“No heat,” replied Tatiana. She was still wearing her nurse’s uniform, and her hair was tied back in a nurse’s white head kerchief.

“So, Tania, tell me—how have you been? You look good,” Dimitri said. “You don’t look like a girl anymore.” He smiled. “You look like a young woman. You look older.”

“Enough things happen to you,” said Tatiana, “and you almost can’t help it.”

“You look very good. This war agrees with you.” Dimitri smiled. “You’ve gained weight since I saw you last—”

Tatiana leveled a look at him that stopped him. “Dimitri,” she said quietly, “last time you saw me, I was in Kobona, asking for your help to bury my sister. Maybe you’ve forgotten. But I haven’t.”

“Tania, oh, I know,” he said, with a casual drift of his hand. “We just completely lost touch. But I never stopped thinking about you. I’m glad you made it out of Kobona. Many people didn’t.”

“My sister, for one.” Tatiana wanted to ask how in the world could he have looked Alexander in the face and lied about Dasha, but Tatiana could not bear to say her husband’s name in front of Dimitri.

“I’m sorry about your sister,” Dimitri said. “My parents died, too. So I know how you feel.” Dimitri paused. Tatiana waited. Waited for him to finish eating and leave.

“How did you get back to Leningrad?” Dimitri asked her.

Tatiana told him.

But she didn’t want to talk about herself. She didn’t want to talk about anything. Where was Dasha, where was Alexander, where were Mama and Papa, surrounding Tatiana so she wouldn’t have to sit in the room alone with Dimitri?

Taking a deep breath, Tatiana asked him what he was doing with himself, now that he looked to be permanently injured.

“I’m a runner. Do you know what that is?”

Tatiana knew what a runner was. But she shook her head. If he was talking about himself, he was not asking her questions.

“I get supplies for the front lines and for the rear units from trucks, from planes, from ships, and I distribute them around—”

“Where do you distribute them? Here in Leningrad?” she asked.

“Here, yes. Also to various delivery points on this side of the Neva. And to the Karelian side near Finland.” Glancing at her sideways, Dimitri said, “Do you see why I’m so unhappy?”

“Of course I do,” Tatiana said. “The war is dangerous. You don’t want to be in this war.”

“I don’t want to be in this country,” Dimitri mumbled, barely heard.

But heard.

“Did you say you deliver to the Finnish line?” she asked, her voice fading with her strength.

“Yes, to the border troops on the Karelian Isthmus. I also deliver to our new headquarters for the Neva operations in Morozovo. The command post was built there, while we plan our next move—”

“Where on the Karelian Isthmus?”

“I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of a place called Lisiy Nos…”

“I’ve heard of it,” Tatiana said, holding on to the arm of the couch.

“There.” Dimitri smiled. “I also bring supplies on foot from quarters to quarters. Do you know, Tania, I even bring in supplies for the generals!” he said, raising his eyebrows.

“Oh, yes?” she said, barely listening. “Anyone interesting?”

Lowering his voice, Dimitri said, “I’m getting to be quite friendly with General Mekhlis.” He laughed with satisfaction. “I bring him paper, pens, plus if I get anything extra—if you get my meaning—I bring it to him. Never ask him to pay me. Cigarettes, vodka, all goes to him. He quite looks forward to my visits.”

“Oh?” Tatiana said. She had no idea who Mekhlis was. “Mekhlis… what army does he command?”

“Tania, are you joking?”

“No. Why would I joke?” Tatiana was exhausted.

In a gleeful whisper Dimitri said, “Mekhlis commands the NKVD army!” Lowering his voice, he said, “He is Beria’s right-hand man!” Lavrenti Beria was Stalin’s People’s Commissar of the NKVD.

Tatiana had been afraid of bombs once, and of hunger, and of death. She was afraid once of being lost in the woods. And once she was afraid of a human being wanting to do her harm for no reason other than to do her harm.

The harm was the means and the end.

Tonight Tatiana wasn’t afraid for herself.

But studying Dimitri’s depraved, ominously insinuating face, she was afraid for Alexander.

Before tonight she had felt twinges of remorse about leaving Lazarevo and reneging on what had been a heartfelt promise to her husband. But now she became convinced that Alexander didn’t just need her closer to him, he needed her more than even she herself had thought possible.

Someone had to protect Alexander—not just from random death, no, but from deliberate destruction.

Without moving, without blinking, without flinching, Tatiana studied Dimitri.

She watched him put down his cup and move closer on the couch to her. Then she blinked and came out of her thoughts. “What are you doing?”

“I can tell, Tania,” Dimitri said. “You are not a child anymore.”

She did not move a muscle as he moved closer still.

“Inga and Stan out there told me you are working so much that they are convinced you are seeing a doctor at the hospital. Is that true?”

“If Inga and Stan told you, then it must be,” Tatiana said. “The Communists never lie, Dimitri.”

Nodding, Dimitri moved closer.

“What are you doing?” Tatiana got up off the couch. “Listen, it’s getting late.”

“Tania, come on. You’re lonely. I’m lonely. I hate my life, hate every minute of every day of it. Do you feel like that sometimes?”

Only tonight, Tatiana thought. “No, Dima. I’m fine. I have a good life, all things considered. I’m working, the hospital needs me, my patients need me. I’m alive. I have food.”

“Tania, but you must be so lonely.”

“How can I be lonely?” she said. “I’m constantly surrounded by people. And I thought I was seeing a doctor? Listen, let’s stop this. It’s late.”

He got up and made a move toward her. Tatiana put out her hands. “Dimitri, that’s all over. I’m not the one for you.” She stared at him pointedly. “And you’ve always known that, yet you’ve always been quite persistent. Why?”

With an easy laugh, Dimitri said, “Maybe I had been hoping, dear Tania, that the love of a good young woman like yourself would redeem a rogue like me.”

Tatiana leveled her cold gaze on him. “I’m glad to hear,” she said at last, “that you don’t think you’re beyond redemption.”

He laughed again. “Oh, but I am, Tania,” he said. “I am. Because I didn’t have the love of a good young woman like you.” He stopped laughing and raised his eyes to her. “But who did?” he said quietly.

Tatiana didn’t reply, standing in the place where the dining room table used to be, before Alexander sawed it to pieces for her and Dasha to use as firewood. So many ghosts in one small, dark room. It was almost as if the room were still crowded with feeling, with want, with hunger.

Dimitri’s eyes flashed. “I don’t understand,” he said loudly. “Why did you come to the barracks asking for me? I thought this was what you wanted. Are you just trying to lead me on? To tease me?” He raised his voice, far beyond the levels these walls could contain. He came closer. “Because in the army we have a word for girls who tease us.” He laughed. “We call them mothers.”

“Dima, is that what you think? That I’m a tease? You think that’s me, the girl who wants one thing and pretends she wants another? Is that me?”

He grumbled without replying.

“I thought so,” said Tatiana. “I’ve been very clear with you right from the start. I came to the barracks asking for you, for Marazov. I just wanted to see a familiar face.” Tatiana wasn’t going to back down, though inside she was cold and far away from him.

“Did you ask for Alexander, too, perhaps?” Dimitri asked. “Because if you did, you know, you wouldn’t find him at the garrison. Alexander would be either up in Morozovo, if he was on duty, or in every knocking joint in Leningrad, if he wasn’t.”