When the boy knocked on the door, Boris came to the door and was presented with the bottle by the boy. Boris opened the fabric and found the bottle of dendura.
Boris smiled from ear to ear. ‘Wife,’ he said, ‘we are having a guest for lunch. Please prepare your best meal, take out our formal china, and be prepared for a long night, as this guest may be sleeping in our guest room.’
Inna was taken aback and surprised. ‘Who is the guest?’ she asked.
Boris responded gruffly, ‘Don’t ask questions.’
As the women prepared the lunchtime meal and set the table for four, there was a gentle knock on the door by Andreas.
Boris opened the door and whispered, ‘Welcome home, my beloved son. I have longed to see your face.’ The tough old Cossack began to cry that he was alive and not killed.
As Andreas walked into the dining room, Boris yelled out in a cracked voice, ‘Please come here and greet our important guest.’
As Inna walked into the room and saw Andreas, she lost her breath and almost fainted, needing to hang on to the table to support her body.
Soon after, Katerina walked into the room. She took one glance at Andreas, raced over to embrace him, and cried and cried that he was safe and had returned home.
Katerina, her parents, and Andreas embraced in an emotional circle of love.
Fate had protected him so that he could return home after a long, long journey like the great Ulysses of ancient times.
Andreas said, ‘I love and adore you, my eyes. My beautiful Katerina, I will never leave your side until I close my eyes.’
There was much merriment and joy during their first meal together after Andreas’s long absence. He had lost weight and appeared tired and drawn. His blue eyes exhibited the strains of war and were not bright or happy.
Boris spent much time with Andreas that night, talking about the war and what he had experienced. They compared and exchanged war stories together.
Boris was very proud of his son-in-law but knew from his own experiences that it would take time for Andreas to mend mentally and heal physically. Boris would ensure that he would be close to Andreas to help him through this time of adjustment.
Katerina and Andreas spent the night at her parents’ house, and despite his weariness, the couple made love until the morning. Their lovemaking was sweet and passionate and full of the most intense love between a couple.
The couple moved back into their home in the days that followed. In March of 1829, Katerina went to her parents without Andreas.
Andreas was busy again, making hats. It had taken him a few months to reskill and readjust to a peaceful life. He would have nightmares and jump out of bed.
As Katerina walked into the house, she was greeted by her parents.
Inna said, ‘Where is Andreas?’
Katerina said, ‘He is working. I need to tell you something.’
Both parents looked concerned.
Katerina said, ‘I am with child.’
The parents were overwhelmed with the news they had been waiting for an eternity. Boris jumped in the air with bliss.
Katerina said, ‘I will tell Andreas tonight.’
That night, she told Andreas the news. He danced and sang and hugged Katerina and kissed her endlessly and drank in celebration of the child to come.
The child was born in late September 1829 and was named, then christened, Lemonyia, after Andreas’s mother. This was also a tradition in Greek and Russian culture.
The child was a golden-haired, blue-eyed, and snow-white-skinned girl. Andreas delicately held the child in his embrace and stared in wonder. In the eyes of Andreas, she looked like Katerina—simply beautiful.
Katerina had an event-free pregnancy and birth and adapted to motherhood easily with the assistance of her doting mother. Both Katerina and her mother attended to all the needs of the child.
Boris was overjoyed and showed a soft side to his beautiful granddaughter that neither Inna, Katerina, nor Andreas, had ever seen before. Andreas sent word to his parents and sisters that he was blessed with a daughter. They were most pleased.
The war in Greece was continuing, but the Ottomans had reached a point of exhaustion. Several foreign countries attempted to intervene in an effort to secure a diplomatic solution to the uprising, including the tsar of Russia. Britain also attempted to mediate peace.
The final combat was the Battle of Petra, north of Attica. Ypsilantis commanded a well-trained force against a large contingent of Ottoman forces and defeated them, bringing a final end to Ottoman rule in Greece. The battle was fierce, bloody, and unforgiving.
The Ottomans knew their rule had reached its finality, and the Ottoman generals could not counterattack the relentless battering by the determined Hellenic forces.
Andreas was honoured to have known and fought under Ypsilantis. It was befitting that he was instrumental in terminating the uprising and involved in the revolution and war against the Turks.
Ottoman lines of infantry were sent to the battlefront and were defeated. On 3 February 1830, a series of protocols were signed, creating an independent Greek State under the protection of Britain, Russia, and France.
Russia, however, resisted the notion that the Greek State and its independence be compromised by the creation of a monarchy to run the state. Kapodistrias was ferociously against another ruler rather than a democratically elected prime minister or president meddling in the affairs of the state.
Not long after he posted his severe opposition, Kapodistrias was assassinated in 1831 in the town of Nafplion in the Peloponnese by the pro-monarchists paid by the British ambassador in Athens, who directed the assassins to have him killed. Andreas knew and respected Kapodistrias and was angry upon learning of his slaying.
