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They had spent the night in his tent by the river After swi, they fell into unconscious sleep hours before the sun set at eleven and slept for fifteen hours straight

In the latethey left all their new purchases in the woods before going back into town to be married

Tatiana put on her white dress with red roses "I told you I was too big for this dress now" She s her She knelt, turning her back to hiht Not like before, on the bus" He wasn’t budging behind her She glanced at him "What?"

"God, that dress on you," Alexander said, his fingers through the crisscross laces pressing on her bare back He tied the straps for her, kissing her shoulder blades, telling her she looked so good the priest was going to want to marry her himself She unbraided her hair and left it down, brushed behind her ears Alexander put on his dress unifor her, he asked, "What do you think?"

Shyly she saluted him back "I think you’re theher, his voice condensed with love, he said, "And in two hours I’ to be the hteen-year-old child bride" The joy was plain on his face

Tatiana hugged hi ed her back "This way you’ll never forget me"

"Oh, yes, because that’s likely," Tatiana said, groping for hie behind the sistry office indifferently asked the into this contract willingly, then shrugged and staet married in front of him," Alexander whispered as they walked out

Tatiana was quiet She wasn’t sure about the "sound mind" part

"Alexander," she said "But now our domestic passports are stamped, ‘Married, June 23, 1942’ Mine states your name Yours states my name"

"Yes?"

"Alexander, what about Diainst her lips "Is that e’re going to do? Let that bastard stop us?"

"No," she agreed

"I don’t give a shit about him Don’t mention his name, understand?"

Tatiana understood

"But we have no witnesses," she said

"We’ll get soo back and ask Naira Mikhailovna and the rest to stand as witnesses"

"Is your intention to ruin this day completely, or is your intention tohis aret us perfectly good witnesses"

Alexander offered the jeweler and his wife Sofia a bottle of vodka to come with thereed, and Sofia even brought a ca," said Sofia as they walked down the street headed for St Seraphih all this trouble" She frowned at Tatiana, eyeing her suspiciously "You’re not in the family way, are you?"

"Yes, she is," said Alexander unabashedly, pulling Tatiana away "Is it that obvious?" He patted her stomach "This will actually be our third child" He smiled broadly "But the first one who’s not a bastard"

They walked more quickly down the street, and Tatiana, red in the face, pulled out one of Alexander’s forear "E not to s about us I don’t want to give away a drop of you and ers, not to the old wo to do with them Just you, me And God," he added

Tatiana stood by Alexander’s side The priest was not at the church yet "He’s not co around The jeweler and Sofia were standing at the back of the s their bottle of vodka

"He’ll be here"

"Doesn’t one of us have to be baptized?" Tatiana wanted to know

"I ahtful, once-Italian mother And didn’t I baptize you yesterday in the Kairl," he whispered "Hang on We’re al, his head strong, his ht it was all a dreahtht Dasha’s Alexander? Just last week she could not have iined a moment in her life when that would have been possible She couldn’t help it, she felt as if she were living a life that was not rity I have," Tatiana said quietly "Pined after h for her to die and for ? Where are you?" he asked, puzzled, turning to her slightly "I was never Dasha’s I was always yours" He took her hand

"Even through the blockade?"

"Especially then What little I had was all for you It was you as everybody else’s But I was only yours"

Alexander and Tatiana had had an ie A proclamation to the world, a banner Theymarried As if it were always er, death -- and not just death but the death of everyone else she had ever loved -- had been their courtship

Tatiana’s fragile resolve eakening by the second

There had been other lives and other people’s hearts, deep and abiding hearts There was her Pasha, losing his life before it even began, and Ma after the death of her favorite child There was Papa, under a cloud of alcohol-fueled guilt no war could fix, and there was Marina,her home, unable to find a small place for herself in their cra away her life, half hoping her first love would return There was her Deda, dying away fro because there was no point in living through ithout his were as they were supposed to be, why did Dasha’s death feel so unnatural, why did it sees in the universe?

Was Alexander right and Tatiana wrong? Was she to blarity, her inexplicable commitment to her sister? Should Tatiana have let Alexander say to Dasha, I like Tania best

Should Tatiana have said to Dasha from day one, I want hi,behind her fear?

No, Tatiana thought, as they waited for the priest No He was too ly sht that Dasha should have hiht for hiarten, for Comrade Perlodskaya, who used to kiss ht for Deda, because when he said, Tania, you have to be this way, I said, yes, I will be this way

"Selfish!" she exclai, she repeated, "Selfish, to the end Dasha is dead, and I’erly, I step in, careful not to disturb Vova’s crush on oing I step in but say, wait, justcircle at three"

"Tatiana, I guarantee," Alexander said, the light in his eyes flickering off for a "

She stared up at hily smitten Alexander was still too much for her Now more than ever "Shura," she whispered