David Oldman - Dusk at Dawn

Paul didn’t suppose it did. The French were already suspicious of Knox’s influence with Kolchak. Seeing a British general’s staff officer celebrating a successful coup against a legitimate government — no matter how weak and inefficient it might be — was hardly likely to send the right signals.

‘By the way, Ross,’ Ward said, ‘you have a visitor. ‘A lady. Miss Rostova. She says she’s your cousin.’

Paul found her in Ward’s private saloon, sitting on the sofa in her high-necked Edwardian dress. She wore gloves and boots. A fur coat and hat lay draped over a neighbouring chair and Moorman, Ward’s servant, had set out a tea tray on the low table beside her. He was hanging around outside the door in case she needed him; Paul didn’t supposed the ‘Hernia Battalion’ had seen too many ladies since leaving Singapore.

Sofya was drinking tea and nibbling at a pastry.

‘Sofya?’ he said, pulling off his coat as he walked in.

‘Pasha.’ She put down her tea and stood. He reached for her hand and would have kissed it but for the glove. He just held it instead.

‘Yesterday…’ she began.

‘Don’t speak of it,’ he said. ‘I was a fool. I shouldn’t have said what I did.’

‘That’s not why I’m here.’ She pulled him gently down beside her. ‘Never mind what you said yesterday. I came to tell you that Mikhail had a visitor after lunch. An army friend of his, an unpleasant Cossack colonel he has dealings with.’

‘Krasilnikov?’ Paul asked.

She looked surprised. ‘You know him?’

‘Only that he engineered the coup,’ adding almost before he could help himself, ‘with Mikhail’s help, I suspect.’

Sofya scowled at him. ‘Are you always willing to think the worst of my brother?’

‘I don’t want to argue again,’ he said. ‘Not if you’ve come to make things up.’

‘Make it up?’ She jerked her hand out of his. ‘You’re insufferable, Pavel! Do you think I’d come into this armed camp just to make things up between us?’

‘Then why have you come?’

‘To warn you.’

‘About what?’

‘Krasilnikov. I overheard them talking. He has one of these loud voices that carry all over the hotel.’ Her nose wrinkled. ‘It was impossible not to hear.’

‘Hear what exactly, Sofya?’

‘Them plotting.’

‘The coup?’

‘Of course not!’

‘Then what?’

‘To have you killed!’

‘ Kill me! Why, for heaven’s sake?’

‘If you don’t know…’

And she wondered why he was always willing to think the worst of Mikhail. ‘Know what , Sofya?’

‘We’re cousins, Pasha. And Mikhail believes my honour has been compromised.’

‘What on earth do you mean?’

‘He believes you made advances towards me after we left Petersburg.’

‘Why should he believe that?’

She looked down at her lap and Paul thought he saw a little colour rise in her cheeks.

‘I may have led him to believe that… that…’

‘That what , Sofya?’

‘That you cared for me.’

‘But I do! Isn’t it obvious? Why should Mikhail care? Because we’re cousins? That’s hardly unusual, especially in Russia.’

She took off her glove and reached for his hand again. ‘Because he never liked you and…’ she looked away, ‘and because Colonel Krasilnikov has declared himself.’

Paul fell back into the sofa in surprise. ‘Declared himself?’ Had he wandered into a Jane Austen novel? ‘And you,’ he felt compelled to ask, ‘what do you feel for Krasilnikov?’

‘Nothing, Pasha! The man’s contemptible. He calls himself an ataman, but he’s nothing but a barbarian.’

‘But Mikhail regards this Cossack a match?’

She gave a muffled cry. ‘Never mind Mikhail . I came to warn you that you have to leave Omsk. Krasilnikov will have you killed for whatever reason. That you’re English is enough for him.’

‘Not entirely English,’ he said.

‘Enough for Krasilnikov,’ she replied.

Paul poured himself some tea. At least it confirmed his name had been on the list the Cossacks were carrying that morning. He had always known that Mikhail had disliked him but it had never occurred to him that his cousin would stoop to murder. Simply because of his feelings for Sofya? He found that hard to believe. Was there more then? Did Mikhail find Paul’s acquaintance with Admiral Kolchak awkward for some reason? But then, what about Knox and Ward, Nielson and Steveni? They were all British, all here under the auspices of the British government and all acquainted with Kolchak. What was so different about him? All he could think of was that he had been sent by Cumming, but how could Mikhail know that? About his mission, perhaps. That was an open secret by now: Poole and the Legion, Kolchak and his gold…

‘You will have to leave,’ Sofya said.

‘Leave? What do you mean? I was sent here. I can’t just up sticks and do as I please because some Russian believes me a rival.’

‘You can’t stay,’ Sofya insisted. ‘Colonel Ward told me he can send you to Vladivostok.’

‘You told the colonel? Sofya, how could you? What is he to think now, that I’m some philanderer who has to run away because of a jealous suitor?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous, Pasha. What if Krasilnikov had come here and asked to see you?’

‘He’d hardly kill me in front of Ward and his men. He can’t be that stupid.’

‘You don’t know Krasilnikov. He’s capable of anything.’

Ward knocked upon the saloon door. Paul stood up and Ward bowed slightly. ‘Miss Rostova… excuse the intrusion. It’ll be dark soon and I’ve taken the liberty of arranging a car from Stavka to take you back to your lodgings. It isn’t safe on the streets and as they are acquainted with your brother they said they’d be happy to escort you to your hotel.’

‘That is very thoughtful of you, Colonel,’ she replied in English. She began putting her glove on.

‘There is no hurry, I assure you,’ Ward said, making to leave the saloon again.

‘I believe my cousin has told you, sir,’ Paul said to him quickly, ‘that I’m in some sort of danger. I’m sure there’s nothing to it.’ He could feel Sofya’s eyes boring into the side of his head but resolutely resisted looking at her. ‘No doubt it’s nothing more than an idle threat.’

‘Fool!’ she said in Russian.

‘I wouldn’t be too sure it’s an idle threat, Ross,’ Ward said. ‘If men like Colonel Krasilnikov get the upper hand then old scores will be settled. I’m having to send some of my sick men back to Vladivostok. I was going to give young Cornish-Bowden the job but it might be as well to have you command the detail.’

‘I hardly think that’s necessary,’ Paul protested. ‘Cornish-Bowden is a capable fellow. And what would I do in Vladivostok? I’m not attached to the Middlesex and—’

‘I’m sure General Knox will find something useful for you to do,’ Ward said.

Knox would have him counting pith helmets, or something equally ludicrous if given the opportunity. According to Valentine, the general did not care for agents of another service operating in any sphere under his command. If Paul had been a civilian he might be able to ignore Knox, but as a soldier…

‘I must respectfully remind the Colonel,’ Paul said, ‘that I was sent here by a government department with specific orders…’ he faltered, deciding it best not to elaborate on his specific orders as they no longer had any relevance.

Ward eyed him sardonically, his tone threatening to slip past irony into sarcasm. ‘Might I remind you , Ross — respectfully, of course — that ten days ago you asked if it might be possible to join my Middlesex. Perhaps the changed situation here has rekindled your enthusiasm for your “specific orders” although precisely how escapes me.’