Enemy of the Tzar Read online

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Novels by Lester S. Taube

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  About the Author

  Back Cover

  Enemy

  of the Tzar

  A Murderess in One Country,

  A Tycoon in Another

  by

  L. S. Taube

  CCB Publishing

  British Columbia, Canada

  Enemy of the Tzar:

  A Murderess in One Country, A Tycoon in Another

  Copyright ©2012 by L. S. Taube

  ISBN-13 978-1-927360-67-5

  First Edition

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Taube, L. S., 1920-

  Enemy of the tzar [electronic resource] : a murderess in one country, a tycoon in another / written by L. S. Taube. – 1st ed.

  Electronic monograph in PDF format.

  ISBN 978-1-927360-67-5

  I. Title.

  PS3620.A922E54 2012 813'.6 C2012-903513-0

  Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events and persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written permission from the author.

  Publisher:

  CCB Publishing

  British Columbia, Canada

  www.ccbpublishing.com

  FOR

  ----------------------------------------

  Hannah Dora Barker Taub

  Her memory is a blessing

  ----------------------------------------

  Most novelists need some assistance – to insert a comma instead of a period, to keep the imagination in context, to polish the result of many lonely hours. I owe so very much to those listed below:

  ----------------------------------------

  Rabbi Boruch Leizerowski

  A truly holy man

  ----------------------------------------

  Brunhilde Nicholas – Chief Editor

  Gabrielle Korang – Associate Editor

  and

  Sidney Rosenblatt – Guru of the written word

  Novels by Lester S. Taube:

  The Grabbers

  (republished as: The Diamond Boomerang)

  Peter Krimsov

  (republished as: The Stalingrad Conspiracy)

  Myer For Hire

  The Cossack Cowboy

  Enemy of the Tzar

  Atonement for Iwo

  I Contadini

  The Land of Thunder

  Publishers:

  W.H. Allen – London, England

  Ediçöes Dêagá – Lisbon, Portugal

  Lademann Forlagsaktieslskab – Copenhagen, Denmark

  Longanesi – Milan, Italy

  Van Lekturama – Rotterdam, Holland

  S. Fischer Verlag – Frankfurt am Main, Germany

  Winthers Forlag – Copenhagen, Denmark

  Pocket Books – USA

  Pinnacle – USA

  Bookman – USA

  Cherica Publishers – USA

  Chapter 1

  LITHUANIA – 1904

  Hanna Barlak did not have the least suspicion that meeting Hershel Block would one day change the course of her life forever. Nor could she have believed that those she loved would be tormented and tortured, and even die because of him. Not on this summer afternoon in 1904, as she swung along with her long legged stride through the dirt streets of her village.

  She stopped at Feldman’s to buy the Sabbath supper. Two small herring would have to do. It was barely enough for a family of six, but that took all the money she had. Even though Mrs. Merkys, owner of the only dressmaking shop in the area, had seen an unusual ability when she was but ten years old, and after much training, now considered her to be the best worker she ever had and paid her more than her other two seamstresses. And being a Jew in Gremai, a minuscule village in Russian-annexed Lithuania, was bad enough, but having a crippled father, a mother that was suffering from an unknown ailment, and three young siblings, was certainly not finding favor with the Lord.

  “You’ve got a young man at home,” said Mr. Feldman gaily, placing the fish in the basket she carried. His shop sold thread, lamp oil, pots, pans, tobacco, along with herring and chickens.

  Hanna looked at him with surprise. Nobody came to Gremai. The sixty or so houses were probably not even listed on a map. “How do you know?”

  “Your mother sent Gitel. She said you were to get a plump chicken.”

  She shook her head in exasperation. There were less than fifteen kopeks in her pocket.

  Mr. Feldman read her expression with understanding. “It’s all right, Hanna. You can pay later.” In the eighteen years since she was born, he knew she would rather do without a meal than owe money.

  Silently, she took the packages and handed over the fifteen kopeks towards the bill. She could only nod her thanks and goodbye as she left. There were no words to be spoken.

  Larisa caught up with her as she turned into the narrow lane leading to her home. Larisa was her closest friend, the daughter of a retired Russian official who resided in a large house at the edge of the village. She had a huge brother, Stephen, two or three years older, whom Hanna secretly admired.

  “Stephen says to stop by the house. He caught some fish today. Much more than we can eat.”

  Hanna chuckled. “I just bought two.”

  “That won’t be enough for all of you. Why don’t you come now?”

