1636:The Kremlin games

Chapter 46

February 1634

Filip and Gregorii looked over the new steam barge design before they sealed the packet.

The more standardized design the Dacha had developed after looking over Vladimir’s notes was two ten-inch-wide cylinders side-by-side, with the stroke of the first setting the second and vice versa, to produce a reciprocating engine. They didn’t bother with a condenser on the ones for the steamboats and steam barges, as there was generally water available in a river. So they released the steam to the same chimney that carried the smoke fire. They used a pot boiler and ceramic tiles for the fire bed. The engines built that way-and especially the boilers-were so inefficient that they were an insult to steam power. However, they would fit on a thirty-foot-long, ten-foot-wide river barge and they would push the thing through the water.

“I think it’s ready,” Filip said. “We’ll send it on to Murom in the next pouch.”

In the Dacha, Sofia’s eyes sparkled like cold black diamonds. “Nevertheless, it cannot be you that goes. You are needed here. Bernie needs you. Boris and Mariya need you. You may not abandon that trust.”

Natasha stopped her pacing. She’d been trying too hard to justify being the person who went to Grantville to determine whether or not Brandy Bates was acceptable to the czar as her brother’s wife. She knew it. “But I so want to see it, Aunt Sofia,” she whined. “So very much.” She threw herself onto a bench. “Vladimir is there. I miss him. And I want to see it.”

“Even so.” Sofia’s eyes softened. “I know, dear.” She patted Natasha’s hand. “I know.” She grinned. “So do I want to go.” Then she straightened her shoulders. “But we must carry on here. Czar Mikhail has said that he will consider this marriage, but there must be a senior female of the family to examine Brandy. And I know just who to send.” She cackled in laughter. “Oh, my. It will do them so much good.”

As it turned out, Aunt Sofia was not entirely in control of who was sent to Grantville. The other great houses wanted their say as well. A friend of Sofia, true enough, would be one of the three dragons sent; the next would come from the Sheremetev clan and an aunt of the czarina would be the other.

All of which would come as a surprise to Vladimir back in Grantville.

“I didn’t really believe it. Not until I saw that.” Vladimir watched the Las Vegas Belle until it was out of sight. Even after the months since the first flight, he still wasn’t entirely sure he believed it. And slowly he began to smile. “I believe that turnabout is fair play, Brandy. Perhaps I should write Bernie that I insist that he build me an airplane. And a factory for cars. And an oil refinery.”

“Soda pop.” Brandy looked in the direction where the plane had disappeared. “Real, old-fashioned Coca-Cola. I miss those. New movies, instead of rewatching all the old ones. Xerox machines for quick copies. Um, we can probably think up a bunch of other stuff to demand. They won’t be very realistic, I imagine, but it might be kind of fun to make a demand instead of trying to satisfy them. Besides, they might just do it.”

They walked slowly to Brandy’s house thinking up ever more outrageous things to demand of Bernie and the “brain cases” in Russia and laughing at their demands. No one could be sad on a day like today.

They turned up the walk to Brandy’s house and she hesitated a bit. Vladimir knew that it was because her mother had died there.

He’d been surprised, three days after Donna died, by the attendance at her funeral. It seemed like a large number of people showed up. Most unusual was the cluster of young girls around Brandy. One of them was one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen. Her hair was a deep auburn and her skin was clear with just a few freckles.

Brandy had, in compliance with Donna’s wishes, arranged a simple graveside service. It was very brief. Afterward, people visited with one another and everyone spoke to Brandy and her father Vernon for a moment or two. Brandy introduced Vladimir to the cluster of young girls. They were… quite exceptional, he thought.

Much to Vladimir’s surprise, Vernon was one of the first to leave. “He’s just not good at emotions.” Brandy had noticed Vladimir watching Vernon. “He never has been. He’s closed up, like in a shell or something. It drove Mom crazy. That, I think, is why they got divorced. Mom was too emotional for him, I guess.”

Vladimir looked down at her. “I promise you. I promise you that I will never be so, so…”

“Calm and dispassionate?” Her tears started flowing again. “Good. I don’t think I’d like it any better than Mom did.”

The sound of the doorbell jerked Brandy to alertness. She smoothed down her dress and checked her reflection in the mirror before opening the door. Here goes, she thought.

Vladimir stood on the porch, smiling at her. Her breath caught a bit. They’d been dating a long time, but this was the first time they’d been alone together. Really alone. No servants. No Mom. Brandy still felt Donna’s loss keenly. But a person had to move on. This dinner was an effort to do that.

“Come in, please.” Brandy smiled as Vladimir brought his left hand from behind his back with a flourish. His eyes twinkled a bit. “A guest should not arrive empty-handed. So, I brought you this.”

This was not flowers or candy, or even a bottle of wine. Vladimir had brought a bag of coffee beans. Brandy grinned. “Good. We’ll have some later.” She stood aside and waved Vladimir inside. “Dinner will be ready in just a moment. I hope you like it.”

