CHAPTER NINE
Ben never regretted their sudden decision to stay in Denmark, despite what was to come, what was nearly the end of this tentative beginning, or—perhaps—the beginning of the end. He’d had no idea just how cold Aeroe could be. It didn’t help that for the first few days, they camped in Nikolas’s family summerhouse, a house designed for warm weather, which hadn’t been lived in for over thirty years. Hans, Nikolas’s caretaker, seemed distraught that the place wasn’t up to his employer’s standards. It was fortunate, he said, that his wife was still away, or she’d have been furious with him. Ben thought it was more likely the woman would be furious to see Nikolas return to “her” house, but only shared this thought with Ingrid.
Nikolas did his best to reassure Hans that he’d looked after the place as well as anyone could expect, but acknowledged to Ben that they couldn’t stay there. It was impossible, and by the end of the first week, they’d abandoned the idea and decided to rent somewhere more suitable for the winter months. Ingrid had made it clear Aleksey was welcome to stay with Ben, but he didn’t want to put her in an awkward situation, given what his favourite hobby was when Nikolas was around.
Renting during the winter on Aeroe proved ridiculously easy, as all the summer lodges were empty during the winter months. They chose a lodge on a lake in one of the island’s forests. It had been designed as a romantic retreat for a wealthy doctor in Copenhagen who’d entertained a succession of mistresses on Aeroe until ill health and old age had made him appreciate his wife more. It suited them perfectly, and they abandoned any pretence of being stoic soldiers, and opted instead to be what they were, lovers who’d been separated for some months and who wanted and needed to be alone together. The lodge had one large bedroom with a vast bed, one room downstairs, a hot tub on the deck, and was fitted throughout to an extremely high standard. It was totally private. From the tub on the deck, they could only see lake and trees. The cabin was heated by a sophisticated wood-chip furnace and under-floor heating, but also had open fires in both the living area and the bedroom. Ben could indulge his new passion for chopping wood and stacking it in Scandinavian-perfect woodpiles without having to actually rely on his fires for heat. They stocked up on food and alcohol, and after a few days, Ben couldn’t think of a single thing he would change about his life. It was a rather unique feeling, given what life had been like for both of them over the years.
One afternoon, perhaps also inspired by this sense of beginnings, lounging in the tub, flicking water out onto Radulf’s coat to make little freezing balls of ice hang off him, Nikolas muttered, “There’s something I have to tell you.” He took a large mouthful of wine and eyed Ben somewhat warily.
Ben pursed his lips. “You’re pregnant.”
Nikolas laughed but quickly sobered. “That might be easier to admit.”
Ben sat up. “You’re not sick?”
Nikolas waved off the suggestion. “Do I look sick?”
He didn’t, but Ben’s heart took a while to come back to its normal rate. Suddenly, he climbed out of the tub, grabbed a towel and went back into the lodge, shutting Nikolas and his news outside. He didn’t want to hear it. He had a feeling he knew what he was going to confess.
Nikolas came in after him. He’d dressed back into some jeans and a T-shirt and squatted by the fire, poking it. He glanced every so often at Ben. He started to speak. Ben shook his head. “No, I don’t want to hear it. Don’t say it.”
Nikolas frowned. “You don’t know what I’m going to say.”
“Yeah, I do. I knew, I guess. I just didn’t want to know, you know?” He sighed. “You don’t look like you do, Nik, and then spend four months being celibate. Just tell me, yeah? How many and who were they?”
Nikolas switched to English because he was better in this language than Ben was yet in Danish. “What’re you babbling about, you stupid child?” He threw himself onto the sofa next to Ben and prevented him rising. “I want to tell you about Nikolas…how he died. It’s the last thing I’ve kept from you, and I don’t want to have anything between us now. No secrets. Bring me some more wine, yes? I think I’ll need it.”
When Ben had passed him a large glass of red wine, Nikolas took a long drink. “I was there…when he died. It wasn’t an accident, the fall. I pushed him. I killed him. There. I’ve told you. It wasn’t so hard.” Suddenly, the hand holding the wineglass wobbled, and he swore, then pouted; his face scrunched up, and he swore again, staring at the ceiling to try and regain control. “All these fucking years later, and I still can’t talk about this.”
