they not been arrested?”
Reddich licked his lips. Having acted for so long to please Colonel Michaelin, he did not anticipate the slightest difficulty in acting for this aristocratic oaf. “Well, Your Highness, there are two reasons. The first is that they are gathered in the streets behind the Kitai-Gorod. I would need the authority to commit virtually a pogrom on the place to flush them out. And a good many men.”
“You shall have both,” Alexei assured him. “You mentioned two reasons.”
Reddich endeavoured to look even more embarrassed. “Well, Your Highness, there is a difficulty. We happen to know the names of several of the leaders.”
“That is a difficulty? Surely that makes your task the mor
e simple.”
“Not entirely, Your Highness. I have the list here. Would you care to look at it?”
Alexei took the list, glanced at the names. “Vladimir Ilich Lenin,” he read. “That is familiar. Olga Krupskaya Lenina.” His frown deepened. “Mrs Duncan Cromb, sometimes known as the Countess Patricia Bolugayevska. Mr Duncan Cromb.” He raised his head. “Captain Reddich, do you seriously expect me to believe that my sister is in Moscow? Unknown to me? And taking part in a revolution?”
“Well, Your Highness, that is most certainly your sister. And I would say she has every reason for her presence not to be known to you, as she is taking part in a revolution. But the fact is, she and the Lenins are old friends. They escaped from Irkutsk together. Now they have returned, to provoke revolution. With respect, Your Highness.”
Alexei stared at the paper. “And her husband?” he asked.
“We believe the man Cromb is financing his wife’s activities, Your Highness.”
The young fools, Alexei thought. He had done everything possible to help Patricia. And he had thought he was doing the best thing in sending her to Duncan. But to return to Russia and resume an association with known terrorists like the Lenins...he read the next two names: Josef Djugashvili, alias Stalin, wanted for armed robbery; Lev Bronstein, alias Trotsky, known terrorist... “I am sorry, Your Highness,” Reddich said.
Alexei raised his head. This man was a captain in the Okhrana. Therefore he would know all about the Countess Sonia Bolugayevska, how she too had escaped from Irkutsk with these people, or some of them. No wonder he had waited for the arrival of the new governor before taking action. Because if the new governor did not act as he should, then the whole family could come tumbling down, including Sonia and Little Colin. Those two, above all, were his sole responsibility. “As I say, Captain Reddich,” he said. “Having the names of these people will make their arrest the easier. My first task is to restore discipline to the troops here, and send the drafts east, to Manchuria. Then I will give you the men, and the guns, and the power, to clean the city of these vermin. In fact, I will ride beside you to do so.”
*
Anna sat on the cot in her cell and listened to the guns booming. The Japanese were assaulting 203-metre hill, the last fortress guarding Port Arthur. It was also the strongest, but she did not suppose that was going to stop them. And once they took 203-metre hill, then they would start bombarding the port itself with their howitzers. Perhaps a shell would drop on this gaol.
As with so many periods of her life, she could not believe that this was really happening. But always in the past she had had a sense of transience, when things were really bad. Even when she had been Dagmar’s prisoner, believing Colin lost to her forever, she had been quite sure that Charles was on his way to help her...and she had been right. But Charles was gone now too, and so was even Peter. She had no idea where Alexei was, or even if he was alive. She knew that neither Duncan nor Charles Junior had any idea that she was locked up in a cell, that she had stood before a military tribunal and had been condemned to death, that she was within forty-eight hours of facing a firing squad. Condemned the day after Christmas, she had been granted an extra day’s respite because they would not execute her on New Year’s day.
She was not afraid of death; she had come close to it often enough before. She was not even afraid of the humiliation of being tied to a stake to be executed; she had been humiliated before, and survived. But her brain could not accept that the vital spark that was Anna Bolugayevska was going to be snuffed out. She had lived all of her life to the very limit, and she wished to go on doing so. But perhaps that was the trouble: she had lived her life too fully. Footsteps in the corridor. Anna reached for her hand mirror, made sure her hair was neat.
“Visitor, Countess,” said the guard, unlocking the cell door. Anna stood up, frowning at the diminutive figure, heavily veiled and cloaked, who shuffled into the cell. “Five minutes,” the guard said, and closed the door again.
“Yes?” Anna asked. The woman threw back the cowl from her head, sending the veil with it. “Li-su?” Anna asked.
“You send away my Duncan,” Li-su hissed. “And now you kill my Ivan.” She drew a long knife from inside her blouse.
“You are mad,” Anna said. “Don’t you know I am going to die anyway, the day after tomorrow.”
“I know about you,” Li-su said. “You think you die the beautiful Countess Anna. But you will die like the bitch you are. You will die with no nose and no ears and no breasts.”
Anna backed against the wall. “They’ll lock you up,” she said. “They may even hang you.”
