~Heatwave~

The heat was almost unbearable.  Lara fanned herself, trying to get a sort of breeze across her face to move the stagnant air.  It had never been 80 degrees in June before, at least not in the Vointsky Estate of Russia.  The summer of 1900 would be remembered for it's heat, if nothing else.

Her dress didn't help to cool her.  The shirtwaist style was all the rage, and the rows of material and lace that made the tall round collar was stifling and didn't allow any wind against her neck.  Her long sleeves ended precisely at the bottom of the wrist, banning any draft from entering.  Her corset was the final touch of overbearing heat, keeping her pinched and tucked until she was sure she'd burst.

"What's wrong?" Vladimir shut the newspaper, it's crunching sound interrupting the silence around the estate.

"I'm just hot." Lara pulled her loose auburn curls out of her face.

"It is quite hot, isn't it?  It hasn't been this kind of heatwave since Great-Grandfather built the estate, you know."

"So Father's told me at least ten times today.  Really Vlad, don't start repeating him," she teased.  "You might turn into Father, and you'd look absolutely horrible bald, not to mention fat!"

Vlad laughed, a jolly boisterous laugh that always made everything wrong seem suddenly right.  Lara often took comfort in Vlad and his happiness.  It made the long days of the same scenery seem interesting, or at least a little bit unusual.  And ever since Kosma had...

"Who could that be?"  Vlad was leaning forward in his chair, peering at the carriage coming towards the house.  Lara raced down a few of the steps to see closer.  It was like a troika, only not quite as grand, and perhaps a little dustier.  By the time it reached the manor, it had stirred up a small sandstorm of grit and grime.

Lara used the opportunity to pretend she was far, far away from Russia, to a place with large sandy dunes and horrid heat like -- Egypt!  Yes, with the pyramids and the fabulous tombs and --

"So you have no idea where he is?"

Vlad and the man had been talking for a few minutes while she was lost in her dreamworld.

"I haven't seen any man that fits that description," Vlad said.  "But maybe you shouldn't be looking for him in the first place.  You aren't even law enforcement --"

"Do you realize the kind of money you could get from capturing a stranger like that?"

"What kind of stranger?"  Lara leaned against the post of the house, and got a look from Vlad to stand up nicer.  She sighed melodramatically but did so.

"A foreign Jew!  He tried to get some work at the loading docks in the last town.  The employer has to look at their internal passports first, and this boy's clearly said 'Jewish'.  Of course he didn't get the job, but he got so angry that he yelled out something in that Yiddish language.  He might have been threatening the man!  Not only that, he looked suspicious!  You could make a mint off of that!  They all come here to rob the estates, anyway."

"So you're a bounty hunter?"  Lara crossed her arms, this time purposely ignoring Vlad's looks to act like a lady.  "But what if he's just passing through?  Aren't you being a little presumptuous?"

"If you see him, just tell me."  He handed a sheet of paper to Vlad.  "I'll give you 2% of the reward."

Once he was off, Vlad studied the note for a moment, then tore it in half and threw it into the dust.  "Whoever the poor boy is, I feel sorry for him, with crazy people hunting him like an animal!  We really do take our freedom for granted, Lara.  Here we are, in our early 20s -- okay, technically I'm in my mid-twenties and you're nineteen, but it's all the same -- and we get much, much more freedom than many others.  Every night we should thank the Lord above by saying an extra prayer to him and --"

Lara jumped on the railing of the porch and walked across it like a tightrope, once again ignoring one of Vlad's spiels.

"Lara come down!"  There was no ordering in Vlad's tone, as his daredevil sister often made him laugh with her crazy antics.  She did a little jump and spun around.

"The Great Larenny prepares to do her most spectacular trick to date!"

"The Great Larenny?  Lara!"

"Watch this!  I was practicing all last week!"  She bent down to make a cartwheel on the fine white washed wood, scuffing her beautiful high button boots just a little around the edge.

"Do you mind giving me--"

Lara was completely in the air when the unfamiliar voice came out of nowhere.  Her foot slipped on the dress, and she tumbled over the side of the porch and into the stranger's strong arms.

The man looked down at Lara, surprised by the unusual circumstances and the woman he was now holding.

"I was going to say directions, but you can give her to me too if you like."

