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Soon the plane lands, touching down smoothly on the tarmac. Within twenty minutes, the customs officer has been on board, checked our passports, and the captain’s flight paperwork, then disembarked after finding everything in order. In no time we’re taking off again. I go to take my seat belt off.
“Unless you’re planning on moving around, I wouldn’t bother,” Alex smiles, nodding to my seat belt. “We’ll be in the air less than fifteen minutes.”
“How long would it have taken if we drove from the airport?” I ask, not heeding his advice and leaving my seat belt open.
Alex shrugs. “At least a couple of hours, especially with the early evening traffic.”
I look out of the window as we leave the city behind. Through the wispy clouds, I can see we’re moving across beautiful, rolling countryside. It seems like the summer fields are every shade of green imaginable.
Gloria comes flitting in again to tell us we’ll be landing at our final destination within the next couple of minutes. She checks our seat belts again, then moves away.
I keep looking out of the window, watching as the ground seems to start moving up to meet us. This part of the country really is stunningly beautiful. I can’t see a town or even a house anywhere and I imagine how beautiful this place will look in the winter, covered by a white blanket of snow.
I can’t keep the smile off my face as excitement starts to grip me. As my mother would say, I am now officially on an adventure.
Alex seems completely unmoved by the beautiful scenery. He doesn’t even attempt to move closer to the window for a better view. I look at him curiously and he stares back questioningly.
“It’s so beautiful,” I enthuse. “Are you that blasé about it?”
“Yes, it is beautiful, but I’ve seen it all a thousand times. I grew up here.”
“Ah, your parents lived here too?”
His face clouds over for a second and I realize he’s never really mentioned his parents before. I hope I haven’t forced him into revealing anything he doesn’t want to.
“Yes. We all lived here together when I was growing up. My parents died when I was fourteen … a helicopter accident. My grandmother passed away soon after I was born so my great aunt was always babushka to me, that’s Russian for grandmother. Once I became an orphan she raised me.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“It was a long time ago,” he replies automatically, as if he had repeated that polite, overused, meaningless line a thousand times to a thousand people.
“What was it like growing up here?” I ask, trying to change the subject without making it too obvious.
“Perfect.” He smiles. “All of this land you can see now belongs to my aunt, so as you can imagine, we were never short of outdoors space. We, my cousins and I, spent all our time out on the land, mostly riding.”
“You had horses?” I ask eagerly. “Horses are my favorite animal. I’ve loved them ever since I saw Black Beauty, but ponies are for rich girls and my parents were strictly working class and proud of it. My father worked at building sites and read The Sun newspapers, and my mother cleaned houses and still smells faintly of bleach and disinfectant.”
Alex nods. “Yes, beautiful Arabian horses. I’ll take you down to the stables tomorrow if you’d like to see them.”
“Oh, I’d love to,” I cry eagerly.
He jerks his chin towards the window. “There’s Winter House now.”
Cindy
I turn my head and gasp as the house comes into view. Well, calling such place a house is like calling China a village. It’s absolutely massive and mostly white, but with small areas painted with baby blue. The mansion stands out against the greenery around, seeming to almost shine with splendor, like something out of a fairytale. As much as it stands out, it doesn’t look out of place. Somehow, it blends into the landscape as if it’s as much a natural feature as the gorgeous tall trees that stand dotted around the grounds.
“Wow! Surely your aunt doesn’t live here alone?”
“No,” Alex says. “Petra and Anastasia, my cousins, live here with her. There’s also Valeriya, her qualified nurse, assistant, and companion. Actually, she is almost part of the family. Most of the house isn’t even in use anymore now, but my aunt has a whole team of house keepers who keep it in good repair. My aunt’s daughter, Marina, and her husband, Viktor, live close by and they stay over if my cousins are out of town so my aunt always has some family with her. They’ll be here tonight too to meet you. I guess you could say it’s a bit of a family reunion.”
“Oh wow. I’ll never remember all these names,” I say.
“You will.” His lips twist sarcastically. “They’re the sort of people who make an … impression.”
