Innocent in the Ivory Tower

‘I didn’t know,’ she said heavily.

Ivanka smiled, looking at her curiously. ‘He hasn’t told you? I’m not surprised. I didn’t get the entire story for a year—a full year, might I add—into my marriage. It took me a difficult pregnancy to get it out of Valery. And Alexei’s a whole different kettle of fish. Need-to-know basis.’

‘I need to know.’ Maisy tried to sit up, but Ivanka laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.

‘Lie still. You’ll only feel worse. Here’s the deal. The boys met up in an orphanage as kids. You can’t know what Russian orphanages are like, Maisy. It’s not like here or in England. It’s pretty primitive. The story goes Alexei broke them out and the boys lived independently on the city streets, sleeping in parks, cemeteries, anywhere they could. Basements of public buildings in the long winters.’

Maisy did sit up now. ‘But what about the authorities? Wasn’t anything done?’

‘No one cared, Maisy. Homeless children are everywhere in my country. Valery says if it wasn’t for Alexei they’d all be dead. He had that “survival of the fittest” instinct even at eight.’

‘Eight?’ Maisy framed the word, not quite believing it. ‘And no parents?’

‘Oh, Alexei had parents. I think that’s what made him as tough as he is. His father took off when he was very young, and his mother just came home one day and told him she was going on a little break for a few days and would be back for him. She never came.’

‘What happened to her?’ Maisy asked, aware she wasn’t going to like the answer.

‘Who knows? Probably a new man, a better opportunity. She’d have been finding it hard to ply her trade with a seven-year-old boy around her neck.’

‘Her trade?’

‘She was a prostitute.’

Maisy suddenly really didn’t want to be having this conversation with Ivanka. She didn’t know her. She knew Alexei would consider what she was doing a betrayal, but what choice did she have if he wouldn’t talk to her about any of this?

His mother had abandoned him. A seven-year-old. Instantly a much younger Alexei flashed into her mind—a little boy with innocent blue eyes and long lashes and a frail child’s body, trying to survive those Russian winters without anyone to protect him. It was that stark. And it suddenly made absolute sense that he would storm Lantern Square with a truckload of security. He was doing for Kostya what nobody had done for him.

‘How did they survive?’

‘Cunning, street smarts, not knowing anything else.’ Ivanka gave a little shrug, but Maisy could see how much it affected the other woman to talk about it. ‘Valery and Stiva ended up back in an institution, but then Alexei and Leo got lucky. The Kulikovs took them in. They made Leo their son.’

‘And Alexei?’

‘They had other children. It was decided Alexei was too far gone. He’d be a bad influence.’ Ivanka spoke matter-of-factly. ‘He was running a cigarette scam for a local crime boss by the time he was eleven, Maisy. I don’t blame Marfa Kulikov one bit. But she always opened up her home to the boys on holidays, gave them all a break from the relentlessness of their lives. Probably saved Alexei’s life. I know for a fact he still lights a candle for her on her saint’s day.’

Something hard and fast lodged in Maisy’s chest.

‘But Alexei’s always been the smart one. He knew he’d end up getting swept into some serious violence if he didn’t find something legit. That’s when he got the boys organised with the boats. He started up a boat-hire business when he was fifteen on Lake Ladoga. It gave all four of them their start. None of them have done too badly.’

‘I don’t know what to say,’ was all Maisy could murmur.

‘Just don’t tell Alexei I spilled. It would cause all sorts of problems between him and Valery. Leo’s death has hit them all hard, but Alexei hardest. They were the closest, those two. I always got the impression Alexei looked after Leo, but Leo gave Aloyshia the emotional support he needed and didn’t get elsewhere.’

Aloyshia. Maisy flinched at the casual affection in that name. Years. He had known these people for years. They were his blood and his bone, his family. These were the people he confided in.

He had told her nothing. But then, she hadn’t asked.

‘Now, before we both start crying, how is little Kostya? I’m dying to see him. Whenever we saw Anais and Leo he was never with them. I suspect he was at home with you.’

‘Yes, I looked after Kostya for two years.’ Maisy didn’t see the point of evading the truth.