Dynasty of Revenge

CHAPTER ONE

RUSSIA 1894 – THE OLD COUNTRY


Rumours of unrest had already started in the northern districts. Whispered warnings that trouble of the worse kind was festering had drifted southwards and fear was beginning to paralyse the inhabitants of the sleepy villages along the Russian Polish border.

Sadie had piled her unruly mass of bright red hair on top of her head. It was tenuously held there with the silver combs left to her by her mother who had died back in the previous summer. The heat of the late August sun was gently warming the back of her naked neck, making her feel soporific. She opened the front of her blue cotton bodice and lay down on the sweet-smelling grass to watch the butterflies frolic amongst the wildflowers that grew there in abundance. Sadie loved Foylenskoff’s fields on the hill at the edge of the little village of Druskin. It was where she came to sort out her thoughts and feelings and to gather wild herbs for the cooking pot.

At the sound of horse’s hooves on the main road behind the hedgerow, she awoke with a gentle start. Sitting up quickly, she listened with curious intensity until they had passed. It was not usual for riders to come to Druskin at that time of day. As the sound of the horses faded into the distance, she put that thought, and an odd feeling of disquiet, out of her mind and sighed with pure pleasure as she surveyed the idyllic scene stretched out below.

The friendly little village, where she was born some seventeen summers before, seemed to shimmer contentedly against the rays of the sun. Through the trees she could see the neat farmhouse where Max lived with his parents. ‘My Maxie, one day soon,’ she thought contentedly.

Just thinking of Max made her feel happy and safe. She knew it was only a matter of time before everyone would accept their religious difference. Sadie was the only daughter of the village blacksmith, Gad Sonarov, who was a Gentile. Max, the beloved only son of farmer, Aaron Foylenskoff and his wife Alena, was a Jew.

A sudden sharp cool breeze cut across the field making Sadie shiver. It brought with it a familiar uneasy feeling that, for the second time that day, she didn’t quite understand. Instinctively she undid her hair. It tumbled around her slim shoulders like a golden shawl making her look almost beautiful, for Sadie would be the first to agree that the thick spectacles she had to wear for her myopia, obliterated the pretty shape of her deep blue eyes.

‘I’d better hurry home. Papa will worry. I do wish he wouldn’t worry about me so much,’ she whispered, gathering up the herbs and pickings and laying them carefully in her trug, as she savoured the sweet aroma of the wild mountain thyme. A young farm worker gave her a cheery wave as she hurried down the lane past Foylenskoff’s farmyard.
‘Shalom, Sadie!’ he shouted as he tossed forkfuls of hay from his cart around the yard, sending the geese and chickens shrieking and squawking with angry feathers flying in all directions. ‘Shalom, Eszra!’ Sadie called back with a laugh. You must have the grumpiest fowl in Druskin!’
‘In Druskin…in all of Russia, I shouldn’t wonder!’ he yelled in return.

Loving thoughts of her Maxie returned as Sadie rounded the corner into the main street and headed for the whitewashed dwelling house attached to her father’s forge.
Max was coming to supper that night and had been acting very suspiciously about something he had to say. Consumed with curiosity, Sadie had tried every wile and ruse she knew to wheedle the purpose of his visit out of him, but to no avail. That was part of what she loved about Max. He was strong and determined and would not be swayed from his decided course of action, yet he could be as gentle as a lamb and tolerant beyond belief when it came to her worries and concerns. ‘I hope it’s what I think it is, and not that he wants to buy a stupid horse or something!’ she thought and bit her lip anxiously.

‘Hello Papa!’ Sadie called as she approached the open forge doors.
‘Hello Sadie!’ Gad shouted back. ‘Come and give your old Papa a hug!’
‘You haven’t forgotten tonight, have you?’ Sadie asked, appearing at the forge door. She had to shout over the roar of the fire and the bellows.
Gad managed to hide a smile. ‘What’s happening tonight?’ he queried mischievously.
‘Oh Papa! You can’t have forgotten already! Max is coming for supper. He has something to discuss with you…us? Papa do you know what it is?’
‘No child. We’ll have to wait for that, I’m afraid…although his father was trying to convey something to me through such a complicated code of winks and nods that he left me seriously worried about the state of his health and, indeed, eyesight.’
Gad turned his back to Sadie so that she couldn’t see his merriment, then quickly changed the subject.
‘Will you be cooking something special?’ he asked
‘Of course,’ she replied. ‘I will cook Mama’s special recipe for stroganoff, with wild thyme and garlic rice. You always loved that, Papa, remember?’

Gad sighed and turned back to her. ‘Ah yes. I remember everything your dear Mama used to cook…but she taught you well my little one and your stroganoff is just as delicious. You are a credit to her.’

Sadie hugged him, and then smiling sadly at the thought of her dear Mama, left the forge. She walked slowly up the little path at the side to the front door and lifted the black wrought-iron latch that opened it. Once inside the spotless room, that served as the living quarters for herself and her father, she selected a small bunch of flowers from her trug and arranged them in front of a miniature of a woman who looked very much like herself. Leaning against the table in the middle of the room for support, she allowed herself to shed a quiet tear for her dead mother. Then, not being the sort of young woman to easily fall apart or indulge herself too much, she quickly dried her eyes and took her trug through to the pantry to set about preparing the evening meal.

When Gad came back to the house several hours later his tired eyes met with a most welcoming sight. The fire, on which the cooking and baking was done, burned brightly. Two black pots and a kettle hung from hooks on the bar across it and a stack of shiny golden loaves were being kept warm on top of a brick oven built to one side. The aromas were intense and mouth-watering. Sadie had set the table for three. On a sideboard were jugs of home brewed ale. A large bottle of vodka was also in evidence with three small glasses in attendance. This was Sadie’s insurance that something worth celebrating would happen.

