Keeping Thyme (Thyme Trilogy) (10 page)

I pull at the bow and the silk falls away from the box. I pick up the sash and hand it back to Tench.

“Better save this for later.” I shove it into his chest and wink.

He looks down at it and his eyes slowly lift to mine. His face remains cold, unresponsive to my suggestion.
I can’t read him
. I lift the top of the box and smooth back the matching red tissue paper inside to find the soft fluffy fur of what was once an animal. Smiling, I gather the Russian Cossack hat in my hands and hold it up.

“It’s the finest Russian shadow fox fur.” Tench says with pride.

The fur is the most beautiful white with tones of silver rimming around the centre. I’m not usually into real furs, but the luxurious feel of this is hard to ignore. I’m glad it’s fox. If it were a feline species I would definitely be having a hard time right now. With that thought, I rub my face into it and think about how much I miss my Flossy cat. Before I cry, I pull it over my head and look back down at the remainder of the fur in the box. Tench pulls the matching coat out and the length of it falls all the way to the ground.

“Wow. That is some coat.” I run my fingers through the soft, grey fur. “You know, I don’t really do fur.” I look up at Tench and try my best not to sound unappreciative.

“It’s Russia. Everyone does fur.” He holds out the coat for me to put on.

The moment the coat wraps around my body, my core temperature rises by at least four degrees. It
does
feel good. I wrap my arms around myself and run my fingers through the fur.

I grin at the sensation of it against my palms. “Thank you. I love it.” I lean into Tench and kiss his soft lips.

“I like it on you. You could easily pass for a Russian, with your beauty.” He smiles genuinely.

I take the coat back off and lay it and the matching hat across the bed, ready for our arrival into Russia.

Tench and I
both make our way into the main cabin area to find the unusual sight of Toni sleeping soundly in the reclined chair. His massive chest rises and falls with each enormous breath he takes. For once, he looks vulnerable and innocent.

Tench looks back at me and lifts his index finger to his lips. I can’t help but feel warmed by the genuine care that Tench has for his protector. He holds my hand delicately and leads me over to the long couch again. He reaches for one of the books that sit on a shelf above the couch and he hands it to me.

Great Expectations
. I smile. Inside I feel torn with the happiness of the moment and saddened by the thought that the man I truly loved wouldn’t have known this about me. Or if he did, I never got to experience a special moment like this with him before he died. I sit next to Tench and flick the book open to chapter twenty-nine, where Pip sees Estella for the first time as adults. It’s my favourite part in the book and I quickly immerse myself into my favourite story. I’m left undisturbed for the remainder of the flight, until Mei-Mei quietly informs us that we have begun our decent into St Petersburg and would I like my coat and hat for alighting the plane.

“Yes, that would be good thanks, Mei-Mei. I can get them though. I’d like to go to the bathroom before we land.” I smile and make my way towards the bedroom’s en suite at the rear of the plane. I hear Toni wake with a mighty roar and stretch out as I move down the corridor. When I come out of the toilet, Mei-Mei is standing beside the bed, holding the coat up for me.

She looks over her shoulder before dipping her head towards me, as if she wants to tell me something quietly. “I have put a note in the left pocket, Agent Thyme. It is the location where we must meet. Don’t worry; Agent Donohue will be there too,” she says in her usual soft voice.

Her words stun me in my spot. I stare her dead in the eye without speaking a word. Did I just hear what I think I heard?

“Thank you,” is the only response I reply with before leaving the room to head back to the main cabin for landing.

CHAPTER TEN

The plane softly
lands and the jet engines wind down. The moment the cabin door is opened a whiff of the sub-zero temperatures outside bite at my cheeks. I pull my hat over my head and raise the fluffy collar of the coat around my neck, then follow Tench down the air-stairs onto the tarmac.

“Thanks for looking after us at the last minute, Mei-Mei,” Tench says as he passes Mei-Mei at the base of the stairs.

