Romanov Succession Part 3

He said, "Oleg's always tended to be more devious than necessary. He's been infatuated with you for years."

"I know." She said it indifferently. "I'm afraid I don't feel it puts me under an obligation to him. I'm not responsible for Oleg's emotional foolishness."

"But you came."

"To see you."

"What's Va.s.sily's place in this?"

"They've coalesced-the factions. Oleg's Socialists, the old-line liberal aristocracy, the reactionaries, even the partisans of each of the Pretenders. They've formed a consortium. It's the first time they've ever worked together. Even during the Civil War they were always at loggerheads-Prince Leon insists that's why we lost Russia to the Bolsheviks."

"What's that got to do with Va.s.sily?"

"They're planning something military. Va.s.sily's been selected to command it."

"Command what? There's no White Russian army-only a scattered pack of old-time exiles."

"I can't say, Alex. I do know that Va.s.sily's at the center of it."

"Whatever their scheme is-is it his idea?"

"No; they brought him into it recently. He's been in England you know-he's still got a commission with the Free Poles."

"Where is he now?"

"I don't know. He's in hiding. There've been threats on his life-someone's tried to kill him."

His belly churned. After a moment he said. "Why?"

"We're not sure. Apparently Va.s.sily wants to believe it's someone from the past-someone with a grudge. It's plausible, isn't it? His arrogance must have made him a good many enemies."

"But you don't believe it's that."

"I'm not certain-Prince Leon thinks it must be someone who's trying to stop them by a.s.sa.s.sinating Va.s.sily. He's the key to it all-he's the leader they've chosen to command it. Without Va.s.sily the rest of them might not know how to proceed."

He thought of Prince Leon, kindly and craggy, the best of the lot of them.

"Will you come with me?"

"I've got orders. I'm not a free agent."

"It's been arranged for you."

He shot her a sharp glance. "You just keep chucking stones in the pond, don't you? How do you mean that?"

"With your War Department. Don't look so dubious, Alex. There's an American colonel at Fort McNair who will arrange everything for you."

He was working at the puzzle in his mind. "Is it their idea to throw in with Germany against the Bolsheviks?"

"No."

"You said that very fast."

Her eyes flickered. "Would Prince Leon have anything to do with the Hitler gang? Would Oleg? Alex, I've told you all I can. What have you to lose? I've made no conditions."

Her eyes glinted in the lamplight. She reached for the Du Mauriers on the coffee table and leaned forward to accept a light from his match. She held his glance; he felt ripples of flame. "You'll come, won't you?"

But he made no immediate answer. He watched her throw her head back to sigh smoke toward the ceiling: he watched the long curve of her throat. She said, "It's Va.s.sily of course. You don't want to have to work with him. What happened between you in Finland?"

"Didn't he tell you?"

"No. I only know it cost him his command. He said it was between the two of you. It's turned him bitter, you know."

"It was his own fault."

"What was it?"

"Maybe I'll tell you-when we trust each other more than we do now."

"What a sad thing to say." She squinted in the curling smoke. "We used to trust each other with everything."

"Yes."

She sat back; it was a gesture of regretful withdrawal. They had been on the point of intimacy but it was gone. She said, "You'd be under Va.s.sily's command but you wouldn't be working closely with him. You'd be continents apart. Does that make a difference?"

"Not particularly. It would still be his orders."

"You hate him that much."

"No. But I think they've picked the wrong commander."

"No matter what the scheme is?"

"He'll make a mistake-the kind you can't patch up."

"The others don't feel that way, Alex. Are you that much wiser than the rest of them?"

"The rest of them weren't in Finland."

"It must have been something extraordinary for you to find it so unforgivable." Then abruptly she said, "If you have that much reason to distrust Va.s.sily don't you owe it to Prince Leon and the others to warn them? At least give them the facts and let them decide."

"You can't destroy their heroes without injuring their self-respect-and G.o.d knows they've got d.a.m.n little left as it is."

"This is too important for that, Alex. You can't be decided by those considerations when their lives may be at stake."

"Their lives?"

"All of them. Prince Leon, Oleg, my father, Felix-the whole lot. They're putting everything on the line. Everything they've got-everything."

"You didn't say that before."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not sure you are. It was your heaviest shot. You saved it for last."

"Neatly trapped. Am I so transparent? I surrender, dear. You always were a match for me." Irina stubbed her cigarette out. "Then it's settled. Good." She rose from her seat. "Help me push this ghastly mess out in the hall, would you dear?"

He rolled the tray out through the foyer and when he turned away from it she was in the doorway looking at him in a way he could not mistake.

"Thank you, darling." It wasn't clear whether she meant the tray or his capitulation. "There's a fair Courvoisier."

"All right." He had his hand on the room key in his pocket; but her face drew him back into the suite.

She brought the cognac to the couch. The two hotel gla.s.ses looked strange in her hand: it was made for crystal goblets. "I feel nervous with you. Isn't it absurd? But you're like a caged predator tonight."

The cognac spread warmth down his throat. He wanted to gather her against him but too many demons stood between them.

Then Irina said, "Felix is racing his motorcar at Estoril this week."

