I know this chapter is a bit shorter than the rest, but it was a good stopping point. Otherwise this chapter probably would have been about 10 pages long, and that felt excessive.
Dmitry found an excuse to walk by the Ipatiev House several times each day. It took a while, but eventually he was able to more or less figure out the family's schedule. At 11 in the morning they were allowed out in the yard, and then again for an hour from 3 to 4 in the afternoon. Every few days four young women were allowed inside the compound, presumably to clean. Each time they came two days in a row, and they stayed in from morning to dusk. And each morning, as Sir Thomas said, two nuns would deliver fresh milk and eggs to the family.
During the hours the family was allowed outside he could always hear Anastasia talking loudly, seemingly trying to engage her sisters in a game. One morning, when it seemed like the guards weren't watching, he pressed his eye to a knothole in the fence and managed to catch a glimpse of the four grand duchesses marching around the yard. Maria seemed to be the most enthusiastic, but both Olga and Tatiana trailed behind the little pair.
Suddenly Olga turned and started hard at the fence. Dmitry blinked in surprise, but continued to watch as she shook her head and muttered something to Tatiana. He straightened, retrieved a scrap of paper from his pocket, and quickly scribbled 'I pray for your welfare and release each night D.T.' on it. Making sure the guards weren't watching, he rolled the paper up, stuffed it into the knothole, and quickly walked away.
Later that afternoon, when he walked by again, there was another crumpled ball of paper sticking out of the knothole. He could feel his heartbeat in his throat as he retrieved it, and he didn't dare open it until he was a few blocks away. His fingers shook as he tried to uncrumple the paper.
'Many thanks, and prayers to you as well,' it read in Maria's handwriting.
Dmitry breathed out a sigh, relief and longing washing over him. While he was glad that he had some way to communicate with the Romanovs, he wished with all his heart that he had not been separated from them. It killed him, not knowing how Alexei was doing or being able to talk with the sisters. They had all been his only friends since he was a child, and he felt like he didn't know how to function without their companionship.
He stowed the scrap of paper safely in his pocket and continued walking. He circled the Ipatiev House twice, listening to Anastasia's voice rallying her sisters into a race until the guards ordered them back inside the house. Then, he turned and headed straight for the consulate.
"Good afternoon," the woman at the desk greeted him with a small nod and a smile.
"Good afternoon," he replied in his thickly accented English. "Is Sir Thomas here?" The woman nodded. She stood and disappeared down the hallway. When she returned Sir Thomas was with her, beckoning him down to his office once more. Dmitry followed quickly, fingering the note in his pocket.
"What can I do for you today?" Sir Thomas asked in Russian. Dmitry gave him a thankful smile, then placed the note on Sir Thomas' desk. The older man picked it up and examined it as if it were a precious stone and not a scrap of paper.
"I have a line of communication open with the family," Dmitry announced. "That was written by Grand Duchess Maria."
"How do you know it's from her?" Sir Thomas asked incredulously. "And how did you get this?"
"There's a knothole in the fence," he said. "I peeked through when the guards weren't watching and left them a note. When I went back, this was in the knothole."
"And how do you know it's Maria's handwriting?"
Dmitry hesitated. "I spent a lot of the time in the palace, once upon a time," he answered. "I could recognize any of the family's handwriting on sight." Sir Thomas continued to stare at him hard for a few seconds before nodding and returning the note.
"You must be careful not to use the knothole too often," he said. "If the guard notice you or the grand duchesses going over there too many times they may seal it off. Or worse."
"I understand," Dmitry said. "I don't want to risk being cut off from them entirely."
"Good."
"Have you heard from any of your merchant friends?" Dmitry asked hopefully. But Sir Thomas shook his head.
"Nothing promising, not yet," he said. "Give it time. It will take a lot of planning."
Day after day Dmitry continued to walk past the Ipatiev House. His heart leapt every time he heard one of the grand duchesses' voices, but he grew concerned after a couple of days when he had yet to hear Alexei in the yard. He asked about the boy in one of the notes he left for them. The reply was written by Anastasia, telling him that Alexei was still confined to his wheelchair and staying close to Alexandra.
As weeks passed, Dmitry continued to pass notes through the fence to the sisters. They took turned writing replies, but no matter who wrote they always thanked him for his loyalty. Every so often one of them would urge him to leave Yekaterinburg, and once Tatiana even told him he should flee the country. He imagined, though, that they must know he wouldn't listen to them.
He also continued to drop by the British consulate every week or so, hoping that Sir Thomas would have something new to report. He was able to set up a few meetings with merchants, but nothing promising had emerged yet. All he learned was that leaving by land would be risky, and leaving by river wouldn't be much better. Many of the waterways were blockaded, with only a few heavily guarded ones open to allow trade. Dmitry was quickly becoming more and more hopeless when Sir Thomas finally had something new to say.
"There is one thing you should know," he said during one of their usual check ins. Dmitry perked up immediately.
"What?" he asked. His thoughts began to run wild, and he had to dig his fingernails into his palms to keep himself from speculating further.
"One of my staff knows a young woman who is a cleaner at the Ipatiev House," he said.
"What?" he repeated. It was not at all what he was expecting, but it was certainly different from the past few weeks.
"Her name is Irina, she was recruited by the local Soviet," Sir Thomas continued. "I thought it was worth noting."
"But if she was recruited-"
"I'm told she has no sympathy toward the Bolsheviks," he cut in quickly. "She merely does the job for the money. She may be of value to you, though."
The idea of her was definitely of value, Dmitry thought. By now this Irina must know they layout of the house. If It came down to storming the house and removing the Romanovs by force, it would be better to know where he was going. And he had discussed the safest ways out of the country with one of the merchants just the previous week.
"Where can I find her?" he asked urgently. Sir Thomas gave him a disproving look.
"I think it's best if my contact introduces you," he said seriously, "but I don't want you rushing into anything. It's better to take the time to think things through. I don't know what plan you have going, but I assure you that there have been plans to rescue the family before that have ultimately failed because they were rushed."
"There were?" Dmitry asked. "When?" Sir Thomas pursed his lips.
"There were two that I know of when the family was in Tobolsk," he said. "One fell through when Nicholas and Alexandra were moved here."
"There were people trying to rescue them from Tobolsk?" Dmitry asked. His knees suddenly felt weak and he lowered himself into one of the chairs in front of Sir Thomas' desk. In his mind he started running through all the months they had spent in Tobolsk, searching for something that stood out to him.
There had been nothing, no sign or signal, that indicated there had been a rescue plot in place. He supposed that was a good thing; whatever the plan had been, it had been secure enough that it hadn't made it onto the Bolsheviks' radar.
"Are you alright?" Sir Thomas asked.
"Yeah, I think so," Dmitry breathed. "I'm just trying to think." He closed his eyes and thought even harder, practically willing a memory to come. Sir Thomas sat down as well and patiently waited for him to continue.
"They kept cutting down the amount of time we were allowed to go outside," he finally said. "Could it have been because of the rescue plan?"
"Possibly," Sir Thomas said. "So you were with the family in Tobolsk. I had wondered."
"What gave me away?" he asked.
"Part of it was how concerned you were for the family. And part of it was a comment you made once, about spending a lot of time in the palace," Sir Thomas said. "Not many people were allowed to do that, and those that did were either killed or arrested, with very few exceptions."
Dmitry nodded. "I've been serving Alexei since we were both little boys," he said. "I care for the whole family very deeply."
"Well then, we better come up with a foolproof plan to rescue them," Sir Thomas said. "I'll put you in touch with Irina."