The Dressmaker's Son (17 page)

CHAPTER 34

Rebekah put her
head back and closed her eyes.  Samuel was leaning his head against her.  The
car was crowded with soldiers, workers, and civilians.  They were lucky to have
gotten there early enough to get seats.  As they waited for the train to start,
she thought about the last eight hours.  

When Rebekah
arrived at the Jacobson’s, everyone was delighted to meet Samuel.  Hannah
called her husband immediately to let him know they were there.  Within thirty
minutes Benjamin was home.

            “Larissa,” he told her.
“You must leave tonight.  If this woman’s father is as important as Misha told
you, he will have access to soldiers and the Secret Police.  Go to your
apartment and get whatever you are going to take with you.  Come back as quickly
as possible.  We will watch Samuel.”

            When Rebekah returned,
Sarah was home from work and they were all playing with Samuel.

            “He’s even cuter than
you described, Larissa,” Sarah said smiling. “I hate that you have to leave
us.”

            “I will miss all of
you,” Rebekah said, trying not to cry. “You have been like a family to me.”

            Benjamin butted in. “Come,
we must prepare for Larissa’s journey.”  

“Benjamin is
right.” Rebekah agreed. “I bought this hat and wig for Samuel.  They will be looking
for a boy.  With the pink hat and long brown hair they will pass right by him.  And
since they will be looking for a redhead, I also got some dye to make my hair
brown.”

After dying her
hair, Rebekah packed up the things she had bought for Samuel and put everything
in one large suitcase.  “The less you have to carry, the easier it will be,”
Benjamin had advised.

            “I don’t want to scare
you, Larissa,” Benjamin said.  “But there is so much going on with the war that
things aren’t normal.  Thousands of wounded soldiers are making their way not
only to Petrograd, but also to other cities both north and south of here.  The
stations are crowded and filled with soldiers and military police.  And even
crime is increasing.  You need to be very careful.  It will be easier when you
get to Finland.  Oh, and hide your money so nobody can get it.”

            “I will be careful,
Benjamin.  I appreciate all your help and advice.  I’ll take care of Samuel.  We
will be fine.”

            When they got ready to
leave, Rebekah put the girl’s hat and wig on Samuel.  He started to cry and
pulled it off. “I don’t want to be a girl, Mama.”

            Rebekah bent down to
him. “Samuel,” she said quietly. “This is a game. We must pretend for just a
little while that you are a girl.  You and I and the Jacobson’s will all know
you are really a boy.  It’s a trick.  In a few days, you will not have to wear
it.”

            Quietly Samuel pulled
the wig-hat back on.  

Rebekah
straightened it for him.  “That’s my big boy,” she told him giving him a hug.

Then she handed
Sarah a letter.  “I wonder if you could do me one more favor, Sarah.  I’ve
written a letter to my family in America, but I’m afraid to mail it to their
home because Misha knows where they live.  I am sending it to the head of the
store that I used to design gowns for and asking him to get it to them.  I
already have the postage.”

            “Of course, Larissa,”
Sarah said, hugging Sarah and trying not to cry.  “I will miss you so much.”

“I’ll miss you
too, Sarah.  Meeting you and your family has changed my life.  Who knows?  Maybe
one day all of you will come to America.”

Everybody smiled.  After
all the good-byes were said, Benjamin called a taxi and they headed to the
Finlyandsky Railway Terminal.

Suddenly her
thoughts were interrupted when two large soldiers boarded the train and one
gruffly started making his way down the aisle pushing people aside roughly and
telling them to make way.  He was going from seat to seat peering at the people
sitting there and standing in the aisle.

Samuel jumped. “Samuel,”
Rebekah whispered as she nudged his head toward her.  “Close your eyes and
don’t open them until I say so.  Lean against me like you are sleeping.”

Rebekah knew it
was the Secret Police.  She had heard about them from Misha a long time ago.  She
had also heard stories about their cruelty from Benjamin.

As he passed
Rebekah’s seat he looked down at Samuel.  “What a pretty little girl,” he said
and smiled. “Just like her mother.”

Rebekah nodded.  “Thank
you, sir,” she replied sweetly.

As the soldier
made his way back up the aisle, he smiled at Rebekah.  She smiled back.

“You take care of
that pretty little girl,” he told her. Then as he reached the end he yelled to
the other soldier. “Nothing here.  Let’s go to the last car.  Maybe that son of
a bitch revolutionist is hiding there.”

Rebekah sighed with
relief.  “God bless Benjamin,” Rebekah whispered to herself.  “If they had been
looking for Samuel, they would have discovered him.”  When the soldiers were
off the train she nudged Samuel.  At first he didn’t move.  “It’s okay to be awake
now,” she told him softly.

