The Russian Cage Read online

  It was like I had asked the tsarina to smell my feet. She looked horrified. I couldn’t tell if it was because I claimed to be friend to a prince or because she hadn’t known Eli had been arrested.

  “I am astonished,” Caroline said, which she’d already made clear. “You say Eli, the grigori, is in jail?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “On what charge?”

  “I don’t know. Neither does his family.”

  The white-haired lady had been right behind Caroline during our conversation. She patted the tsarina on her shoulder and said, “My dear, this is not a conversation to have right here, right now.” She used a different voice to say, “Young lady, can you come to visit Caroline this afternoon? We’d all like to thank you for your service.”

  “Yes, ma’am. When and where?”

  “At the palace at three o’clock,” the white-haired lady said. “I’m Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna.”

  “I’ll be there,” I said. Then the bodyguards hustled Caroline away with some hostile looks thrown my way. I’d shown them up. They weren’t going to forget it. Think of how bad you’d look if Caroline had gotten shot, I thought, and hoped that occurred to them as well.

  Xenia Alexandrovna lingered for a moment to say, “Appropriate clothes, please.” Then she followed Caroline and all the other ladies. I was left standing by myself, blood-spattered and bruised, in the middle of the Japanese garden. My shirt, face, and hair had gotten the worst of it. My jacket, unbuttoned, had flown back as I dived for the gunman, so it was spared the worst.

  The Japanese gardener approached me in a doubtful kind of way, but he was nice enough to tell me where a faucet was. I knelt in the grass and pulled off my jacket. Putting it carefully out of reach of water flow, I cupped my hands and splashed my face and hair with the cold water. I slipped my jacket on again.

  I felt much better, though as I walked out of the gardens, I knew I was still a sight. There was nothing I could do about it. I would be even more remarkable if I took off my shirt. Buttoning my jacket to hide as much of the mess as possible was the only solution to hand.

  I wasn’t totally surprised to see Felix’s car at the curb.

  The grigori was asleep in the driver’s seat, his head tilted back. He looked like hell, pale and haggard. Though his turning up confirmed my worst suspicions, at the same time I was relieved I wouldn’t have to walk through the city streets with bloodstains (and worse) all over my shirt.

  I got in without speaking. Felix woke up with a gasp. He winced after he took in my appearance.

  “That looks too close for comfort,” Felix said. I would have smacked him if he’d smiled, so it was lucky he didn’t.

  “Would have served you right if I’d let him shoot her,” I said. The first thing I’d thought after I’d tackled the guy? That it was too much of a coincidence that the morning Felix sent me to observe the tsarina was the morning she was attacked.

  “You wouldn’t do that,” Felix said with unearned confidence. “Did the tsarina ask you to the palace?”

  “Xenia Alexandrovna”—I fumbled a little on the last name—“told me to wear the right clothes when I go to the palace,” I said, sounding as grumpy as I felt. “How much money do you have?”

  Felix looked shocked. “She is Alexei’s aunt! You spoke to her?” Then he got back more into “Felix” normal. “You didn’t bring money with you?”

  “I have a little emergency money, and I’m holding on to it.” I was damned if I was going to spend Jackson’s money on clothes, especially an outfit I’d wear once.

  “I haven’t got any idea what you should wear to the palace in the afternoon,” Felix confessed. It was rare that he was at a loss.

  “It would be different from what they were wearing in the park? There’s different clothes for different times of day?” It was amazing that people could make their lives so complicated.

  “The court has had to change a lot in its new home. Now they must speak English, now some of the servants were born American, now they can’t all have palaces or mansions. But some things haven’t changed.”

  I felt even grumpier. “We’ll have to find out.”

  “I’ll take you to Veronika,” Felix said, smiling. “I can visit with Lucy while she kits you out.”

  “Veronika’s been to court but not Lucy?”

  “Lucy’s just at the right age to have been introduced at the palace this past year if…”

  “If her dad hadn’t been a traitor.”

  “Just so.” Felix looked all dark and brooding for a moment. Then he shrugged. “Veronika will help you.”