  “All right.” She did not feel shy about accepting things from Larisa. She was her friend, and friends shared good fortune. It always seemed, though, that she never had any good fortune to share. But she did mend Larisa’s clothes now and then, working on them when they were gabbing about this or that. It was not really work, just the taking in or letting out of a skirt or jacket. Stephen was gutting a bucketful of fish in the back yard when the two women came up. “Hello, Hanna,” he said, waving a bloody knife at her. “Look at these.”

  She sat on a bench next to where he squatted. “Did you catch all of these today?” she asked, eyeing the dozen or so fat fish.

  “Yes
. They were biting furiously.” He pointed to a pail at one side. “They are for you.”

  “Thank you, Stephen.” She glanced into the pail, relieved to see that they had scales, for only scaled fish were kosher. He had remembered her mentioning it one time. Stephen’s nose was red from being in the sun. “Was it windy out there?”

  “No more than usual.” He looked up at her from under bushy brows. “I could take you and Larisa some afternoon.” His eyes lowered in shyness, for he knew as well as she what implications could arise from just that simple act.

  “I’d like to go with you,” she said, suddenly bold. There were five or six fish in the pail, she saw now, and her spirits rose at being able to provide two good meals for the family. She noticed a tear in the sleeve of his shirt. “I would also like to mend that sleeve.”

  “Oh, it’s nothing. My mother can sew that.”

  “But I would like to do it.”

  He stopped gutting the fish and looked into her clear hazel eyes. He realized at once how important it was for her to do something for him. Hanna was always like that, he reflected. “It’s pretty smelly,” he cautioned her.

  “That’s all right. When can I have it?”

  Stephen grinned at her. She was not about to put it off, like some people who offer to help, then conveniently forgetting it as soon as they safely can. He liked that about her. It struck him that he liked a lot of things about Hanna, and it seemed strange, since he had met her barely a dozen times. He liked the simple, but proper way she dressed, and the direct manner of speaking, and the glint of controlled humor, for you could see she always had a grin inside waiting to break out, and the…what was it?…pride, I guess. His grandfather said it was the stiff neck of the Jews.

  Both his grandfather and his father had a low opinion of Jews, Stephen knew, and he was quite prepared to feel the same, except that Larisa, whom he thought the world of, said that Hanna and her family were first class. He decided to wait a while and get to know her before making a decision about them. There was a mystery about her, not of gloom or misfortune, but of warmth, like the shadow of a forest floor when you rested on a pile of leaves.

  “I can give it to you as soon as I finish with these fish. Another ten or fifteen minutes.”

  “All right. Can I help you?”

  Stephen had to chuckle. Most women could not stand the smell of fish, let alone want to handle them. “No, thanks. I can manage.”

  She sat quietly watching him work. She knew he would not speak unless first addressed. He had a deep reserve, something rare for the usually vocal Russians. Larisa had gone into the house to drop off a package, and it was the first time the two young people had been alone.

  “You are going to the university, are you not?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “What are you studying there?”

  “Engineering.”

  “What kind of engineering?” Hanna’s curiosity made the words seem to jump from her lips.

  “Mechanical.”

  “My grandfather used to build things, too. Well, not exactly. He did cement work. My father did the same thing when he was a boy.”

  Stephen wanted to say it was too bad about her father being crippled from that boat accident, for he felt it might make her sad, and he would rather bite off his tongue than cause her unhappiness. Everyone knew that if it were not for Hanna working all hours, the family would have starved long before now. His own father, come to think of it, was not much better off physically, what with diabetes and his rheumatism, but at least they were well off financially with his pension and mother’s dowry invested in several buildings in Vilnius, and the family farm a verst out of town managed by a Polish foreman.

  He finished gutting the last fish, washed his hands at the pump, then went inside the house, soon returning wearing a new shirt. He handed over his blue woolen one with the ripped sleeve.

  “I’ll pick it up when it’s ready,” he told her.

  “All right. It will be finished tomorrow.”

  “That’s your Sabbath, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. But…” she grinned, “…giving over a shirt is not against our religion.”

  As she picked up the pail containing the fish, he stepped closer. “I’ll carry it home for you.”

  She held her ground. “Thank you, Stephen, but I can manage.”

  He nodded, and stood back as she started away with her various packages. There was a sudden tingling inside him as he watched her erect figure walk gracefully down the street, and he abruptly felt a sense of loneliness, as if he had lost something of value.

  It was nearly dusk when Hanna arrived home. Her mother, Motlie, was waiting in the kitchen, her face flushed with excitement.

  “We have a boarder,” she said at once to Hanna.

  “I heard,” replied Hanna. Boarders were common in the shtetls of larger towns and cities, but one in the village of Gremai was a rarity. “Who is he?”