The British did not want anyone interfering in the process. The Russians were furious at the murder of Kapodistrias. The Russians were also livid at the unproven rumour that the British were somehow involved in the death of a Greek champion of the revolution.
In May 1832, Lord Palmerston, who was the foreign minister of Britain, convened a conference in London to discuss the way ahead for Greece.
Lord Palmerston was an aristocrat and conceited.
In attendance at the meeting was Britain, France, and Russia.
The emissary for Russia attended rather than the tsar of Russia himself. This was done as a show of displeasure that both France and Britain had agreed that a monarch should rule Greece without Russian consultation.
Russia was an Orthodox nation like Greece, and the position taken by France and Britain was that their views were superior. If a monarch was to take the throne as king of Greece, it should be a worthy Greek patriot, perhaps a general or senior diplomat who had actually fought for the cause.
In the background, the archbishop of Constantinople agreed to support the protocol put forward by Britain and France. Many patriots believed that the archbishop had been bribed to take that stance.
Andreas was following the entanglement of these matters in Greece as the news was flowing through to Odessa. He was furious that his efforts and those of so many thousands of Hellenes who fought and died for their country would result in a monarchy. It was not what he had envisaged for the future of Greece. It was not a matter discussed during his time with the Filiki Eteria or on the battlefield with other Hellenes for nearly eight years.
During the conference in London, the throne of Greece was offered and then taken by the Bavarian prince Otto of Wittelsbach, who was the preferred choice of the French and British. Prince Otto was preferred because he was a very young, weak man and malleable. It was envisaged he would do the bidding of the French and British when he matured.
The Russians disapproved and knew very well why he was being preferred as the first king of Greece. Greece had become a monarchical and an independent state from the Ottomans with a new
king.
Otto took the thrown in May 1832 at the very young age of seventeen. The Greeks were further infuriated by the fact that the young king was a Roman Catholic.
This was a religious anathema to Greek Orthodoxy within the wounds of the schism between Rome and Constantinople.
In Greece, he was referred to as Othon. He was a young man who was accustomed to a life of leisure. A delegation of three men from Bavaria acted as advisers to the new king.
Greece had become a de facto province of Bavaria.
The question being asked in Greece was ‘Why do the Greek people need foreigners to rule their fatherland once again?’
King Othon had never seen or been to a battlefield.
The people of Greece were divided into two factions—those that wanted the king and the other faction was those who detested that fact.
Andreas and his new family in Odessa, his father and his family, and all those with whom Andreas was acquainted or who had fought with Andreas during the revolt were vehemently against a monarch in the homeland. Boris, being a Cossack from Kiev, also did not like a ruler, like a tsar, telling him what to do.
Further protocols were signed in the following months involving the Ottomans in Constantinople to ratify the agreements and for the safe passage and exit of all Ottoman citizens and forces from Greece.
The day had finally come that Greece was free from the Ottomans but bound by a foreign king forced upon the Hellenes by several self-interested states in the form of France and Britain.
During this time in June 1832, Andreas received a letter from his mother that his father was very ill. Kapelis was eighty-two.
The question was whether he should travel to Greece to see his father again or not, as he had given his word he would never leave Katerina alone again.
Andreas raised the issues with Katerina and her family. Boris was the first to agree that Andreas should leave to see his father. Boris made it clear to Andreas and his wife and daughter that it was natural for a man to age and become ill and then die as he would one day.
Katerina and her mother also thought it was the proper and a moral course to take in the event that his father died.
They sat to eat that night at the home of Katerina’s parents to discuss the travel arrangements for Andreas and living arrangements for Katerina.
Katerina said, ‘I need to discuss a matter whilst we are all present.’
They all agreed to her request for their audience.
Katerina said, ‘I am with child again, my beloved family’
Andreas jumped out of his seat and hugged her. Boris and Inna were smiling from ear to ear at the news that there was a second grandchild coming to their home. The family kissed and hugged with much love.
Andreas prepared for his long voyage to a now peaceful Greece. He knew he would not have to fight again when he visited his faraway country.
Andreas left the port of Odessa. There was a real sense of peace during the trip home. The ship was not stopped in the Dardanelles, and any sign of Ottoman naval vessels kept their distance from the ship in its free passage.
Rather than stop at Patras, a port previously protected by revolutionaries, the ship stopped at the port of Piraeus near Athens. The stop in Piraeus saved two weeks of travel for Andreas.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ATHENS, 1832
Andreas paid for a carriage to take him to his parents’ home.
Kapelis’s involvement in the war and his time as a spy had taken its toll on the old man. Kapelis had suffered two bouts of pneumonia in the past six months. He also had a mild stroke.
His mother was excited to see Andreas and welcomed him to the family home but was sad at the fact that the days of life in Kostas were numbered.
Andreas saw his four sisters, three of which were married, and kissed his nephews and nieces and hugged them all.
Andreas approached the bed of Kapelis.
Kapelis said to his son, ‘Where you are, I once was, and where I am, you will be.’ As Kapelis said that, his voice was cracked and bronchial, and he was struggling to say the words.