  “Do you think so? I got the feeling I wasn’t her favorite person.”

  “You can hardly wonder,” Felix said.

  I scowled at him. “What does that mean?”

  “Do you think Peter and Eli have not talked about you when they were at home? Do you think she hasn’t heard about the black-haired shooter who saved Eli’s life? Who saved Peter’s? The princess must be terrified you are involved in their lives forever.”

  “She acted like she’d never heard my name. She asked me if I was pregnant.”

  “You turned up on her doorstep out of the blue, Lizbeth. She’s proud, and she feels helpless. How do you expect her to feel?”

  “Grateful.”

  Felix beamed at me. I could almost see he could be attractive when he smiled… but he so seldom did. “In your world, she ought to be. But her world is all upside down, and she doesn’t know how to cope.”

  “Then she can begin coping by loaning me something to wear,” I said. “Let’s go, Felix.” I felt all kinds of ways, and I wanted to sit and be quiet for a spell.

  I was still jangly from the incident in the park.

  I was still wrought up that I hadn’t had a gun when I’d needed one most.

  I was angry because the way I looked wasn’t good enough for the tsarina’s court, when I’d saved her life. I didn’t want to be dressed up like a doll. I’d had enough of that in Dixie.

  The drive to the Savarovs’ was silent. I had no idea what Felix was brooding about, but I had so much stuck in my craw I didn’t imagine I’d ever get it digested. I would have offered to drive, but traffic was heavy.

  “He was already dead, wasn’t he?” I had to ask.

  “The gunman? Yes. He died this morning on a bench down by the water. Seconds before I found him! How’s that for luck?”

  I really couldn’t think of words to answer.

  “I raised him up, gave him a gun, took him to the park, and let him out. I parked where I couldn’t be seen and gave him his commands. I take it he performed well?”

  “He tried to kill her, sure enough, if you call that performing well. I barely got there in time, and when I brought him down, he fought like crazy.”

  “It wouldn’t have been convincing if he hadn’t,” Felix said in a wounded way, as though I was criticizing his workmanship. I could tell Felix thought he deserved praise. Too bad.

  “I guess you slept the whole time till I came out of the park,” I said. Felix had a hard time recovering from reanimation.

  Felix nodded.

  Once we got onto the residential streets, the traffic was not so bad, and we got to the Savarov house pretty quickly. Felix pulled the car around to the back of the house. I hoped that was okay. Eli’s mom seemed to like her formalities.

  Felix strolled up to the back door. He knocked. The same older woman answered it who had come to the front door the day before. Was she the only servant? I wondered how many they’d had in Russia.

  The woman was in yet another starched uniform, and she wore yet another grim expression as she stood back from the door and invited us in without the least bit of enthusiasm. “Mr. Felix, Miss Rose,” she said. “I will see if the ladies are at home.” She cast a horrified look at my shirt and jacket.

  Even I understood that the housekeeper for sure knew whether or not “the ladies” were in the house. “I don’t know your name,” I s
aid. “You got the advantage of me.”

  “I’m Natalya,” she said. I didn’t deserve any more of her name than that. She made that clear.

  We passed through a narrow hall and into the front of the house, where Natalya bade us sit in the same room I’d seen on my first call. I noticed Felix wasn’t as “at home” as he’d pretended to be. He fidgeted, jumped up to look at the pictures on the wall, sat down to pick up a magazine.

  At last, we heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I’d decided Natalya was going to tell us no one was at home and we should leave. But Eli’s mom came into the room with a chill around her like a refrigerator.

  “Miss Rose, Felix,” Veronika said. About as far from cordial as it was possible to be.

  “My dear Veronika,” Felix said. He sounded sober and confident, like a lawyer. “You’ll be glad to know that Lizbeth has an invitation to the court this afternoon. She’s to visit the tsarina.”

  Veronika flicked a look at me that was out-and-out incredulous.