  “A young man.” Motlie’s eyes danced. “A handsome young man, from Germany.”

  “How much is he paying?” That was the key to Hanna. Money meant food, six cords of firewood, a coat for her sister, Reba.

  “Three rubles a week,” burst out Motlie, barely able to contain her joy.

  Hanna was impressed. The money would pay for his food four times over. “That is good,” she conceded, placing her packages on the table. “Look, Mama, fish. Stephen, the brother of Larisa, gave them to me.”

  While Hanna changed to a smock and her worn felt boots, Motlie began scaling the fish. “I put him upstairs in bubbe’s room,” she said. The mother of her husband, Israel, had slept there until her death two years ago. Since then, the room had been closed off to conserve linens in the summer and heat in the winter.

  “What is he doing in Gremai?” asked Hanna, coming back into the kitchen.

  “He says he’s an artist, and that the Jews here came from Germany, hundreds of years ago. He wants to sketch us to show the similarity.”

  Hanna began dressing the chicken, plucking the feathers and placing them in a cloth bag. “We will need more than this chicken for tomorrow,” she remarked. “I will pick up another one tomorrow on my way home.” Then she looked up. “What difference does it make?” she asked.

  “What do you mean, what difference does it make?”

  “What difference does it make if we came from Germany, or from Poland, or from anywhere?”

  “I suppose it makes a difference to him.”

  It is a waste, thought Hanna, to learn about this or that unless it fits into the scheme of things. If it was history, that would be all right because history is a never ending chain that turns in circles, and having it suddenly brought to a stop to make a record for those in the future to learn that nothing truly changes, well, that is important. Like myself. What am I really here for? To pluck this chicken? It is for my family, and I do not mind doing it for them, but beyond this chicken is me, and the me can think of a hundred things I would rather be doing. Like dancing. How I would love to be in someone’s arms whom I care for and whirl around and around. And having a dress that swirled with me. A dress? She caught herself beginning to laugh at the thought. A coat for Reba would be a better subject to dream about.

  She awoke to hear her mother say, “He’s coming downstairs now.”

  “What is his name?”

  “Hershel Bloch.”

  “What does he speak? Hurry!” She could hear him descend the last steps.

  “We spoke Yiddish,” whispered her mother.

  Hanna looked up as Hershel came into view. He was tall and handsome. He had a pleasant, rather long face, thick brown hair worn to the collar of his three-quarter length leather jacket, and sported a full, carelessly tended mustache. His eyes were brown, alert, and a small smile seemed fixed to his lips.

  “The room is very comfortable, Mrs. Barlak,” he said at once. He looked with interest at Hanna. “And you must be Hanna, are you not?”

  Hanna suddenly felt tha
t he could easily become a very close friend. A person you could care for without the sex that her cousin, Zelda, kept harping on. He was in his late twenties, but something in his eyes made him look older as if he had once been unusually sad, or if he knew something was coming that he did not want to face. But his easy smile and his warm, friendly way of speaking seemed part of his nature.

  “Yes, I am Hanna.”

  He looked back at Motlie at work. “Can I help you scale the fish?” he asked.

  “You will spoil that lovely jacket,” she replied, a bit of the coquette in her voice.

  “Voilá,” he said, taking off his jacket and draping it casually over a chair. He was wearing a fine cotton shirt underneath, and, rolling up his sleeves, he took the knife from Motlie and started expertly to scale the fish. “I became pretty handy at this en route to Lithuania,” he explained.

  “Where are you from?” asked Hanna.

  “Berlin.”

  “Did you come here by train?” Her interest was thoroughly aroused.

  “No. I took a boat from Lübeck on the Baltic Sea, to Memel, then a couple of detours by train to Kaunas, then a coach through Slabodka to here.”

  Hanna pulled the last whisk of feathers from the chicken and rose, carrying it to the table. There she took up a sharp knife and deftly slit open the bird, drawing out its entrails. Carefully, she cut away the gizzard, the liver, and the heart, discarded the rest into a slop pail, then chopped off the bird’s head, also into the pail. She severed the neck and legs, and placed everything into a pot of cold water. She would leave it to soak for half an hour, then place the dismembered chicken on a board and sprinkle it with heavy salt to draw out the blood.

  “Why to Gremai?” she asked, wiping her hands on the apron.

  Hershel had finished his work also. He scraped the waste into the slop pail and washed his hands in a basin of water. “Last year I spent almost two months in the shtetls of Poland. This time I wanted a freer type of Jew to sketch.”

  “Freer!” Hanna began laughing. “You must be joking.”