by Rosie Harris
‘So how long will that take?’ Fern asked in bewilderment.
‘I’ll be in Petrograd quite long enough to find somewhere to live and for you to be settled in properly.’
‘You mean you are going to rejoin the ship and leave me behind all on my own in a strange country!’ Fern exclaimed, her eyes widening with fear.
‘I will be back again in next to no time. Now, don’t worry, cariad. I will make sure that we have found you somewhere nice to live. You will be sharing with another couple or family so you won’t be lonely while I’m away,’ Glanmor assured her.
Fern looked doubtful. ‘I don’t like the idea of being with complete strangers, especially since I don’t understand their language and they probably won’t know mine. Couldn’t you stay here until the Saturn’s next trip?’
‘What would we live on? I need my job to earn the money to keep us,’ he pointed out.
‘Surely you could find work here in Russia; can’t you stay ashore for six months or even a bit longer, until we are properly settled in?’ she begged.
Glanmor was about to refuse to even consider such an idea but then, when he saw how frightened Fern appeared to be, he promised to give it some thought.
‘First things first,’ he hedged. ‘We have to go ashore and find somewhere to live. After that, we’ll see how things go. I’m off to get something to eat but I’ll be back within the hour, so have all your things ready.’
‘You mean we have to leave the ship tonight?’
‘Yes, we do. They will be sailing on to Nakhodka on the early morning tide.’
It was well after midnight before Fern and Glanmor managed to find somewhere to stay and then it was just temporary accommodation for the one night.
They slept in each other’s arms, but they were far too exhausted to make love. By the time they woke the next morning, the sun was already high in the sky. Remembering the urgency to find somewhere permanent to live before nightfall Glanmor was anxious to start looking.
They discovered that Petrograd was an impressive city but they were not on a sightseeing tour. After wandering through some of the more impressive streets they returned to the dockside where there was a network of side streets rather similar to what they were used to in Tiger Bay.
As they began making enquiries they found their lack of Russian and the difficulties they were having in understanding what people said was a great handicap.
Finally, utterly exhausted and dispirited, they went into a small café for some food. To their immense relief they found that the young couple who ran it understood a smattering of English. Even more importantly, they could even speak it sufficiently well for Fern and Glanmor to know what they were saying.
When Glanmor and Fern told them they were looking for somewhere to live, to their immense delight the couple said they were looking for someone to share their apartment with and introduced themselves as Jacob and Dairvy.
Jacob, a swarthy-looking Russian, had once been a ship’s cook and Dairvy, who was very young, told them she came from Finland. She was expecting a baby in a few weeks and wanted to stop work and they were more than happy that Fern and Glanmor should come and share their home.
Dairvy took them to see the apartment, which was in a high block overlooking one of the many canals that formed a network that eventually linked up with the River Neva.
As they were shown around Fern was rather taken aback to discover that they were already sharing the apartment with another couple.
‘You two will have a bedroom all to yourselves but everything else you will share with the rest of us,’ Dairvy explained. ‘Both of you will be very happy and quite comfortable here,’ she assured them with a bright smile.
Fern wasn’t sure about that but Glanmor seemed to be very pleased with both the accommodation and the rent that they would have to pay so she said nothing.
When Glanmor said that he would be sailing again very soon Jacob frowned and became concerned.
‘We cannot afford for you to be absent. We want to share with someone who will pay their share of rent and so on each week,’ he pointed out.
‘Fern will be here, she will not be coming with me.’ Glanmor assured him.
‘Aah, so does that mean she will be working and have the money to pay us?’ Jacob asked anxiously.
‘Fern has to find a job first but, rest assured, she will pay her way,’ Glanmor promised him.
Jacob was not so easily reassured. ‘What sort of work do you do?’ he asked Fern and then shook his head dubiously when she told him about the flower stall.
‘Perhaps you would like to take over my job while I am having the baby?’ Dairvy suggested.
‘You mean as a waitress? I’ve never done anything like that,’ Fern said worriedly.
‘We were going to advertise for someone but if you want the job and to work here at the Korsky Kafe, then it is yours,’ Dairvy told her with a smile. ‘I do not have to stop work for a while yet, so I will be able to show you all you need to know. When I have the baby then Jacob will be on hand to tell you what to do if you forget.’
It seemed an ideal solution so Fern agreed to give it a try. ‘I need a few days to get settled in here and I want some free time to be with Glanmor before he has to sail again,’ she explained.
‘I have several weeks before I will give up working so that seems to be ideal for us all round,’ Dairvy beamed.
Jacob seemed to be equally pleased about the arrangement and as Glanmor handed over the first instalment of their rent they shook hands all round to seal the deal.
Chapter Twenty-three
The apartment in Fontanka Street was not very large and the small windows looked out on to a busy road. It consisted of three bedrooms and a living room, kitchen and bathroom. The kitchen was a narrow slip of a room and apart from open shelves for their crockery and a built-in cupboard in which to store food, it seemed to have no proper cooking arrangements other than a gas ring.
