Chapter 3

The morning was as grey as her mood as Kate dressed for Ivor’s funeral. Her teeth chattered too much to bother with lipstick and she didn’t even attempt mascara because tears kept trickling out.

Her family had offered no further solution; in fact, when Kate had called her mother again she had expressed relief that Kate was going through with the wedding and that they would now get the next two instalments.

“Oh, Ivor,” Kate said.

She didn’t want to be cross with her friend and certainly not on the day of his funeral. If he had known how exposed the contract would have left her…

Kate pushed those thoughts away. Today was about Ivor, not the mess she now found herself in.

The doorbell rang and Kate opened it to a somber man.

He wore dark glasses and when he saw her black attire and that she was wearing the ring, he gave a small nod. “We need to leave now.”

“I’m ready.” Kate’s voice was clear, her mind made up; yes, she would go through with this.

Her way!

Isaak waited as she went and returned with her handbag and locked the door closed behind her. She was dressed in a soft woolen black dress with boots, and her hair was tied up more neatly than it had been yesterday. He thought she might be wearing the earrings that Ivor had gifted her but instead she wore simple diamond studs.

They were driven and were mostly silent but as they approached the Russian Orthodox church where dark crowds were gathering Isaak turned to her.

“We will be here a fortnight on Saturday for our wedding.”

“Can’t it be a registry office?” Kate asked, appalled at the thought of making false vows in a church but Isaak shook his head. His mother had been deeply religious; anyone who knew the family would know that any wedding would take place in a church.

“Walk slowly out of the car,” Isaak said. “I want the press to see the ring.”

They had had their lenses aimed at Roman. He too was wearing dark glasses and his face was grey with tension as they approached.

“This is Kate.” Isaak introduced her.

Roman glanced at the glittering ring. “Is there something you forgot to tell me?”

Isaak had not wanted to trouble Roman with the details of his uncle’s estate and so he gave his brother a grim smile. “We did not want to rub our happiness in your face at a time when you are grieving but I wanted Kate here with me today.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Roman said in Russian. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”

“Doveriye ko mne.” Isaak gave a wry smile and told his brother to trust him.

“What did he say?” Kate asked as they moved into the church.

“He wishes us happiness.” Isaak responded as Roman, walking behind them, actually managed a brief smile at his brother’s smooth lie.

They took their places right at the front of the church, so close that she could smell the lilies on the coffin and Kate looked around as the pews filled, anything rather than staring at the coffin ahead. She saw a few of her students and gave them a watery smile, which was returned.

“Who are they?” Isaak asked.

“They’re friends of your uncle.” She tried not to cry as she recalled the laughter and good times that had been shared in her classes.

Isaak frowned, for it would seem that she really had been a part of his uncle’s life. It unnerved him a little, but then he corrected himself. He was not jealous of Ivor and had no qualms sleeping with her also.

Or possibly he did.

He could not think of that now.

It was a long service and in Russian and so Kate stood and knelt as others did. Isaak stood and knelt rigid beside her. He rarely displayed emotion and certainly not for public view, but he had loved his uncle very much. He counted the lilies on the coffin checking that it was an even number, a tradition in Russia for a sad occasion such as this one. Over and over he counted them, just so that he could hold on to his emotions but at the end of the service, as they left the church, it was the von that almost finished him.

Every ring of a bell in the funeral cerebro hit Isaak like a fist to his gut. In the Russian orthodox tradition, each bell struck once to indicate the stages of life. There was so much that Isaak did not know about the man he loved. A man who had left Russia and made his fortune but had often returned. A man who had saved his nephews from their brutal beginning and had given them their start here in London.

He stood at the graveside and could hear Roman’s harsh breathing as he surely recalled his wife’s funeral. Then he heard Kate’s quiet tears as the coffin lowered down. Was it for show or did grief briefly unite them? Neither was sure, yet he took her hand.

For Kate, at first the contact was welcome—Isaak’s hot dry hand around hers actually anchored her, but in the next second it was shocking, not that it was Isaak, but more that a touch consoled when it never had before.

The wake he did not inflict on her, instead Isaak’s driver took her to her home and again Isaak walked her to her door.

“Can I come in?” he asked. “And go over a few details.”

She didn’t answer but held the door open and Isaak stepped in.

“Much tidier than your office,” he said, looking around and liking the full bookshelves and the intricate rugs on the floor and the scattered cushions softening a heavy leather sofa.

“I don’t need to hear your opinion on my housekeeping skills.”

“No,” Isaak said.

“What was it that you wanted to discuss?”

“I’ve just looked online and already the word is spreading about our engagement. Have you told your family?”

“I have.”

“You will need some money to prepare for the wedding. If you give me your account details…”

“That won’t be necessary. Don’t worry, Isaak, I shan’t embarrass you.”

“We leave on the night of the wedding for four nights in Paris at the specified hotel. Do you want any of your stuff moved to mine while we are away?”

“To make it a little more homely!” Kate gave a bitter laugh. Oh Isaak, she thought, I doubt we’ll even make it through the honeymoon. “No thank you.”

“Very well, if you have any questions then just contact me.” He gave her his phone number and asked for hers.

Reluctantly she gave it to him.

“It would help if you could tell me how you met my uncle, perhaps that could be how we were introduced. I will need something for the press release.”

“Of course,” Kate answered, she just wanted him gone. Today had left her drained. “Your uncle and I met at the library.”

“And you just started talking?” Isaak frowned.

“No,” Kate shook her head. “I hold classes at the library. I’m a genealogist,” Kate explained and Isaak felt a prickle on the back of his neck as Kate continued. “Ivor wanted to find out more about his family history.”

“And?”

“I helped him. Those friends you saw me smiling at took the class with him. Ivor had been coming along for more than a year.”

“And that’s it?” Isaak asked, waiting for her to elaborate and tell him about their trip to Russia but Kate didn’t.

“That’s it.”

“And what did Ivor find out?” Isaak asked.

Kate merely shrugged.

“Kate?” His voice demanded but she just gave him a black smile.

“Where on the contract does it state that I have to tell you that?”

“It doesn’t.”

“Then I shan’t.” She showed him to her door. “I’ll see you at the wedding.”

Isaak walked off, his heart hammering in his chest, for once shaken.

He loathed his family history and did everything he could to keep it hidden.

Isaak returned to the car that would take him to his uncle’s wake, but his grief was pushed aside for a moment and as he looked back at Kate’s house, he was seriously unsettled.

Just how much about his family did Kate know?