Read Online The Concubine's Secret by Kate Furnivall - Free Book Online Page B

her fingers, adjusted the angle of her hat, then with expressionless eyes she studied the wretched line of prisoners. She murmured something to one of the uniforms and instantly a small black umbrella was produced for her. She accepted it but held it too high above her head, indifferent to the sleet streaming in under it.
    Lydia took a deep breath. She had a few brief seconds, a minute at most. No longer, before the train moved on. The soldier had his hand on the door, ready to slam it shut.
    ‘Antonina!’ she called.
    The pair of deep-set eyes turned towards her, narrowed against the rain, and she gave a faint nod of recognition.
    The soldier started to shut the carriage door. ‘Move back there.’
    Lydia didn’t move. ‘Antonina,’ she called again.
    With neat unhurried steps, the dove-grey boots crossed the wet platform and Antonina stood in front of her, appearing small from Lydia’s view high up on the steps of the train. The soldier moved away instantly with a smart salute. Clearly he knew who this woman was. In her furs and her carmine lipstick she looked much less approachable than in her burgundy dressing gown.
    Lydia tried a friendly smile but the only response was a distant little grimace.
    ‘Before you even ask, young comrade,’ the woman said briskly, ‘the answer is no.’
    ‘The answer to what?’
    ‘To your question.’
    ‘I haven’t asked a question.’
    ‘But you were going to.’
    Lydia said nothing.
    ‘Weren’t you?’ Antonina tipped back her umbrella and gave Lydia a long scrutiny, her beautifully groomed eyebrows arching into a mocking curve. ‘Yes, I can see you were.’
    Her manner rattled Lydia. It was dismissive, it made her feel clumsy and childish. She wasn’t sure of her footing any more. There was something so sleek and slippery about this woman today that Lydia could feel herself sliding off with nothing to hold on to.
    ‘I just wanted to say goodbye,’ she murmured.
    ‘ Do svidania , comrade.’
    ‘And…’
    ‘And what?’
    ‘And yes,… you are right. I want to ask something.’
    ‘Everyone always wants to ask me for something.’ Her dark gaze slid off to where the prisoners on the platform had bunched up, awaiting further orders. Their hair was plastered to their heads by the incessant rain and the man who had been sobbing noisily was quiet now, his face in his hands, his shoulders trembling.
    Lydia looked away this time. It was too much.
    ‘Everyone,’ Antonina continued in a voice that sounded amused, though her eyes were sad and serious, ‘wants me to convey a parcel, to pass on a message, to beg my husband, the Commandant, for this or that for their loved one.’
    Lydia shifted uneasily on the steps. ‘Mistakes are sometimes made,’ she said. ‘Not everyone is guilty.’
    The woman gave a short hard laugh. ‘The OGPU decisions are always right.’
    Time was running out.
    Lydia said quickly, ‘I am searching for someone.’
    ‘Isn’t everybody?’
    ‘His name is Jens Friis. He was captured in 1917 but he shouldn’t be in a Russian prison at all because he’s Danish. I just need to know if he’s here in this camp. That’s all. Nothing more. To hear that…’
    The woman’s eyes turned to her, smooth and cold as black ice, but the palms of her pale leather gloves were fretting against each other fiercely. She noticed the way Lydia glanced at them and for the first time she smiled, a small, angry smile, but still a smile.
    ‘Is this man your lover?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘So what is he to you?’
    ‘Please, Antonina? Pozhalusta? ’ Lydia said in a rush and climbed down one step in her eagerness. The guard nearby was moving closer. ‘All I need is just one word from you.’
    The train suddenly shuddered beneath her and heaved a great sigh, sending steam billowing down the platform. For one startling moment, the Commandant’s wife was enveloped in a cloud that obscured everything but her two hands in their ceaseless motion. When the steam cleared,