around in different directions. The middle - aged lady sensed his apprehension.
'Follow me, do not speak, and whatever you do don't take your cap off Wladek took her bags down from the rack, pulled his cap over his head - now covered in a black stubble - down to his cars and followed her out on to the platform. A throng of people at the barrier were waiting to go through a tiny exit, which caused a holdup as everyone had to show their identification papers to the guard. As they approached the barrier, Wladek could hear his heart beating like a soldier's drurn, but when their turn came the fear was over in a moment. The guard only glanced at the woman's documents.
'Comrade,' be said, and saluted. He looked at Wladek.
'My son,' she explained.
~Of course, comrade.' Ile saluted again.
Wladek was in Moscow.
Despite the trust he had placed in his new - found companion, his first instinct was to run but as one hundred and fifty rubles was hardly enough to live on, he decided for the time being to stay put. He could always run at some later time. A horse and cart was waiting at the station and took the woman and her new son home. The station master was not there when they axTived, so the woman immediately set about making up the spare bed for Wladek. Then she poured water, heated on a stove, into a large tin tub and told him to get in. It was the first bath he had had in over four years, unless he counted the dip in the stream. She heated some more water and reintroduced him to soap, scrubbing his back, the only part of his body with unbroken skin. The water began to change colour and after twenty minutes, it was black. Once Wladek was dry, the woman put some ointment on his arms and legs, and bandaged the parts of his body that looked particularly fierce. She stared at his one nipple. He dressed quickly and then joined her in the kitchen. She had already prepared a bowl of hot soup and some beans. Wladek ate the veritable feast hungrily.
Neither of them spoke. When he had finished the meal, she suggested that it might be wise for him to go to bed and rest.
'I do not want my husband to see you before I have told him why you are here,' she explained. 'Would you like to stay with us, Wladek, if my husband agrees?'
Wladek nodded thankfully.
'Then off you go to bed,' she said.
Wladek obeyed and prayed that her husband would allow him to live with them. He undressed slowly and climbed on to the bed. He was too clean, the sheets were too clean, the mattress was too soft, and he threw the pillow on the floor, but he was so tired that he slept despite the comfort of the bed. He was woken from his deep sleep some hours later by the sound of raised voices coming from the kitchen. He could not tell how long he had slept. It was already dark outside as he crept off the bed, walked to the door, eased it open and listened to the conversation taking place in the kitchen below.
'You stupid wornan.' Wladek heard a piping voice. 'Do you not understand what would have happened if you had been caught? It would have been you who would have been sent to the camps.'
'But if you had seen him, Piotr, like a hunted animal.'
'So you decided to turn us into hunted animals,' said the male voice - 'Has anyone else seen him?'
'No,' said the woman, 'I don't think so.'
'Thank God for that. He must go immediately before anyone knows he's here, it's our only hope.'
'But go where, Piotr ? He is lost, and has no one,' Wladeks protectress pleaded. 'And I have always wanted a son.'
'I do not care what you want or where he goes, he is not our responsibility and we must be quickly rid of him.'
'But Piotr, I think he is royal, I think his father was a Baron. He wears a silver band around his wrist and inscribed on it are the words . . .'
'That only makes it worse. You know what our new leaders have decreed.
No tsars, no royalty, no privileges. We would not even have to bother to go to the camp, the authorities would just shoot us.'
'We have always wanted a son, Piotr. Can we not take this one risk