He hesitated before replying. “I had a growing sense that the old system must change, and I did not want to work for the aristocracy anymore. At the factory we held meetings and talked about owning the plant collectively, each man having a stake . . . It seemed fairer to me than one man taking all the profit of our labors simply because of the family he had been born into.”

“I suppose there was a lot of anger stirred up,” she mused. “Perhaps that explains why they directed it at my family.”

Peter shook his head. “I never blamed the Tsar personally. It was the system that was at fault.”

“And yet”—she shuddered—“those guards who formed the execution squad hated us. I could see it in their eyes.”

“Those men were animals,” he said forcefully. “They were brought in specially from the Verkh-Isetsk metallurgy works, where they had been handpicked for their brutality. At least one was a convicted murderer. None of us regular guards could have done what they did. I was asleep in the house across the road and awoke on hearing the gunfire.”

“What will happen to them now?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I hope that when Lenin learns of it, they will be arrested and imprisoned as common murderers.”

Maria wished it would be so. She couldn’t bear to live in a world where men like that could walk down the street as respected citizens. Whenever she thought about returning to civilization to resume the search for Tatiana, she imagined bumping into one of those killers and froze in terror. She would rather spend the rest of her life in the mountains, far from anyone else. At least there, with Peter, she felt safe.

* * *

One afternoon, as Maria lay resting beneath a fir tree, Peter returned to the clearing dragging a small deer by the hind legs. Its throat had been cut and blood smeared the undergrowth behind him as he walked. He jumped in front of the creature when he saw Maria watching and apologized.

“I’m sorry. I hope the sight is not distressing for you.”

Tears pricked her eyes at his sensitivity. “Not at all,” she said, blinking. “I was merely thinking how delicious that deer will be for dinner tonight, and how talented you are to have caught it.”

“It is an elk calf. See the spots on its coat? It would have lost these by the end of the summer. This one is around three months old, I reckon. I wouldn’t normally kill creatures so young, but with only a small knife I couldn’t risk going for the mother, who looked as if she weighed four hundred pounds. Luckily I managed to scare her off.”