Val’s mind was whirring. What kind of intimacies? How was it possible in a heavily guarded house, with the family crammed into such a small space?

“So your father was shocked beyond measure when his commandant summoned the guards to his office and told them the Romanovs were to be executed that very night. He could have excused himself from the execution squad, but instead, on the spur of the moment, he decided to try and rescue Maria. Each man was allocated one of the party to shoot, and he volunteered to shoot Maria, planning that he would deliberately miss, then find a way to rescue her in the aftermath.”

The priest stopped to sip his tea, and Val took a moment to absorb this information. Maria must have been the girl her father had pined for in later life, the one he could never get over. No other woman could measure up to a Romanov daughter—certainly not a poor Manchurian girl.

The priest took a deep breath. “The night of the shooting sounds like pure chaos. Your father said nothing went according to plan. When the band of executioners confronted the family in the basement, he tried to signal to Maria with his eyes that he would save her, but he wasn’t sure she understood. Then when the order was given to fire, he discharged his gun into the air and rushed forward to shield her with his body. That was when a bullet grazed his hand.”

Val remembered that funny scar, like a slug, between his thumb and index finger. She rubbed the spot on her own hand.

“It must have been sheer hell in that room, with the smoke and the noise of the guns and the screaming. Your father always broke down when he spoke of it. He said he couldn’t find Maria at first, and when the smoke cleared he saw that she was badly injured and was lying very still, perhaps dead.” He shook his head. “I can still hear his sobs when he told me. There was blood everywhere. He said he was soaked in it.”

His words in the nursing home echoed in Val’s head. “What did he do?”

“He picked her up and carried her to the van outside, all the while trying to detect signs of life and hoping for an opportunity to run off with her. Other guards were milling around and he would not have got far, but he heard them saying the bodies were being taken to a nearby forest. He decided to steal a horse, follow them there, and snatch Maria. If she was dead, he would bury her with all the proper ceremony and create a shrine to her; if she was alive, he would marry her and take care of her.”