The Property of a Lady - Elizabeth Adler [209]
“I was backstage one night after the show—in October, I think it was—when the manager said there were some important Russian visitors out front who would very much like to meet Miss Adair. I felt myself going pale and my voice shook as I inquired exactly who they were. Top political men, he said, here for the conferences. Their leader was a man by the name of General Grigori Solovsky.
“In a second I was catapulted back in time to that crowded train crawling its way through the frozen countryside as Captain Grigori Solovsky asked Azaylee her name. I held my breath, just as I had done then, waiting agonizedly for her reply. ‘Azaylee,’ she had said, laughing, ’Azaylee O’Bryan….” And then even farther back to the night in the forest when Solovsky had taken Alexei away for ever. I still relived it in my dreams. And now what I had feared had finally happened. He had found us.
“I heard Azaylee saying ‘Of course I’ll see them. How interesting, Missie, they are Russian.’
“‘Maybe you shouldn’t …’ I began, and then suddenly there he was in the doorway. The same dark-haired, stocky little peasant of twenty years ago. Only then he had been young and still unsure enough of himself to accept my story, even though he hadn’t really believed it. And now he was a man of power, resplendent in a general’s uniform. My heart was in my mouth as I searched behind him, half expecting to see Alexei.
“I was standing out of the circle of light by the dressing table but anyway their eyes were focused on Ava Adair. I watched, trembling, as Solovsky took her hand and bowed. ‘We enjoyed the show so much,’ he said in heavily accented English, ‘that we felt we must tell you personally. It is not often that we Russians have such a treat. My compliments, Miss Adair, on your wonderful talent.’
“Solovsky chatted for a few minutes and then he said, ‘I cannot help feeling we have met before, Miss Adair. Your face is familiar to me.’
“She said eagerly, ‘Do you think it’s possible?’
“I knew what she was going to say next and I rushed to interrupt her. ‘I don’t mean to appear rude,’ I said quickly, ‘but Jakey wants you to hurry over to the Stork Club as quickly as possible. Cole is there and Dick….’
“Solovsky’s eyes met mine and I knew he recognized me. ‘This is my mother, Mrs. Abrams.’ Azaylee introduced me. ‘I’m so sorry, General Solovsky, but I really must hurry. Maybe we could talk about this some other time….’
“He bowed to her again and said, ‘I would be delighted,’ but he was looking at me. He came over and shook my hand and he said quietly so the others wouldn’t hear, ’We know each other, do we not, Mrs. O’Bryan?’
“I didn’t know what to say, I was so frightened I thought my heart was about to stop. ‘We must talk,’ he murmured.
“I wondered if the Cheka were waiting outside to arrest us, and he read my mind easily and smiled. ‘Just you and I,’ he said quietly. I nodded, and agreed to meet him in my hotel suite in half an hour.”
New York
Grigori would have picked Missie’s face out from a thousand others because he had never forgotten the day on the train. It had been one of the few times he had allowed himself to slip back into the old ingrained peasant subservience, allowing her to spin him a story he suspected was not true and then letting her get away with it because he was afraid of looking a fool. The memory had rankled but it was when he reached St. Petersburg and had investigated the Ivanoff deaths that he had put two and two together, and by then it was too late. They had disappeared and even the Cheka’s desperate searches had not come up with a single clue. His growing love for Alexei/Sergei had overcome his duty to his country, and even though Russia was desperate to get her hands on the Ivanoff billions, he had never wavered. Lenin would have not approved but for him, his “son” came first.
He had thought Ava Adair’s face was familiar, but it was only when he had seen Missie that he realized he was looking at Alexei