Vladimir looked around the room. “You have changed a few things, Branya. Not much, just a little. The home seems somehow more your own, now.”

“Just a little.” Brandy felt sad for a moment. “I loved my mother, but I never cared for that ‘country’ look she liked so much. So I sort of streamlined the room a bit.” A dinging sound came from the kitchen. “One thing about a house this size, you can hear the timer. Come on in. The table is ready and it sounds like dinner is, too.”

Brandy ushered Vladimir into the small dining area where she had used Donna’s best china and crystal to set the table. “Have a seat. I’ll be right back.”

Brandy came back with a large platter of something. Noodles, Vladimir thought. He was fond of noodles. But what was covering them? It smelled wonderful, whatever it was.

Brandy set the platter on the table. “I’ve got no idea if this is really a Russian dish. But Cora said it was, so I tried it. I hope it’s good. I’m not really much of a cook. Mom tried, but I wasn’t very interested, to tell the truth.”

The smell had Vladimir salivating. “I don’t care if it’s Russian, Branya. It smells wonderful. Just wonderful.”

Brandy smiled widely and served Vladimir a portion of the dish, whatever it was. She poured wine for them both and indicated the salad and bread on the table. “Thank heaven for greenhouses. We always had lettuce back then. I’d miss it if we didn’t have it here, even if it isn’t the iceberg I’m used to.” Apparently noticing Vladimir’s hesitation, she urged, “Go ahead. Dig in.”

Vladimir did. The scent was marvelous and the taste even more so. It only needed one thing. “Is there, perhaps, some smetana?”

Brandy gave him a look and he grinned guiltily. Brandy had commented before about his liking for smetana. He put it in nearly everything he ate, including stew. “It has quite a bit in it already.” She passed him the dish full of sour cream. “But I knew you’d want more. Is it all right? Does it taste good?”

Vladimir nodded, busying himself with the dish. “Marvelous.” He added sour cream to his plate. “Marvelous. I’m afraid I’m ruined for Russian cooking, at least the cooking back in my Russia. Ruined. I may never wish to go back, just for the flavor of the food alone. What is this called?”

“Beef Stroganoff.”

Vladimir ate until Brandy was pretty sure he was about to explode.

“Marvelous,” he said. Several times. Well, it was, but that was only part of the reason he kept saying it. Vladimir was terrified.

After dinner, over coffee in the living room, Brandy began to feel a little awkward. What did you say now? How did you handle this kind of privacy when you didn’t have any intention of needing, well, this kind of privacy? Not yet, at any rate.

Vladimir solved the problem by beginning to speak. “Natasha tells me that the situation in Russia is quite tense. Czar Mikhail has vaguely suggested a constitution to replace the agreement he made on assuming the throne. Such a document would be binding not only on him, but on all future czars. Most importantly though, it would also be binding on the Boyar Duma and bureaus and replace the Zemsky Sobor with an elected legislature or perhaps turn the Assembly of the Land into such a congress.”

“Yes. Natasha mentioned it. I understand that the income tax and the business tax are meeting quite a bit of resistance.”

“That’s a diplomatic way of putting it.” Vladimir laughed. “I worked it out. It would cost my family several million of your dollars every year. While my family is quite well off, we’re not the richest nobles in Russia, not by any means. If that tax is done just a little bit wrong, it could ruin half the nobles in Russia. I sent my sister a description of your system of tax deductions for things like capital investment along with Cass and Bernie’s ‘Precious.’ Frankly, I don’t think it will happen unless Czar Mikhail can come up with something to sweeten the pot.”

“So, what can he give them?”

“For right now, I’m not sure.” Vladimir leaned back on the couch. “But in a few years, relief from having to have serfs might do it.”

“Don’t count on it, Vladimir.” Brandy shook her head. “The serfs could end up as factory workers and have even less freedom than they have now. ‘I owe my soul to the company store.’ If it could happen in America, where we-at least in theory-all had the same rights, think how much easier it could happen in Russia where serfs are already restricted in when they can quit.”

Vladimir sighed. “I know. Adam Smith and all your economists tell us that free labor is more productive than slaves or serfs. That slavery and serfdom is bad for the economy of the nation. But what they usually neglect to mention is that it’s still very profitable for the people who own the slaves.” He looked down at his coffee cup.

“Brandy, I’ve lived here for a long time and have accepted many of your principles, but that doesn’t mean my countrymen have. I agree that serfdom must be eliminated but I don’t see any way to do it.”

When Brandy got up to light the gas lights against the darkening of the room, Vladimir moved just a tad closer to her end of the sofa. Whenever she leaned forward to pour more coffee, or stood to busy herself with something, he moved just a little bit closer. Eventually, Vladimir was right where he wanted to be. Close, nearly touching.

