Slowly Chang turned his head and fixed his gaze on the dark green eyes. Again the boy’s laughter crossed the courtyard but this time neither of them heard it.
‘You understand me?’
‘What Lydia and I decide to do is none of your business,’ Chang said coldly.
‘She’s my sister, damn it, that makes it my business.’ Anger flared and Chang knew it had been there all along, lying in wait. ‘You took Lydia over the wall. For God’s sake, why did you take her with you to search for Jens in the hangar? You almost killed my sister. How can I ever trust you? Do you expect me just to forget and forgive such a-’
‘No.’ Chang felt the pain twist deep in his gut, sharper than a heated knife. ‘No, I don’t. No more than I can forgive myself.’
‘Well?’ Elena asked, resting her arms on top of her bosom. Her eyes had shrunk to wary points.
‘You know what I’m going to say.’
‘How could I possibly know what goes on in that crazy head of yours?’
Lydia smiled. Everything hurt and she badly wanted to sleep, but she had to say this. ‘First I want to thank you, Elena.’
‘For what?’
‘For taking the bullet out of me.’
The woman shrugged. ‘I’ve had plenty of practice.’
‘Thanks anyway.’ She hesitated.
‘What else?’
Lydia took a shallow breath. ‘I want to know why you betrayed me.’
‘What?’
‘Both times that Alexei and I went into the forest the soldiers knew we were coming. They sent in stalkers to track us and would have caught us if Chang hadn’t been watching our backs. The second time there was an extra car to guard the truck convoy.’
Elena sat very still. ‘You are mistaken, comrade.’
‘The only people who knew what we were doing were the vory and Chang, Popkov and myself. And you.’
‘Any one of those thieves would sell you to the secret police as soon as slit his grandmother’s throat.’
‘No, you’re wrong. They do as Maksim tells them and he is besotted with my brother, so would let them do nothing to harm him. The others I’d trust with my life.’ She leaned forward. ‘So that leaves you.’
‘No.’
‘Don’t lie to me, Elena.’ The gaps between her words grew longer. ‘We both know it was you.’
‘If I said yes,’ Elena muttered, ‘what difference would it make?’
‘It might to Liev.’
Elena gave her a long, hard look. ‘Haven’t you hurt him enough? Leave him in peace now.’
‘Is that why you did it? To rid him of me?’
Elena sighed. ‘Girl, when I first met you I thought you and I could be friends, but in the end I saw clearly that you weren’t good for Liev. How can he have his own life when he is always living yours?’
‘I didn’t ask him to.’
‘No, you didn’t have to. It’s in his blood, bred to belong to someone like in the old Russian serf system. Like his father before him. As devoted to you as Misty is to Edik, and if you needed him to perform tricks for you, he wouldn’t think twice before doing them.’ She exhaled slowly, but there was a sorrowful note in her voice when she said, ‘I had to get rid of you, Lydia. For Liev’s sake.’
Lydia swallowed the bile that had risen to her mouth. ‘You could have just asked me to go,’ she said quietly.
‘He’d never have let you.’
Lydia nodded. Guilt, smooth and slippery, oiled her throat.
‘So you betrayed me to protect your Cossack. Does he know?’
Colour rose to Elena’s plump cheeks and she gripped both hands together on top of her head, flattening her shapeless hair. ‘No,’ she muttered. ‘Are you going to tell him?’
‘No.’
The woman nodded, shrugged her heavy shoulders and walked over to the window where she stood looking out. In a thick voice she added, ‘What you did for your father was wonderful.’
Lydia let her face drop into her hands. ‘He still died. I could-n’t save him.’
‘Maybe. But he knew what you did for him.’
‘I couldn’t save my mother either,’ she whispered through her fingers.
‘I know. You aren’t any better than I am at keeping your loved ones safe.’ She added, ‘Come over here.’
Lydia eased herself carefully off the thin mattress and joined Elena at the window. She was surprised to find it was snowing outside, not heavily, just a feathery dusting of flakes that drifted through the air and made the world look gentle. They stood in silence, side by side, watching the men in the courtyard below. Chang and Alexei were standing stiffly together, talking quietly, and she wondered what they were discussing. The fire? The weather? The latest church to be blown up on Stalin’s orders? Maybe her? They had their backs to the window so she couldn’t see their faces, but her eyes lingered on the firm line of Chang’s shoulders and on the tension in his long limbs. A young woman from one of the apartments was breaking ice from the courtyard water pump and stopped for a moment, a smile on her face, to watch the antics of Misty.
Popkov had tied a length of string around the dog’s neck and was teaching her to walk at Edik’s heel. Lydia hadn’t realised before how good he was with dogs, but neither had she realised how tired he looked. She felt a rush of tenderness for the big man who had brought her father so close to freedom, only to have him snatched away at the final moment. Oh Liev, my friend, I’m sorry if I asked too much. Even from here I can see it has taken something out of you.
A slow sigh escaped from the woman at her side, misting the glass and blurring the picture of the boy and his dog.
‘He’s asked me to go to live in the Ukraine with him.’
Lydia ’s eyes darted to Elena’s face. ‘The Ukraine?’
‘Somewhere near Kiev. It’s where he grew up as a boy.’
‘Was Liev ever a boy?’
Elena smiled for a fleeting moment. ‘It’s hard to imagine.’
‘Are you going?’
Elena watched Popkov, the way he leaned over the tiny puppy and spoke gently to it. ‘He’s worried about you.’
‘He needn’t be.’
‘I know.’
‘Do you love him?’
‘Hah! By the time you reach my age and have known more men than hot dinners, love is no longer what you think it is, Lydia.’
‘But do you love him?’ Lydia persisted.
There was a pause and Lydia wiped the window with her hand. The Ukraine. Oh Liev, half a world away.
‘Yes,’ Elena admitted at last. ‘I suppose I love the dumb oaf.’
They both smiled.
‘Then go to the Ukraine. I won’t breathe a word about…’ She let it trail off.
‘And you? Where will you go?’
The question tightened Lydia ’s throat so sharply she started coughing, tasting smoke in her mouth.
‘You’ll tear your stitches. Get back to bed.’
Elena helped her stumble back to the mattress but Lydia grasped the fleshy arm that supported her and wouldn’t let it go. She pulled the woman close. ‘Elena,’ she said fiercely, ‘if you hurt him I’ll come and I’ll find you, and I’ll rip your heart out.’
Their eyes held, the tawny ones fixed on the pale ones, and Elena nodded. She didn’t smile this time.
‘You have my permission to do so,’ she said.
Lydia released her grip but saw something in the woman’s expression, some anxiety that made her ask, ‘What is it, Elena?’
There was no response. Lydia ’s pulse thumped. The broad face was shuttered now.
‘Tell me, Elena.’
‘Oh fuck, why am I telling you this? You’ve got to get out of here, girl. Sick or not.’
‘Why?’
‘Because they’re coming for you today.’
‘Who?’
But she didn’t need to ask. Already she was throwing off the quilt, swinging her legs to the floor, mind and pulse racing.
‘Who?’ Elena echoed. ‘Those bastards from OGPU, of course. The secret police.’