Maid of Baikal: A Novel of the Russian Civil War

Guins led Zhanna and her companions down the stairs to the lobby, and then summoned a pair of British guards to show the group to her new accommodations in a nearby apartment building. After making the short trip by sleigh and admiring the spacious and tastefully decorated rooms, Ned and Ivashov left the girl and Paladin in the hands of the housekeeper, who had already prepared them a hearty dinner. The two officers remained just long enough to share a few bites before setting off for Ned’s apartment, with a promise to fetch Zhanna and Paladin in the morning.

* * *

On the way back to the neighborhood where Ned and Ivashov lived, the two men happened to be passing the railway station when they heard a woman’s stifled scream and some loud cursing by male voices over the sound of a departing train. Being tired and not wanting to be drawn into trouble at an hour when desperate criminals were on the prowl, Ivashov ignored the noises. Ned did not.

“Come quick, follow me!” he ordered the staff captain in a low voice, and set off at a sprint toward a nearby passenger rail platform. There they found eight or ten young Russian cadets in peaked hats and greatcoats attempting to herd four teenaged schoolgirls toward the unlit end of the platform. Apparently, the girls had just stepped off the train, which had arrived hours late, and no one was at the station to meet them.

One of the cadets had already caught a girl by the wrist and sought to force her to the ground. What appeared very odd, however, was that the girl acted as if she knew the boy, her voice remaining calm as she tried to persuade him to let her go. Indeed, the remaining cadets seemed to know the girls, as well, but judging by their slurred words and staggering gait, the boys were almost certainly drunk.

Ned and Ivashov ran up to them, ordered them to halt, and Ned fired two pistol shots in the air. The unarmed cadets froze.

Ned then led three of the girls off the platform to the station offices for safety while Ivashov remained behind with the fourth, who looked no older than Zhanna. When Ned returned, the staff captain sat alone on the platform beside the dark-haired girl, whom he addressed as Natalia. Her face was ashen and she shivered under Ivashov’s heavy greatcoat.

“Where are the cadets?” Ned demanded, out of breath from having run back from the station. “I summoned the military police. They should be here any minute now.”

“I let them go,” Ivashov replied. “They hadn’t yet committed any crime, though they were close to it. I don’t think they will try such a thing again very soon.”

“You let them go?” Ned demanded in astonishment. “If we hadn’t come along, they might have raped those girls! I don’t know about your army, but in ours, rape is a capital offense.”

“As it is in Russia, but to hang boys like these would serve no good purpose.”

At the mention of hanging, the girl’s eyes went wide with alarm.

“Never mind, Natalia, you’re safe now,” Ivashov assured her as he held her arm gently in his. “We’ll take you home.”

“And Dmitry?” she asked in a quavering voice. “Please don’t arrest him! He meant no harm. He’s a good boy when he isn’t drinking.”

Ivashov rolled his eyes at this.

“You see?” he said to Ned. “They know each other! This is what years of anarchy and lawlessness have done to our youth. I’m sick of it. Let’s take the girl home and forget we were ever here.”

Chapter 9: Examination

“Trust is good, but control is better.”

—Vladimir Lenin

Musical Theme: Serenade in C Major for String Orchestra, Op. 48, Pezzo in Forma di Sonatina: Andante Non Troppo, Allegro Moderato, by Igor Stravinsky

LATE FEBRUARY, 1918, OMSK

A day passed after Zhanna’s meeting with the Supreme Ruler at Liberty House, and then another, and now a week, with neither an invitation nor a summons from General Dieterichs to present her ideas about the war. Though Ivashov showed up each morning at the general’s office to seek an appointment for the Maid, Guins told him each time that Dieterichs was unavailable. After the first two attempts, Ned and Ivashov resigned themselves to a long wait. Meanwhile, Zhanna attended church twice daily and prayed cheerfully that the King of Heaven might clear all obstacles from her path.

On the third day, Ned traveled to Beregovoy to supervise the delivery and installation of the new wireless apparatus. He had been away from Yulia for nearly three weeks.

“You’re late,” she greeted him with a petulant frown on his arrival at the main house, though his estimated arrival had been off by only two days.

“Believe me, the delay was harder on me than on you,” he shot back, only half-joking. “They may call Irkutsk Paris of Siberia, but it’s certainly no Paris.”