When Fern commented on this Dairvy explained, ‘Here in Petrograd we share everything. Women are out at work so much that they have no time for cooking so people use the communal kitchens. There are washhouses as well to take your dirty clothes to; it is not the practice to wash them at home.’
The bedroom that was to be theirs was sparsely furnished and although the metal-framed bed was only a large single it took up most of the available space. A cupboard was built into one wall and alongside it there was a shelf with a small oval mirror above it. The only other furnishing in the room was a plain wooden chair.
When Dairvy left them on their own Fern and Glanmor looked at each other in dismay and then they both started laughing.
‘It shouldn’t be difficult to keep tidy,’ Glanmor chuckled as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. ‘Are you happy now?’
‘Well, at least we have a roof over our heads and I have the promise of a job, so I don’t think we could hope for anything more, do you?’ Fern smiled as she raised her lips to his.
‘You’re right, but it’s not exactly what I had in mind for our first home together,’ he said ruefully.
‘No, but it is better than still being out on the streets looking for somewhere to stay,’ Fern pointed out.
‘As long as you’re happy about it then that’s all that matters,’ Glanmor murmured as he stroked her hair back from her face and kissed her again.
‘I like Dairvy, I think we will be good friends,’ Fern stated as Glanmor released her and they sat down on the edge of the bed. ‘I wonder what the other couple who live here are like,’ she said and frowned.
Glanmor stood up and held out a hand to pull Fern to her feet. ‘It’s not what I want to do right this moment but I suppose we had better go and find out.’
To their surprise the other occupants were both men. Boris was tall dark and wiry and Vladimir was of medium height and barrel-chested. One of them was a professional dancer and the other a singer who was very proud of the fact that he sang with the Leonid Utyosov Jazz ban
d that had only just been founded and was considered by the Russians to be an exciting innovation.
Fern and Glanmor spent the greater part of the first two weeks they were in Petrograd exploring the city and marvelling at all the wonderful buildings. On his previous visit Glanmor had not been free to leave the port area. Now that he had the opportunity to roam around to his heart’s content he was impressed by all the sculptures and statues to be found in every park.
‘I had no idea that Russia was like this,’ Fern admitted. ‘I thought everything would be grey and drab and very utilitarian. Most of the buildings along the banks of the Neva near the Palace Square are breathtakingly beautiful.’
‘So you think you are going to be happy living here, do you?’ Glanmor stated.
There was such relief in his voice that Fern felt she had to agree with him even though in her heart of hearts she would have preferred to be back in Cardiff.
‘It’s wonderful sightseeing with you but I’m not too sure that I will like it quite as much when you have to sail away and leave me here all on my own,’ she admitted.
‘You’ll have Dairvy for company. Once she’s had her baby then the two of you will be able to take it out for a walk. There are so many parks here that you can go to a different one each day of the week if you want to.’
‘I don’t suppose I’ll have much time for walking in the parks; I’ll be working in the café, remember,’ Fern said as they strolled hand in hand along Nevsky Prospect – the long avenue on the left bank of the Neva – pausing every now and again to admire first one and then another of the splendid buildings.
‘I’m sure Jacob will give you some time off, especially if he knows that you want to go out with Dairvy and the new baby,’ he told her confidently.
‘I wish you didn’t have to leave,’ she murmured. ‘Couldn’t you stay and let the Saturn go back without you? I don’t mean for ever,’ she added hastily as she saw his mouth tighten, ‘you could rejoin them when they come back again with their next cargo.’
‘It’s a good job that Captain Mulligan isn’t around to hear you making such suggestions,’ he laughed, putting an arm round her shoulders and hugging her tightly. ‘He thinks he is being very benevolent as it is in letting me stay with you until it is time to sail and making the other members of the crew do all the work and preparation for our return journey.’
Fern knew he was right about that so she said no more, but as the last few days flew by she felt very depressed and worried. Not only because she would be left there without him but also because of the prospect of starting work at the café.
Dairvy had been trying to teach her a few basic words of Russian but Fern found it difficult to understand them and even harder to pronounce them. She was sure she would never be able to understand what the customers were asking for. She was also worried in case she wouldn’t be able to speak the words distinctly enough for them to know what she was saying.
The night before Glanmor’s departure, as they lay in each other’s arms, she knew it would be the last time for many months. She tried not to cry but her heart was so heavy that even their lovemaking didn’t seem as wonderful as it usually did.
He left before dawn, creeping out of the apartment as quietly as possible so as not to disturb any of the others. Before he left he tucked the bedclothes tightly in around Fern as though to replace the warmth of his own body. Then he kissed her gently on the lips and again on the forehead and he was gone.
She held back her tears until she heard the echo of his footsteps on the pavement outside fade away into the distance, then she gave way. She sobbed until her pillow was wet with her tears and she fell into a sleep of utter exhaustion.
It was mid-morning when she woke and she knew that by then the SS Saturn had not only left port but also would be well on its way back through the Gulf of Finland and heading into the Baltic Sea, homeward bound for Cardiff.
Fern found that working at the café was exhausting. The day started very early because they were near enough to the docks for many of the stevedores and other port workers to call in on their way to work for breakfast.
