51

Between them, they hauled and dragged Andrassy’s carcass to the house. Lemma stopped every now and then to clutch at her stomach, but it was beyond Radu’s power to spare her the discomfort. What they were doing was brutally necessary, and he did not have the strength to manage the job alone. Each time Lemma moaned, it cut his heart to the quick.

They settled Andrassy in a corner of the ruined entrance hall. Radu went through Andrassy’s pockets and put the contents to one side. Then he covered Andrassy with stones, broken furniture, and pieces of fallen masonry – it wouldn’t hide him forever, but it would fool the casual observer.

Radu kneeled down and sifted through Andrassy’s things. ‘Look. We’re in luck. Car keys.’ Radu held up the keys and stared at them. Then he lit a match and looked closer. ‘It says Simca. And a number.’ He pocketed Andrassy’s wallet, cell phone, and a penknife, and covered the remaining articles with a brick.

‘What is Simca?’

Lemma was sheet pale and her expression was strained. Her face seemed smaller to Radu, as if he were looking at her through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars. She had a livid bruise on one cheek, and there was dried blood by the side of her mouth. Radu cupped her face in one hand and rubbed the blood off with a moistened finger. ‘Simca is a kind of car. They haven’t made them for years. It will be easy enough to spot.’

‘How so?’

‘There is only one usable road out of here when there is snow. This man will have parked up near the highway – somewhere it is easy to get out again – and then walked on in. That is what I would have done in his place.’

‘But I cannot walk, Radu. Back there. In the tent. My waters broke.’

‘What? Why did you not tell me?’

‘How could I? The man was trying to kill us. And then you needed my help dragging him. It would not have been right to burden you.’

Radu dropped his face into his hands. He took a few deep breaths and then looked up at his wife. He held out one hand and Lemma crept into the circle of his arms. ‘I am sorry, Luludja. Sorry that I have brought you into this. Sorry that you have had to help me kill and bury this man.’

Lemma looked up. ‘I am not sorry. You are my husband. I will follow you anywhere. I will do anything. You have only to ask me.’

Radu crushed her to him and kissed her many times on the forehead. ‘We must collect all we can from the tent. Then we must walk as far as this man’s car. We can manage it. Sometimes the waters break before labour, do they not? If there has been a shock. Or an emergency. There may be much time before the baby comes.’

Lemma braved a laugh. ‘Radu, are you now an expert in pregnancy? Where did you learn this art? Have you been married before and you are not telling me?’

Radu covered his eyes with his forearm, as a man will do who has been caught out cheating. He walked as far as the door of the house and looked out. ‘I have watched. I have seen. I am the child of women too, you know.’ He was pleased that Lemma was teasing him. Pleased that she had forgotten, even if only for a little while, about what had gone before. He needed to keep her focused on the issue at hand, and away from what was happening in her womb. ‘But we have no time. Someone knows this man was here. They know what he was trying to do. They will send after him. When they find him, as they will eventually do, they will come after us. Maybe the police too. So we cannot think to cross borders.’

‘What?’

‘First we must go to the others. Warn them. Tell them of this.’

‘But look at you. One eye is closed. You have bruises and blood all over your face. If anyone sees you, they will remember you. Later, it will be obvious to all that it was we who murdered this man.’

‘I will cross that river when I come to it. Can you walk?’

Lemma’s face changed. ‘I can walk.’

Radu tried to smile, but his damaged eye gave him a grotesque appearance.

‘Radu, you look like a gargoyle. I must see to your eye. We can pack it with snow.’

‘I tell you we have no time.’ He led her by the hand back towards their tent. ‘Dress yourself in layers of your own and Yola’s clothes. As many as you can fit on. And take the heaviest shoes you have. Also clothes for the children. Then pack food into the rucksack. Anything you can think of that keeps. I shall fetch the sleeping bags and some extra clothes for the men.’

‘The men have warm clothes already. The others too. I saw them leave this morning. You will not be able to carry everything, Radu. We should only take what is vital.’

Radu nodded. Lemma, like all Gypsy women, was easily the most practical of the two of them. ‘Then we will take just the sleeping bags and the food.’