“Yes, we were,” Alecia said. “I never had more fun in the shops than I did with you.”
Movement caught the corner of her eye. She looked up and saw Ivan gesturing to her. She set the other half piece of shortbread back on Sybil’s plate, then patted her on the shoulder and walked away.
* * *
“Did you talk to Mr. Eyre?” Alecia asked as she joined him just outside the Coffee Room’s majestic two-story entrance.
Ivan could scarcely keep himself from reaching for Alecia and swinging her around. She would be so proud of him. “Yes, I have my position again.”
“I’m so happy for you.” She touched his sleeve demurely, but he saw her face brighten.
Now, on to the less-than-good news. “Thank you, but it isn’t all good news. Your sister probably has not been here, but we need to check with Olga. She’s on the seventh floor, so let’s speak with her.”
“What about Ovolensky?” she asked in a low voice.
He’d thought about that. “He won’t be here. He’ll be in meetings. I doubt they’d have maids cleaning otherwise.”
“Then we should go.”
Her smile looked forced as they went to the service lift. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m so happy you have your position back, but I didn’t retrieve mine.”
“You never thought you would. I wouldn’t allow it, not under the circumstances.” He opened the gate so she could enter, then closed it behind himself.
“I know it’s unsafe, it’s just that . . .” She worried her lower lip, then licked it. He noticed they were chapped from the winter weather. Still, the unconsciously sensual gesture made him harden.
He smiled at her, then backed her up against the wall of the lift.
“What?”
He bent his head and nuzzled her ear. “I can’t wait until we have some privacy again.”
“When is that going to happen? We won’t even be in the same city.”
He deflated a bit. “We are together now.”
She lifted her eyebrows as the lift jerked to a stop. “We don’t have any privacy.”
“I could take you back to Boris’s flat.”
“I have to find my sister.”
Her mouth pinched. He knew he had to stop teasing and focus. “Very well.” He opened the gate and stepped out, glad he still wore his old overcoat.
Olga was in Miss Page’s bedroom. The centerpiece of the room was a jade and gold fireplace. Thick rugs covered the carpet and a large bed heaped with blankets dominated the space. Ivan gestured to Alecia, then closed the door behind him.
“What is it?” Olga asked in Russian, running a duster over ornate vases lining the mantelpiece. Her cap was slightly askew on her thick, shiny hair.
“If I might ask a question?” Alecia asked.
Olga gestured impatiently, then emptied an ashtray into her can.
“Have you met my sister, Sadie? Mr. Eyre offered her a position as a chambermaid here, but our grandfather hasn’t heard from her in over a week.”
“No. I have heard of no one by that name.”
“What do you think of the new night watchman?” Ivan asked.
Olga snorted. “Intelligentsia. No work ethic, that one. Always lurking around corners, leaning on the wall.”
“Did you know him before?”
“No. Why should I?”
“No reason. But, Olga.” Ivan paused. “Stay away from the command performance, will you?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“Ovolensky is a target,” he said. “I’d hate for you to be hurt.”
She snorted. “Ovolensky is a tool of the politburo. I have no trouble with him being shot.”
“The original plan was a bomb, not a gun,” Ivan said.
She swore in Russian, but the former princess had long since lost her gentility in the hard life she’d lived since. “Those fools.”
“One of those fools is my sister Vera.”
“That does not surprise me. I have heard of your sister Catherine.”
“Vera idolizes her memory.”
“Catherine did try to assassinate Lenin. I can sympathize.”
“I don’t know what her motives were,” Ivan said. “I was still at school.”
Olga pushed a stray ash-blond tendril out of one eye. “It is difficult for you. There is a pull between the struggle to free Russia and the struggle to keep your family intact.”
“There is no struggle,” Ivan said with complete assurance. “My family comes first.”
“Very well. My staff will not interfere.” She glanced at Alecia. “If your sister comes here, do you want me to turn her away in light of the danger?”
“No. Get word to Ivan. Tell her to wait in the Coffee Room if you think she’d be allowed in there.”
Olga nodded. “I wish you both luck. Sisters are difficult. I don’t know if my sister is even alive. She went to China and I’ve never heard what happened to her.”
“I am so sorry,” Alecia said.
“Sisters seem to be the bane of all of us,” Olga said. She made a shooing motion with her hands. “Now, go. I have a great deal of work to do.”
“Don’t trust Anatoly Smirnov,” Ivan said. “He’s part of the conspiracy.”
Olga nodded. “If Ovolensky is to be assassinated at the command performance, I will make sure all of my girls are far away.”
* * *
“Could you do this work?” Ivan asked Alecia as they turned away.
“I’m not too proud,” she assured him as they walked through the suite. “But Mr. Eyre said no when I asked. He thought I should take a secretarial position somewhere in the City.”
“We’d never see each other,” Ivan said. “With me working nights and you working days.”
She lifted her hands, palms up. “He said no.”
He turned back to nod at Olga, then opened the suite door, happy to be out in the corridor, away from the heavy smell of perfume and some odd kind of tobacco.
“Now what?” he asked, after Alecia had followed him out.
