The Gambler and the Queen of Clubs

By Olga Kryuchkova

Imperial Russia. Second half of the 19th century. The Beauty Varvara Zinovieva is engaged in theft. She meets Gleb Panfilov, who helps the girl get a job as a maid in the house of the merchant Khlebnikov. The merchant is almost never at home and spends time with his kept woman. The merchant's wife dies. Varvara, taking advantage of the situation, steals the jewelry box and leaves Khlebnikov's house.
Gleb Panfilov makes a new letter of recommendation to Varvara, she gets a job as a maid in the rich house of the publisher Sazonov. Vladimir, the son of the owner, sexually harasses her. The girl refuses him.
Sazonov Sr.'s expensive watch is lost. Varvara is accused of stealing. She goes to prison. Vladimir Sazonov appears at the police station as a noble savior. Varvara is released. Vladimir invites the girl to become his kept woman, she agrees.
Sazonov Sr. deprives his son of inheritance. Vladimir is fond of the card game and becomes a first-class. Varvara actively helps her lover. By the will of fate, the fraudsters are introduced to the Viscount of La Charité.
Vladimir and his girlfriend visit the famous Salon of Mrs. Skobeleva. La Charité introduces gamblers to Prince Rokotov and Maria Schaeffer.
La Charité offers Vladimir Sazonov a joint business. Vladimir Sazonov accepts the Viscount's offer. The newly-made friends decide to go abroad to Poland, where they intend to organize a major scam and organize the Trans European Society. In Poland, La Charité spreads a rumor that Napoleon Bonaparte's granddaughter lives in his house. And thanks to this, the Viscount and Maria Schaeffer are gaining extraordinary popularity. And this popularity Viscount intends to use for personal gain.
To be continued.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Olga Kryuchkova
• Release date: Mar 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215608616

Olga Kryuchkova

Olga Kryuchkova began her creative career in 2006. During this time, the author had more than 100 publications and reprints (historical novels, historical adventures, esotericism, art therapy, fantasy). A number of novels were co-written with Elena Kryuchkova.

Book preview

Olga Kryuchkova

Swindlers Book Series

Book 2

The Gambler and the Queen of Clubs

Cover Design: Cover Generated by AI (Stable Diffusion, NightCafe)

Chapter 1

Imperial Russia, 19th century. Moscow.

Around the Sukharev Tower, bargaining was in full swing: Moscow thieves were selling stolen things. Almost thirty years have passed since the governor-general Rostopchin allowed dubious people to sell goods obtained during the war of 1812. Since then, the market has traded twice a week. Here you could find anything you like: and lordly women's dresses stolen by cunning maids; and cutlery and shoes, of very dubious quality; silver jewelry, bedding and just what the thieves managed to remove from a drunk passerby.

Often decent people came here in the hope of finding their stolen things, but mountains of stolen goods rose here, and the unfortunate man was simply lost in them. Buyers of stolen goods, profiting from the grief of widows and children, brought full carts of various belongings, including even furniture, and sold them cheaply, as they said in local jargon, ‘on occasion’. So on the occasion here you could buy boots, soles, which fell off immediately after the first rain. Who will the simple buyer go to for the truth?

Little Varvara (aka Varya) often stopped by here with her mother, who served as a dishwasher in one of the local taverns ‘At Bakasov's’ and managed to grab a watch or a wallet from visitors, if she was lucky. Often she provided services of a certain nature to tipsy visitors. And everything that could be removed from a simpleton fell into the hands of a nimble wench.

Having rescued a couple of rubles for the stolen things for Sukharevka, Varvara's mother was in no hurry to spend money on food and clothes for her daughter. She acted easier: she took her child to Okhotny Ryad.

Little Varya loved the hustle and bustle of Okhotny Ryad: on one side it was built up with old houses that miraculously survived the fire of 1812, on the other side there were one-story buildings under one roof, along which shops stretched all the way to Tverskaya Street.

In front of the shops, in the square, along the wide sidewalk, merchants crowded with baskets and sacks filled with all kinds of food. Varya sniffed at the air: the smell of pies with bird's liver woke up her appetite even more, her stomach rumbled. Mother, however, was in no hurry, she was looking for a stall with food, around which two or three buyers must certainly stand: it would be easier to distract the seller and Varvara, as usual, would have stolen a few pies or rolls.

Finally, the mother approached the intended ‘victim’, two women with baskets were standing near the tent. One woman had a goose in her basket, another woman had a frightened rabbit in her basket. A pastry maker walked by, followed by a pancake seller. He carried a small tray with his delicious-smelling wares. But Varya already knew from experience: you can't steal from such people. Stealing in a tent on the sly is easier.

The girl's mother went to the baker, breathed in the smell of fresh bread, and began to bargain with enviable acting skills. At this time, Varya, while her mother was talking and distracting the baker (and the women with the baskets looked at her condemningly) stole two muffins and stuffed them into herself bosom. Moving a little further away, the young thief-girl calmly waited for her mother until she finally do not deprive him of patience and the baker will finally banish annoying shopper away. So Varvara got breakfast: fresh buns were a luxury for her.

Mother and daughter walked on, deeper into the meat rows; from the warehouse cellars, located right next to the shops, it reeked of rotten stuff. Varya grimaced, she hated this smell associated with death. Finally, the kvass stalls appeared. Varvara looked expressively at her mother, who, understanding her daughter's desire, bought her a pear drink, and bought herself a jug of kvass (kvass is (especially in Russia) a fermented drink, low in alcohol, made from rye flour or bread with malt). The girl took out buns from her bosom, they were still warm, and handed one of them to her mother.

These days, when Varya visited Sukharevka, and then Okhotny Ryad were a holiday for the girl. After all, tomorrow you will have to eat what a drunken mother will bring from the tavern. And the mother most often forgot about her hungry daughter.

***

Varya grew up and turned into a beauty. From constant malnutrition, she was surprisingly slender and white-skinned, which riveted annoying male looks to her. The girl did not want