  “Doesn’t seem likely, does it?” I agreed. “I met her at the Japanese garden today. I did her a favor. She asked me why I was in San Diego, and I told her about Eli being in jail. So she asked me to come see her this afternoon. In three hours. And Xenia Alexandrovna told me to be dressed properly. I’m betting you know what I should wear. And we’re about the same size.”

  Veronika was giving me narrow eyes by the time I finished. “Is this true?” she asked Felix. “Has she gotten in to see the tsarina so easily?”

  “It wasn’t easy. I had to kill someone to do it.” I tapped one of the bloodstains. She noticed them for the first time.

  Veronika turned almost as pale as the dead assassin.

  I thought it would lessen the effect if I told her the man had already been dead, so I didn’t bring that up. I wanted Veronika beholden so she’d help me. Also, I hadn’t fired the shot that had taken him out for the second time.

  If I’d had a gun, I would have.

  “So your intention is to ask the tsarina if she can find out why Ilya is in jail, and you hope she’ll make sure the tsar knows about it and will get him out.” Veronika was making sure.

  I nodded.

  “What is your interest in this?” Veronika asked me, all of a sudden.

  It was lucky I had braced myself for this. “As I told the tsarina, Eli and I are friends,” I said carefully.

  “Told her,” Veronika said.

  I nodded.

  “And is that the truth?”

  “We’re…” I struggled to find words. Every time I saw Eli, I was surprised to see him again. Every time he left, it took me longer to recover. “You’ll have to ask him,” I said. I held her eyes with mine, and I would not let her look away. I wanted Veronika to know how serious I was.

  After a long moment, Veronika nodded. “Then let’s get you ready for court,” she said. “I’m sure we can find something that fits you passably. Felix, can Natalya bring you some sandwiches and coffee or juice?”

  “That would be most welcome,” Felix said gravely. “May I ask if Lucy is here?”

  Veronika said, “She may be upstairs.”

  “I would very much enjoy her company, if she is at home—and of course, that of Alice also.”

  Well done, Felix, I thought.

  “I will see if they are home,” Veronika said.

  Having an upstairs was a good out, I thought. The girls could be there, or they could not be there. Felix was supposed to be too polite to actually search the rooms up there to find out.

  I wouldn’t bet on that, myself.

  “Please come with me,” Veronika said, and I got up to follow her. She didn’t sound warm, and she didn’t sound excited, and she didn’t sound angry. She sounded like she was mashing all her feelings down as hard as she could.

  There was a lot of that going on in the house on Hickory.

  Upstairs, Veronika took me to a large bedroom overlooking the backyard and the garage. “I’ll be back in just a moment,” she said, and glided out of the room. I could hear a door open somewhere nearby and the sound of the girls’ voices asking their mother who was in the house. The voices were cut off as Veronika closed the door. The doors were thick.

  Veronika must have agreed to Lucy and Alice’s keeping Felix company, because I heard them chattering together as they went down the stairs. Veronika returned and shut the bedroom door behind her. Without a word, she went to the closet on the far wall and folded the doors open to reveal many, many dresses.

  “How old are you, Lizbeth?” Veronika was flipping through a section of dresses. Seemed she had them divided by occasion.

  “Just turned twenty.”

  “Barely older than Lucy.” Veronika’s hand froze on a hanger for a second.

  “Yes.” Couldn’t deny it. But a decade older, experience-wise.

  “You’re a shooter for hire, you said.”

  “Yes.”

  “So you must be quite good.”

  “I’m still walking around,” I said. “That means I’m better than average, I guess.”

  “You’ll need something like this.” Veronika turned, holding up a dress on its hanger. The ladies this morning had been wearing suits, mostly. They had been finer than anything I’d ever worn (or seen) but not extravagant. This dress, fitted slim until it flared from thigh to hemline, was a step finer. Looked like it would fall a bit below the knee. A rusty color was the background for a pattern of leaves in gold and brown. The fancy trim was gold. The belt was brown.

  “I’ll try it on,” I said. “Thank you.”

