Summary

In Chapter 9, Varinka prepares for her first day working for the countess in 1916. Varinka’s mother had fortold that she would one day have a child. Varinka thinks, “such thoughts were childish. I would never leave our izba. I’d be stuck here in the woods forever … [Taras] would never put a child in my belly, of course. That was the most important part of the arrangement” (100). Varinka’s father had “fixed [her] up a perfect world” above the oven with a straw mattress atop it to keep an eye on her mother below (100). Beside her bed are pinned up pictures of the tsar’s four daughters, “Olga, the eldest, who loved to read, then Tatiana, who they called ‘The Governess’. Maria, the sweet one. Anastasia, the clown. And the dark-haired boy, Alexei, their brother and the heir” (101).

Taras startles her as he...