Samuel smiled. “I
know,” he answered. “I was trying to see if I could fool you too!”

CHAPTER 35

Catherine paced
back and forth in front of her father’s desk.  “Catherine, please,” her father said.
“Stop pacing.  You’re driving me crazy.”

            “I don’t know what do,”
she answered.  “Have you heard nothing?  What about the railway stations?  How
do you think she got away after she took him out of the store?  Maybe she took
a taxi.  Did you check the taxis?”

            “Nothing has shown up
at the railway stations.  They have been checking since this afternoon and
nobody has seen anything matching the description you gave.   I have someone
checking the taxis that service the area near the store.  So far nobody they’ve
questioned remembers picking up a woman and little boy around that time in that
area.  We have to be patient, Catherine.”

            “Patient,” Catherine
said through clenched teeth.  “Do you think Misha will be patient when he finds
out? He’ll be furious. You know he will blame me.”

            “I’ve sent word to
where he is, Catherine.  I really didn’t want to because it will be a
distraction, but he has a right to know.”

            A knock on the door
interrupted their conversation.  “Come in,” her father ordered.

            The young soldier saluted.
“What is it, officer?” her father asked.

            “I was told to report
that we have found a taxi driver who remembered picking up a woman and little
boy near the store where he was last seen.  We followed him to the area and
checked all the houses within a two block area, but were not able to find them.
 Are there any other orders, sir?”

“No, officer.  Thank
you for the report.”

After the soldier
had left, Catherine sat down on one of the chairs facing her father’s desk.  “He’s
gone,” she said.  “My little boy is gone, and that Jew-bitch whore has him.”

Her father gasped,
and Catherine remembered that they had never mentioned to Boris the truth about
Mishka’s real mother.  “His mother was a Jew, Father. We never said anything
because he is being raised in the Orthodox Church and Misha is his father.”

“It doesn’t matter
now, Catherine.  We won’t give up.  Go home and rest or go stay with your
mother.  There is nothing else you can do here.”

She put on her
coat and hat.  “Mother will drive me mad,” she told him.  “I’ll be home.  Let
me know if you hear anything.”

CHAPTER 36

As they rode
along, Samuel slept, leaning against Rebekah. “Poor thing,” she thought to
herself, “He must be so disoriented.  I have plucked him out of what had become
familiar, took him to a house he didn’t know, and spirited him on the train
before we ever really had a chance to talk.” But although he may have been confused,
he seemed happy to be with her.

            At dinner time she
unpacked part of what Hannah had prepared for them, deciding on salmon
sandwiches and a cucumber salad.  For dessert she had packed some of her
delicious peanut butter cookies.  There was a separate little package labeled
“For Samuel Only.”  It contained two pieces of chocolate.

            Samuel was delighted.  “But
you can have one of the pieces, Mama,” he told her. “I know Mrs. Jacobson
wouldn’t mind.”

            Rebekah smiled. “That’s
okay, Samuel. You enjoy them.  There might be more in there for later.”

            They had not talked at
all about Samuel’s kidnapping by his father or what his life had been like for
the last two years. Rebekah did not want to push him.  She tried to concentrate
on the present.  After he finished his chocolates, she turned to him. “Good?”
she asked.

            “Yummy,” he replied.  “My
other mother used to let me get chocolate when I went to the store with Anna,
the cook.”

            Rebekah tried not to
show any emotions.  “That was nice,” she answered carefully.  “Do you want to
tell me what it was like for you in Petrograd?”

            He nodded “yes,” but he
didn’t say anything.

            “We don’t have to talk
about it now if you don’t want to Samuel.  That’s okay.”

            “Why didn’t you tell me
he was coming to get me, Mama?”

            “What do you mean,
Samuel?  I didn’t know he was coming to get you.”

            “He said you wanted me
to be with him because he was my father and he could teach me to be a good
soldier for Russia.  He said you knew he would give me good schooling.  Is he
my father, Mama?”

            Rebekah took a deep
breath. “Yes, Samuel, he is.”

            “But you are my mama,”
he answered looking very confused.

            “Oh yes, Samuel.  I am
your mama.  It is a very long story, and you are too young to understand, but I
am your mama and I will never let anyone take you away from me again.”  A tear
slid down her cheek.

            “Don’t cry, Mama,” he
said touching her face. “I won’t go with anyone ever again.”

            Rebekah held him and
squeezed him tight. “Someday you will understand,” she told him. “But right
now, you and I are going to go back to America.  Do you remember what it was
like there?

            “A little bit, Mama,
but not a whole bunch.”

“That’s okay,
Sammy. It will come back to you.”