  “I’ll look for something else in case you don’t care for that one.” Veronika turned her back—thank you, Veronika—while I took off my clothes and figured out how to get the dress on. There was a smear of blood on my shoulder I hadn’t gotten off, and I was glad Veronika hadn’t seen it. The dress slithered down once I worked out the armholes. I buttoned up the front. I turned to look in the mirror. I shrugged. “This is how it’s supposed to look?” I asked Eli’s mom, and she turned to survey me.

  “Yes, it fits very well, and it’s appropriate. Or do you like this better?” She had another dress, this one a navy blue with red piping.

  “This one’s fine,” I said, touching the skirt of the dress I had on. I didn’t want to be any more trouble than I had to be.

  “Then I have a suggestion,” Veronika said, a little hesitantly. She wasn’t sure how I was going to receive it.

  I waited.

  “Why don’t you bathe and wash your hair? I’ll get you into all the clothes and make you up. And we’ll arrange your hair.”

  “My hair needs arranging?” The bath, yes, I needed that.

  “Yes.” No discussion about the hair. “I have combs that will keep it under control. You’ll need hose and shoes, too.”

  “That’s a lot of your time. I’d be using a lot of your stuff,” I said, pointing out the obvious.

  “You’re trying to get my son out of jail,” Veronika said. “That’s worth time and stuff, I’d say.” For the first time, she smiled, and I saw Eli in her.

  An hour and a half later, I was clean, I had makeup on, and my hair had been combed into a style and pinned. I’d been as quiet and accommodating as I could. Veronika had been as patient and even-tempered as she could.

  While Veronika had been working on my hair, I’d asked her if Natalya had been working for the family for a long time.

  “For the past two years,” Veronika had said absently, placing the hair combs yet again. They were a beautiful matched set, black with a gold inlay. Getting them lodged correctly to hold back my black curly hair was not a pleasant process. “Natalya didn’t come with us from Russia. But she was on another boat. Bogdan recommended her when our Ludmilla passed away.”

  Veronika and her household were being spied on by Natalya, I was certain. Veronika seemed real unsuspicious for someone who’d spent a lot of her marriage sailing from one spot to another on a crowded boat.

  I searche
d around for something to ask Eli’s mother, something that wouldn’t offend her. “How was it, having stepchildren?” I said at last. I looked at myself in the mirror, turning my head from side to side. I was a different woman, for sure. I looked smoother.

  “When I married Vladimir, his sons were thirteen and eleven,” Veronika said. “They were not… enthusiastic about the marriage, but my husband insisted that they be courteous and respectful.” Veronika’s mouth pinched up.

  Figured she was remembering times they hadn’t been. “When Eli and Peter and the girls came along, they seemed glad to have other siblings.”

  Sure they were, I thought.

  “Vladimir told Bogdan and Dagmar they must keep watch on their little brothers and sisters when our babies were small.” Veronika seemed to be searching for something nice to say. Since I’d overheard them quarreling, that was kind of hard. “Even now that Vladimir is gone, my stepsons stay in touch. But they live in a different neighborhood, and they have their own families.” Veronika tried moving the combs again. My scalp was getting sore.

  “So you had Eli, Peter, Lucy, then Alice?” I figured this abundance of children had a lot to do with ship life being boring. All the ragtag fleet had done for years was sail from one port to another, looking for someone willing to take the Russian royal family in. Since the tsar’s own cousin and look-alike, the king of England, had not welcomed the flotilla to English shores, no one else had rushed forward.

  Veronika said, “Yes. All born in Russia or on board the ship. I swear I will never get on a boat again.”

  That had almost been a joke, so I almost laughed. “I think I’m as good as I’m going to get,” I told Veronika. I had reached the end of my tolerance for having the hair combs rearranged.

  “You look very nice,” Veronika said.

  “Thanks for the clothes and advice.” Eli’s mom had been giving me a little lecture on court etiquette as she stabbed me with the combs.

  As I went down the stairs, I called Felix. It was time to get moving.

  Felix came out of the parlor, the girls trailing behind him. Felix gave me a sharp look, nodded. Giving me his approval, I guess. Lucy and Alice smiled up at me and chattered to each other in Russian.