Don't Say a Word - Barbara Freethy [155]
"What are you staring at?" Elena asked, joining her at the window.
"The Bolshoi."
"It's stunning," Elena said with a sigh. "I dreamed of dancing there one day. But it wasn't meant to be."
Julia put her arm around her sister's shoulders. They had spoken of many things, but not about the accident that had taken away Elena's ability to dance. Someday she hoped Elena would confide in her the rest of her life story.
"I remember watching Mama from the wings," Elena continued. "I thought she was so beautiful, and I wanted to fly like she did."
Julia had brief flashbacks to the inside of the theater as well, but she hadn't enjoyed watching her mother as much as she'd enjoyed hearing the power of the orchestra. "We should go there second," she said.
Elena raised an eyebrow. "Where are we going first?"
"To the orphanage where Alex took your picture. That's how this long journey began. We would never have found each other without that photo. Are you ready?"
"I suppose."
Julia didn't like the sound of hesitancy in her sister's voice. "What's wrong?"
"I'm a little afraid of the memories," she confessed. "Aren't you?"
"No," Julia said, feeling nothing but excitement. "I know it will be sad to see where our parents died and to go their graves, but I feel for the first time in a while that the future is wide open for me. And I'm ready to make peace with the past."
Elena smiled. "Then lead on."
They left the hotel and walked through Red Square, known as Krasnaya Ploschad in Russian. It was a much bigger space than Julia had imagined. At one end was the Kremlin, a medieval walled city on a hill above the Moscow River. At the other end were the colorful domes and spires of St. Basil's Cathedral. The rest of the area was rife with history, according to the guidebook Julia had read on the plane trip. North of the cathedral was Lobnoye Mesto, or "Place of Skulls," a circular raised platform on which public executions were carried out in the days of the tsars. Beyond that, across from the Lenin Mausoleum, was the GUM department store, Russia's version of a shopping mall.
Julia wanted to personally visit each site, but first they were on a mission to find the orphanage. After discussing her goal with several government agents, she'd been given an address, and now they were nearing the place where it had all begun.
In fact, it came out of nowhere, the unpretentious stone building with a fence and steel gates protecting its inhabitants. She had no idea if it was still an orphanage.
Julia stopped abruptly. Elena did the same. She tried to remember ever being in that yard, by that gate, but she came up blank. Maybe she'd never been out there. But Elena had. Julia moved closer to her, until they were shoulder to shoulder.
"I remember standing there," Elena whispered. "I was so scared, so terrified. I knew something had happened to our parents, something beyond bad. I could feel it in my heart. Then a man and a woman came. They took me away. I cried for you, but they covered my mouth, and then we were gone." She put a hand to her stomach. "I feel like I'm going to be sick."
"Maybe you should sit down. There's a bench over there."
"No, I'm going back to the hotel."
"I'll go with you."
Elena put up her hand and took a step away. "I need a little time, Julia. Okay?"
"Are you sure?" Julia didn't want to let her go on her own.
"I'm certain. I'm not as good as you are at sharing feelings. It's going to take me time to feel comfortable with it all."
"I understand. We can leave. We can do something fun."
"Later. I'm tired. I just need a break. Besides, there are some things we need to do on our own." She gave Julia an odd little smile, then walked away.
Julia frowned. She had wanted to do everything together, but she was beginning to understand how much harder it was