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“He encouraged her?”
“Yes.”
“He encouraged her to get a job at Livadia?”
“Yes.”
“This would have been… what year exactly?”
“Nineteen ten.”
“How old was she then, A
“She was fifteen.”
“Did Ella tell you why he’d encouraged her to apply for a job at the royal palace?”
A
“But the American specifically encouraged her to get a job in the imperial household?”
“My husband had been in the guards. He had always hoped she would find employment at Livadia, but…”
“She had initially been reluctant to work in the imperial household?”
A
“She didn’t like doing her father’s bidding?”
“A lot of people filling her head with silly ideas.” A
“Silly ideas?” Ruzsky asked.
A
“Revolutionary ideas?”
A
“White was a revolutionary and Ella was influenced by him?”
“My husband would not allow discussion of politics in the house. They… he and Ella argued in the last year of his life. It upset him greatly.”
“She met the American in revolutionary circles in Yalta?”
A
“To your husband?”
“Yes.”
“He had been very worried about Ella?”
“She would never have brought the American to the house when her father was alive.”
“Did the American ever explain what he was doing in Yalta, A
“Traveling, he said.” A
Ruzsky could see how the the poor, respectable Kovyils must have hated the charming interloper who had bewitched their daughter with strange ideas and the prospect of another life.
“Did you meet any of Ella’s other friends from the same circle?”
“From the same circle?”
Ruzsky tried to remember the name of the man they had found at the Lion Bridge this morning. “Boris Markov? Perhaps just Borya?”
“I don’t know.”
Ruzsky dug the man’s identification papers from his pocket and showed her the dark, smudged photograph. But she just shook her head.
“Who did the men this morning ask you about?”
A
“What did they want to know?”
“If Ella had brought him home, and whether I had met him.”
“The American?”
“Yes.”
“And had you, this time?”
A
“Did she bring him here?”
“No, but I knew he had come here.”
Ruzsky could tell he was upsetting A
A
“When did you last see her?”
A
“And what happened last Sunday?”
A
“It was just a Sunday,” she said. “Like all Sundays.”
“You went to church?”
“She was so happy, Officer. That smile, I wish you could have seen it. She was such a pretty girl.”
“Why was she so happy, A
“I thought she was just… happy. To be with me. To be close to the Lord. Such a fine, clear, bright day; the city so beautiful. I felt happy too; happier, I think, than on any day since I came here. It was wonderful to see her so bursting with joy.”
“What did you do?”
A
“Did she tell you any special reason why she was so happy?”
She couldn’t hold her emotions in check any longer. She suddenly collapsed, burying her face in her hands, thin shoulders heaving. Pavel held her. “It’s all right, A
Ruzsky took hold of her arm and squeezed gently. She was all skin and bone.
They waited until the convulsions had stopped and then stepped back and averted their eyes while she composed herself. She took out a handkerchief and blew her nose. “I ca
A
“We’re intruding,” Ruzsky said. He stood. “Perhaps we could come back another time.”
“No, please.” She wiped her eyes again. “I would like to help.” A
Ruzsky sat down. “Was there anything unusual about that Sunday, A
“There was an argument, that’s all I can think of. Not even an argument.”
“What about?”
“She asked me a question and I was offended.”
“What did she ask you?”
“It was unlike her. And I said her father would have been disgusted.”
“What did she ask you?”
A
“Why do you think she asked that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Surely, A
A
“Do you think she was seeking reassurance for something she already suspected?”
“Someone had been poisoning her mind.”
“There have been many rumors. You must have heard them.”
“The work of revolutionaries. What do they want, these people?”
Ruzsky rose again and moved to the mantelpiece. “A
A
“By all accounts, he was able to cure the Tsarevich of his bouts of hemophilia, or so the Empress believed. That would have encouraged Ella’s approbation.”
A
“Did she give any intimation as to why she was asking you the question?”
A
Ruzsky glanced at Pavel, then took a pace forward. “We must go. Thank you for your assistance.” He leaned forward to touch her shoulder. She did not stand to see them out.
As they stepped out into the corridor and pulled the door gently shut behind them, they heard her begin to sob violently again.
They listened for a few moments, wondering whether to go back in and try to comfort her once more.
“God in heaven,” Pavel said, as they began to walk away.