Chapter 7
The Deed
Lisa limped to the couch and put her legs up on a stool.
“This takes the pressure off my hip,” she explained.
I tried not to stare.
Lisa had a beautiful face, and now I noticed how lovely her body was.
How graceful the curve of her neck was. How long her legs were.
Despite the strange haircut, she was very attractive, as I’d mentioned earlier.
If she’d grown her hair out and had a long braid down to her lower back, like the girls in my village, I was certain she would be the most beautiful girl in Zorya.
I was falling for Lisa.
The realization struck me, and I’d almost forgotten about my quest for the Firebird.
“So, what I was saying, Ivan, you see,” Lisa said, and I nodded, trying to figure out what part of the conversation I’d just missed, “and you, Harry, this is important.” She turned to the pony.
“Fine,” Harry neighed and pouted. He stood in the corner, not a sign of embarrassment on his face. You would have thought he’d be more remorseful, having just injured Lisa, but no. The treacherous horse pretended as if nothing had happened.
“So, Ivan, you see, this place, this job at Fernwood, where I currently work, was supposed to be a temporary solution. I used to own a lovely retreat center near Charlottesville, in the mountains.”
“What’s a retreat center?” I asked. I didn’t even bother asking where Charlottesville was, assuming Lisa would tell me what I needed to know.
“A retreat center is a place where busy people go to relax. My center was called the Seven Birches, and it was located not far from Washington, DC, where a lot of stressed-out people live. In that area, a lot is going on, people get very busy and tired, and they used to come to my retreat center to do yoga and meditation.”
“But why are you here?” I opened my eyes wide. “What happened to the Seven Birches?”
“I’m just about to get to that.” A rueful smile crossed Lisa’s face. “You see, I bought the Seven Birches together with my husband.”
“Your husband?”
My heart started beating so hard, it felt like it was about to jump out of my chest. I looked up and noticed Harry blinking fast. I assumed the pony was also shocked by what Lisa was telling us.
It was too good to be true, of course—a beautiful woman like that couldn’t be single.
I pictured a large, frightening-looking man next to her, and my mood soured.
“He’s my ex-husband,” Lisa clarified.
“What’s an ex-husband?”
“Oh, boy.” Lisa shook her head. “I keep forgetting to explain certain things. An ex-husband is when a person is not your husband anymore. Like, we used to be married, but we aren’t any longer.”
“You mean he’s dead?” I leaned in, paying attention to every word Lisa was telling me. Maybe someone had killed her husband and she wanted me to avenge his death? If that’s the case, I better tell her now that I can’t help her. I wasn’t a violent man, and I was about to refuse, but Lisa continued.
“No, he’s still alive. Quinn. That’s his name.”
“Wait, he’s still alive, but you aren’t married anymore?”
“No. I suppose in fairy tales you don’t have divorces. But here in Virginia, well, in America, actually, people can get divorced. It’s the thing you do if your marriage doesn’t work out.”
“I see. In Zorya, marriage is forever,” I noted, trying to sound casual.
“I figured as much.” Lisa swallowed hard. “Not here, but that’s not a bad thing. But anyway, so I was married, but I was very unhappy, and my husband didn’t treat me well. So after ten years of marriage, we got divorced.”
“I see.” I nodded in understanding. “In my village, some women aren’t happy because their husbands drink a lot.
Is that what he did? Was your ex-husband a drinker?
” I thought of our village drunkard, Yegor, and his long-suffering wife, Fekla, with her dour-looking face.
What if Fekla could get a divorce? Would she be happier?
“No, it wasn’t the drinking. He just wasn’t a very good man. I don’t want to get into it, but divorcing him was the best decision of my life. Except I lost the Seven Birches center because it.”
“How did that happen? Did he bring his new bride there?”
“No, there was no new bride.” Lisa shook her head. “Though maybe there was, and I just didn’t realize.” She stared into the distance.
Women were strange creatures, they really were.
“When we negotiated the divorce agreement, my ex-husband was supposed to sign the deed over to me. But then, the paperwork hadn’t been properly filed with the local authorities.”
“The tsar?”
“Not really the tsar—we don’t have any tsars around here—but something like that.”
Lisa looked at me, her expression concerned, as if she wasn’t sure I could understand what she was saying.
With my nickname, I picked up on that look right away.
I immediately remembered the treacherous horse, and how he’d betrayed me by sharing my awful nickname with Lisa, and couldn’t help but frown.
Harry, who’d been standing silently, averted his eyes, as if sensing my disdain.
“I know you might think something’s wrong with me, but I hope you can ignore my nickname. I’m just asking a lot of questions because I’m trying to understand the full story,” I told Lisa.
“Oh, yes, yes. It’s just that—” she examined my face, wide-eyed, like she was seeing me for the first time, “I’m a little concerned you’ll back out of our deal.”
“Why would I do that? I gave you my word.”
“I guess, well, I’ve just learned not to trust men so much.” The look on her face was downright defeated. I felt so sorry for poor Lisa.
“Please continue. You said the tsar didn’t get the right papers?”
“Yes, something like the tsar. Quinn didn’t turn in the signed deed, so the property remained with him, and I can’t access it.
He hasn’t been maintaining it, and it’s in a state of disrepair, you see.
” She wiped a tear that rolled down her cheek.
“It’s a really pretty place, and I haven’t been able to go there in almost four years.
That’s how long it’s been since my divorce. ”
“That’s a really long time,” I said. “But not to worry, I will help you. Do you know where I can find Quinn? Your ex-husband?”
“Yes, he lives at a place called the Seminole Mill. He runs a bed-and-breakfast there.”
“A bed-and-breakfast? Is that like an inn?”
“Exactly, it’s an inn.” Lisa nodded.
“So what you want me to do is go there and retrieve the deed from your ex-husband? Just that one piece of paper?”
“Yes, Ivan, what I want you and Harry to do is get a piece of paper and bring it back to me.” As she was saying it, Lisa stressed Harry’s name, and I remembered with displeasure the promise to cooperate with the deceitful pony.
Finding a piece of paper at an inn didn’t sound like the hardest task. Something in her story didn’t quite add up, though. Why did she tell me I was the only person in the world who could help her? Was there something else to it? And why would I need to engage the help of the treacherous horse?
I glanced at the pony, and the animal held my gaze. It was as if he could read my mind.