Nick left his hand suspended for a moment, as if he’d felt it, too. A perplexed look flashed across his face so fast that Cassie couldn’t be sure she saw it before his signature grin reappeared. He offered his hand up to Birdie for a high five, and surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, given her sudden affection for him, she responded with a resounding smack and a wide smile.
He paused, then bent over and picked something up off the floor. “Oh, I missed this one.”
Cassie stepped closer and peered down at the short note. “I’ve never seen this. Maybe Bobby dropped it when she was sitting here. Looks like someone spilled coffee on it.” A dark brown stain leeched across the yellowed paper, nearly marring the words.
Nick read the note aloud:
“You’re so beautiful when you sleep that I couldn’t bear to wake you. I love you. I’ll see you soon. P.”
“Wow.” Cassie’s hand fluttered to her chest in a vain attempt to quell the sudden ache piercing her heart. Henry had been romantic like that, always leaving little messages around the house for her to find throughout the day. “I wonder who ‘P’ is.”
Nick held the paper up to his face and squinted. “I don’t know, but this isn’t a coffee stain. I think it’s blood.”
12
KATYA
Ukraine, March 1931
Normally, a bride moved in with the groom’s family after a wedding, but with their extenuating circumstances and no further information on Tato’s fate, the family had decided that Alina and Kolya would move to his parents’ farm and Pavlo and Katya would stay with Mama.
They went on, existing in a state of borrowed happiness mixed with grief and fear. Katya never stopped thinking about Tato, worrying if he was safe, if he was alive, but she reveled in her new role as wife to Pavlo. To be free to touch and talk to him anytime she pleased fulfilled her in ways she’d never anticipated. Marriage to him was everything she’d dreamed. She tried her best to focus on that and forget that, in every other sense, their lives had changed drastically for the worse.
“Katya, we need to talk.” Pavlo touched her arm as she walked by with an armful of hay for the evening feeding of the livestock.
“About what?” Katya unloaded the hay into the cow’s manger and gave her a scratch on her head.
“I’m leaving.”
Katya’s hand jerked back from the cow, who blinked up at her, then continued chewing.
“What do you mean you’re leaving? For where?” She whirled and glared up at him.
“I talked to my cousin from the next village over. They’re trying to put together a resistance, and I want to be a part of it.”
“But you’re not even completely healed.” She touched his wounded shoulder tenderly, and then punched his healthy one. “What are you thinking? You’ll be no help to them when you’re injured.”
“I’m nearly well, and you know it. I’ve been working like I used to. I’m plenty strong enough to wield a weapon and fight.”
“And what about me?” She hated the pleading tone that had taken root in her voice, but she could no more control it than she could the tears that had sprung to her eyes. “You can walk away from me just like that?”
“No, Katya, it will never be easy to walk away from you.” He took her face in his hands. “You are my life, my love. But, if we don’t fight, then what will become of us? You said yourself that we should fight back. Don’t you remember that? If this works, then I can try to rally the people here to do the same.”
She threw her hands up in defeat. “That was before they took everything from us.”
“Not everything, my love.” He kissed her then, salty tears flavoring their lips until she wrenched away. He took her hand. “Please understand, Katya. I have to fight, or what kind of life can we look forward to?”
“Take me with you,” she begged. “I can fight, too. You know I can!”
“We need you here to work on the farm. Alina and Kolya can’t manage both places on their own, and your mother needs you more than ever.”
Katya gripped his arms. “I almost lost you once. What if this time I really do lose you? How will I go on? Have you thought about that? What will happen to me then?”
He stroked her cheek, infuriating her and soothing her all at the same time. “Katya, you are the strongest woman I know. No matter what happens to me, you’ll be fine. I know that, deep in my soul. Here, I got you something.”