The train had been
slowing and Rebekah knew they were coming into the next station which should be
Vyborg.  The train came to a complete stop and when the door opened, a few
people got off.  Peering out the window she could see hordes of soldiers
standing on the platform.  Suddenly one of them came on board the train.  He
was obviously an officer.

            “By order of the czar,”
he shouted, “Everyone is ordered to depart the train immediately.”

            People sat in their
seats, stunned.

            “But why?’ one of the
men questioned.

            “This train will be
rerouted to help mobilize our troops,” he answered.  “Now, quickly, gather your
belongings and disembark at once.”

            Rebekah gathered their belongings
and put Samuel’s coat on. As they stepped on to the platform, they could see
soldiers waiting by each car.  

            Samuel looked up at
Rebekah. “Father says that soldiers fight so we can be safe, Mama.”

            “Yes, Samuel.”  She
answered as she pulled him along. “Let’s go into the terminal and see when
there will be another train.”

            Everybody was pushing
and shoving inside the terminal.  The lines at the two windows were already out
the door.  Rebekah went to the end of one of the lines and waited.  It was well
over an hour before she got to the window.

            “We’re going to
Helsinki,” she told the gentleman.  “Will there be another train tonight?”

            “The government has
taken control of the trains,” he explained.  “They are bringing troops in from
the north and keeping them here until they have a full train.  Then they take
the next train and use it to send them on.  We should have a train tomorrow or
the next day that will go through, but you never know for sure.”

            He was a short, fat man
with a bulbous nose with a black mole on it.  His eyes were bloodshot and
watery, and he was obviously exhausted from having to deal with all these
people.

“Is there a hotel
near here where we could stay?” she asked.

“Probably full,”
he answered.  “But you can get a carriage outside if you want to try.”

Rebekah knew they
couldn’t stay at the station.  She had heard countless stories about women
traveling alone or with a child being abducted or even killed for their
belongings.  “Come along, Samuel,” she said, pulling on his arm.  “We are going
to take a carriage ride to a hotel.”

Samuel smiled
broadly.  “What fun, Mama,” he exclaimed.

Rebekah couldn’t
help but smile.

When they got to
the hotel, Rebekah saw people sitting around the lobby but no real line at the
desk.  She stood behind a rather sophisticated looking couple who were checking
in.

“You’re really
lucky you keep two rooms reserved, Mr. Duchovny,” the clerk was saying.  “With
the trains being delayed we have no rooms available.”

Rebekah moaned
quietly.

The woman turned
around and looked at Rebekah.  She was a beautiful woman.  About twenty-five or
twenty-six, her hair was jet black and pulled back in a French twist.  Her
almond shaped eyes were a very dark brown with flecks of gold.  Although her
face was angular and rather large, pouty lips softened it.  
             Rebekah apologized. “I’m sorry, ma’am,” she said. “I am just
disappointed that there are no rooms left. I don’t know where to go with my
daughter.”

“You poor thing,”
the woman lamented and turned around to her husband.  “Pasha,” she said. “This
poor woman has no room for her and her little girl. Surely we can let her have
our extra room.  We only need one.”

“This is so
typical of you,” he answered. “Of course she can take that room.”

The clerk
interrupted.  “I’m sorry, sir,” he said apologetically.  “But if you are not
taking that room, I should give it to one of these people who have been
waiting.”

Pasha didn’t
hesitate for a minute.  “I am taking that room, sir, and our friend and her
daughter will be staying in it.”

“Of course,” he
replied.

Rebekah couldn’t
thank the couple enough.  “How much do I owe you for the room, sir?” she asked
reaching into her purse.

“That’s okay,” he
replied staring at her face.  “I’m a very frequent customer here, and I am
happy for you to have the room.”

She tried to argue
but he wouldn’t hear of it.  “Just have a nice evening,” he said.  “I’m Pasha
and this is my wife Lara.”

“I’m Larissa,” she
said. “Thank you again for your kindness.”

“And your little
girl?” he asked.

Rebekah hesitated.
“Oh, my little girl.  Her name is Rose.” She answered.

Samuel blushed but
didn’t say anything.

 “Something isn’t
right about that woman and her child,” Pasha said to Laura when they were
settled in their room.

            “What do you mean, Pasha?
She seemed like a lovely woman.”

            “I’m not sure.  But you
could tell she didn’t want to give her name, and when I asked the little girl’s
name, she hesitated, like she had to think what it was.  And did you notice
that the little girl was dressed more like a boy?  And her hair looked like it
was connected to the hat?”

            “Well you were really
paying a lot of attention to them, Pasha.  To me she just looked like some woman
who needed a room for herself and her child.”

            “Maybe, but something
is ringing a bell here.  It will come to me.”

