An convenient Inferno

DECEMBER 1889:

One night during the full moon on the last day of December, a cry could be heard from the little wooden cabin in Minebna. The cry that had penetrated the silent night belonged to Alyona Turgenev. She was giving birth to her very first child, at an age of forty. Her loving husband Igor was sitting by her side, while the doctor was giving her orders to push. And she did. Only thirty minutes later a red-haired girl was laying on her mother's bare chest, skin to skin. The girl possessed a couple of blue eyes that held the universe within them, and a wisp of red hair, that she had inherited from her father. This had been their happiest moment of their lives, because their baby girl Lada Turgenev already had the ability to spread happiness in the darkest of times.

Seven winters later, the village had grown to appreciate the bundle of joy that was Lada Turgenev. In the summers she would pick flowers for the people in the roads, and help out in the fields. Her mother taught her everything she needed to know. Washing, cooking and sewing. However her heart belonged to the fields, where the vegetables grew during warm summers, and where the smell of the herbs soothed the mind. Her father couldn't be more proud. Although she was born into an underclass family, she did not yet know the burden that would follow.

Ten years later, she stood before what would be her partner in life. Pjotr Ivanov, a great man and friend of the Turgenev family. With his big built, blessed from his father and a set of sparkling blue eyes that reflected the tiniest of lights, Lada found herself mesmerized. He was a great deal older than herself, and was born in the year 1861, her father however insisted upon the linking between the families. "The Ivanov's are of good breeding." he said. The priest married them during a rainstorm.