Vlad was down the stairs in a second, worried about the protection of his baby sister.  Lara had already been helped down and was running UP the stairs to get back to Vlad.  They collided in the middle and both fell flat on their bottoms.

The man smirked, a tiny half smile that made his dark features seem a little less mysterious, and a little more warm.  He helped both of them to their feet.

Vlad quickly pushed Lara as subtlety behind him as possible.  "Anyway, sir, you were asking?"

"I need directions to Moscow.  The shortest possible way."

Lara's fair face popped out from behind Vlad's massive muscular form, desperately trying to see the stranger.  "Why the shortest?"

Vlad rolled his eyes and guided her back gently.  "It'll take you at least half a month if you're going to walk there.  There's very few towns in between here and there."

"Half a month?  But I don't have half a month!  I have until Wednesday."

"You couldn't even find a carriage that could take you to Moscow in that short of time." Vlad's gentle heart went out to this man -- who he had quickly understood must be the one wanted by the Bounty Hunter.  "Do you have any money?"

The man looked down a little.  "Maybe around a ruble, give or take a few kopecks.  Do you have any work I could do?"

Vlad sized the stranger up.  He was in his early twenties, tall, a firm muscular build, with dark hair and deep intense eyes.  The man looked at Vlad with a mixture of need and pride -- it took a lot for the boy to ask for a job to raise money.

"The shed roof is leaking.  Do you have any experience in roofing?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then you may do that.  I'll get the tools for you."

Soon the man was hammering away, the siblings watching closely.

Vlad pulled Lara to the side.  "Watch him for me while I meet with the accountant.  And DON'T get too close!"

"I promise, Vlad," Lara said sweetly, her most innocent smile in place.

Vlad raised an eyebrow.  "I mean it!  No more of your crazy antics!  This could be your life!"

"Fine, fine."

Vlad walked inside, and Lara wasted no time in climbing up the ladder to sit beside the man.  What Vlad didn't know wouldn't hurt him, she rationalized.

"My name is Lara."  She sat down on the edge of the shed.  "What's yours?"

He shook his head in disgust.  "I'm kind of busy here, if you haven't noticed."

"Too busy to tell me your name?"

The man looked up, his dark hair covering some of his eyes, his cheeks already turning red from the hot June sun.  He hesitated before answering.

"My name is Mikhail."

"Mikhail what?"

"Does it matter?  Here, look at it this way: in England they called me Michael Moses."

"ENGLAND?  You went to ENGLAND?"  Lara started to crawl forward excitedly.  "Tell me everything, absolutely everything!"

"I'm working!"  Mikhail grabbed the edge of the roof.  "You're shaking it!  Stop!"

Lara flounced with a pout.  "Gee, you're a lot of fun!"  She took an apple from the limb above her and shined it with her skirt.  "You know about the Bounty Hunter, don't you?"

Mikhail rolled his eyes.  "This isn't exactly the best place to have a conversation."

Lara smirked. "I think it's perfectly fine, especially when it involves your life!"

"Fine.  Yes, I knew about the Bounty Hunter. Happy?  He's been trailing me for miles.  At least until I gave him the slip at a pass back there."

"The slip?  This is just like an adventure novel!  Tell me about the slip, pleaseeee!"

Mikhail sat up, wiping the small beads of perspiration that had gathered around his forehead.  "Are you serious?"

Lara blushed, knowing her own naiveté was coming forward.  "Of course not," she said as indifferently as she could muster (because she DID so want to hear about the slip!).  She took a bite of apple casually.  "I just wanted to see what you'd say."

Mikhail started to retort when he saw the apple.  He hadn't eaten in at least a day and a half, and the fruit looked more than appealing.

"Want one?"  Lara motioned to the tree above her.

"I...you mean, I can have one?"

"Of course you can."  She tossed him one of the plumper apples, red and shiny and brimming with sweet juice.  "I'd rather you have them then the worms.  Or worse, Mother.  She makes the most awful apple butter I've ever tasted in my life.  Then again, it's the only kind I've tasted, so maybe if I --"

"Do you always talk this much?" Mikhail interrupted.  He took a large bite  of the apple.  "Or are you just naturally oblivious to what other people want?"

"I knew you wanted that apple, didn't I?"

"A fluke!"

"Say what you like, but I know that you wanted that apple."