Kapelis told him of his news in Odessa, of his daughter, and of another child on the way.
Kapelis said, ‘Andreas, take care of your wife. Be honourable, and always make them a priority. We have achieved a great triumph for our homeland, and we should be both proud of what we have done in our lifetimes.’
After a week, Andreas and his mother woke up to find that Kapelis had died peacefully in his bed. The funeral followed three days later.
At the funeral was a contingent of people from all walks of life—diplomats, dignitaries, luminaries, commanders, klephts, politicians, generals, members of the Filiki Eteria, Russian commanders, tradesmen, soldiers, and others too many to describe or name.
It was a gathering of honour. Kapelis the hat-maker was not simply a hat-maker but a hero that shaped the beginning of modern Greece.
One by one, they kissed the widow. One by one, they paid their respects. One by one, they asked the widow that if she ever wanted for anything, anything at all, all she had to do was ask.
Most of the attendees at the funeral knew Andreas or knew of him and also paid their respects to him.
It was a beautiful service and a sombre wake. The farewell of Kostas Kapelis proceeded in the most emotional and respectful way.
Even King Othon would not be genuinely respected by so many people from so many stations in life if he had died.
King Othon and his advisers were told of the funeral and who were present. They did not favour what they heard about the funeral of the hat-maker. The king ordered that intelligence be gathered of the deceased man’s family and conveyed to him as a priority.
Andreas intended to spend a further two weeks with his mother. His mother would not hear of it and forced Andreas to board the next ship to Odessa, which was leaving in three days, so he would immediately be with his wife and child.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
ODESSA, 1833
Andreas arrived in Odessa three weeks later. He was warmly greeted by Katerina with the obvious signs of a front filled with the love and presence of a child. Andreas was overjoyed with the fact that they would now have a second child.
Katerina, Boris, and Inna gave Andreas their sincerest condolences for the loss of his father.
The child was born in early February 1833. The second child was also a girl. The second child resembled the first child, Lemonyia, but had one distinct difference—she had brown eyes like her grandfather, Boris.
Boris and Inna were equally joyous with the birth of their second granddaughter. The child was also christened an Orthodox and was named Inna, after Katerina’s mother.
Andreas was pleased that his family was growing, and Katerina loved being a mother and carer for her young children. Often Andreas would sit in his lounge quietly and look at his family with pride then reach over to Katerina and kiss her gently on her neck in approval.
Katerina’s parents were also pleased that the couple was happy. The parents would always assist Katerina in her household and mothering duties.
Andreas continued to make hats; however, there were lean times now in Odessa, and the economy could not carry luxuries items like handmade hats. Andreas was struggling to create an income stream. The couple were using their savings to continue enjoying the lifestyle they were accustomed to in Odessa.
Katerina was also providing funds to her parents, who were also strapped of cash. Boris had a small pension when he retired as a Cossack, paid for by the Russian government for his military services. The pension was initially reduced then cut altogether to assist the homeland as Russia was still at war.
In 1835, Katerina and Andreas were blessed with their third child. On this occasion, the child was a baby boy with the distinct features of Boris, including his dark eyes.
Rather than following tradition in naming his child Kostas, Andreas took a bold step and announced to Katerina and her parents that the child should be named to honour his Cossack father-in-law.
Boris objected, as his view was that the dead should be honoured. Andreas would hear nothing of it and insisted that the child be named after him.
This time, like no other time that Andreas had known this hard-nosed man, Boris cuddled his grandson and kissed him on both cheeks. He lifted his grandson in the air and yelled ‘Boris!’ and broke down and wept like a child.
The child was christened and named Boris. It was indeed a moving ceremony for Katerina and her parents.
The family discussed the hard times that had now befallen Odessa. Decisions had to be made for the future of Katerina and her children. It was a very cold winter that followed.
Boris was no longer the powerful man he once was. He was losing weight, and it appeared he had some form of infection running through his body that was recurring.
In 1837, after battling this disease wreaking havoc on his body, Boris passed away. He was buried amongst the Cossack heroes in the cemetery of Odessa in a section of the cemetery set aside for the brave.
Before he died, he made it clear to Andreas that he must take whatever action was necessary to care for his family, even if it meant returning to Greece. He asked Andreas to promise him that he would take his mother-in-law with him despite any protests from her.
Boris was then buried and was farewelled by his family. The headstone the family bought said, ‘Here lies a Cossack, true to his country.’
In 1838, Andreas told Katerina and Inna that it was best for the family to return to Greece so he could make hats in Athens. He requested that Inna must come with them as this was the dying wish of Boris.
Inna’s home and the home of Andreas were given to second cousins of Boris on the agreement that if Inna or Andreas returned to Odessa, the homes would be returned to the family.
In June 1838, Katerina, Andreas, their three children, and Inna boarded a vessel bound for Greece. Andreas had sent a letter to his mother in advance that he was returning to Greece permanently with his family and mother-in-law.
Kapelis- The Hatmaker Page 5
