Makari’s image sat on my nightstand.
All those years ago when Vadim gave me that gift, I never could have imagined how our family would grow.
The initial shock of finding out I was pregnant again had left me speechless.
The breeding bench.
I shook my head even as Nikolai gave up playing under the covers to give me a hug. Alexei crawled after him and began to climb on top of me before Vadim caught him.
“He isn’t that heavy,” I said.
But I knew that look. As soon as Nikolai was born he had increased the household staff. He left me to hire the nanny and although I’d been reluctant at the time, Darya was perfect for our family.
After the children had their time to play and cuddle, Vadim gathered them up and took them downstairs. I heard their chatter trailing down the hallway. The room fell completely silent but for the occasional birdcall beyond the windows.
Sundays were my day off. Vadim, his men, Darya and Olya were on duty. After my year-long maternity leave with Runa I never did go back to my online job. Raising our children was a full-time occupation and the most fulfilling one I’d ever had.
I reached for my iPad to catch up on the latest crime podcast.
It was still best to keep the brain active.
??????
“Look at them. How could you not want another one?” Vadim whispered to me.
The church was full—the warm press of bodies, the scent of candle wax and old wood and the faint sweetness of someone’s perfume drifting from the pew ahead. Light filtered through the stained glass and threw fragments of colour across the stone floor. The low murmur of conversation moved through the congregation like a current, punctuated by the occasional shuffle of feet and the rustling of good coats being straightened.
I glanced at the children playing together near the front. Flashes of the girls’dusky pink dresses caught my eye before Nikolai’s dark navy suit came into view. Galina’s son was there too, and a few of the men’s children running between the pews with the complete disregard for sacred spaces that only the very young could get away with.
I turned to take Alexei from him.
“It’s Konstantin’s turn,” I said, clapping my hands before holding my arms out.“Come to mama.”
He dove into them, freeing Vadim to go and stand beside his brother.
I fixed Alexei’s little bow as the first voices of the choir rose from somewhere near the altar—low and resonant, filling the vaulted space from floor to ceiling. The congregation settled into the kind of stillness that only a church could produce. Expectant. Collective. Held.
It was the same church where we said our vows. The same priest who was about to perform the ceremony. But this wasn’t an arranged marriage and there was no contract. I almost snorted at that.
Vadim might think he was in control.
But I was the silent puppet master in the background.
How else had women survived since the beginning of time?
Vadim
There were too many people in the church and it was difficult to keep my eyes on all of them. My men were posted inside and outside. That should have been enough, but it wasn’t. Iskra stood within my eye line. She smiled.
Just as the bride entered the church, I remembered how I’d dismissed Iskra on our wedding day. In all my ego and arrogance I had forgotten that the strongest piece on a chessboard was the queen.
The one piece you had to protect at all costs.
Our eyes met again.
She knew.
She always had.