“I need to go to the hotel where Sadie was working and see what they know.”
“A wise idea. I’ll go with you.”
“I think you should attempt to see your sister,” Alecia said. “I’ll be fine looking for Sadie alone.”
“Meet me at Boris’s house at tea time,” he suggested.
“I should return to Bagshot.”
“You can take the late train. I’ll leave you there and continue on to work.”
She nodded. “I’m going to find work in London as soon as possible.”
“I do think an office is better than some kind of domestic work,” he said. “What if you wind up in a situation where we can’t ever see each other? If you hadn’t been living in the hotel, the Marvins would have never allowed you to see me.”
“I’ll find something.”
“I wish you could wait for me. When I’m stable again, we can marry. You won’t have to work.”
“That’s only if you aren’t supporting your sister.” She ran her hand along his arm. “I don’t want you to be fatalistic about her.”
His stomach ached. “She and her fiancé are so easily misled.”
“Hate clouds the mind. She needs spiritual guidance,” Alecia said. “She needs to let your parents go.”
He felt a wave of anger. “How? Have you let your parents go?”
“I’m not perfect,” she admitted.
He couldn’t let it go. “Would you befriend a German?” he demanded. “After they killed your parents?”
“It was wartime.”
No, she couldn’t do it, Ivan thought. And if she met the captain of the U-boat that sank the Lusitania, she’d probably want to shoot him too. “You befriend a German and then you can judge my sister.”
She stared at him a moment. “I need to find a train out to that hotel. It’s somewhere between here and Bagshot. The Richmond Inn.”
“Then it is most likely in
Richmond itself.”
“Precisely.”
They glared at each other. “The concierge will set you to rights.”
“An excellent idea.”
“Very well. We’ll return to the lobby and then go our separate ways for now.” He knew he sounded petulant.
“I can continue on to Bagshot after I go to Richmond. I’ll be halfway there already.”
“Don’t you want to return here?”
She shook her head. “There isn’t anywhere for me to stay, Ivan. We aren’t married yet.”
“I can’t bear not seeing you.”
She blinked hard. “Oh, Ivan. I’ll work very hard to find a position here. As soon as you have this Ovolensky business behind you, we can plan better. We’ll sort it out.”
“I can’t offer you a comfortable vicarage.”
“It’s just you I want. Only there are a few things to take care of first.”
He smiled. “My parents would have liked you. My mother said I needed a girl who could stand up to me.”
She kissed his cheek and went to the reception desk. He watched her as she moved. No expensive, perfectly cut clothes for her, but it didn’t matter. She was the most beautiful woman in the entire hotel.
* * *
Alecia stepped down from the train at Richmond. She’d been told the inn where her sister worked was just two blocks away. The station here looked its age and the entire area seemed run-down, though she’d thought generally that Richmond, which included a royal palace, was quite upscale. She supposed tourists didn’t care what the train station looked like.
She pulled up her coat lapel to hide her neck from the biting wind and walked north to the inn. While grateful to open the door and let herself in a few minutes later, she wasn’t pleased by what she saw. The inn was tiny compared to the Grand Russe. Never had she been so aware that the hotel she thought of as hers had been newly renovated. Here, some of the tiles making up the checkerboard floor were cracked. She didn’t think any amount of polish would make the battered reception desk shine.
“Can I help you, miss?” asked a tired, middle-aged man in a shapeless black suit, coming up to her.
“Who are you?”
“The hall porter, miss. Old Ben is what they call me. Did you need a room?”
“I was looking for my sister. Sadie Loudon?”
The porter ran his fingers over his salt-and-pepper mustache. “Ah, that Sadie.”
Alecia waited as Old Ben looked to be lost in reverie. Eventually, he lifted his eyebrows. “Gave no notice, did she. Just ran off.”
“Are you sure she ran off?”
He scratched his chin. “There was an incident.”
“What happened?”
“One of our regular guests brings her two poodles with her and they must have eaten something that made them sick. Quite a mess she had to clean up.”
“Sadie left after that?” Alecia suppressed a smile.
“Afraid so. Job wasn’t for her. Can’t blame her.” The man shuddered. “Vile business, but that’s the life of a maid.”
“When was this?”
“A week ago tomorrow. She had room and board here, so I haven’t a clue where’s she’s gone,” Old Ben said. “You have a grandfather, right?”
“Yes, but she didn’t check in like usual. She had another job offer but never appeared there either.”
“Dearie me. Did she have a boyfriend or someone like that?”
“Not that I know of.”
The porter waved his arm at the desk and a uniformed boy came over. “Can you bring Mrs. Curtis to me, please?”
“Yes, sir,” the boy said, and scampered off.
“She’s the housekeeper here. If anyone would know more it would be her. Do you think you’ll go to the police?”
“I’m going to have to,” Alecia said. “If I can’t learn anything more. My grandfather and I are her only family, and she’s not used to London.”
“Not a country girl, though.”
“No, but still. She wouldn’t have had much money.”
Old Ben sighed. “I hope she hasn’t done anything stupid. Pretty girl like that.”
