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"I might suggest it to Ernie Bevin."
"And I'll put it to George Marshall." Greg sipped his drink. "Vodka is the only thing the Russians do well," he said. "So, how's my sister?"
"She's expecting our second baby."
"What is Daisy like as a mother?"
Lloyd laughed. "You think she's probably terrible."
Greg shrugged. "I never saw her as the domestic type."
"She's patient, calm, and organized."
"She didn't hire six nurses to do all the work?"
"Just one, so that she can come out with me in the evenings, usually to political meetings."
"Wow, she's changed."
"Not completely. She still loves parties. What about you--still single?"
"There's a girl called Nelly Fordham that I'm pretty serious about. And I guess you know that I have a godson."
"Yes," said Lloyd. "Daisy told me all about him. Georgy."
Greg felt sure, from the slightly embarrassed look on Lloyd's face, that he knew Georgy was Greg's child. "I'm very fond of him."
"That's great."
A member of the Russian delegatio
n came up to the bar, and Greg caught his eye. There was something very familiar about him. He was in his thirties, handsome apart from a brutally short military haircut, and he had a slightly intimidating blue-eyed gaze. He nodded in a friendly way, and Greg said: "Have we met before?"
"Perhaps," the Russian said. "I was at school in Germany--the Berlin Boys' Academy."
Greg shook his head. "Ever been to the States?"
"No."
Lloyd said: "This is the guy with the same surname as you, Volodya Peshkov."
Greg introduced himself. "We might be related. My father, Lev Peshkov, emigrated in 1914, leaving behind a pregnant girlfriend, who then married his older brother, Grigori Peshkov. Could we be half brothers?"
Volodya's manner altered immediately. "Definitely not," he said. "Excuse me." He left the bar without buying a drink.
"That was abrupt," Greg said to Lloyd.
"It was," said Lloyd.
"He looked kind of shocked."
"It must have been something you said."
iii
It could not be true, Volodya told himself.
Greg claimed that Grigori had married a girl who was already pregnant by Lev. If that was the case, the man Volodya had always called Father was not his father but his uncle.