Brandy looked a little nervous when she discovered just how close he was. Deciding not to give her, or himself, a chance to bolt, Vladimir took one of her hands in his own. “Branya, I have something I want to speak of, something that is not about Bernie or even about Russia.”

Brandy’s breath caught just a bit before she nodded at him. “You can speak to me about anything, Vladimir. What is it?”

He had been quite confident of her response when he had written the letters asking permission from Czar Mikhail and informing Natasha of his intent. Somehow, that confidence had disappeared when he had been informed that Mikhail had agreed to the marriage-at least conditionally. The condition being that she make a valid conversion. And Natasha had informed him that several ladies from Russia would be coming to Grantville to look Brandy over. At that point he had seen the looming disaster of the dragons arriving to inspect her before he even asked for her hand.

But Vladimir was still hesitating and Brandy was looking at him expectantly. “I am not one of your up-time men, Branya. And I may not have the correct words. But I have grown very… fond of you. Very fond. And I, I…” Vladimir paused a moment. “I wish you to be my wife, Branya. I wish it very much.”

Brandy’s eyes glittered in the candlelight. “Wife? You want to get married?”

“I do,” Vladimir said. He watched her face closely. What would she answer?

“Yes.”

Half an hour later, after some very pleasant kissing and some not so pleasant explanation. Brandy wasn’t quite so sure.

“We don’t do that,” Vladimir said, sounding a bit desperate. “Abandon thy family, abjure thy name.” He shook his head. “It sounds glorious, but Romeo and Juliet ended up dead. Were I to marry without the czar’s consent, our family’s property could be seized and my sister could end her life in a convent. Forced to take holy orders. Not because Mikhail would want to do it, but because the cabinet would insist.”

Brandy knew that was all too likely an outcome. But Vladimir was continuing. “If I asked the czar first and you said no, I would look foolish. But if I asked you first and the czar said no, I didn’t know what I would do. I didn’t wish to make a promise to you until I was sure I could keep it.”

“All right!” Judy the Younger Wendell was grinning from ear to ear. “So, when’s the wedding, Brandy? What are you going to wear?”

“I don’t know to the first question.” Brandy took a sip of root beer. “And I don’t know to the second one, for that matter.”

Brandy’s friends looked confused. As a group they were often called the Barbie Consortium because they were teenagers who had gotten rich selling their old dolls-which, in one of the Ring of Fire’s most quirky ramifications, turned out to be highly prized objects for Europe’s wealthy classes. They were quite bright, generally speaking, but as could be expected from girls most of whom were no older than sixteen, their experience with life in general was limited.

Marriage was simple and straightforward, in their world view. Fall in love; get married; the bride wears a really nifty outfit and the bridesmaids wear outfits that are almost as nifty, there’s a big cake which is usually cut by the groom and in the seventeenth century they thought he got to use a really nifty sword for the purpose.

“It’s more complicated than I knew,” Brandy sighed. “It turns out that Vladimir is sort of a prince or something like that. He can’t just get married, not to a foreigner, not to anybody, really. He has to get permission.”

Vicky Emerson looked outraged. “What, from his father? He’s a grown man! Why does he have to ask for permission?”

Brandy shook her head. “His parents are dead. Both of them. He’s got a sister, Natasha. No, it’s not his parents, it’s the czar. He had to get permission from the czar. He apparently asked him before he asked me. And the czar has already sent a bunch of dragon ladies from Russia to check me out,” Brandy added, with some resentment. Vladimir had explained that they had to do it that way but it still ticked her off. “And then there’s the religion thing, too.”

“Religion thing?” Hayley Fortney paused in the act of sipping tea. “There’s a religion thing, too?”

Brandy nodded again, and sort of sighed. “Yeah. It’s all going to take a while, it looks like. I’d just as soon go down to City Hall and have a civil ceremony, get all the hoopla over with. But Vladimir’s church will not recognize a civil ceremony, he says. It’s against canonical law. And, it turns out that if he gets married in any church except a Russian Orthodox church, he could be charged with treason. So we figure we better wait.”

“That’s kind of hard, isn’t it?” Judy looked around at the girls. “Your Vladimir is a nice-looking guy. A nice guy in general, for that matter. I bet you hate waiting.”

“Well, one thing about it.” Brandy shrugged. “At least we ought to be really sure about it when it does happen. Vladimir says he probably ought to have a priest come here, anyway. Natasha is sending a bunch of people from his lands and they’re all going to go to school here. And to the oil field. So they need a priest. They wouldn’t be comfortable going to St. Mary’s. We’re probably looking at another three months to wait. If we’re lucky.”

“That’s just about enough time,” Judy muttered.

“Enough time?”

“Yeah,” Judy grinned. “Just about enough time to plan a really big, really nice wedding, no matter what else is going on here. Or in Russia, for that matter.”