“And it leads somewhere,” said Katarina.
“Yes.” Mercury straightened. “It certainly does.”
By midafternoon,I’d been staring at the Romanov board long enough that the connections had stopped resolving into anything useful, so I took a break and went outside.
The air was cold but would clear my head. Off to my right, a little ways up the hillside and shrouded by trees, there was a cottage I hadn’t noticed before. Anna was standing with her hand on the porch rail. Julian was beside her. She chuckled when he said something that made her shake her head. They looked more like old friends than property owner and caretaker.
When I turned to go into the building, I saw Mercury standing on the covered pathway, looking out at the lake.
I stood beside her. “Everything okay?” I asked.
She turned to face me. “I’ve been a part of Katarina’s life since she was born,” she began. “In all that time, I’ve never once seen her reach for something she wanted. Not for herself. She’s reaching for you.”
“I know,” I said.
“You need to understand the weight of that responsibility. It will not be easy to carry.”
“I promise you, I do understand, and it’s easier than you think.”
Her eyes were riveted to mine. “Do you love her?”
Did I? On some level, I did even though we’d barely scratched the surface of our relationship. “I care very much for her,” I responded honestly.
She put her hand on my forearm and squeezed. “That’s a good start.”
The main campsmelled like roast chicken when we came in for dinner. Anna had been cooking all afternoon. Everyone was invited, and the conversation and laughter stretched into dessert. The best moment was a story Katarina told about her first winter in Lausanne that made Polina laugh quietly into her napkin.
After we cleaned the kitchen, I leaned against the counter and looked at her.
“Move your things to Ohkwari,” I said.
She set the dish towel down. “Um. Okay.”
We went upstairs, and I pulled her bag from under the bed and opened it on the mattress. She told mewhat to take from the drawers, and I packed while she managed the bathroom herself, one-handed, then returned with what she needed. I added it to the bag and zipped it.
“Is that everything?” I asked.
“I travel light.”
The pathbetween the main camp and Ohkwari ran through a stand of birch. The cold came off the lake through the trees, and the loons were calling out on the water.
“Do they do that all night?” she asked.
“Most of it.”
“I kind of like it,” she said.
Inside, I set the bag on the chair. She told me where things went, and I put them there. Clothes went on the left side of the wardrobe, the compass on the nightstand. In the bathroom, I moved my stuff out of the way, and she arranged hers.
When everything had a place, she sat on the edge of the bed, and I sat beside her.
“Anna wants us to bring the Thanksgiving stuff up from the basement tomorrow,” I said.
“What Thanksgiving stuff?”
I shrugged. “That’s just what she said.”
“We never celebrated in Lausanne.”