Ben took the glass from him and set it down. He snagged his fingers into Nikolas’s hair and pulled the blond head down onto his shoulder, letting him recover without the need for words until he sensed Nikolas was ready to talk. “Just tell me, yeah? From the beginning?”
“The beginning? That wouldn’t be so good an idea.” He was quiet for a while then sat up and retrieved his glass. “All right. Perhaps I must, to make the end understandable. The beginning for me was Sergei. When he took us back to his house in Moscow, he told us we couldn’t sleep together anymore, we were now too big for that. He gave us separate bedrooms. That night, naturally, I defied him and went to find Nika; we’d slept in the same bed since we were born, and this stranger who didn’t speak our language wasn’t going to tell me what I could and couldn’t do. I found him in bed with Sergei.”
Ben made a small sound of shock, and Nikolas flashed him a quick look. “I’ve never told anyone that before.” He shrugged. “Nikolas’s pyjamas were on the floor. He was crying. Sergei began to shout at me. Oh, I forgot to say I was biting him. I had his hand in my teeth, here, and wouldn’t let go.” He stopped for a minute, staring down at the web of skin between his thumb and forefinger. “He eventually beat me off, and he left, possibly because he was bleeding very badly. He’d not got very far with Nika. He’d undressed him and said things to him, but as his Danish was so very bad, Nika hadn’t understood it. He’d touched him, but then I’d come in, so not so much harm done. The next night, we just switched beds. It was very easy.”
“You switched―?”
“I was Nikolas for many nights until he realised, and, by then, I think he liked me well enough.”
“He didn’t know? He thought you were Nikolas?”
“Two crying ten-year-olds were much the same, I suppose.”
“Oh, Jesus, Nik…”
“Don’t. I didn’t tell you this to make you sad, but to make you understand. Nikolas started at the academy. When I came out of hospital, I joined―”
“Hospital?”
Nikolas just looked at him. “I was ten, Ben. And very small for my age. Anyway, as I was saying, at school everything was good, but we had to decide what to do when the holidays came. I told Nika we’d run away together. I’d steal a car—I was quite good at stealing cars—and we’d drive ourselves back to Denmark. Nikolas argued Sergei would just come and take us again, and he was probably right.” He paused, thinking about this for some time. “Anyway, we agreed he’d go, and I’d stay.”
“We agreed? He wanted you to stay…? Even though he knew…?”
Nikolas held his gaze. “He was scared. He was only ten, Benjamin, you have to remember that. One of us had to stay.”
Ben didn’t point out the obvious. “What about when he was seventeen? Was he scared then, as well, when he shot Sergei?”
He paused, deep in his bad memories. “Yes. We agreed again.”
“That he would just go and leave you to take the blame?”
“We didn’t realise I would go to prison. It’s why I allowed my grandfather’s defence team to say all they did, things I’d rather have kept secret. If we’d known they’d still send me―”
“We! You keep saying we. What you mean is him. He decided everything, Nik. He fucking betrayed you every time.”
“Well, there we are. The beginning brings us to the end, and what I wanted to tell you. He came to Moscow. Some minor post in the embassy. But Moscow was my city, Benjamin. I didn’t want him there. He insisted he needed to see me. Our grandfather had died, there was a lot of money to settle and decisions on the estates and investments to be made which needed my agreement. He wanted all the money to remain in Denmark. With him, I suppose. We were having him followed, of course, so one night I found out where he was and went there. It wasn’t my style to be summoned at someone else’s convenience. I wish now I’d waited for an invitation. He was with a boy.” He stopped at Ben’s small sound, composed himself and continued. “The boy was blond, and he was very small for his age. His clothes were on the floor. Not pyjamas, you understand, but it reminded me. I was…upset. I didn’t have a degree as Nikolas did, but I understood irony quite well. He said it was an accident, the death, which didn’t seem the point, given the boy was where he shouldn’t be and not in his clothes which he should. I went out onto the balcony to calm down and think. He followed me out. He was naked. He hadn’t even thought to cover himself. Anyway…” He stopped and emptied his wineglass and held it out for a refill. “He argued I should say I’d brought the boy there and I’d raped and killed him. That this would ruin his career but not mine—given what I already was.”
