The Nightingale of St. Petersburg

Part III. Secrets Revealed. Chapters 1-2

Part III: Secrets Revealed.

Chapter 1

I feel the time has come for me to enter this story, enter it as an author. I did not know about Alexander visiting my goddaughter, I never even suspected such a thing possible. She never spoke of it, he never spoke of it, so there was never anything to give me even the faintest suspicion that they knew each other.

With the death of my mother, I could not bear to be in that house, it reminded me too much of her. I owned another one in the city, it wasn’t so secluded as this one, but that didn’t matter. I wanted to get away from the memory of my mother so I moved and took my poor goddaughter with me. But all this you already know.

It was the beginning to January, 1827. I remember it being already dark outside, but this is hardly surprising. During the winter it gets dark very early in St. Petersburg. I at my desk, attending to some business, when a knock on the door made me lift my head.

“Enter.” I called.

The door opened and my butler, Feodor came in.

“Pardon me, Master,” he said, “but there is a man asking for you at the door, says his name is Alexander and that he used to play music for your late mother.”

I was surprised to hear this. I had scarcely thought of the young man who used to entertain my mother.

“Did he say what he wants?” I asked.

“No, he didn’t. I told him that you had no business with him but he refused to leave and said that you would see him. He was admanite that I tell him you were here that he was the young man used to play the piano to your late mother.”

“What could he want?” I wondered as I rose and followed the butler to the door. Could he be here to ask me for money? I knew the boy to be poor, struggling musicians always are and what made it harder for him was the fact that he was blind. The public ball house isn’t a place where one can live comfortably. It’s a lot of work, but not that much pay. I figured it wouldn’t be very difficult for me to give him a little money, he had been a great source of comfort to my mother and I knew him to be an honest and hardworking boy. Not really the sort that would poke around asking for money, come to think of it, but perhaps his financial situation was driving him to it. I saw him standing patiently at the door of my house. Feodor hadn’t even asked him to come in. Standing beside him swas another man.

He was just about as thin as Alexander, but of stronger build and he wasn’t as pale as Alexander, whose skin looked white as a sheet.

“Why did you want to see me?” I asked him.

“Please sir, is Marina Pavlovna here?” he asked in a voice that was worried and excited all at the same time.

“Who?” I asked again, not quite sure that I had heard right. He couldn’t have said ‘Marina Pavlovna’ could he?

“Marnia Pavlovna,” he stated, “your goddaughter,” he added.

“How, how, how do you know about her? What do you want with her?” I was so taken back that he knew who she was I didn’t know what to think or how to react; I didn’t even have the ability to be suspicious.

“I’ve known her as a voice for a long time already,” he began explaining, but was interrupted by a deep cough that came straight from his chest. His friend thumped him on the back a little, too help him get over the coughing spell. Despite my being stunned beyond the power or reason, I remembered that he was standing out in the freezing cold and that he was dressed in a thin faded coat. I motioned with my hand for him and his friend to enter.