* * *
A few hours later, Alecia set her utensils down and yawned. “Excuse me.”
“It’s been a long day for you,” her grandfather said, drinking the last of his wine. “You’ve been subdued tonight.”
“I can’t believe Sadie has vanished without a trace.”
“Someone will know where she’s gone. Those people at the inn will talk to all of the staff now. We’ll have news.”
She rubbed her eyes, trying to chase the exhaustion away. “What if she was hurt? I should check hospitals, talk to the police.”
Her grandfather wiped his mouth with his cloth napkin. “I will make all those calls in the morning. I’ll get a better response, and you need to focus on finding a new position.”
“Don’t you want me to stay here and be your secretary again?”
“If I asked you to do that, how would you see your fiancé? No, my dear, you need to work in London.”
She was surprised. “Do you like him?”
He gave her his full attention. “I do. He’s at a huge disadvantage, being Russian, but he seems clever enough, and ambitious. I know he’ll work hard for you.”
She patted his hand. “I think he’s a true family sort of person. He’s stayed close to his sister despite a great deal of provocation.”
Her grandfather nodded as he put his napkin on his plate. “I do agree. So sad about his parents. You have tragedy in common.”
“It’s not the only thing.” Alecia folded her napkin. “I do love him. We don’t need much. Just a little flat. I’m used to a single room now.”
“In luxurious circumstances,” he pointed out.
“Yes, but it was a valet’s room. Nothing fancy for me. I thought I wanted something else, the jazz-baby life, but with Ivan I have a taste of that, and the rest is pure comfort. I think I’m a simple enough girl for an immigrant husband, but he’s smart enough to know that at least one of us needs stable employment. These days, that can be hard to come by.”
Her grandfather listened quietly to her speech, then spoke. “Precisely. Any ideas?”
“Read the newspapers, of course.”
“What about people you met in London? The best positions usually come from people one knows. Even your work with the Marvins came because they spoke to an innkeeper’s wife here in Bagshot.”
“I can’t expect anything from the Marvins. The hotel manager didn’t want to hire me as a chambermaid. I never knew any of the employees very well, except Ivan.” She thought hard. An image of the elderly Mrs. Plash drifted into her head, holding ashtrays. “Mrs. Plash!” she exclaimed.
He folded his hands across his midsection. “Well connected?”
“No, I shouldn’t think so. She’s elderly and confused. She needs a minder. I could do that.”
“Does she have the money to hire you?”
“I don’t really know, but it’s worth asking about. I could write her daughter. I know where they are living.” She would write Peter Eyre too, knowing how much influence he had on the Plashes.
“Why don’t you write her tonight, so the letter goes out in the first post? I’m going to spend the evening making a list of places to telephone in the morning.”
“I’ll help you as soon as I’ve written the letter,” Alecia promised. “We’re going to have a busy day tomorrow.”
Her grandfather nodded. “If I’m completely honest, I don’t like either of you girls being alone in such a large place as London. If one of you is there, I’d rather have you both there.”
“I understand.”
He smiled. “Soon, though, you’ll have Ivan, too. That will help, having another man in the family. I’m so pleased for you.”
She felt her cheeks redden. “Thank you.”
* * *
“I’m surprised you would show your face here,” Vera said i
n Russian, opening the door to the flat at Ivan’s knock. Though he still had the keys, he didn’t think it wise to enter unannounced. Someone might knife him.
“You are still my sister.”
“What do you want? Did you leave something here?”
Her face looked jaundiced and too thin.
“Has Sergei been working?”
She waved her thin fingers. The rings she wore in Russia, long sold, would no longer fit. “We are busy with details.”
“Have you been eating?”
“I know how to prepare food.” She glanced away.
“That isn’t an answer to my question.”
“What does it matter to you? You aren’t working. You have no money.”
“I have my position back,” he said. “I start again tonight.”
She thought for a moment. “Isn’t Monday your day off?”
“I had the last two days off, having been sacked. I don’t know what my schedule will be now.”
She said something rude under her breath. “What about Anatoly?” “He is still employed.”
She snapped out her hand. “Come in.”
He stepped in and she shut the door. “What is wrong?”
“You don’t know who is listening. We’ve risked everything, becoming involved with the bomb maker.”
“Even your beliefs,” he said. “Why does a Bolshevik want to kill Ovolensky? At least you have revenge in mind.”
“Konstantin wants to kill the British government ministers who will be there,” she said, folding her thin arms around her midsection. “We’ve had to change. We . . .” She trailed off.
“Who are you now, Vera? You and Sergei? Don’t you want children, to live a normal life?”
“This is not my life.” She said this in a bitter tone.
“It’s all we have now. Princess Olga is cleaning loos. We’re a lost generation, but we can build our lives again, find comfort for our children.”
“You are very dynastic all of a sudden.”
“I’ve become engaged myself.” He touched her shoulder. “We need to think about the future. Allying yourself to this Konstantin the bomb maker is going to ruin your life, Vera.”
“Oh?” Her lips twisted.
“Killing Georgy won’t bring our parents or Catherine back to life.”
If I Had You Page 24