“My God.”
“Yes, that’s what I thought, too. For the first time, I thought, no. Why should I? I told him. Actually, I told him in Russian to fuck off, which I enjoyed, and then he started to remind―Well, I won’t tell you all of what he said about me, because I don’t now believe it to be true. But I believed it more then—before I’d met you and been given the benefit of your seemingly unshakable faith in my lovability. But I wanted him to shut up, so I pushed him. I didn’t realise how very slow and unused to such things he was. He just fell backward. His legs hit the—fuck, what’s the word for the thing that runs around a balcony? Anyway, he hit it, and that was that, I was a twin no longer. Just me. I went back into the room and was very sick. I sat with the dead boy for a long time until the sun came up and didn’t know what to do. I thought about all the things he’d said to me. All my life wasted for him. And then I saw his clothes and his passport, and suddenly it was easy. I thought I was owed.”
“You were.”
“Maybe, maybe not. We make our own destinies, as I’ve told you, but I stole his. Whatever he was or wasn’t, that wasn’t right.” He closed his eyes and leant his head back on the sofa. “There, I’ve told you everything. You know all there is to know. Perhaps you would’ve preferred a recitation of all the men I slept with while I was away.” He opened his eyes and added quickly, “But there were none, you understand.”
Ben just smiled wanly and folded his legs up onto the sofa, running his fingers along the stubble of hair at the back of Nikolas’s neck.
“How did you do it? Becoming him? It can’t have been easy.”
Nikolas laughed a bitter sort of sound. “Actually, it was. I just thought what would Nikolas do?” He looked to Ben.
“Run away. Let someone else sort it all out?”
“Exactly. I called his embassy—as he’d have done. I invoked diplomatic immunity—as he’d have done. I blamed it all on my brother, Aleksey—as he’d have done. I left everyone else to sort the mess. Yes, as he’d have done. I actually drank a glass of champagne to Aleksey on the plane home to Denmark.”
“As he’d have done.”
“So, that’s the story of Nikolas. Which now brings me to the next thing I want to tell you. Ask you.”
“Fucking hell, more?”
“I think, maybe, I’m now Aleksey again. What do you think? I don’t need to live Nikolas’s life. I don’t want his life, and I don’t want his name.”
“Okay…That’s going to take some getting used to. I’m not sure. I think of you as Nikolas.”
“I know you do, which is why I asked you first. Think about it, maybe?”
Ben did. He thought about it a lot over the next few hours. He went out to chop some wood, which was a cure for almost any amount of angst. It involved a regular, unthinking physical effort and enabled him to indulge his love of precision, each log chopped just so, stacked just so. As he worked, he thought about Nikolas…or Aleksey. Could he just make the change? To him, Nikolas was everything, and Aleksey was the dark shadow haunting them. After an hour of working so hard he’d stripped down to just jeans and boots despite the falling snow, he looked up to find Nikolas watching him. He jammed the axe into the chopping block and came over, wiping his face on his T-shirt. “You okay?”
Nikolas shrugged. “I’ve been drinking vodka and wishing I smoked still, so maybe not so good.”
Ben switched to Danish, which always made Nikolas laugh at his accent, if nothing else. “You want to go for a run?”
Nikolas shuddered. “In the snow? No. Not particularly.” He stripped off his jacket and put it around Ben, zipping it up. “I was wondering…”
Ben raised his eyebrows. “The answer to that is always yes, as you know.”
“Well, for once, I wasn’t going to ask that. I wanted to know if you wanted to…go out. To eat, tonight.”
Ben frowned. “Okay…not so hard to ask?”
Nikolas seemed annoyed. “I’m trying to ask you out. On a date. Our first, if I remember rightly.”
Ben’s whole face lifted in surprise. “Fuck me.”
Nikolas shook his head despairingly. “You’re very hard work sometimes, Benjamin.”