She dips her head in respect. “The pleasure is all mine, Mr Tench.” Her sharp almond eyes flick to me. “It was nice to meet you, Miss Miranda.”

I try to stare into her eyes, hoping to see
something
. A whisper of a smile escapes her.

I return a smile. “Thank you, Mei-Mei.”
Really, thank you
.

Toni leads us all to a black Mercedes Vito van with heavily darkened windows. Tench motions for me to get into the back ahead of him, and Toni gets into the front passenger seat in front of me.

“Filipp.” Tench grips onto the driver’s shoulders jovially before he fires off fluent Russian.

The conversation in Russian continues and I feel like I’m out of my depth all of a sudden. Filipp Pavlenko is better looking in person than in the agency’s photographs of him.
Boy, have I hit the ground running with the agency’s top persons of interest
.

Left-hand side driving always throws me off so I watch out the window as we drive away from the tarmac. The airport looks like any other airport in the world until we get to a heavily guarded gate, swarming with men carrying automatic assault rifles. The car slows and Filipp rolls down his window. Toni passes him our passports and Filipp hands them over to a man wearing a military Ushanka hat with the flaps down, covering his ears from the cold night’s air. Another barrage of Russian is spoken between them before Filipp hands over a roll of cash. A torch is shone towards Tench and I in the back of the van. The man in the fluffy Ushanka speaks to us in Russian and Tench responds with a chuckle and nods before saying, “
Spaseeba.
”

Sliding the bundle of cash inside his jacket, the guard nods to Filipp and hands back the passports. We roll through the checkpoint and continue on towards the city of St Petersburg. The country has only just begun its steadied descent into winter, but the temperature is already almost unbearable. The edge of the road is covered in a white layer of snow. I’d hate to experience the middle of winter if this is just the beginning. Billboards line the road and flash by the car window. The harsh industrial characters of the Russian language advertise various products.

It’s dark out, so I can’t quite make out the landscape of the country. The first thing I do notice is the lit up compound of a Russian Orthodox church. The distinctive shape of the bulging round rooftop makes me smile to myself. The bright colours of the church are so magical. It’s my first Russian church sighting, and now I
know
I’m in Russia.

Tench blasts out some Russian to Filipp and soon after the radio comes to life with a broadcast of Beethoven. His
Moonlight Sonata
trills its perfect key as the car follows down the straightest road that I’ve ever come across in any major city. My mind wonders back to the moment I walked into Tench’s mansion on a booking for the first time, and this song was playing. Never did I imagine my life to end up in this city, in this moment, to hear the song once again with Tench but under an entirely different circumstance. The van finally veers left and I set my sights on the heavily lit-up structure of the Moscow Triumphal gate. The huge faded green monumental columns stretch up tall. Statuesque guards watch over the city below like dictating leaders. The entire architectural formation of the gates screams of the city’s communist heritage.

As we continue along the road, the buildings begin to close in until they eventually line the street in a continuous line of endless grand sandstone terraces. We pull up at the lights of the Nevsky Prospect intersection. The power lines above us weave from building to building, encasing us in an intricate web from above. The sidewalks are filled with Russians caught in the
jeans with sneakers
tragedy of east European fashion.

We turn soon turn off Nevsky Prospect into an unassuming side street. Filipp pulls the car into a bricked car park at the front of a hotel that looks more like it belongs on the Upper East Side of New York City than it does in the middle of Russia. Flags from around the world gently swing in the breeze on either side of the long dark-green awning made of iron with glass palings, directing you to the entrance of the hotel. Australia’s flag sits proudly on the end next to Switzerland, and makes me miss home for a moment. They’re a strange set of flags. Australia sits next to Switzerland, Germany and France. On the other side of the awning there hangs the flags of Turkey, the United Kingdom and the Untied States of America, and in the centre of the arching awning, there hangs a crest of red and green. As blown away as I am by the beauty of the entrance, I remain my reserved self.

