Dawning of Deliverance (The Russians Book #5)

Judith Pella

Description

Though she is the daughter of a princess, Mariana was raised as a peasant and decides not to take up aristocratic life. Trained as a nurse, she goes to the front lines instead where she's confronted with the realities of war--and encounters a man who once betrayed her. Can Mariana learn to trust him now? And will she and her family survive a dangerous new threat?

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 29 septembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441229694
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 1995 by Judith Pella
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com
Ebook edition created 2015
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—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-2969-4
This book is a work of fiction. With the exception of historical personages, all characters are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to living persons, past or present, is coincidental.
Cover design by Melinda Schumacher
Judith Pella is represented by The Steve Laube Agency.
Dedication
To my niece, Sarah Storbakken, for her love and support as this book grew.
“ Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid .”
John 14:27 KJV
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Prologue: What Has Gone Before . . .
Part I: Journey
1
2
3
Part II: War Zone
4
5
6
7
8
9
Part III: Home
10
11
12
13
14
15
Part IV: Geneva
16
17
Part V: The Reporter and the War Hero
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Part VI: Family Secret
27
28
29
30
31
32
Part VII: Breaking Point
33
34
35
Part VIII: Unraveling the Past
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
Part IX: Proposals
44
45
46
47
48
Part X: The Past Catches Up
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
Part XI: Commitments
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
Part XII: Gatherings
64
65
66
67
Part XIII: Bloody Sunday
68
69
70
71
Part XIV: Heroes
72
73
74
75
76
77
About the Author
Books by Judith Pella
Prologue: What Has Gone Before . . .
The years following the ascension of Nicholas the Second to the throne of Russia were, at least by Russia’s volatile standards, relatively serene. Nicholas and his wife, Alexandra, lived their lives in a rather idyllic fashion, raising their four daughters to the Victorian standards by which Alexandra herself was raised. Each day brought a pleasant succession of afternoon teas, lavish receptions, and evenings at the opera or ballet. In summer the royal family retreated to the Crimea where they lost themselves in warm balmy days on the beautiful seaside.
Political unrest seemed to be under control. But strife was merely lurking just beneath the surface, simmering like a broth that needs only a bit more heat to bring it overflowing furiously from the pot.
Unlike the royal family, the lives of the Burenin and Fedorcenko clans seemed intent on upheaval. When Prince Sergei Fedorcenko angered the tsar with his writings, he was exiled to Siberia, far from his parents and his sister Katrina. He escaped and returned to Russia, taking on the guise of a peasant and marrying his sister’s maid, Anna Burenin. For many years Sergei and Anna Christinin (Fedorcenko) lived contentedly as peasants in Katyk. They raised Katrina’s daughter, Mariana, and had two sons of their own. Then the unexpected appearance of Dmitri, Mariana’s real father, changed everything. Mariana left her beloved Katyk to live with him in St. Petersburg and there abandoned her peasant ways to take her rightful place as a countess. The transition was not always easy for the sixteen-year-old girl, especially since her father, Dmitri, proved to be as irresponsible and unreliable in middle age as he had been as a youth.
A young American journalist named Daniel Trent was the one bright spot in Mariana’s new life. Both were in strange, new circumstances, and those common bonds seemed to draw them together, cementing the friendship. Mariana openly confided her most private emotions to Daniel, and when he used his friendship with her to write an authorized story about Mariana and her family for his newspaper, she was deeply hurt by the betrayal. His heartfelt repentance seemed to come too late to help their wounded friendship. Daniel was suddenly called back to America to be with his father, who had taken ill. Mariana accepted this as proof that their friendship, not to mention their budding love, was not to be.
Anna and Sergei, concerned about Mariana’s difficulties in St. Petersburg, decided to leave the safe haven of Katyk to be with her in the city. Unable to reveal his aristocratic background because he was still an escaped fugitive, Sergei found life in the city hard and unrelenting. Employment as a laborer in a factory nearly drove him to his death until he was rescued by their longtime friend Misha, a Cossack guard. Misha directed Anna and Sergei to the widow Raisa Sorokin, who was struggling to raise her daughter, put food on the table, and pay rent on her modest apartment. Sergei and his family moved in with Raisa, establishing a mutually sustaining relationship that would last years.
