Kate Furnivall - Under a Blood Red Sky

She leaned so close her hair brushed his. ‘Stay,’ she whispered. ‘Stay with me.’

A heavy knock on the front door made her jump. She told herself it was most likely some villager seeking Rafik’s help with a horse, but when she opened it she was surprised to find the broad figure of the blacksmith on the threshold.

‘May I come in, Comrade Morozova?’ he said without preamble. ‘I want to speak with you.’

She suddenly remembered the axe, the one she’d stolen. Was that what this was about? She watched his eyes. That’s where she knew how to spot danger. But no, the blacksmith’s were solemn, no threatening ripple disturbing their dark surface. She stepped back and allowed the big man to enter.

His collarless shirt was undone at the neck, revealing thick corded muscles. He was still clad in his leather apron that smelled of grease, but his manner was polite and his voice soft. It was as if he knew his shaven head and massive size were intimidating enough without needing to add to it. The carefully trimmed spade of a beard revealed a touch of vanity that sat oddly with him, and she wondered if there was some woman in his life he was aiming to please.

‘So, Comrade Pokrovsky,’ Sofia said, ‘what can I do for you?’

His brown eyes narrowed as they studied her. ‘I’ve come with an offer for you.’

‘An offer? What kind of offer?’

‘A job.’

‘You’re offering me a job?’

‘Yes. Zenia told me you were looking for one. Is that right?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then I’m here to offer you one.’

‘I’m not at my best with a hammer and bellows,’ she said with a smile.

He frowned, then opened his mouth wide and roared with laughter. The sound almost took her head off. ‘Not in the forge. In the school.’

Sofia folded her arms and said nothing. This didn’t feel right.

‘Well?’ the blacksmith urged.

‘Why you?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Why have you come to me with the offer? Instead of the schoolteacher herself?’

‘Oh, she’s busy with the children – she lost her other assistant. Anyway she…’ He paused, his heavy beetle-brows pulled together, and Sofia wasn’t certain whether the look he gave her was one of annoyance or embarrassment.

‘Go on,’ she said softly.

He drew a deep breath, filling his barrel-chest until it stretched the seams of his shirt. ‘Anyway,’ he continued, ‘she wants my opinion.’

Sofia blinked. ‘Of me, you mean?’

He nodded, studying her closely.

‘But I spoke to her only last night at the school,’ she said.

‘I know.’

A small silence grew between them. Sofia was the one to break it.

‘Elizaveta Lishnikova must have considerable respect for your judgement.’

He shrugged. ‘She has made mistakes in the past. She’s not good with us… peasants.’ He showed his big teeth in a smile. ‘Like the last teacher she employed. He’s gone now.’

‘So what will you report back to her?’

He chewed ponderously on his beard, the way a bull chews on the cud. ‘That you have a smile that would keep the boys in order. A soft voice that would comfort the little ones. That your eyes are sharp and trust no one, but you’re the kind of person to have at your back in times of trouble. Unless,’ his eyes narrowed to slits, ‘unless you’re coming with a knife, that is.’

Another silence landed between them.

‘Comrade Pokrovsky,’ Sofia said after a moment, unfolding her arms, ‘would you care to join me for a cup of tea?’

They didn’t talk much. Just sat at the table holding their cups and eyeing each other with interest. Sofia could feel the suspicion in the room as solid as a third person, but neither seemed to mind it much. They were used to living with it, breathing its fumes, and both were careful not to mention what went on in the village the previous night. She looked at his hands. Scarred and lined, the forge imprinted in the shape of every massive nail and knuckle.

‘Have you always been the blacksmith in Tivil?’

‘All my life. And my father before me.’

‘The village must have changed a lot.’

‘It has.’

He clamped his lips shut and said no more, but his dark eyes were not so cautious and a deep anger sparked in them. She looked away to give him a moment to hide it.

‘So you’ve known Rafik for many years?’ she said.

‘I have. He’s the best man you could wish for when handling a horse.’

‘And when handling a mind?’

He leaned forward, fists on the table, making it creak. ‘Seen him do it, have you?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s frightening, isn’t it?’

‘What is it he does?’

The smith’s hand stroked the smooth skin of his head, as if unconsciously protecting the contents of his skull.

‘It’s gypsy enchantment,’ he growled.

‘What kind of gypsy enchantment?’

‘ Chyort! How would I know, girl? An ancient power of some kind, I suppose.’ Sofia watched him spread his arms out wide, taking in the whole baffling breadth of the universe. ‘It might be,’ he added in a lower voice, ‘drawn from the black arts, for all I know.’

She laughed softly. ‘I don’t think so.’

He reached across the table, plucked out a thread of her hair and wound it round his thick finger. ‘Rafik can twist your mind as easily as I twist your hair. If you’re his niece, as he claims you are, you must know all about gypsy skills, anyway.’

Sofia’s heart thumped. She wasn’t usually so clumsy, damn it. This blacksmith may have lived in a Ural village all his life but he was no fool and he kept laying snares for her to run into, just as he would for the animals in the forest.

‘My aunt married Rafik’s brother but I possess no gypsy blood.’ That was the story she and Rafik had concocted and she was determined to stick with it. ‘So I was taught nothing of their traditions or ways.’

He unwound the blonde strand on his finger and dropped it into the palm of her hand. ‘That explains it then.’ And he laughed, a boisterous sound, though she couldn’t for the life of her see the joke.

‘Stop teasing the girl, Pokrovsky.’

‘Rafik!’ Sofia leapt to her feet.

The gypsy was standing in the doorway. His slight frame looked unsteady, leaning heavily on the doorpost of his room. How long he’d been there she wasn’t sure, but she sensed it was no more than a moment or two. His shirt, which should have been a pale grey, was dark with sweat.

‘Rafik, you should be in bed.’

‘No.’ He accepted the arm she offered him and let her lead him to the maroon armchair. ‘We are under a cloud, black as…’ Rafik lifted the corner of his mouth in a thin smile, ‘as Pokrovsky’s fingernails over there. It hangs above us and-’ He stopped. Listened to something. Sofia didn’t know if it was to something inside or outside his head.

‘What do you mean?’ she asked quietly.

‘Not the village in danger again?’ Pokrovsky moaned.

‘No.’ Rafik turned his black eyes on Sofia. ‘No. It’s you, Sofia.’ He pulled himself to his feet and skirted a hand over her head without actually touching her. ‘It’s cold,’ he murmured. With jerky movements he wiped a large red handkerchief across his face. ‘Now,’ he said calmly, ‘we will take you to the kolkhoz office to-’

A rap at the door interrupted him. He nodded, as though it was what he’d been expecting. Sofia saw a flicker of something tighten his lips – was it pain, or was it knowledge of what was to come? – before he walked to the door and opened it. A shaft of bright sunlight rushed in.

‘Good day to you, Comrade Fomenko.’

The kolkhoz Chairman stood more than a head taller than the gypsy and for one fleeting moment Sofia thought he was going to brush Rafik aside, there was such determination in the way he stared straight at her, ignoring the two men. It made her uneasy.