Just as if Tench has read my mind, he turns to tell me, “The flags out the front represent the countries of the most distinguished guests staying at the hotel.”

I smile. “Let me guess … Australia is for us?”

Tench winks. The old arrogant Tench is well and truly back. He wasn’t like this when he wanted to win me over. Or maybe I took little notice of it before?

The three busboys in matching black and gold-trimmed suits tend to our bags as I take Tench’s outstretched hand and follow him into the lobby of the grand Belmond Hotel. The main foyer is glittering with the highest of society from Russia and around the world. Women seem to drip jewels and almost every man puffs on a fat cigar. I hear a piano playing Tchaikovsky from the upper mezzanine level of the hotel. Tench squeezes my hand as soon as he recognises
Swan Lake
’s dramatic keys on the piano,. I glance in his direction and catch his warm smile. I feel myself smiling back at him out of pure appreciation for the moment.

From the corner of my eye, I see a man in a structured suit with gold trim, almost the same as the other doorman at the front approach me. I turn briskly towards him the moment I feel him nearby.

“I just need to take your coat, ma’am.” His accent it as polite as the harsh accent allows.

I turn my back towards the man and dip to allow him the ease of removing my heavy coat. The attendant holds it out gently, ready for me to hang gracefully over my arm. The coat is linked over my arm once more, and I turn and take hold of Tench again.

I leave my hat on but swish my brown locks over my right shoulder as I walk with Tench. The room feels silent all of a sudden and I feel the eyes within the lobby turn their attention to Tench and I, surrounded by our entourage as we glide through the grand space toward the huge red and gold grand staircase in front of us.

We do not stop to check-in to our room at reception. Filipp offers Tench a subtle nod as we pass. I’m guessing it’s to tell him that it’s all been sorted. We make our way towards the elevator at the top of the stairs. A woman in a body-hugging white turtle-neck dress exits, carrying a fluffy white Persian cat. She looks me up and down before her gaze is locked onto my hat, which strangely resembles the pet within her arms. The jolt of butterflies in my stomach make me feel anxious.

“
Chto eto
something-something.” Or at least, that’s how it sounds to me. But her low Russian accented voice is beautiful and velvety. I have no clue what she just said, and look nervously towards Tench.

He smiles and responds with an equally sexy sentence in Russian.

She quickly removes her gaze from my eyes and dips her head. “Forgive my ignorance. Your fur is amazing, ma’am.” Her sultry voice transcends as sexily in her heavily-accented English as it does in her mother tongue.

I look towards the fluffy white ball of feline clutched within her arms and smile. I wish this were an accepted pastime in Australia. It makes me miss my Flossy.

The thought draws me to the note in the pocket of my fur coat. I must get to Simon and Liz.

Our entourage, fills the elevator and we swiftly arrive on the top floor. Filipp opens the beautifully carved door at the very end of the hall and says, “
Dobro pozhalovat Pavarotti nabor
,” as we pass him.

“Welcome to the Pavarotti suite,” Tench translates.

“Does he speak any English?” I ask Tench as politely as possible.

“A little …” Filipp responds with a smile. “I’m Filipp. You’re Miranda, no? I hear a lot of a talk about you. My cousin here, like you very much.” He grins and holds out his hand.

“Pleased to meet you, Filipp.” I look to Tench, who has his arm wrapped around my waist. “I like your cousin just as much.” I lie and kiss Tench on his hair-covered cheek.

Well, not all of it’s a lie. I do like him in some ways. I have to so that I can stay sane in this process. But I can’t ever forgive him for all the grief he has caused me in my life.

I look around the luxurious room. Rich, heavy fabrics adorn the windows and furniture, in deep reds and expensive gold. A baby grand sits in the middle of the room and another busboy waits patiently next to a tray loaded with buckets of vodka bottles and tins of caviar. I frown at Tench. We’re eating straight away?