Gone by Nightfall by Dee Garretson

Author:Dee Garretson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Chapter Thirteen

I GRABBED A piece of bread and ate it as I went upstairs to change my clothes.

When I came back down, Osip wasn’t at the door, but he appeared as I was opening it to leave.

“Wait, Lottie! You shouldn’t go out now,” he said, hurrying toward me. “It’s not safe. Vladislav says there is going to be a general strike and everyone will be out on the streets.”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure it won’t be any worse than yesterday,” I said as I pulled on my gloves.

He moved so that he was in front of the door, as if he wasn’t going to let me out. “It could be much worse. The workers at one of the munitions factories are already on strike, and there is a rumor that the government is mounting machine guns on rooftops to fire on any crowds.”

The words machine guns gave me pause. That had to be mere rumor. “I don’t believe they’d do that,” I said. “The people just want to get out and protest. I have to go out. I won’t be gone for long, and I’ll avoid the crowds. You remember what I told you about the baron? We’re in real danger from him. I need to do something to make us safer.” I didn’t want to tell Osip about our plans. If the baron came to the house, it would be better for Osip not to know what was going on. “If the baron or anyone else comes who wants to know where Miles is, say he isn’t home.”

Osip nodded and sighed, then moved away from the door.

No one was out on our block, but that wasn’t so unusual. The air was frigid even for Petrograd, the type of cold that Miles had labeled dagger breath because it hurt so much to breathe in.

When I got to the end of the block and turned the corner, a gust of wind stirred up the snow and blew it into my face. I blinked and brushed it off my eyelashes so I could see. I blinked a few more times until I could understand what I was seeing, or rather what I wasn’t seeing. This street was empty too, and that was unusual. I felt a little prickle on the back of my neck that wasn’t due to the cold. There was a tram, but it wasn’t moving, and the windows were covered with snow. As I got closer, I saw that some of the windows had been smashed.

The prickling spread down my back. Snow was drifting across the sidewalks. Petrograd normally had so many street cleaners; they were out every day clearing off enough of the new snow to get around, and packing down the lower layers enough for the sleighs to operate. From the depth of the snow in front of me, no one had cleared them for many hours.

The city seemed abandoned. I shivered, feeling the cold cutting into me. A voice in my head told me to turn around and go home, back to the warmth, where it was safe.

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