The Property of a Lady - Elizabeth Adler [163]
Nor was Cal what Missie had expected. “You are younger than I imagined from television,” she complained in a voice as silvery as her hair, “but then, everyone seems impossibly young to me these days. Even my doctors are young enough to be my grandchildren.”
He smiled, “Do you have many grandchildren, then?”
She shook her head. “Only the one, by proxy as you might say. And thereby hangs the story. Please sit down, Mr. Warrender.” She waved her hand to the chair pulled close beside her, as Nurse Milgrim hurried in with a tea tray. “This may be a long night.”
“Not too late now,” Sara Milgrim warned anxiously. “Remember we haven’t taken our pills.”
“I have no need of pills tonight,” she replied, shaking her head impatiently. “There’s work to be done.” Her eyes were fixed on Cal’s as she added, “And I am hoping that this young man can do it for me.”
Milgrim handed him a cup. “It’s Earl Grey,” she said, glancing at him disapprovingly. “It’s all she drinks.”
“That will be all for the moment,” Missie told her haughtily. “Mr. Warrender and I have a great deal to talk about. Please do not disturb us.”
The nurse’s worried eyes met Cal’s and he said reassuringly, “I’ll take care of her. If I see she’s getting too tired, I’ll send for you—and a fresh supply of Earl Grey.”
As the door closed behind her Missie said agitatedly, “There’s no time to be wasted, Mr. Warrender. Anna Ivanoff is in great danger.” She nodded her head as he reacted to the name. “Yes, she is Misha Ivanoff’s granddaughter. You see, here is his photograph.” She handed him the beautiful frame with its princely crest. “Anna is the daughter of Xenia Ivanoff, who escaped with me from Russia in 1917. It is a long story, most of which you have probably guessed by now, but I will fill in the details. And I will also tell you what happened to Misha’s son, Alexei.”
The old fear flooded through her again as she looked at Cal, wondering if she could really trust him, a stranger she only knew about from the press and her television set, but she had no choice. She was too old to be of any help now to Anna. Someone else must take over her role.
“It all began on the night of my eighteenth birthday,” she said softly. “We were at Varishnya, and even as we drank the champagne, we knew it was unlikely we would ever see each other again….”
The miniature tape recorder in Cal’s pocket made a faint whirring sound as he switched it on, but she didn’t hear it, and he listened, fascinated, as she unraveled a mystery for him that had captured the attention of nations for over half a century. He nodded when she finally told him about Eddie Arnhaldt; his suspicions had been correct—there was a third player in the game.
At last Missie leaned back in the chair, a flicker of exhaustion crossing her face, and he said worriedly, “This is very hard on you, ma’am, reliving so much fear and emotion. Maybe I should go now, and let you get some rest.”
“No,” she said, straightening her already ramrod back. “I’ve only told you the beginning. Now I must tell you the end. It’s important you know everything for Anna’s sake. But perhaps I’ll take a small glass of brandy, if you wouldn’t mind, Mr. Warrender.”
“Look here, ma’am,” he said, pouring the brandy and handing it to her, “you cannot go on calling a man to whom you are baring your soul ‘Mr. Warrender.’ Please, won’t you call me Cal?”
She smiled. “Is it short for Calvin?”
He shook his head. “Callum, for my Irish ancestors.”
Her eyes grew dreamy. “Ah, I knew an Irishman once,” she said, forgetting she had already told him about O’Hara. “A strong, brawny, red-headed charmer of an Irishman….” She sipped her brandy, thinking, and then she began.
“When we returned to New York from Germany, I left Azaylee and Beulah at a small, anonymous hotel on West Fifty-seventh Street, the kind used by traveling salesmen and the like. And then I went immediately down to Rivington Street to find Rosa….”
New York
The dark, sharp-faced young woman who answered Rosa’s door looked her slowly up and down, obviously impressed by what she saw.