“Goodbye, Babushka.” I kissed her cheek one more time.
“The two of you, honestly. Your babushka is turning into a lazybones in her old age, and you. I don’t even know what to say about you. Polina, I tell you now, my patience is?—”
She stopped in the doorway.
“Polina?”
Anna came around the bed and sat on the other side of my grandmother’s body.
“Oh, my Polina. No, darling. No. No, not today. Not today. Don’t you do this to me.”She pressed Polina’s hand to her mouth and kissed it like I had. Her shoulders shook, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
Minewere still dry.
“I was not ready for you to go.” She stopped and caught her breath, then began again, quieter. “But I am being selfish. I had you all these years. It’s time for you to be reunited with Mikhail and Pavel and Horatio. You’ve waited long enough, and so have they. You hug them for me and tell them how much I love and miss them.”
“Katarina?” Bishop’s voice came from behind me.
I looked over my shoulder and reached for him. “She’s gone.”
He sat beside me on the bed, put his arms around me, and rested his head against mine.
I closed my eyes, imagining it was my babushka giving me one last hug.
Across the bed, Anna was talking to her like I had. She was telling a story about a summer they had spent at Onteora before Amelia was born. Her voice broke, but she kept talking through it. She mentioned a dress she’d borrowed and never returned. She said Polina had known the whole time and had never asked for it.
The smile remained on my grandmother’s face as if she were still here, listening to her sister-in-law talk.
A few minutes later, Anna leaned over and kissed her forehead and pulled the blanket straight across her chest.
“Sleep well, my darling.”
When she stood, Bishop and I did too.
“I’ll make the calls,” she said.
“I want to help.”
“You’ll sit down, and I’ll make them. There are things a woman my age has learned to do that you haven’t had to yet.”
“Anna—”
“Katarina. Let me.”
When we walked out of the room together, Lyra was coming up the stairs with Henry behind her. She took one look at Anna and stopped.
“Mama? What’s wrong?”
“It’s Polina. She’s gone, sweetheart.”
Lyra came the rest of the way up, and the two women embraced. Henry wrapped his arms around both of them.
“I want to see her,” Lyra said. “To say goodbye.”
“She would likethat,” said Anna.
Lyra went into the room. Henry followed and closed the door behind them.
Anna, Bishop, and I went downstairs.
