“Come home, Mama,” he said gently, and she turned her face to his shoulder and cried, with great racking sobs that shook her entire body.

* * *

“What did your father mean: that you know what to do?” she asked, once she was seated back in the apartment with a cup of sweet tea. Stepan had draped a blanket around her shoulders because she was shivering and her teeth were chattering. Irina had begun to pick up the belongings that were scattered across the floor and was folding clothes into piles.

He spoke in an even tone, with only a crackle of emotion. “I will make inquiries this morning about where he is being questioned and whether we can present character witnesses. There are many who will speak for him.”

Maria was astonished that he could be so calm. “When did you two discuss this?”

“A long time ago,” Stepan said. “Papa thought it was inevitable that he would be arrested sometime, because he has a job that brings him into contact with foreigners.” He frowned. “What were those stones? Were they really gems?”

Maria shook her head. She couldn’t tell him. “We found them in the Ural Mountains, back in 1920. We shouldn’t have kept them. It was foolish.”

Stepan sucked his teeth. “What’s done is done. You must go to work today as if nothing has happened. I will come to the canteen at lunchtime to tell you what I’ve found out.”

The idea of going to work seemed preposterous, but Maria couldn’t face staying at home either. The hours would drag. She cut slices of bread for breakfast, careful not to step on the broken plates that littered her floor, and got the younger children ready for school. In answer to their worried questions she told them that their papa had gone for a meeting but would be home soon. As they walked past Raisa’s door, she wanted to burst in and scream at her, but restrained herself. She couldn’t risk being arrested too.

It was near impossible to work, but she dragged herself around her section at the factory, oiling gears and wiping surfaces clean, her heart pounding as she listened to the radio broadcasts about agriculture targets and the opening of some new canal.

When Stepan came to the canteen at lunchtime, they sat at a corner table and Maria clutched his sleeve as he spoke.

“He’s being questioned at Bolshoi Dom,” he told her. “I have already spoken to our Party leader and he will go today to testify on his behalf. Could you speak to the factory boss?”

Maria nodded. “I know he’ll help.”

“I’ll ask the children’s teachers and the Young Pioneers leaders. The NKVD will soon learn he is one of the most respected men in Leningrad.”