Paulina Simons - Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel

Tatiana and Alexander

A Novel

Paullina Simons

Once again for my grandfather and grandmother,

ninety-eight and ninety-four, who still plant cucumbers

and grow flowers and live happily ever after,

and

for our good friend Anatoly Studenkov,

still as ever left behind in Russia, who does not.

And in the moonlights pallid glamour

Rides high upon the charging brute

Head held high mid echoing clamour

The Bronze Horseman in pursuit.

And all through that long night no matter

What road the frantic wretch might take

There would pound with ponderous clatter

The Bronze Horseman in his wake.

Aleksandr Pushkin

Contents

Epigraph

Prologue

Book One

The Second America

Chapter One

IN THE DARK EVENING, in a small fishing village that

Chapter Two

TATIANA STUMBLED OUT OF bed and walked to the window.

Chapter Three

MATTHEW SAYERS APPEARED BY Alexanders bed at around one in

Chapter Four

TATIANA TRIED TO READ to improve her English while she

Chapter Five

THEY CAME FOR HIM a few hours into the night.

Chapter Six

TATIANA WAS SITTING BY the window, holding her two-week-old baby

Chapter Seven

HE HEARD VOICES OUTSIDE, and the door opened.

Chapter Eight

EDWARD CAME IN TO check on Tatiana in the middle

Chapter Nine

WHEN ALEXANDER OPENED HIS eyesdid he open them?it was still

Chapter Ten

THERE WAS SOMETHING UNDENIABLY comforting about living and working at

Chapter Eleven

JULY HAD GONE BY, and August, too, and September. Seven

Chapter Twelve

MAJOR!

Chapter Thirteen

FINALLY, ON A SUNDAY in late October, Tatiana agreed to

Chapter Fourteen

SLONKO WAS DEAD, BUT nothing was resolved about Alexanders fate.

Chapter Fifteen

ALEXANDER WAS ESCORTED TO the rear of the current front,

Chapter Sixteen

ALEXANDER CALLED OUSPENSKY INTO his tent. Lieutenant, whats wrong with

Chapter Seventeen

TATIANA AND ANTHONY WERE invited to spend Christmas Eve with

Chapter Eighteen

THE SOVIET MEN WERE still dying at Sinyavino, and the

Chapter Nineteen

THE ROOM IS STARK white. The curtains, white, barely move.

Chapter Twenty

LAZAREVOEVEN THE NAME itself was reminiscent of myth, of legend,

Chapter Twenty-One

TATIANA COULDNT LEAVE ALEXANDERS medal alone. Couldnt leave Orbeli alone.

Chapter Twenty-Two

THEY HAD STOPPED NEAR the woods in eastern Poland and

Book Two

The Bridge to Holy Cross

Chapter Twenty-Three

IN LUBLIN, ALEXANDERS TROOPS rested and liked it so much

Chapter Twenty-Four

WHERE ARE WE GOING? Vikki said. And why? I dont

Chapter Twenty-Five

DEEP IN THE DENSE thick forest of the mountains, a

Chapter Twenty-Six

EDWARD LUDLOW CAME THROUGH the double doors of the hospital

Chapter Twenty-Seven

ALEXANDER SLEPT, SITTING UP against the tree with Pashas head

Chapter Twenty-Eight

ON NEW YEARS DAY, Tatiana went across the bay with

Chapter Twenty-Nine

PERHAPS THEY WERE RIGHT in what they said about Colditz.

Chapter Thirty

IN APRIL THE AMERICANS and Russians swarmed over Germany, and

Chapter Thirty-One

THE AMERICANS LIBERATED COLDITZ in April after three days of

Chapter Thirty-Two

ON THE LOWER EAST Side, Tatiana, Vikki, and Anthony were

Chapter Thirty-Three

THE TRAIN WAS STOPPED, once, twice, fifteen times along the

Chapter Thirty-Four

TATIANA AGREED TO GO to dinner with Edward. Vikki looked

Chapter Thirty-Five

ALEXANDER DIDNT KNOW WHAT month it was when the train

Chapter Thirty-Six

TATIANA WAS PUTTING ANTHONY to bed when he suddenly said,

Chapter Thirty-Seven

NEW YEARS DAY. TATIANA, as usual, went ice skating in

Chapter Thirty-Eight

COME ON, LETS GO out, Vikki said petulantly. What are

Book Three

Alexander

Chapter Thirty-Nine

TATIANA WENT TO GERMANY on faith.

Chapter Forty

MARTIN WANTED TO START the next day. Tatiana said no.

Chapter Forty-One

THE NEXT MORNING THEY woke at six. At seven, housekeeping

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Praise

Other Books by Paullina Simons

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher

PROLOGUE

Boston, December 1930

ALEXANDER BARRINGTON STOOD IN front of the mirror and adjusted his red Cub Scout tie. Rather, he was attempting to adjust his Cub Scout tie, because he couldnt take his eyes off his face, a face uncharacteristically glum. His mouth was turned down. His hands were fidgeting with the gray-and-white tie, unable to do a good job, to day of all days.

Stepping away from the mirror, he looked around the small room and sighed. It wasnt much, a wood floor, drab brown-branch wallpaper, a bed, a nightstand.

It didnt matter about the room. It wasnt his room. It was a rented room, a furnished rented room and all the furniture belonged to the landlady downstairs. His real room was not in Boston but back in Barrington, and he had really liked his old room and hadnt felt the same way about any other room he had lived in since. And he had lived in six different rooms since two years ago when his father sold their house and took Alexander out of Barrington.

Now they were leaving this room, too. It didnt matter.

Rather, thats not what mattered.

Alexander looked in the mirror again. He came up flush to the mirror, stuck his face against the glass and breathed out deeply. Alexander, he whispered. What now?

His best friend Teddy thought it was the most exciting thing in the world, Alexanders leaving the country.

Alexander couldnt have disagreed more.

Through his partly open door, he heard his mother and father arguing. He ignored them. They tended to argue through stress. Presently the door opened and his father, Harold Barrington, came in.

Son, are you ready? The car is waiting for us downstairs. And your friends are downstairs, too, waiting to say goodbye. Teddy asked me if I would take him instead of you. Harold smiled. I told him I just might. What do you think, Alexander? You want to trade places with Teddy? Live with his crazy mother and crazier father?

Yes, because my own parents are so sane, said Alexander. Harold was thin and of medium height. His one distinguishing feature was a resolutely set chin on a broad, square-jawed face. At the age of forty-eight his light-brown, graying hair was still thick upon his head, and his eyes were intense and blue. Alexander liked it when his father was in a good mood because then the eyes lost some of their seriousness.

Pushing Harold out of the way, his mother, Jane Barrington, strolled in, wearing her best silk dress and white pillbox hat, and said, Harry, leave the boy alone. You can see hes trying to get ready. The car will wait. And so will Teddy and Belinda. She smoothed out her thick, long dark hair arranged under the hat. Janes voice still carried traces of the lilting rounded Italian accent that she had not been able to lose since coming to America at seventeen. She lowered her voice. I never liked that Belinda, you know.

I know, Mom, said Alexander. Thats why were leaving the country, isnt it? He watched them in the mirror. He looked most like his mother. In personality he hoped he was more like his father. He didnt know. His mother amused him, his father confounded him. Im ready, Dad, he said.

Harold came over and put his arm on Alexanders shoulder. And you thought Cub Scouts was an adventure.

Cub Scouts was plenty for me. Dad? he asked, looking not at his father but at his own reflection. If it doesnt work outwe can come back, right? We can come back to He stopped. He didnt want his father to hear his voice crack. Taking a steadying breath, he finished, To