Inventing Wonders

Chapter 32: Line Me Up Against the Wall

"You're lucky you don't have children!" the emperor burst out. "Your fate will be terrible! Terrible!"

Sergei Petrovich tried not to meet the eyes of his interrogators. The pointless questions, the attempts to cross-check, to identify all those involved... Only God knew how many names had already been mentioned. The prince was expected to identify conspirators he didn't know, to confirm the guilt of the innocent. The words "you don't have children" echoed around the room.

"Write what you know!" the emperor demanded and left the room.

What did Trubetskoy know? That he had failed? That he had failed the very idea of freedom? Did he blame himself? Now, yes. He should have stopped it all... But now it was too late. He wrote. There was no point in denying it; a whole stack of different handwriting lay on the table, all reporting the prince's involvement.

The spacious office with windows overlooking the embankment was oppressive. It wasn't the first time Trubetskoy had been in the palace, but it was the first time he was being reprimanded here. The man glanced at the dim candle, the inkwell, and took up the pen. Did he have the moral right to protect his friends by not naming them? Sergei Petrovich didn't know. He also didn't know who had already been named before. It was a huge responsibility; with his mercy, an innocent name could appear in the stack of names...

Something had to be written. It was terrifying to slander himself, to speak of details no one had yet heard. It wasn't a situation where one wanted to be the first. For the first time, Trubetskoy thought about how, in the eyes of his comrades, he would remain a traitor, perhaps even a coward for posterity... It was good he had no children...

"Is this your handwriting?" Nikolai Pavlovich burst in with a sheet just handed to him.

Trubetskoy nodded dryly.

"You know I can have you shot right now!"

"Shoot me, Your Majesty, you have the right!"

Nikolai's face suddenly changed. He stopped speaking loudly, as if he was tired.

"I don't want to... Write to your wife..."

Nikolai didn't necessarily want to, but his wife loved Ekaterina Ivanovna so tenderly... The princess was innocent. Trubetskoy himself confirmed that it would be a terrible mistake to involve a loved one in the conspiracy...

Trubetskoy began the note simply: "My friend, be calm and pray to God!" The emperor frowned and pointed at the scrap of paper:

"Write: I will be alive and well..."

Trubetskoy himself couldn't assess how terrible his situation was, and therefore uncertainly added: "The emperor is by my side and tells me to write that I am alive and well!" Nikolai sighed:

"Add 'will be'... Write it above..."

The conversation was unfolding strangely. In the dim candlelight, everything seemed toy-like. Nikolai Pavlovich carefully reviewed Trubetskoy's report once more. The prince could only be amazed by what was happening.

"You won't mention Countess Vovk?" he suddenly asked, not finding the coveted name.

"Why would she be in this document?"

"Because she's in other documents," the emperor replied angrily.

Trubetskoy couldn't understand why anyone would involve Larisa Konstantinovna in this and which of the nobles who knew her had come up with the foolish idea of entangling her in this story.

"What do you know about Maxim Vovk?"

The prince was stunned. He, like everyone else, knew about the connection between Countess Larisa and the grand duke, but he also knew that the countess had no brother. It was extremely unclear to him that the emperor was so poorly informed about his own affairs...