Mikhail rolled his eyes.  "Wow, you're not only a chatterbox, but you're stubborn too."

"And a dreamer, naive, animated, melodramatic, and what's that word Mother calls me again?  Oh yes, extemporaneous, whatever that's supposed to mean."

Mikhail smiled a little and took another bite of apple.  "So you've got a full house of quirks."

"I'm more outlandish then a deck of cards, as Father says."

"You're the Wild Card, I can already tell."

"Well, what about you?"  Lara swept a strand of auburn hair out of her eyes.  "What are your traits?"

"Lets see...I've been called cynical, sarcastic, and wry.  Is that enough?"

Lara laughed. "I don't think you're any of that.  You may act that way, but I think you're much kinder then you let on."

Mikhail gave her a look of disbelief.  "You just met me.  You don't even know my last name, or where I come from, or what I do, or anything."

Lara grinned.  "Watch!" She placed her fingertips on her temples.  "The Great Larenny sees everything!"

"The Great Larenny?"

She saw Mikhail's mouth purse, an obvious sign of trying to hold in a laugh.

"Hummmm...Hummmmmm...The Great Larenny sees...that you're from...St. Petersburg!"

"Wrong."

Lara blinked.  "Oops, wrong message.  You're from...Rybinsk!"

"Wrong again, oh Magical One."  Mikhail was openly smiling now, a nice grin that brightened his handsome face.

"Tula?  Tomsk?  Chita?  Nizhniy Novgorod?"

"Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong!"

Lara sighed.  "Okay, then you're from...Moscow?"

"Right!" Mikhail laughed, a young energetic sound to it that defied his dark, serious eyes.  Lara smiled.

"Well, the Great Larenny did it again!"

"What, guessing where I'm from after six tries?"

"No, no -- I made you laugh."  Lara swung her legs over the side of the roof and climbed down the ladder.  Mikhail leaned his head over to look at her.

"The whole thing was to make me LAUGH?"

Lara shaded her eyes from the sun. "Mmhmm.  And you, Mr. Serious, fell for it!"

Mikhail crossed his arms.  "I did not!  I was just...I was...well I was..."

"Of course," Lara grinned.  "I think you've done enough work.  The shed is completely patched up.  I have your money here."

Mikhail climbed to the ground.  Lara placed the rubles in his palm, and they shook on it.  She couldn't help but notice that he had a very firm handshake, and even stronger hands.

"Thanks."  Mikhail tucked them into his luggage pocket.  "Off I go to Moscow."

"Why are you going to Moscow?"

Mikhail straightened his rough shirt. "Personal reasons."

"If those personal reasons lead you back here..." Lara paused.  "Don't forget to stop in and say hello.  Mikhail -- Moisse."

Mikhail's eyes widened.  "How did you...?"

Lara laughed and pointed to his luggage tag.  "The Great Larenny predicts magic again!"

Mikhail chuckled.  "The Great Larenny is something completely different from the usual Russian Noble, isn't she?"

"You might say that.  Do you have a place to spend the night?  There's not another town near here for a good few miles.  You'd never reach it by nightfall."

"I can handle it.  I sleep outside a lot."  He hoisted his carry bag farther up his shoulder.  "Thanks again."  He turned to walk off, but Lara quickly grabbed his arm.

"It's dangerous from here to the next town.  There's robbers and criminals...we're in the middle of the White Nights..."

"I told you, I can handle it."

Lara's blue eyes looked into his dark ones.  "You're welcome to stay here.  I can find you a place --"

"Look, Great Larenny, I'm used to this.  I've done it most of my life."  Mikhail pulled away. "It was nice to meet you."

"But..."

Lara watched Mikhail walk off and around the bend in the road.  It was better he left, she told herself.  He was a wanted stranger, someone that she shouldn't associate with.

Why did she feel a small tug at the corner of her heart then?

She looked upwards to the sky.  It was the middle of June, the month of White Nights.  It would stay light in all of Russia until anywhere from ten o'clock to one in the morning.  Mikhail would arrive at the next town just after the sky turned an oily dark.  He would never be able to avoid the band of thieves that lived just outside of the village, waiting for unsuspecting travelers.

She knew it then.  She would see him again.  And it might not be a pleasant meeting.

© 1999 - 2000 AnyaMuse@aol.com
© 1999 - 2000 AnyaCI@aol.com