"He's still doing that, is he?"

"Cars and airplanes. It's all he thinks of." She had another Du Maurier. "It must be wonderful to have life so simply arranged."

"He's never grown up."

"I wish none of us had." She went suddenly from that to what was really on her mind: "I was infatuated with Va.s.sily-it was his raw power. But even then I began to think of you-I began to wish it was you. But I'd made the mistake and I suppose I was too proud to try to change back-perhaps I didn't want to face the chance that you'd hate me."

She bent her shoulders and brooded into the cognac. "Do you see what I'm doing now? It isn't like me-I'm asking your forgiveness."

Then she looked up: the light fell across her face in harsh shadows. "Perhaps I am dropping a handkerchief. But it's not tangled up in this other thing. We had to settle that first."

He knew it was no good trying to go back to where they'd been long before; clocks didn't run backward. But that wasn't what she was asking for. It took a great effort of will for her to express contrition: it was the first time he'd known her to humble herself when it wasn't contrived. She was an aristocrat, the daughter of a Count-they were a cla.s.s of people who'd go to war before they'd apologize for anything important. He had a feeling she'd agonized over this; she'd rehea.r.s.ed it. But that didn't make it any less genuine-it only emphasized the vital importance it had for her.

"Irina-"

"You don't need to be gentle." But she was watching him, ready to close everything down and bleed silently inside.

He touched her nape and she half turned on the couch; her breast trembled against him. Her face came up and she curled obediently into his arms. Then suddenly she was gripping his back with desperate strength and the tears burst from her. "Oh my darling Alex."

Daylight curled around the drapes. Irina lay across the bed with sprawled abandon.

He waited until the day brought her awake. Her eyes were puzzled for a brief instant and then they softened; it made the planes of her face blur in contentment.

He kissed her and got to his feet. Her lips parted; she followed him with her eyes. She stretched opulently like a cat.

"I've got to go to Was.h.i.+ngton."

"I know. You'll be back tomorrow."

"You could come down with me."

"I haven't finished doing Fifth Avenue." She smiled, watching him knot his tie.

In the dining room, waiting to be led to their table, she wet her lips and contrived to touch his hand with elaborate casualness; at the table she devoured her first cup of coffee greedily and stared at him wide-eyed with her lips peeled back from her teeth: sultry and sensuous. She was the most sophisticated of women and the most primitive. Her appet.i.tes were atavistic and without inhibition and when she committed herself she held nothing back.

Walking him out to the portico she drew and held the stares of every pair of eyes in the plush lobby. She's Garbo and Dietrich in one, young Prince Felix had said in awe after he'd first met Irina.

When the taxi took him away she was standing on the steps shading her eyes.

Colonel Glenn Buckner had an office in an overflow annex not far from the War Department. Alex tried to get his bearings; the lettering in the corridors was baffling. Officers carrying doc.u.ments hurried through in creased poplin-there was a kind of muted urgency about them. Alex asked directions and reached Buckner's office ten minutes ahead of his scheduled appointment.

A half-bald sergeant sat at a small desk rattling a typewriter. He stopped long enough to look up.

"Colonel Danilov to see Colonel Buckner."

"I'm sorry sir, he's over to the White House. He'll be here sometime, that's all I can tell you. You can get coffee in the canteen down the hall."

Finally at ten minutes before twelve a bulky brisk man in a blue flannel suit came along the hall. "Danilov? I'm Glenn Buckner."

Buckner was not more than thirty. His hair was cordovan brown and all his bones were big. He had a wide square face and quick blue eyes. "I'm sorry I kept you waiting."

The sergeant said, "You had a call from Admiral King's C of S, sir."

"Later." Buckner's handshake was firm but he wasn't a knuckle-grinder. "Come on in. Don't mind me being in mufti-people on the Hill get nervous if they see too many uniforms goose-stepping into the White House so a lot of us wear civvies. The President's idea. Shut the door, will you? Take a seat. Be right with you."

It was a small room with a metal desk and two telephones; no window. The walls were pale yellow on plain sheetrock-temporary part.i.tions. It had been carved out of a bigger room at some point. Buckner pulled open a wooden file drawer and rummaged; made a throat noise of satisfaction, lifted out a thin folder and carried it to the desk. "Go on-sit down, sit down." Buckner c.o.c.ked a hip on the corner of the desk and sat with one ankle dangling.

"I'd better start by establis.h.i.+ng credentials. You know who I am?"

"Aide to General Marshall, I gather."

"In a way. Actually I'm attached to the White House-military advisor on Soviet affairs. I was Military Attache in Moscow until a few months ago."

Alex s.h.i.+fted mental gears; he hadn't antic.i.p.ated this.

Buckner said, "I'm told you hate the Bolsheviks."

"No."

Buckner smiled slowly. "Okay, You'd better explain that one."

"I'm a White Russian, Colonel. We were brought up to hate Bolsheviks but you outgrow that after a while. I'm not crazy about Communists but I don't hate them."

"For a man who can't be bothered to hate them you've spent a lot of time shooting at them."

"That's something else," Alex said. "That's Stalin."

"Ah. I see now."