Written on the Wind (The Blackstone Legacy #2)(28)

Natalia met his gaze across the candlelit table, pained sympathy in her face. “I’m ready to hear it.”

Dimitri drew a deep breath, bracing himself to relive the memory.

Natalia already understood his role along the southern route of the Trans-Siberian that skirted the Amur River. He did not need to tell her how the land was remote and isolated, nor how the border between Russia and China had repeatedly shifted over the past century. Many Chinese people had settled north of the Amur River in Russian territory even though it put them in a precarious legal situation. When the border was finally defined in 1858 by the Treaty of Aigun, those Chinese settlers living in Russia were guaranteed the right to keep their property in perpetuity.

The agreement worked well until the Boxer Rebellion of last year, when riots against European settlers broke out in China. It eventually spread toward the Russian border, potentially endangering the railroad.

“There was an incident in which Chinese insurgents launched shells across the river at the Russian town of Blagoveshchensk,” he told Natalia. “I was twenty miles away at the construction outpost, but the attack infuriated the Russian army. They used it as an excuse to expel the Chinese people living north of the river. It was too big a job for the local military, and I was ordered to appear along with workers from the railroad to help secure the border.”

He braced his elbows on the table, clenching his hands and looking away as dark memories came to the fore. He’d arrived at Blagoveshchensk with a hundred workers. At first he didn’t understand what was being asked of him, but soon it was apparent that he was to help expel the Chinese villagers by any means necessary. Some villagers went peaceably, but others resisted. Then the army moved in, and it became a stampede, with Chinese people racing to get across the river. The barges and ferries were soon overwhelmed.

“By the time I arrived, dozens of men had already been killed,” he said. “They had fought the expulsion from their homes, and the retaliation was brutal. Thousands of others, mostly women and children with a few possessions carried on their backs, begged for mercy, but they received none. They were driven at the point of a rifle toward the river.”

Natalia’s eyes were wide with horror. He wished he didn’t have to share these details with her, but they were at the crux of the charges against him.

“I was ordered to command my men to guard the flanks and prevent anyone from escaping as the army drove the Chinese toward the river. It wasn’t an expulsion; it was an extermination. There were thousands of people, and they were helpless as the soldiers closed in. Then the shooting began.”

Dimitri swallowed back his revulsion. “I shouted at my men, ordering them to break ranks. We couldn’t step in front of the bullets to save those people, but we could give them the chance to escape. A Russian colonel ordered me back to the line, but I refused. I reminded him of the Treaty of Aigun. I said he was the one in violation of the law, not me. It was useless. I was arrested on the spot and taken to the governor’s mansion in chains. They sent me to Saint Petersburg to face trial on charges of refusing to obey orders, for which I was guilty, and of cowardice, for which I was not.”

His intransigence hadn’t done much good for the people of Blagoveshchensk. He later heard that over three thousand people had been killed. They had either been shot, axed, trampled, or drowned in the river.

“I have asked myself a thousand times if I could have done anything differently,” he said. “I wish I had never been put in that situation, but I cannot regret my decision. Had I participated in forcing those people into the river, it would have been murder.”

Natalia reached across the table, laying her hand over his clenched fist. How smooth and unblemished her hand looked against his weather-beaten one. He opened his hand, turning his palm up to clasp hers. She looked at him with no contempt, only sympathy, and he was grateful for it.

“The Russians do not wish this story to be known to the world,” he said. “I was not allowed to speak of the incident at my trial because the authorities needed to make an example of me. They publicly humiliated me so that others who witnessed the massacre would remain silent.”

And so far, it appeared the tactic had been successful. Certainly, no one came forward to protest at his trial.

“What can I do to help?” Natalia asked.

He scrutinized her across the table. Just how brave was she? Natalia wasn’t going to like what he wanted of her. She would argue with him, fight him, maybe even work against him . . . but he hadn’t come this far to back down now.

It was too early to risk their friendship by revealing his plans. He broke the tension by reaching for his wine glass and raising it in a toast.

“There will be time to discuss it later,” he said. “For tonight, we must celebrate our friendship. I am very glad to have finally met you, my dearest Natalia.”

The challenge ahead of them was daunting. He had survived the ordeal of the Siberian wilderness and crossing the Pacific, but what lay ahead would test Natalia in a manner she never expected, and he didn’t know if she could deliver.

He and Natalia would board a train to New York the following afternoon, where the showdown would begin.



The following morning Dimitri ordered an atrociously large breakfast in the hotel’s dining room, only to be dismayed at how little he could eat. After months of surviving on little besides cedar nuts, he ordered scrambled eggs, toast smothered with cheese, and raspberry tarts. He dove into the eggs first, but after a few bites he felt stuffed to the point that even looking at the raspberry tarts made him nauseous. He pushed the plates away while listening to Natalia chat about her new townhouse. Their train did not depart for New York until five o’clock, so he intended to spend the day shopping and sightseeing with her.