And so far, it appeared the tactic had been successful. Certainly, no one came forward to protest at his trial.
“What can I do to help?” Natalia asked.
He scrutinized her across the table. Just how brave was she? Natalia wasn’t going to like what he wanted of her. She would argue with him, fight him, maybe even work against him... but he hadn’t come this far to back down now.
It was too early to risk their friendship by revealing his plans. He broke the tension by reaching for his wine glass and raising it in a toast.
“There will be time to discuss it later,” he said. “For tonight, we must celebrate our friendship. I am very glad to have finally met you, my dearest Natalia.”
The challenge ahead of them was daunting. He had survived the ordeal of the Siberian wilderness and crossing the Pacific, but what lay ahead would test Natalia in a manner she never expected, and he didn’t know if she could deliver.
He and Natalia would board a train to New York the following afternoon, where the showdown would begin.
The following morning Dimitri ordered an atrociously large breakfast in the hotel’s dining room, only to be dismayed at how little he could eat. After months of surviving on little besides cedar nuts, he ordered scrambled eggs, toast smothered with cheese, and raspberry tarts. He dove into the eggs first, but after a few bites he felt stuffed to the point that even looking at the raspberry tarts made him nauseous. He pushed the plates away while listening to Natalia chat about her new townhouse. Their train did not depart for New York until five o’clock, so he intended to spend the day shopping and sightseeing with her.
“Are you finished?” she asked with a glance at his mostly untouched plate. It seemed a crime to walk away from it. What would Temujin say? It was a shame, but he couldn’t eat any more without becoming ill.
“I’m finished,” he confirmed.
Natalia took him to the city’s largest emporium, where he shopped in the gentleman’s section. They had a six-day train ride ahead of them, so he picked two more ready-made suits, a proper overcoat, and a gold satin vest embroidered with swirls of ivy. Vanity had always been his greatest personal failing, and he was in the mood to indulge it. At the tie counter he practically wept at the feel of the silks on his chapped skin and proceeded to buy patterned cravats, ascots, and bow ties in every imaginable shade. At the jeweler’s counter he purchased garnet cuff links, a timepiece on a fine watch chain, and an opal stickpin. The packages were shipped directly to the train station so he and Natalia remained unencumbered during his voracious quest to keep shopping.
They rode a cable car up Market Street, where he persuaded Natalia to stop at the perfumery so he could buy a bottle of something pretty for her. They laughed while sampling over a dozen bottles, and he persuaded her to buy the most expensive blend of rose and night-blooming jasmine in the store, a charming perfume improbably bottled in Kentucky. Then they sampled cologne for him.
“Any scent other than cedar,” he said as they headed to thegentlemen’s counter. Dimitri could happily live the rest of his life without the scent or taste of cedar nuts. In the end they found a nice sandalwood with a hint of citrus, and Natalia opened her purse to pay for it.
“Once we are in New York and I have access to my funds, I shall repay every dime for this lavish excursion,” he said. “I am not certain, but given my four-percent investment in your family’s bank, I think that I am wealthier than you. True?”
“True,” she laughed, but it was getting tiresome, having her pay for everything, so they visited a bank, where she withdrew an advance from his quarterly payment and gave him a fat roll of bills to sustain him until they reached New York. The bank also had a telegraph office, and he was anxious to send a wire to his mother.
“She will be pleased to learn I am not festering in a Siberian iron mine.”
It was a challenge to find the proper telegraph location code. After Mirosa was seized, his mother had been forced to move in with his sister and her husband in a village south of Saint Petersburg, and he did not know the correct station code. The clerk had to consult a Russian directory of telegraph codes, and it was lunchtime before the message was sent.
Dimitri breathed easier once the message was on its way. His mother would not spend another night fearing for his well-being.
“Worrying about her was one of the worst parts of this ordeal,” he said once he and Natalia were seated at a café on Market Street. “I know she fears for me, and living with my sister probably has not been easy for her. Sometimes mothers and daughters do not live in perfect harmony.”
“I can understand.”
He peered at her in curiosity. Natalia’s love for her mother was the reason she learned so much about Russia, but Galina had died several years ago, and Natalia had a frosty relationship with her father’s new wife.
“I sense you do not care for your stepmother,” he said. “Yourmessages often praise your father, but you have little good to say about the woman he married.”
Natalia shrugged. “There’s nothing specifically wrong with Poppy, aside from the fact that she’s a terrific snob.”
“What is her best quality?” he asked, and Natalia looked taken aback by the question.
She glanced all around the interior of the restaurant, taking an undue amount of time to come up with an answer. “Poppy is remarkably good at playing golf,” she finally said.
“That’s it? That’s the best thing you can say about this woman your father adores and who has given birth to your only brother? Come. Tell me why you dislike her.”
“I’ll need a fresh cup of coffee for that.”
14
Natalia wasn’t proud of her relationship with her stepmother. Many people thought her disapproval of Poppy was rooted in jealousy over her father’s affections, but it wasn’t.
“My father has an unhealthy dependence on Poppy,” she finally said. “I don’t like it.”
