He blew out a stream of sickeningly sweet tobacco. “These are imported from Vladivostok. I felt compelled to share my good fortune with my new friends. Join us! I shall even extinguish my cigar on your behalf.”
She declined and retreated to the parlor car to read a report on the timber industry, but she couldn’t stop thinking about how easy it was for Dimitri to make friends. She needed to stop feeling special for the unique relationship she’d cultivated with him during all those telegram messages, because she was obviously just one of the multitudes he befriended wherever he went. It didn’t matter that he invited her to join him each time he spotted her on the train. He certainly hadn’t fought very hard for her when she refused.
The only time he insisted on her company was during the railway stops, when passengers could disembark for an hour while the train refueled. The stations always had a retail area offering trinkets, a café, and a Western Union telegraph window.
At each stop he nagged Natalia to wire her father about canceling the upcoming infusion of funds to the railroad, and each time she refused.
“Time is growing short,” he said. “If the April payment is halted, it will cause a crisis when the steel deliveries fail to arrive. That is exactly what we need to get the czar’s attention.”
“Which is why I will be sure the payment is delivered on time,” she said primly and pretended not to notice the burning look of disappointment on Dimitri’s face as she returned to the train.
The impasse with Natalia was driving Dimitri insane. Her reluctance to disrupt the railroad was understandable, but didn’t she realize that he was compelled to act? Each day the Trans-Siberian laid additional miles of track, driving farther eastward toward rural villages that might trigger more bloodshed if the 1858 treaty with China was not honored. He could force the czar to affirm that treaty, but not without Natalia’s help.
On the third day, the train arrived at the inappropriately named town of Springville, Utah. It was a bleak, windswept place with a light dusting of snow blowing down the barren main street. Refueling would take an hour, giving Dimitri time to explore these different places in America. Although San Francisco had been a chaotic shock to his system, Utah felt familiar. High, windy, and frozen. He liked it.
Natalia burrowed into her coat, a sour expression on her face as they headed toward the station shop. Their boots made hollow thuds on the plank walkway, and as expected, a signpost indicated a telegraph station was inside the shop. He had given up hope that Natalia would wire her father to halt the payment due at the end of the week, so he took a bold stance.
“Let me wire him,” he said. “I shall instruct him on what needs to be done to stop the railroad.”
She rolled her eyes. “Dimitri, everyone in my family already thinks you are insane. Please don’t provide them with additional confirmation by suggesting my father destroy the Trans-Siberian Railway.”
She continued scanning the assortment of goods for sale behind a storefront window, but he considered her words, not sure he understood her correctly.
“What do you mean, they think I am insane?”
“They’ve seen the telegrams you send me, going on for hours about the color of the sunset or the howling of the wind. They think you’ve lost your mind.”
Dimitri looked away. All these years he had poured out his soul to Natalia because they were kindred spirits. He wanted to share the terrible beauty of the Russian winter and the frustrated dreams he nurtured in his lonely isolation.
He tried to sound as if he didn’t care. “You don’t think that about me, do you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said dismissively. “I’ve got better things to do than tend your wounded ego. Would you like some cedar nuts?”
He blanched at the sight of the barrel brimming with the nuts that sustained him for months in the wilderness. He doubted he could choke down another cedar nut to save his life.
“No, thank you,” he said with admirable restraint. “I would rather discuss why you have told your family that I am insane. Please correct that. Tell them we joke and tease each other, but that I am not crazy.”
“No, you’re not, but you’re the most vain and melodramatic man I’ve ever met.”
“I am a rational man without a hint of insanity. I confess to being vain, but I am not crazy and would prefer if you corrected that impression with your family.”
She sighed in frustration. “Why does it matter? It isn’t as if you will meet any of them. When we get to New York, I will give you access to your money, and then we will go our separate ways.”
That Natalia might abandon him in New York was something he had never considered, and it panicked him. “You can’t,” he sputtered. “I must get the czar’s attention, and causing a disruption on the railroad is the best way.”
“Don’t you understand?” she said, her self-control beginning to slip. “If I cause a scandal at the bank, I loseeverything. My father’s approval. My career. The bank is my only chance to prove myself by helping build something great.”
He understood. He had also been born into wealth and privilege but felt the same compulsion to challenge himself on the railroad. He and Natalia had worked in tandem on that quest, and they shouldn’t abandon each other now. If the railroad could not be built in an honorable fashion, they should join forces to stop it.
“Your father would not banish you for acting on your beliefs. You said he is a great man.”
“Heisa great man, but a hard one too. From the day I began work at the bank, he warned me to stay in the background. He never touts me in the press or has me represent the bank in public. It’s too risky. People don’t have faith in a woman managing their investments. And yes—he would cut me out if I ever attract bad publicity to the bank. I’ve always understood that.”
Dimitri frowned. “That seems rather cruel.”
“It’s why I double- and triple-check everything I do. It’s why I over-prepare and burn the midnight oil. If something goes wrong on a project I oversee, blame will be laid at my doorstep no matter how it happened. If I get cut out of the bank, my life would be nothing but tea parties and dress fittings.”
He shook his head. “Natalia, I know you better than that. Your world is Beethoven and Shakespeare. You have a baby brother you love and will help raise to manhood. You must not reduce yourself to what you do within the four walls of a bank.”
