Apart from a couple of wrong turns and having to backtrack, she made it out to the forest without any problems. She had enjoyed the drive through the city and noted that a lot had changed since she was last there. Not really surprising after almost sixteen years, she told herself.
The forest was definitely changed, the trees had grown much taller, and the undergrowth even more lush and tangled. May had to double-check that it was the right place for a moment, but Pigs Meadow was immediately unmistakable as soon as she got there. It had not changed as much and was pretty much the same as she remembered.
And here she was then, standing in front of another empty grave.
Not much of a grave though she thought, more like a burn pit, a scrape in the ground.
This time though, her overwhelming feelings were of happiness and relief. Of closure, because the grave was finally found and Alexey and Maria were now free and reunited with their family.
The forest was quiet, there were no other sightseers, well at least none she could see or hear at this early hour. Her only company was the birds, and the two bunches of summer flowers she had brought with her.
She could not believe how close Alexey and Maria had been to the site of the other grave, she roughly calculated that it was just a matter of seven or eight hundred metres away, and was amazed to think that it had taken so long to find them.
No wonder Olga was getting antsy, she thought humorously. She also remembered back to what Katya had told her; that the information Yurovsky had made available after the disposal detailed the two burial sites exactly, and that officialdom had known all along where they were. There most definitely had to have been forces at work preventing the discovery of these remains, she thought.
'Such a damn shame. May whispered.
She felt rather than heard him come and stand behind her, and she didn't need to turn to know it was him.
She turned straight into his arms.
'Agni. But how did you know that I was here?'
'I didn't. I just knew that you would come. I have been waiting for you. When I woke up this morning, something told me that today was going to be the day, so I got here hours ago and waited for you. I saw you arrive and watched you.' He said quietly.
Being in his arms again felt like coming home, just as it did the first time he had held her, so many years ago now. He even smelt the same, like woodsmoke and pine, and she closed her eyes, breathing him in.
'I was going to come looking for you after I had visited here.' May explained. 'Either at your apartment or at the hospital. I just had to come here first.'
'I know.'
They stood quietly, holding each other tightly until May broke off.
'We've grown old, my love.' She smiled, reaching up to cup his whiskered cheek; salt and pepper now, as was his hair. But his eyes, the deep pools she had fallen in love with were the same, and she felt herself drowning in them again.
He laughed, and she was reminded of how much she had missed that sound. She saw how the laugh lines around his eyes and mouth had deepened. He has been happy, she thought, and was glad of it.
'And you are even more beautiful, my May,' he whispered. 'You have not changed a bit.'
They stood, arm in arm, looking down at the pathetic scrape in the ground.
'All this time and they've been right here, so close.' May said, shaking her head in bemusement.
'They had to stop looking back in the nineties,' Agni explained, 'when they ran out of money. They left an area about the size of a football field un-searched, and that is where they were. Right here, so close to the main road.'
'Thank God the amateur groups didn't stop,' she replied, otherwise they may never have been found. Do you know the group who found them?'
He laughed and led her over to a tree stump where they sat, arms still around each other, as though now that they were together again, neither one could let go.
'It's funny you ask that actually. It was my group, in fact, and I was here when it happened, with two very dear friends of mine, Sergei and Viktor.'
'That's amazing, Agni. I am so happy to know that you were here and part of it. How wonderful! Were they taken to your place of work?'
'Yes, to the hospital morgue. I went there straight from here to prepare for their arrival, and my team and worked around the clock to form a preliminary view.'
'What was it, Agni? I have not been able to find out very much at all. It's been so frustrating, which is partly why I had to come over; to see for myself.'
He raised his eyebrows at that and looked at her quizzically. 'Only partly?'
She blushed and punched his arm playfully, amazed at the fact that he could still make her blush at her age.
'It is them May. Even without any DNA results, I am absolutely certain.' He lifted her hand and kissed it. 'One of them is a boy, aged between ten and thirteen, and the other a young woman between eighteen and twenty-three. The other items found in the pit were totally consistent with what we found in 1991; bullets, teeth, and the remains of the jars that held acid.'
'The area where they were found looks more like a burn pit than a grave.' May remarked.
'You are right, and again, it is totally consistent with the report that Yurovsky left. He wrote that he had separated the two smallest bodies, which of course were Maria and Alexey, and that he had his men pour petrol over them and set them alight. He thought that he could burn them to ash, but was unable to so he had them crush what was left with spades and bury them where they lay. They weren't buried deeply, if anything, they just barely covered them with a fine layer of dirt and debris.'
'The remaining bones would have been in terrible condition.'
'Yes. Being so fragile, they had to be handled with the utmost care to avoid further damage, or worse, total destruction.'
May thought back to her conversation with Nikhil as he told her that numerous bones had been destroyed when being washed. She felt thankful yet again that Agni had been involved from the very start this time around.
'Are Maria and Alexey still there at the hospital morgue?'
'Yes. We will keep them there until the DNA results come back. Once their identity is confirmed as being members of the Romanov family, we will hand them over to the authorities to decide what happens next.'
'But surely they will be interred at St Peter and Paul with the others? 'she asked in surprise.
Agni shrugged. 'I would hope so, but who knows? The matter is still hugely sensitive, particularly with the church.'
'I wonder if it would be possible for me to see them while I am here, Agni? I know that it's probably against hospital protocol or something, but I could be a visiting forensic expert from England, which, to be fair, is exactly what I am. Plus, I was on the original team, so that would add legitimacy to my request, surely?'