While Laura was
getting ready for bed, Pasha opened his briefcase and started going through
some of the files.  Finally he found the one he had been looking for, a
directive from the head of the Secret Police that had been sent to all military
and government employees who were traveling.  It was an alert to be aware of a
woman traveling alone with a little boy.  The woman was described as a redhead
with unusual blue-green eyes.  The child was described as seven years old with
blond hair and big, gray eyes.  He had noticed Rebekah’s beautiful eyes, and he
knew it wasn’t a coincidence that the supposed little girl had big gray eyes.  It
said the woman’s name was Rebekah and the child would answer to Mishka or maybe
Samuel.  Pasha continued reading.  The woman was accused of kidnapping the son
of a major in the army and the grandson of the head of the Secret Police and
confidante to the czar.  The directive was signed by Catherine’s father.

            Pasha put the directive
back in his briefcase.  He had to report this woman immediately before she
slipped out of the hotel in the morning.

            Laura was already in
bed reading.  “Aren’t you going to get undressed for bed?” she asked him.  “It’s
been a long day.”

            “I have some business
to take care of, Laura.”

            “At this hour, Pasha?  Are
you sure it’s business?”  She knew he had a wandering eye.

            “Stop being a
suspicious wife,” he snapped at her. “Yes, it’s business.  Go to sleep.  I’ll
be back when I am finished.”

            Rebekah’s room was two
doors down from theirs, but first he had to get a key.  The night clerk was
short with him.  “Young man,” Pasha said, showing him his government
credentials.  “This is a government matter.  Should you chose not to cooperate
I will have you put under arrest.”  The young man handed over the key.

            Pasha let himself into
the room as quietly as possible and closed the door behind him.  From the
moonlight coming in the window he could see the boy’s wig and hat lying on a
chair.  He was asleep in the bed with his mother.  Walking over to Samuel’s side
of the bed, Pasha leaned over and whispered, “Samuel?”            

            Samuel was sleeping too
deeply to hear him, but Rebekah sat up startled.  She stared for a minute at
this man looming over Samuel.  “Who are you?” she asked.

            “It’s me, Pasha,” he
responded.  “I was checking on you and the boy.”

            Rebekah’s heart began
to beat even faster.  She glanced at the wig on the chair. “What do you want?”

            “It seems you are
wanted for kidnapping,” he said.

            By this time Samuel was
sitting up, trembling. “Is this man going to take me, Mama?” he asked trying
not to cry.

            “No, Samuel,” she
assured him. “Go sit in the big chair. Mama will cover you with a blanket.  Try
to go back to sleep.”

            Samuel got up and
Rebekah guided him to the chair covering him with a blanket she had grabbed from
the end of the bed.

            “Please,” she said to Pasha
as she walked over and sat down on the bed.  “Don’t turn us in.  He is my son.  His
father is a Russian soldier who raped me,” she lied.  “I took Samuel to America
but he found us and stole him back.  A child belongs with his mother.”

            “Where are you taking
him?” he asked.

            “Back to America.  My
family is there.  Please.  I’ll do anything you tell me, but don’t turn us in.”

            “Anything?” he leered.

            Rebekah knew at once
what he wanted, but what guarantee was there that he would let them go if he
got it?  She would have to give him what he wanted and hope for the best.  She
slipped back under the covers.  He already had his pants off.

            He lay on top of her
and stared at her face. “You are very beautiful,” he told her.  “It’s no wonder
the soldier raped you. I would have too.”

She wondered if
she could kill him.  But how far would she get once his body was discovered?  Her
description would be out everywhere.

“I need to kill
him,” she thought to herself as he got more engrossed fondling her breasts. “It’s
less risk than hoping if he gets what he wants he won’t turn me in anyway for
the glory.”

Benjamin had given
her a knife before she left. “Keep it in your purse during the day and under
your pillow at night,” he had told her. Pasha moved down her body.

Slowly she reached
behind the pillow and pulled out the knife.  Although her hand was trembling,
she plunged it between his shoulder blades as hard as she could.  He let out a
moan. She stabbed him three more times.  For a minute she lay there frozen.  She
could feel the life drain out of him.  Then she pushed his body off of her.

            She wiped the knife on
the sheet and pulled the blanket up over his head.  “Thank you, again,
Benjamin,” she whispered to herself.  Then she washed her hands, got dressed
and woke up Samuel who had fortunately slept through it all.  “Wake up,
Samuel,” she whispered. “We have to leave.”

            “Is the man gone,
Mama?”

            “No, Samuel.  He is
sleeping under the covers in the bed.”

            Samuel glanced at the
bed. “Why does he have his head covered, Mama,” he asked softly.

            “To keep the moonlight
out of his eyes, Samuel.  Now get up so you can get dressed.  We have to
hurry.”