Most of them were big burly men, some from Russia, and others from one of the surrounding Scandinavian countries. They expected immediate service and were quick to complain if their food wasn’t piping hot. Fortunately, most of them ordered the same set breakfast each day and Jacob knew them all so well that there was rarely any problem. He dished it out on to the plates and Fern found that all she had to do was carry it over to the table and smile in a friendly manner as she put the plate down in front of them.
There were not a great many customers later on in the morning and those who did come in usually only wanted a hot drink. From midday onwards, however, there were sailors who had come into port and agents who were visiting the ships in dock regarding their cargo, and this was when Fern found that her lack of language was a problem.
Jacob helped her out as much as he could but every minute of his time was taken up in cooking the food the customers asked for and dishing it up.
While Dairvy was still working and able to help, things went fairly smoothly but Fern was dreading the time when Dairvy would have to stay at home and get things ready for the baby.
As it was, Dairvy went into labour before she could take any time off at all. It all happened so quickly that they were all taken off guard and for a brief spell panic ensued.
There was good advice from all sides and then Dairvy was whisked off to hospital to give birth and Fern and Jacob were left to run things on their own.
They were so busy that there was no time to stop and worry about what was happening to Dairvy. Jacob knew that he couldn’t leave Fern to run things on her own so he had to wait until after they closed that night before he could visit the hospital and find out whether he was the father of a boy or a girl.
When he returned to the apartment he was beaming with pride as he announced that they had a son. Egor was a big, bouncing baby and he was doing well; so was Dairvy, and he was confident that they would be home again within a couple of days.
‘Very soon she will be back to help us at the café, so do not worry. You will manage fine until then,’ he told Fern reassuringly.
‘Dairvy won’t be fit to come back to work again for several weeks,’ she warned him.
‘Serving customers, no, perhaps not,’ Jacob agreed. ‘But she will be there to tell you things that you do not know and to help you to understand what the customers are saying and what they want. The baby will be with her, of course. It will lie there asleep and be no trouble at all.’
Fern thought he was talking nonsense. At home, even in Tiger Bay, it was customary for women to rest for at least a couple of weeks before they felt strong enough to do any sort of work again. If the woman had no relations to care for her and her family then the neighbours usually rallied round and did whatever was necessary.
Also, there was the question of feeding the baby. How on earth was Dairvy going to manage to do that unless she did it in the small poky kitchen behind the café? That wasn’t a very suitable place for a baby at all because it was always hot and steamy in there.
Within a week, though, Dairvy proved Fern was wrong and Jacob right. Dairvy was back at the café proudly showing off the baby to all the customers.
When the baby needed feeding she sat at one of the tables in the far corner of the room, undid her blouse and let the baby suckle, crooning to it all the time it was feeding. Customers came and went and no one seemed to take any notice at all of what was going on.
Egor thrived. Long before Fern had mastered even a smattering of Russian, baby Egor was being gradually weaned on to a bottle. He spent most of his day sitting propped up, looking around and gurgling happily at the attention he was receiving from the regular customers – many of whom were family men who were used to young babies.
Fern had anticipated that there would be disturbed nights from the baby crying but she found this was far from the case. The baby
slept in a crib alongside Dairvy and Jacob’s bed and there was rarely a sound from him, even when he started teething.
On Sundays, as Glanmor had suggested, she accompanied Dairvy on a walk. They had no pram so she showed Dairvy how to carry the baby Welsh-fashion in a big shawl that she wrapped round her body as well as round the baby.
‘If you carry him like that it not only keeps the baby warm but also leaves your hands and arms free and takes most of the weight of the baby as well,’ she pointed out.
Once the baby was fully weaned Fern occasionally looked after it for an evening while Jacob took Dairvy out. They were both enthusiastic about jazz and enjoyed going along to hear Vladimir sing.
‘One night, perhaps, you will come out with me and we will go dancing,’ Boris suggested.
‘I can’t dance,’ Fern told him laughingly.
‘Then it will be my privilege to teach you,’ he told her with a solemn bow.
Fern shook her head. ‘I don’t think it would be a very good idea,’ she told him.
‘Why ever not?’ Boris asked in mild surprise.
‘You are a professional dancer,’ Fern pointed out.
‘I would still like to teach you,’ he told her gravely. ‘It would be a great joy for me to do so.’
Fern found that he was as good as his word and after one or two stumbling attempts she found she actually enjoyed the experience. She even began to look forward to their night out and her next lesson with him.
‘I think that one night you should come and hear me sing,’ Vladimir told her. ‘Afterwards, who knows, perhaps you will want to sing to the jazz music.’
Fern smiled and shook her head, saying that she enjoyed music but she knew nothing about jazz.
Vladimir was not to be discouraged. ‘You take lessons from Boris, so it is only right that you should come and listen to the jazz music and sing,’ he insisted.
Finally, she capitulated but emphasised that she had no intention of singing.
‘You come from a land that is famous for its singers and they are held in high regard so there is probably no need for me to teach you at all,’ Vladimir told her.