'It's that important to you, my love?'
'Yes, hugely. I need to see for myself, then I will know for certain in my heart of hearts that it is Maria and Alexey. And I can say goodbye, just as I did with the others before I went back.'
'It won't be a problem at all May. I will make it happen.' He hugged her tightly.
They walked back to the pit and laid one of the bunches of flowers there for Alexey and Maria, then walked the short distance over to the original gravesite and placed the second bunch for Nicholas, Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Anastasia, Dr. Evgeny Botkin, Mr. Alexey Trupp, Anna Demidova and Mr. Ivan Kharitonov.
'It's so bare here,' May commented. 'I know that Ganina Yama is where they are commemorated, but I thought that there would be something more here?'
'No, this is pretty much as it is here, which is why I like to come. We could go to Ganina Yama if you would like? It's not far.'
May looked around the forest glade, the clearing where the family had been for so long.
'No, I don't think so, Agni, not now anyway, perhaps another time. This is where they are, isn't it?'
'Yes, that's what I think too.'
They walked
back to where her rental was parked, and it was then that she saw the other car, which must be Agni's, parked a bit further up the track, partly obscured by some overgrown bushes. It was, she was amused to see, still, a beat-up Citroen, albeit a newer model than the one he had owned in 1991.
'You were hiding from me, weren't you?' she teased.
'I didn't want you to see another car here and think that some stranger might be wandering around. You might have decided to go away and come back another time. If that was the case, I could have been waiting here for hours!'
'You were right. I would have hated it if I had found someone else bumbling about sightseeing or even worse, taking photos while I was trying to pay my respects.'
'When do you go back?' he asked as they leaned against her car.
She took a deep breath and held it for seconds before slowly exhaling. Here it was. May had been dreading yet yearning for this conversation, right from the very moment Agni had taken her in his arms. Be brave, Dawson.
'Actually, I don't. I haven't booked a return ticket, and all of my worldly possessions are in those two suitcases there.' May pointed to the back seat of the car. 'I was intending on staying for good this time. That is if you'll have me?'
'But your…..'
'As you know from our letters, my girls are grown and married. In fact, I'm a grandmother now, Agni! I never married again after Matt died, because after you, I never met anyone else I wanted to marry. I have no ties anymore. I even sold my house in London, so effectively, I am homeless. I also gave up my job. I thought that maybe if I end up staying here that I might write a book about all this.' She gave a short nervous laugh, afraid to look up at him, fearful of what she might see written on his face. 'You know it broke my heart to leave you and go back to England. I don't want to have to do that again,' she continued. 'I want to stay with you forever this time, Agni, if you are free too?
She held her breath again, this time in pure fear. She had not considered for a second that Agni might not be free. He hadn't indicated to her in his last letter that he had embarked on a new relationship, but that had been months ago, long before Maria and Alexey had been found. She was suddenly filled with a dark dread that he might turn her down.
'May, look at me.' Agni said. She could not tell from his voice what she might see and looked up into his deep brown eyes in trepidation.
He was looking down at her, those same eyes shining, his face wreathed in a wide smile.
'Free? Am I? Yes! Yes! I am May, and I want so very much to live the rest of my life with you, but only on one condition.'
'What is that?'
'That you will marry me.'
'Of course, I will absolutely!'
He enfolded her in his arms, lifting and swinging her off the ground in an arc as they both laughed with joy. May could not remember a time when she had been happier. Certainly not since the time that they had first come together in love at the hotel in Tobolsk.
She heard a sound, not unlike the whisper a summer breeze makes as it moves across a field of grain, and she opened her eyes and looked over Agni's shoulder, back towards the forest clearing, and saw, once again the flicker of figures in white, moving amongst the trees. Three girls, dressed in ankle-length white dresses with short sleeves, puffed to the elbow, plain apart from their different coloured sashes clinched at the waist; blue for Tatiana, pink for Anastasia and green for Maria, the matching ribbons trailing from their flower-adorned straw hats, walking arm in arm, smiling, their laughter tinkling like wind chimes on the still morning air.
And running in front of them, his long, sturdy legs striding across the short grass, a boy, dressed in a sailor suit, chasing after two small dogs, a white and chestnut spaniel at his heels.
May held her breath, waiting for her, and there she was, Olga, dressed all in white like her sisters were, her sash and matching ribbons as yellow as the petals of a sunflower, walking arm in arm with an officer, wearing the uniform of the Life Grenadiers Regiment, his dark head bent to hers, his mustachioed mouth lovingly smiling as he listened intently to something she was saying.
May exhaled, and as she did, Olga looked up, and their eyes met, blue on green, to a sound like electricity crackling through the ages, their connection forged in love, both of them knowing that it would be one that would forever be unbroken.
From the first moment I saw you, I knew we were connected somehow and that you had chosen me, for whatever reason to tell your story. I hope I have been able to do it justice, and that my work has contributed to the world knowing and understanding who you were; Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Romanov.
And I thank dear one, for letting me share this small but hugely significant part of your life.
'Look.' May whispered, and as Agni turned around, they were gone, back to that place where they would be forever together, young, healthy and beautiful, to where pain and terror could never touch them again, and where all they knew was love.
Agni turned back to May and wiped the tears from her cheeks with his fingertips.
'Welcome home, May Blanter,' he whispered against her mouth, 'my very own girl with the crystal soul.’
The Girl With the Crystal Soul Page 23