Gad sniffed the air appreciatively and called out to Sadie, ‘I’m home, child…I’m home, Sadie!’

Sadie emerged from a room to the left of the front door. She was neatly dressed in a green silk frock with a high collar trimmed with lace. Neat pin tucks down the front of the bodice accentuated her trim waist and outlined her slim shapely figure. Her wild unruly hair was partly tamed by her precious silver combs and a little more attention to detail meant that only the cheekiest of tendrils had sprung out around her face and escaped at the nape of her neck.
Gad smiled at her neat wholesome appearance. ‘You look marvellous, my child,’ he said.
‘And you look tired, Papa…you’ve worked very late tonight,’ she remarked.
Ignoring her remark, Gad looked at her seriously for a moment. ‘Curious thing,’ he ruminated, ‘as I was locking up, two Cossacks; from Chutska, they said they were, rode up to the forge. Cocky young men was my assessment. They said that one of their horses had lost a shoe, but it looked to me as if it had recently been prised off. They asked a lot of questions about our inhabitants… how many Jews lived in Druskin…and so forth…’
Sadie felt the same cold chill she had felt in the fields earlier in the day, but still couldn’t account for it. ‘What did you tell them, Papa?’ she queried.
‘Nothing. I told them I didn’t know exactly. They looked as if they thought I might be Jewish. I didn’t like their attitude, so I gave them no information…and another curious thing,’ he continued, ‘I watched them as they walked down the village. They seemed to be jotting down the names on the fascia boards over the shops. Oh well! Just another tax to be levied, I suppose.
‘Sadie studied her father’s anxious face. ‘I expect that’s all it is.’ She continued,. ‘What else could it be?’
‘What else indeed?’ Gad replied, shaking his head.
Sadie clapped her hands to dispel the worried moment.
‘I’ll go to meet Max and walk with him back from the shop,’ she declared. ‘There’s hot water in the kettle and I’ve set out towels for both of you in the pantry.’
‘I’ll wash now and be ready when he comes,’ h replied, smiling to himself as he took the kettle off the hook over the fireplace.

Sadie left the house and tripped happily down the street towards Ethan Snopeck’s tailor shop. Max had just finished his apprenticeship there and Ethan had kept him on as an employee. Although there appeared to be a subdued atmosphere abroad, mostly people collecting water from the communal well in the centre of the village, everyone she encountered smiled and stared after her as though the happiness she exuded was tangible and infectious.

Sadie cupped her hands against the glass window and peeped through into the shop. There she saw Max who was sitting on the floor, head bent, putting the finishing touches on a coat in a fine brown wool, completely unaware he was being observed. She watched his long, elegant fingers work artistically on the buttonholes, certainly not the fingers of the farmer his father wanted him to be. She loved the way his dark curls, prematurely flecked with grey, spilled over his fine brow and the way he put his head speculatively to one side as he critically observed his handiwork.

Suddenly becoming aware of her presence, Max looked up slowly, his handsome face splitting in half in a smile of pure joy at the sight she presented. With surprising agility for one so large, he jumped to his feet and crossed the shop to meet her, enfolding her in a huge hug of welcome.
‘Leibchen! You look beautiful. ‘
Sadie gave a little giggle. ‘You look beautiful too, my Maxie!’ she said. ‘Come, its past closing time, and I’ve made a special stroganoff for you. Ethan doesn’t pay you so much you should work extra time for nothing!’
Max smiled down at her ‘I’ll tidy up, my bossy little Leibchen , and we’ll be off. Is your father at home?’
‘Oh yes! He’s at home alright. He’s already washed and waiting for our return…are you sure you won’t tell me what this is all about?’ Max looked momentarily apprehensive. ‘Yes, I’m sure. I must talk to him first… alone, Sadie!’ he warned, then hugged her again.

It was all settled that night, with Gad’s blessing. Max Foylenskoff could start the courting of Sadie Sonarov with a view to marriage when she turned eighteen the following year. Gad, not being a religious man, had no soul searching to contend with when it came to giving the hand of his daughter in wedlock to an unimpeachable young man like Max.

Max, on the other hand had had a difficult time convincing his parents, particularly his mother, that Sadie was the only girl for him. After his explosive announcement, Alena had produced Jewish girl after Jewish girl for his consideration, in the vain hope that he would reconsider his choice.

‘What about that Sylvie…whatever was her last name? You used to like her!
‘Oh yes? You were so impressed with her yourself you don’t even remember her last name, Mama. And you want me to marry her? Max stood firm.

Alena pursued her point. ‘Who will light the candles for the Shabat when you are married?’ she would call after him at the most inappropriate moments, sometimes even in the street. ‘Who will bake the cholla…say the blessings?’ On and on she would rant and rave. ‘She has nothing in common with our culture, Maxie, we don’t understand her kind…’

Many visits were made to Rabbi Benjamin for advice. Many prayers were offered up. Max would not be moved. Eventually Alena stopped cooking and cleaning and suddenly took to her bed with a mysterious illness, promising that she would die rather than see a shiksa in her kitchen. When nobody seemed to take much notice of her incapacity and Aaron pointed out that she was in great danger of losing her only son completely if she carried on like that, she affected a miraculously speedy recovery.

Max had won the day and his beloved Sadie. There was nothing left to do but for the families to start getting together to try to get to know each other and close the gap. Gad and Sadie were invited to join in with the Foylenskoffs and their Jewish friends for the celebratory part of Rosh Hashanah and amongst other traditions, happily ate apples dipped in honey in the hope that this would bring a sweet New Year.
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