She watched the conflicting emotions on her son’s face. He was fifty-seven years old now. He’d raised his own family, enjoyed a harmonious marriage with Ludmilla, and he loved his work. Over the years he’d become one of the country’s leading experts in Fabergé designs, in dinner services made at the old St. Petersburg Imperial Porcelain Works, and in gold-and silverware owned by the Romanovs. Under his supervision, the Petrodvorets palace had been returned to its former glory, with most rooms now open to the public.

He had also known much sadness: the loss of his sister, the sixteen years in which he thought his father was dead, and the knowledge that his biological father had been a rapist. If he chose not to be reminded of that last fact, she could not argue with him.

“I think I’ll leave it,” he said, then nodded to himself as if satisfied he’d made the right decision.

Chapter 61

Leningrad, summer 1976

DURING THEIR LAST FEW DAYS IN RUSSIA, BILL WAS polite but preoccupied and Val was acutely aware of a distance between them. They gawped at the splendors of the Catherine Palace, dripping with gold and set in a magnificent park, with lakes, waterfalls, and grottoes stretching into the distance. They peered through the railings at the old Alexander Palace, now occupied by offices of the Soviet navy, and imagined the Romanovs under house arrest there. And on their last day, they kept their guide happy by wandering around the Hermitage Gallery, set within the glitzy Winter Palace.

Bill joked with Nicole and was civil to Val, but their argument in the hotel bathroom loomed between them like an impermeable barrier. Before that he had been lavish with affection and Val had always felt she could hug or kiss him whenever she felt like it; now neither touched the other and there were no invitations to cross the narrow gap between their single beds.

Was he planning to break up with her? Val wondered. They’d been dating for less than a year but he’d said he loved her. Maybe that was just what you did when you were sleeping with someone. He would probably find himself a new girlfriend within weeks, but she couldn’t imagine ever dating again.

They were booked to sit together on the flight home, but perhaps he would tell her as soon as they landed. She felt miserable at the prospect and wished she could telephone Peggy to ask for her advice, but there was too much to explain and the cost of the call would be prohibitive.