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his blessings.
    Nikolai woke a little after seven to the rich smell of fresh coffee and the sharp insistent tug of tiny fingers on his left earlobe. “Daddy! Daddy! Look, look, look, look, look!”
    He shook away the remnants of sleep and turned in the direction of the pain. Satisfied that she had her father’s attention, Larisa let go her grip on his ear and thrust something large, brown and woolly into his face. Niko drew back, blinking to focus, and came eye to uncomfortable eye with Boris the Bear, resplendent in drop earrings, two strands of pearls and a small pink tutu that appeared uncomfortably tight on his ample waist. Boris seemed to be looking decidedly uneasy.
    “Look, Daddy!” Larisa insisted. “Boris is going out.”
    Nikolai looked, not at Boris, but at his daughter. At the perfect oval of her face, her long silken hair – already as dark and lustrous as her mother’s – and the impenetrable depth of her almost black eyes. He smiled and ran a hand across her forehead.
    ‘So I see,” he nodded seriously. “And you’d better keep your eye on him. Dressed like that you never know what he might pick up.” He looked at the bear again. Could have sworn Boris was glaring at him.
    Natalia’s voice reached them from along the corridor. “Larisa, leave your father be. He’s tired. And hurry up or you’ll be late. Aunt Raisa will be here any minute.”
    “Okay, Mummy,” Larisa called. She started to trot away, then stopped abruptly, turned and hurried back to the bed, set Boris down on the bedclothes, threw her hands around Niko’s neck in a giant hug, then plucked up the unfortunate bear and pattered off with him again. Nikolai shuffled upright as Natalia appeared in the doorway. She was wearing one of his shirts, three buttons open, cuffs turned back, a preview of her long slender thighs available to the point where they disappeared beneath the hem of the striped, cotton fabric. She propped against the architrave, smiling, dangling Larisa’s small pink rucksack from one hand, using the other to toss back a lick of dark hair that had fallen forward across her eyes. She lifted her chin, a fraction of a nod directed back over her shoulder.
    “Raisa from downstairs is taking her to the markets. Back at lunchtime.” Her tongue teased her upper lip. ‘Seeing it’s our anniversary, I thought you might like…” The sharp trill of the buzzer from the hall cut her off.
    “Mummy, Mummy!” Larisa’s tiny feet began stuttering back along the corridor. “Raisa’s here. Raisa’s here!”
    Natalia called across her shoulder. “Coming, darling.” She turned back to Nikolai, picking up where she’d left off… “You know.” Her eyes slid down to the shopping bag that still sat on the floor inside the door. Nikolai’s gaze followed.
    “Know what?” he answered hesitantly.
    Natalia raised her eyebrows, gave a little shrug. “A private showing?”
    The buzzer rang again, followed a second later by another insistent, high-pitched demand from Larisa.
    “Mummy! Come at once or I’ll be late!”
    Natalia rolled her eyes again and called back with an indulgent voice.
    “Coming, Larisa.”
    She began to turn then stopped and reached into the pocket of her shirt. “Oh, by the way,” her slender fingers withdrew, clasping a tiny package, “This is for you.” She lobbed it lightly across the room towards him and his hand shot up instinctively, clutching it from the air. When he looked back again Natalia had gone.
    She returned a few minutes later, carrying a tray of coffee and rolls and set it down on one of the bedside tables, all the time watching Nikolai for his reaction. He was holding the small gold crucifix in the palm of his hand, soothing the fine engraving with his fingers, the wrapping from the tiny package discarded beside him.
    Natalia settled cross-legged on the bed and looked at him. “Do you like it?” She seemed anxious. “I mean, I know you’re not really a religious person, but it