“I care?” Li-su asked. “Now my Ivan dead, I have nothing. They throw me out of quarters. I care?”
Anna considered the situation. A scream would bring the guards — but would they be in time? She drew a deep breath, and Li-su darted at her, knife thrust forward. Anna jumped to one side, but tripped over the cot and fell to her hands and knees, momentarily winded. Li-su turned and slashed; the razor-sharp blade passed within an inch of Anna’s nose, and she fell backwards. Li-su jumped at her, and Anna rolled away. She reached her knees and at last had enough breath to shout. “Help me!” she bawled. “Guards!”
But even as she was calling for help she was taking the initiative. Li-su was on her hands and knees on the floor, although she had retained hold of the knife. Anna kicked her in the buttocks, and when she fell forward, jumped on her back with both feet. Li-su shrieked with pain, and Anna seized the opportunity to stamp on her wrist. Li-su released the knife and Anna kicked it across the room. Li-su struggled back to her knees, and Anna kicked her again, this time in the ribs, sending her rolling over. Anna backed against the wall again, close to the knife.
Li-su turned, lips drawn back in a snarl, and the door crashed open to allow the guards in — as well as General Stoessel himself. “Why, General,” Anna said. “You nearly had all your work gone for nothing.”
*
Li-su was dragged away, screaming obscenities, but Stoessel remained in the cell, and to Anna’s surprise, the door was left open. “You are to leave this place,” the General said.
Anna frowned. “You mean I am reprieved? You have heard from the Viceroy?”
“I have had no communication from the Viceroy,” Stoessel said. “Other than what has been sent to me through the Japanese. That there is no possibility of relief for the fortress, and that I must use my own discretion as to what course I pursue.”
“Then I do not understand.”
“This morning,” Stoessel said, “the Japanese captured 203-metre hill. That means the town and harbour of Port Arthur are at their mercy. General Nogi informs me that he is merely awaiting the arrival of his howitzers before blowing us out of existence. Before these guns arrive, he has offered me, for the last time, the chance to surrender.” He sighed. “This offer I have decided to accept, as not to would merely invoke a senseless massacre of my people.”
Anna clasped her hands to her neck. For all the casualties, there were still well over thirty thousand Russian effectives in Port Arthur. It would be the greatest military disaster of the past hundred years. “So you do not even have the time to shoot me,” she remarked.
Stoessel’s smile was twisted. “The decision is no longer mine, Countess. One of the conditions demanded by General Nogi is that all charges against you be dropped. On his instructions, the death of General Pobrebski is to be reported as an accident.”
Anna’s head was in a spin. “He believes in accidents,” she muttered. “But...”
“When that is done, and it has been done, he commands that you be delivered to him personally, unharmed. I have no doubt he wishes to execute you himself.”
*
Anna was escorted back out to the house, and the guards remained while she prepared herself; they could not take a chance on her committing suicide, and thus depriving the Japanese General of his victim and perhaps causing a breakdown in the surrender negotiations. “Oh, ma’am,
” Collins said. “It is so good to have you home.”
Grishka wept. Nathalie, seated on the verandah with Dagmar on her knee when Anna arrived, gave a monumental sniff and retired to her apartment. Anna soaked in a hot tub. How good it felt. And of course for all the guards waiting downstairs, she could now end it all. She had only to send Collins and Grishka away, lock the door, and use the blade from her razor. Two quick slashes, and before they had realised anything was wrong and could break down the door, she would be past recall.
But she was not going to do that. Russian countesses did not commit suicide. Besides, she was more than a Russian countess. She was Anna Bolugayevska. As she had lived every moment of her life to the hilt, she would live to the hilt until the moment of her death. She wondered how the Japanese would execute her. No doubt in some exquisitely painful fashion. She would smile at them to the end.
*
Anna slept in her own bed for the last time that night, was awakened before dawn by the huge bustle about her, punctuated by several sharp explosions: the Russians were scuttling their warships rather than surrender them to the Japanese. Grishka and Collins helped her dress; both were weeping — they were to accompany her. She put on her favourite blue riding habit, and the three of them mounted. Nathalie, also fully dressed, watched from the verandah as they rode away; she would follow with the main body of non-combatants. The two women did not speak to each other.
On the streets of the town, as the first rays of the rising sun peeped above the cliffs overlooking the Tiger’s Tail, the Russian garrison was drawn up, waiting to march out. In view of their gallant defence, General Nogi had allowed them all the honours of war, and every man had a rifle and bayonet; only their expressions indicated that they were beaten men. General Stoessel waited with his officers. “I am told, Countess, that you do not need an escort. You will precede us by one hour. You leave now.”
Anna nodded, turned her horse, and walked it up the road leading out of the town and towards the forts. Collins followed to one side, Grishka to the other.
The Masters Page 31
