Tatiana crawled to him and put her head into the crook of his arm. Alexander pulled the blankets over them and hugged her. She placed her hand on his smooth bare chest, feeling his rapid heart. “Shura, darling…”

“I’ll be all right,” he said, sounding as if he wouldn’t be.

“Just like in Luga.” She rubbed his chest gently.

“Maybe a little lower? Just kidding, just kidding,” he quickly said when Tatiana stopped. “Love your hair against me,” Alexander whispered, stroking her head, kissing her temple. “Love everything of yours against me.”

“Don’t, Shura, please,” Tatiana muttered, kissing his chest and closing her eyes. She felt infinite comfort lying in his arms. His fingers caressing her head were forcing her eyes shut. “That feels nice,” she murmured.

Minutes passed. Minutes or—

Maybe seconds.

Moments.

Blink.

“Tania,” Alexander said, “are you asleep?”

“No,” she said, and then they looked at each other and smiled. She parted her mouth to kiss him, and he shook his head and said, “No. Keep your lips away, if you want me away.”

Tatiana kissed his shoulder and stroked him while he stroked her. “Shura,” she whispered, “I’m so happy you came for me.”

“I know. Me, too.”

She rubbed her lips against his skin.

“Tania,” whispered Alexander, “want to talk?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“Tell me. Start at the beginning. Don’t stop until you finish.”

Tatiana started at the beginning but couldn’t get past the sled near the ice hole in the lake.

Neither could Alexander.

Then she was asleep and woke up when the rooster crowed.

7

“Oh, my,” she said, trying to extricate herself from him. “Let go. I have to go, quick.”

Alexander was profoundly asleep and not moving. She noticed that about him. He was a good sleeper. She managed to move out from under his arm and jump down from the side of the stove.

Tatiana put on a clean dress and ran to get the water from the well, and ran to milk the goat, and ran to exchange goat’s milk for some cow’s milk. When she came back to the house, Alexander was already up and shaving. “Good morning,” he said to her, smiling.

“Good morning,” she said, too embarrassed to look at him. “Here, let me help.” She sat in the chair in front of him, holding a small broken mirror to her chest as he shaved. He kept cutting himself every few seconds, as if the knife he was using weren’t sharp. “You’re going to kill yourself with that thing,” said Tatiana. “What do they issue you in the army? Maybe you should grow your beard back.”

“It’s not the knife,” he said. “The knife is very sharp.”

“What is it, then?”

“Nothing, nothing.”

She saw him staring at her breasts.

“Alexander…” she said, putting the mirror down.

“Oh, now that it’s daylight, I’m suddenly Alexander again?” he said.

Tatiana couldn’t look at him but couldn’t help smiling either. She felt so exhilarated this morning, she had practically skipped home carrying the two pails of milk.

Alexander made coffee. He poured her a cup, and they sat silently outside in the breathy morning and drank the hot liquid, their bodies lightly touching. “It’s a nice morning,” she said quietly.

“It’s a glorious morning,” he said, turning to her and beaming.

Naira called her, and Tatiana went to attend to her chores while Alexander collected his things. “What are you doing?” she asked with a twitch of anxiety when he came outside.

“We’re getting out of here,” he said. “Right now.”

“We are?” A smile lit up her face.

“Yes.”

“I can’t, I have to do laundry. I have to make breakfast.”

“Tania, that’s my point exactly. I have to come before laundry. I have to come before breakfast.” Alexander stared at her.

She backed away. “Look,” she said, “help me. I’ll be done so much faster if you help me.”

“And then you’ll come with me?”

“Yes,” she said, almost inaudibly. But Alexander smiled at her. She knew he had heard.

She made eggs and potatoes for everyone. Alexander gulped down his food and said, “Let’s go do the laundry.”

Quickly he carried the basket of clothes to the river. Tatiana carried the washboard and soap. She could hardly keep up.

“So since when do you make rude jokes in the presence of a whole group of young people?” Alexander asked.

Tatiana shook her head. “Shura, it was just a stupid joke. I didn’t realize it was going to upset you.”

“Yes you did. That’s why you didn’t want to tell it in front of me.”

She ran alongside him. “I didn’t want you to be upset.”

“Why would I be upset? Have I ever been upset by your other jokes?”

Tatiana kept quiet before she answered him because she wanted to figure out what it was that was obviously still niggling him. That the joke was inappropriate? That it was rude? That she told the joke to Vova? To strangers Alexander didn’t know? That it was out of her character? That it didn’t fit in with what he knew about her? Yes, Tatiana decided. It was the last. He brought it up now because he was worried about something. She said nothing until they got to the river. “I barely know what the joke means,” she said.

He glanced at her. “But you know just enough what it means?”

Aha, thought Tatiana. He is worried about me. She didn’t reply, stepping into the water and wetting the washboard and the soap.

Alexander watched her while he smoked. “So how do you keep your white dress from getting wet?”

“The bottom gets a little wet. What?” She blushed. “What are you looking at?”

“The whole dress doesn’t get wet?” He was grinning.

“Well, no. I don’t stand and wash clothes in water up to my neck.”

Stubbing out his cigarette and taking off his shirt and boots, Alexander said, “Here, let me. Just hand me the clothes, will you?”

There was something so endearing and incomprehensible about him, a captain in the Red Army standing knee deep in the Kama, shirtless, his big soapy arms immersed in women’s work, while Tatiana stood dry as gin and handed him dirty clothes. She found it so amusing, in fact, that when she saw him drop a pillowcase in the river and bend to pick it up, she tiptoed up to him and gave him a great shove. Alexander toppled over into the water.

When he came back up, Tatiana was laughing so hard it took her a few seconds to run up the riverbank away from him. Alexander caught her in three strides.

“Not very good balance, big man,” Tatiana said, laughing. “What if I were a Nazi?”

Saying nothing, he carried her to the river.

“No, instantly put me down,” she said, “I’m wearing a nice dress.”

“You are,” he said, flinging her into the water.

She came up soaked. “Now look what you’ve done,” she said, splashing him. “I have nothing to go back in.”

Alexander caught her in his arms and kissed her, lifting her into the air. Tatiana felt them both slipping back, back, back, and they fell in, and when they came up for air, all decorum gone, Tatiana jumped on him to dunk him, but she just didn’t weigh enough to push him down. He threw her off him and held her head for a few seconds underwater while she grabbed for his leg. “Do you give up?” he asked, pulling her head out.

“Never!” she yelped, and he pushed her back down.

“Do you give up?”

“Never!”

Alexander pushed her back down.

After the fourth time, all out of breath, she said, “Wait, the clothes, the clothes!”

The laundry—undergarments, pillowcases—was all floating cheerfully by.

Alexander went after them. Dripping and laughing, Tatiana went back on shore.

He walked out of the water, dropped the clothes on the ground, and came for her. “What?” she said, dizzied by his expression. “What?”

“Look at you,” he said hotly. “Look at your nipples, look at your body in that dress.”

He lifted her. “Wrap your legs around me.”