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church in the land, with a procession of thousands. His tsarina would be draped in ermine, not a veil
of cobwebs.
The door creaked as Konstantin closed it behind them and Tatiana found herself in the base of
the bell tower, looking up a steep flight of stairs. The wooden steps were rotted and bowed and she
wondered what brave soul had last ventured to climb them. At the top of the tower a rusty bell was
tilted at such a sharp angle that she could not see its tongue. A rope, rough and frayed, extended down
the staircase, so long that the end lay coiled at her feet. The light at the top of the tower promised a
view of the river, a vision fit for a saint who might pause, mid-assumption, to consider the pretty,
inconsequential world below.
Why had they come to this tower? Did he intend for them to climb it?
But no. No. Of course not. She knew from his first touch that he had brought her here for some
other purpose. Something wilder and darker and more desperate and Tatiana was tired of fighting her
fate. Tired of beating back grief. She sank down to the rough steps and lifted her skirt. He pulled the
layers of garments which lay beneath in one direction and then the next until her naked hips and thighs
slid into that gentle trough that exists in all steps, that indentation that has been worn by centuries of
patiently climbing feet. It was as if the spot was designed for just this purpose.
“Are they gone?” Alix whispered.
“I don’t know,” said Nicky.
“Should we leave?”
“Not yet.” The A was finished and he had begun the second line of the N.
“Yes, finish the initials,” Alix said, sinking back against the wall. “For this way you will
always remember me, no matter what happens.”
“Don’t say that,” Nicky said, his own voice rising above a whisper, causing her to press her
palm against his lips and shake her head in warning. Whoever had been there might come back
again “You will return soon to St. Petersburg,” he whispered, when she pulled her hand away. “And
next time we meet we shall be married. Promise me.”
There was nothing to say to this, nothing at all. She pointed toward the half-finished initial.
“Hurry,” she said. “We don’t have much time.”
“Hurry,” Tatiana was saying. “We don’t have much time.”