Chapter 9: Eight

Once the trio alighted from the Orient Express, the crowd of locals on the train platform burst into joyous applause and cheers. The cold mountain breeze that bit Rasputina’s cheeks brought with it the faint scent of wild lavender and thyme. 

“Your Highness and distinguished guests, je suis ravi de vous connaître!” The Viscount of Canterbury—an ostentatious, overweight, balding man with a droopy moustache—put on a brilliant smile as he stepped forward to greet them. 

“Bonjour, Lord Canterbury,” Rasputina started, but the viscount ignored her as he turned to Anastasia.

“Your Highness, I sincerely hope that you find your short repose here is to your liking.” 

She blinked in confusion. “M-merci…” 

He boldly extended his right hand to her, with his palm facing up. “I-if I may be permitted to just kiss your hand—”

“U-um, er…?” 

Before Anastasia could accept his invitation, Rasputina grabbed his hand and shook it firmly without hesitation. “We’re thankful for your kindness, Viscount, but Her Highness has other plans to attend to at the moment. Please excuse us.” 

“Hein?!” 

Anastasia tilted her head to the side. “Rasputina, what kind of plans?” 

“Doesn’t matter,” she huffed and pulled her away from the creepy fat man towards Nightingale, who was already waiting along the road outside the station. “Miss Nightingale, where do you recommend we stop by first?” 

“Hmm…why don’t we take a walk up the river and visit the cathedral, Your Grace?” Nightingale suggested merrily. 

They both had no objections to her suggestion. A few minutes later, Nightingale had led them down to the flowing river, walking ahead along the edge while humming a tune softly. The gravel path they were on was mostly deserted—almost everyone had gone to the station to watch the arrival of the famous Orient Express—save for a group of children standing in the river shallows. Two boys, with shirts untucked and their trousers rolled up to their knees, held miniature fishing nets in their hands, splashing water and mud all around them as they tried and failed to catch the small fish. Meanwhile, a girl stood from a distance so that she wouldn’t get caught up in the splashes, giggling at their antics while shouting for them to stay near the bank. 

Rasputina watched them for a moment before turning her head slightly to glance at Anastasia. 

Her gaze was trained on the children as well. But Rasputina noticed a distant, almost dreamy look in her languid eyes, something which told her that Anastasia wasn’t focusing on the children themselves. 

“What is it?” she asked quietly. 

Anastasia broke out of her musings and shook her head. Whatever it was that bothered her, she wasn’t ready to share it with anyone else so easily. 

Rasputina fell silent for a second before gazing back at the children. “Before I ascended to the position of Saintess, I was once a normal kid living in a far-flung countryside village. There was a river…well, it was really just a stream flowing into a creek at the foot of the village, but everything in the world seems much more vast when you’re young. I loved to fish there almost every afternoon, to cast my toy net into the water and see just how many fishes I could catch with my own two hands. Honestly, I think the entire population of fish might have gone extinct because of me.” 

“Oh?” She stifled a giggle, the tension on her face easing away. 

She took the opportunity to ask, “what about you? Do you like fishing too?” 

“I…” Anastasia paused, searching for words. “I have never really fished before, so I can’t say if I like it or not.” She pointedly shifted her gaze to the opposite side of the path, away from the river. 

“Anastasia,” she started, nudging her gently with her elbow. “Why don’t we join them?” 

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The cold river water splashed onto Rasputina’s ankles as Anastasia swiftly scooped up another fish with her net. “Got you!” 

“Nice catch!” One of the boys, who introduced himself as Felix, clapped his hands in delight. “Look, you got the rare fish!” 

The other children also gathered around Anastasia excitedly, peeking and marvelling at the beautiful rainbow-scaled fish in her net. Since Rasputina did not reveal their true identities to the children, in their eyes Anastasia was just another traveller from “that huge smoke machine”. 

“You’re very good at this,” Nightingale remarked, holding a tin can out so that Anastasia could keep the fish inside. “Are you sure you have never fished before?” 

Rasputina nodded her head in agreement. “The children are looking at you with envy, you know. They think you’re their master now.” 

“Really, I’m telling the truth!” Anastasia laughed, her cheeks flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and joy. “The closest thing I did to fishing was goldfish scooping back home, and I’m seriously terrible at that game.” 

“Goldfish scooping?” Nightingale asked, amused. “That sounds interesting, what is it about?” 

“Oh, right, you wouldn’t have heard of it,” Anastasia said. “So this—”

Rasputina shot her a cautious glance, which she thankfully caught on. “This, uh, game is something I came up with in the…palace, yes. You use a…spoon made of paper and try to scoop up as many goldfish from a pond as you can before the paper breaks apart.”  

Nightingale slowly nodded her head. “I see, a competitive fishing game…” 

“Children!” A woman approaching from the gravel path shouted, causing everyone to snap their heads in her direction. “Come back, it’s almost lunch!” 

Without further ado, the three children ran out of the river with their fishing nets towards her. “Sister, Sister, what’s for lunch?” 

Rasputina noticed that she was wearing a white silver-trimmed habit—the religious outfit of the Church. “Excuse me, might you be a nun from the cathedral?” 

Surprised, the woman turned her attention to them. “Who may you be…huh?” 

“Saintess Rasputina of Kievsta,” she replied, dipping into a polite curtsy. Nightingale introduced herself in a similar fashion too, followed by Anastasia—to which the nun’s eyes bulged so big Rasputina was worried they were going to pop out of their sockets. 

“Good Lord, I-I am Sister Cyrillne, a nun from the Canterbury Cathedral.” The nun hurriedly dropped a deep curtsy back. “Please forgive my trespassing, Your Highness!”

“No, uhm, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Anastasia said, giving her an awkward reassuring smile. 

“We are here on an impromptu walking tour, Sister,” Rasputina continued, stepping forward. “And we were just wondering if you would grant us a visit to the town cathedral?” 

“A visit?” Sister Cyrillne quickly nodded her head and motioned for them to follow after her. “Certainly, we’d be very much honoured to have you with us.”

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