Snegurochka by Judith Heneghan (best ebook reader for laptop .TXT) 📕

shows Rachel with her eyes half shut sitting next to Karl and Teddy on the bed at Lucas’s birthday party.

‘It’s a nice idea,’ murmurs Rachel, as she glances along the row and sees a picture of Lucas, smiling through a cloud of cigarette smoke, one arm around Teddy, the other round Vee. What was it Lucas told her they used to call themselves? The Troika.

Rachel, having assumed the dress code for the night would be ‘expensively understated’, is wearing the jeans she bought with her credit card and a pale blue shirt she has carefully ironed. Tonight, however, Vee is wearing a low-cut dress made from some silky, stretchy material that clings to her hips and shows off the creamy lustre of her breasts. Lucas keeps glancing towards her as he chats to Karl beneath a triangle of Vee and Teddy pouting at the camera.

Vee has dragged her kitchen table through to the bed-­sitting room. Rachel looks in and sees candles and linen napkins and counts places laid for eight. The doorbell rings. Vee’s other guests have arrived, and Rachel is surprised to find she recognises all three of them: Sorin, Dr Alleyn from the embassy, and Viktor Lukyanenko, the young film director, who pulls Vee close and kisses her on the mouth.

* * *

Vee serves black caviar with the bottle of proper champagne that Sorin has presented to her. Rachel, squeezed between Teddy and Dr Alleyn, isn’t feeling very hungry. She needn’t have come, she thinks. Vee has moved on to someone else. Her husband, sitting opposite her between Karl and Lukyanenko, looks wary in the glow of the candlelight. For a moment she pities him.

‘Our hostess is spoiling us!’ stage-whispers Teddy, as he scoops up a spoonful of the sticky beluga eggs and smears them across a freshly-made buckwheat blini.

‘Ah, but I have a friendly supplier who gives me a discount,’ laughs Vee.

Dr Alleyn raises an eyebrow. ‘Of course you do,’ he says, to no one in particular.

‘Well, I should like to raise a toast to these intrepid adventurers – Teddy and Karl!’ says Sorin from the end of the table, waving his glass.

‘To Teddy and Karl!’ repeat the others. ‘Nazdarovye!’

The main course is a platter of fresh perch along with baby potatoes and herb butter. Wine and vodka appear, and before long the table has divided into separate conversations all happening at once. Dr Alleyn talks to Sorin about isotopes and river contamination. Teddy tells Rachel about Bosnia, and how he and Karl hope to get into Sarajevo, despite the fact that it is under continual bombardment.

‘There’s a tunnel,’ Teddy says. ‘From UN-controlled territory right into the city. Paid for with cigarettes, I heard.’

‘But it’s too dangerous, surely?’ asks Rachel, as she picks through the fish on her plate. She thinks of the mortar bombs and the weeping women and skeletal men she has seen on the news.

‘Maybe,’ says Teddy, serious for a moment. ‘But I’d rather take my chances there than get my head smashed in by some queer-basher down by the Dnieper.’

Rachel is shocked. ‘Has something happened?’ she asks.

‘No,’ says Teddy, though his glance over to Karl makes her wonder. Karl is quiet tonight, which isn’t unusual, but now she sees how one side of his face is slightly yellow. He seems to be holding himself in, his left arm crossed over his chest. She draws a deep breath, ready to probe further.

‘Shh,’ whispers Teddy, watching her carefully, holding a finger to his lips. ‘Out of the frame, remember?’

Lucas seems to be getting into a discussion with Vee and Lukyanenko about the film industry and the progress of his feature. Lukyanenko is talking about financing, his face serious, his tone sombre, yet he is holding Vee’s hand and they are pushing against each other’s thumbs, each bending the other’s back with real force. Suddenly Lukyanenko’s thumb gives way and he laughs.

‘What’s funny?’ asks Lucas, clearly unsettled.

Lukyanenko sits back; he is now caressing Vee’s fingers. He isn’t the kind of man Rachel expects Vee to choose as a partner. His face is too pointed, his head too small; but his expression is intense, and Rachel finds herself staring.

‘Everything is funny,’ he says, looking round the table. ‘I am here, eating dinner, sitting next to my – ah, that phrase – “whip-ass” girlfriend. Yet my movie is very far from secure. Everything is paid for – wages, post-production, PR -’ he nods at Sorin – ‘yet I depend on the . . . protection of my backers to ensure the film is released and is shown in our cinemas. Now I have a problem. Someone is making threats.’

‘Who?’ asks Lucas quickly.

Vee leans back and studies Lucas from behind Lukyanenko’s head. ‘See there’s the real story, Lucas. Haven’t I always said so? It’s not the production you should be interested in, but the money flow, the gate-keepers . . . I know a guy with a white goods store. Nothing too fancy – take a look at his sort if you want to dig deep. He’s connected, all the way. Not even Sorin here can touch him!’

Sorin is grinning, uncomfortable, but Lucas looks horrified. ‘The film will be distributed, won’t it? On general release? The premiere—’

Lukyanenko turns to him and now there is no trace of irony. ‘I want you to have your story,’ he says. ‘Good for you, good for my movie, good for our industry. You will come to the premiere, I think, and I hope you bring your wife, though maybe not your little boy, whose performance I remember at the sound stage!’

‘Oh God!’ Vee laughs, offering cigarettes around the table. ‘The kid’s adorable, but what a responsibility! Rachel has managed amazingly with him here.’ Her eyes fix on Rachel in the candlelight. ‘Gotta love him, but it’s great you found a babysitter. It must be quite a deal, leaving him for the first time.’ She raises her glass, still holding Rachel’s stare. ‘Now it’s my turn to make a toast. To all moms. To Rachel!’

‘To Rachel!’ echoes Teddy, then Karl