The Four Winds of Heaven Read Online Free Page A

protrude forlornly.
    The water carrier started to laugh. “Anna Davidovna! You must not even whisper such things. You, a baroness, with my job! Why, you will meet a handsome man, a count perhaps, and he shall give you a beautiful house like your Mama’s. I have never heard such nonsense before.”
    Anna rose with dignity. “Laughs best who laughs last,” she said. “But I shall bet you a kopek that I shall never marry, except maybe a man like you. But he would have to be more courageous, and not afraid of my Papa. And anyway, dear Eusebe, who would marry me, with my ugly face?”
    Eusebe wrung his hands together. “0h, my dear Anna Davidovna! To me you are a little flower, a wild one, but a sweet-smelling one, too. Do not say such dreadful things about yourself!”
    â€œI speak only the truth. But I do not care if I am pretty or not. Pretty girls have debuts, and must go visiting with their mothers. I shall have more fun!” With that, Anna tossed her head defiantly, and ran out of the pantry, nearly knocking Sonia down in the process. Her small sister had been standing on the threshold, her tiny hands clenched together, her oval face alive with misery at her sister’s words. Now she meekly took Anna’s arm and walked with her into the courtyard. Her blue-gray eyes were filled with tears.
    Sonia’s mind was so crammed with conflicting emotions—pain for Anna because of her face, anger with her for not wanting to be like Mama, shock that Anna had expressed desire to hold Eusebe’s job and perhaps marry a servant, when surely a man such as Papa fit the image of Prince Charming far more closely, that she did not object when her sister announced that they would hide behind the water barrel where it tilted in the cart. When Eusebe set off for the sugar factories, he would never know that two small passengers were coming along.
    Sonia could see that Anna was determined. Briefly she thought of the time her sister had made a tent of the dining room curtains, and how Mama had withdrawn dessert privileges from her for two weeks. But then, grasping Anna’s strong, sun-browned hand, she climbed into the cart and huddled beside her in the shadow of the large barrel. If only Ossip were able to come… She thought of her brother, who had become ill around the time of her own birth, and who, when he had finally emerged from his crib at age six, had begun to discover the world, step by step, almost at her own pace. Sonia and Ossip had been drawn together by circumstance. They were very close friends.
    An unsuspecting Eusebe arrived shortly afterward. The ride was jostling for the girls, and they giggled in silence. But the view, as Anna had predicted, was magnificent—vast stretches of fresh-scented wheat fields as far as the eye could see, until the cart turned off through the forest, so emerald-dense the sun could hardly penetrate the leafy treetops. Wild birds called to one another, warbles and shrieks that awed Sonia. Soon they saw the Bug, the small river that crossed the Gunzburg property line. Finally, after numerous patches of sugar beets had dazzled the girls, Eusebe pulled up next to a low building, the first factory.
    â€œHe is going in to bring the workers out with pails and troughs,” Anna whispered. “Quick! Let us climb down and explore. No one will see us. No one knows we’re anywhere near here!” She hopped off the water wagon and lifted her sister down after her.
    The two girls ran to the far side of the factory. Sonia had never been so bold in her entire life, but so great was her fear of being found by Eusebe and punished by her parents that she did not consider the new twist their escapade was taking. Anna, accustomed to punishment, had grown immune to it—for her, only the moment counted, and right now she wanted to see what lay beyond the bright green bushes a small distance from the factory. She took Sonia’s hand and started