Sergei found employment as a tutor, and just as life appeared to be taking a turn for the better, Cyril Vlasenko made his greedy presence felt. Vlasenko, a cousin of Sergei’s father, Viktor, had long envied the Fedorcenkos. Even when Viktor went insane and Sergei was sent to Siberia, Vlasenko could not be satisfied. He usurped control of the Fedorcenko estate, the last vestige of the once-mighty Fedorcenko holdings. When Viktor attempted to reclaim his property at gunpoint, Sergei came out of hiding and, in the guise of a family servant, convinced his father to surrender. Viktor lost his estate but regained his sanity and was reunited with his son after years of discord.
The Burenin family, too, experienced some bittersweet reconciliations during those years. Anna’s revolutionary brother Paul finally returned to Katyk when he received news of his father Yevno’s illness. And he found, like the biblical Prodigal, that his father’s arms were open to him.
In Yevno’s final talk with Anna, he passed on to her the mantle of spiritual caretaker of the family. “You, my little daughter!” Yevno gently informed Anna. “Don’t you know yet that those slim, delicate shoulders of yours have the strength of an ox? In your weaknesses, Anna, you have been made strong because you have, more than all my children, allowed God to dwell in His fullness within you. I have no doubt that you can shoulder the burden of this family. But you must remember that you need bear no burden alone—otherwise I would not place such an expectation upon you.”
Thus the Burenin and Fedorcenko families enter into a new century. They do not know what strife and upheaval the world will mete out to them. They know only one thing—that with God’s help they will survive. After all, they are Russians, and that is what Russians do best.
Part I: Journey
1
Black smoke coughed from the engine’s smokestack, streaking the clear summer sky with an ugly ribbon, like a battle scar. The train was passing through the heart of Siberia now. The Urals, with their lovely green foothills and meadows covered with violets and kingcups, had been left behind long ago. With Europe left far behind as well, a new world had opened up before the mighty iron engine of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
At least it seemed so to Mariana Remizov, who had never before traveled beyond St. Petersburg.
The flowery steppes and black earth of Tiumen had been followed by the dismal city of Omsk, on a sandy plain populated as much by huge mosquitos as by people. Then had come the flooded Barabinskaya Steppe. In spite of the swarms of insects, the steppe was like a wonderland to Mariana. Lakes and swamps bubbled up from the earth in an eerie fashion. Water surrounded farms, and sometimes even whole villages looked like floating islands. Amazed, Mariana had gazed for hours out the dusty train window at the scenes.
Abruptly the steppe had given way to woodlands, then the taiga. This vast primeval forest, which appeared as if it had never seen the blade of an axe, made Mariana realize just how small the Russia she had always known was, and how much more there was to her beloved Motherland. She had passed through the virgin forest as if in a dream, its swampy mists enveloping her with darkness and cold. She wondered if the sun ever penetrated the thick canopy of foliage.
Several breakdowns on the way, causing hours of delays, had provided Mariana ample opportunity to view the countryside. The trip across Siberia should only take fifteen days, but she had already been en route for more than two weeks, and she was still less than two-thirds of the way to her destination.
The train was approaching Irkutsk—“the pearl of Siberia,” as it was called. No doubt Mariana would only catch a quick glimpse of the “pearl” as the train made another quick stop at the station and then resumed its course. There was so much to see, and so little time. It would take a dozen lifetimes to experience everything Russia had to offer.
Even with all the changes of scenery and the interminable drone of the train beneath her, Mariana could still hardly believe she was more than three thousand miles from home. But she had made her decision, and there was no turning back. Not that she wanted to turn back. This was one of the greatest adventures of her life, almost as life-changing as the day she had left her adopted parents’ peasant izba in Katyk for the big city of St. Petersburg.
Mariana could hardly believe the direction her life had taken. She had grown up in Katyk as the peasant daughter of Anna and Sergei Christinin. Life in the village was simple and satisfying, and Mariana could not have imagined anything else.
Mariana had always known that Anna and Sergei were not her real parents, but her aunt and uncle. They had t