Chapter 8
They took the elevator with a porter who stood with a crib that he must be delivering to one of the suites.
“Bonsoir,” the porter said but Isaak did not answer, and it was Kate who responded as Isaak frowned at the crib.
“It’s beautiful,” Kate commented for it was. In antique silver, she guessed it to be from around the early 1900s. The hotel was filled with the most stunning pieces and finally Kate was starting to relax enough to enjoy.
“I love it here,” she said as they stepped out of the lift. “Even the baby cribs are fascinating.”
“Well it didn’t look particularly safe if you ask me,” Isaak quipped.
“Oh I’m sure it’s been thoroughly adapted,” Kate said and Isaak gave a nod but she could tell he was suddenly distracted.
“Are you okay?”
“Of course,” Isaak said as they were led through the lavish dining room and to their seats, tucked away to allow for an intimate meal, which, for a couple on a real honeymoon, would be sublime.
It was sublime anyway, Kate thought as they sat at a small table and Isaak took her hand. “You look amazing,” he said.
“So do you.”
Isaak did.
He hadn’t shaved since the morning of the wedding. He was the unshaven version that had walked into her office that day but he didn’t remind her of that man at all now.
“And you are nice.”
“Am I?” Isaak said, his foot nudging her calf.
“Yes.”
“Am I still nice?” His hand met her knee.
“Stop,” Kate said but she was smiling as he removed his hand and placed it on the table.
“Warm isn’t it?” Isaak smiled.
She chose quail ballotine, and the wine waiter suggested chardonnay or pinot noir, and Isaak watched the tiny screw of her nose but Kate nodded. “Pinot noir would be lovely.”
“Kate,” Isaak said when the waiter had gone. “What wine would you really like.”
“A shiraz.”
He called the waiter back and changed the order. “You say what you want, not what you think others want you to say.”
“I was just—”
“Holding back,” Isaak finished for her as their wine was delivered. Kate was so glad she’d been forced to speak up, for it was so rich the color was almost black and the taste was heaven.
“Wow,” Kate said, feeling the heat on her cheeks. “That’s wonderful.”
“Tell me one thing,” Isaak said and she happily nodded. “How did you come to study genealogy? How did you fall into that?”
“It found me,” Kate admitted. “I love history and I wanted to find out more about my family. The more I got into it the more I was fascinated.”
“So how far did you get with my family?”
“I didn’t really get anywhere. Your uncle did most of the work; my classes are aimed at giving people the tools to look themselves. Your uncle enjoyed the classes a lot, he was a very clever man.”
“He was,” Isaak agreed. “And a good man, he gave both Roman and I our start. He came back to Russia when Roman turned eighteen and offered us two tickets to London. It was like a lifeline. He said he would pay our rent for one year. Roman and I have…” he tapped the side of his head, “…business brains. I got a job at a liquor store mainly putting out the stock but I could see the owner was being ripped off by his staff, there was a lot of theft going on out the back and I called it. When profits started to go up, the owner offered me a share in the business and Ivor lent me the money to buy in. When the old man retired, Ivor lent Roman the same amount.”
“That was how your business started?” Kate smiled as he nodded but then, just as she started to relax, just as she had stopped thinking him formidable, he reminded Kate that he was.
“Why, if there was nothing going on between you and my uncle, did you travel to Russia with him?”
He watched the glass stop midway to her lips and then she took another swallow of wine.
“I assume the library doesn’t offer field trips to all the students?”
“No.”
“Kate, why don’t you stop lying to me?”
“I don’t lie.”
“Over and over, you withhold information,” Isaak pointed out. “Do you want a few examples?”
“No.”
“You’re sure about that?” Isaak checked.
“Very sure,” Kate said because she did not want her virginity discussed here! “The further I looked into it the more questions it threw up. Ivor hoped I might help him get some answers. He did all the talking in Russia, and I asked all the questions.”
“What sort of questions?”
“Isaak…”
“I want to know, Kate.”
“Maybe you don’t,” Kate responded. “Isaak people come to search their family history when they are ready to find certain things out.”
“I’m ready,” Isaak said, and as they ate their main course, he tried to prove that he was. “I know that my family history is not the most impressive. My mother and babushka both had miserable lives and it was not due to poverty.”
“Babushka?” Kate frowned.
“Grandmother,” Isaak explained and then let out a tense breath. “I know that my ded, my grandfather, and my father also spent time in prison. I understand why you may have said those things about going to the police the other night.” As Kate shook her head in protest to his words, Isaak pushed on. “You’re not going to surprise me.”
“I think I might.”
Kate was nervous to tell him, unsure how he might react to the news. “Isaak, as I said, that ring is not a replica. The hallmarks have been scratched but it goes back to pre-1917 and the Romanov empire.”
“Ivor was once very wealthy, he could afford to buy this easily.”
“No.” Kate shook her head and waited as their plates were taken away. “It was given to him by your babushka. So too were the earrings, along with other trinkets.”
“No,” Isaak stared at her in disbelief. “She was a modest woman, there was no money in my family. Why would she have this?”
“She was a very beautiful woman,” Kate said. “And looking at the records, when your grandfather was in prison, she had a cleaning job. Where, we don’t yet know, but it would seem that your babushka had a lover and we were trying to deduce who he might have been. Growing up, Ivor was told he had been born premature, that he came early.” She gazed at him intently. “Whoever he was, he made sure Ivor was provided for. When Ivor returned from serving in the military your babushka told him the truth or a part of it—she had had an affair while her husband was in prison. She wouldn’t say whom with, but it clearly was someone rich enough to bestow her with money and jewels enough for Ivor to leave Russia and start a new life in England.”
“Why wouldn’t Ivor tell me that?” Isaak asked and Kate gave no reply, but later back in the suite when he was clearly struggling with the news and asked the question again, Kate was honest.
“I think his concern was if your father ever found out.”
Isaak nodded because that did make sense. “My father was always jealous of his brother, even without knowing this. Ivor would come back to Russia often with gifts, money…” Isaak looked back on those times. “Of course we thought he had made his fortune in England, we never knew that it had been handed down to him. My uncle was right—it would have made things worse.”
“Worse?”
“My father was already an angry man.”
He started to undress, and Kate turned her head and then picked up the nightdress and headed to the bathroom to change.
Walking out, she wondered if he’d perhaps offer to take the sofa, but his eyes met hers as she hung the pearls on the mirror.
“Sleep well.” Isaak got into bed and stretched out luxuriously.
“And you.”
Kate wouldn’t sleep well.
She wanted the bed and possibly the six-foot-two Russian it contained.
It was a very new feeling to have.