CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Feeling she could get used to hanging out poolside in Florida, this time at Gabe’s intriguing Floral Grove residence where a small forest of climbing plants and huge, colourful pots filled the deck, Cristy watched Evie pour tea over five large glasses of ice, while Lukas settled himself next to Gabe at a mosaic-topped table.
An assortment of delicious chocolate-chip cookies, taken from the club, was laid out centre stage and managing to look almost as irresistible as the gently lapping blue water beside them.
Beyond the exclusive garden the sprawling pond that was actually a lake shimmered and rippled in the glorious afternoon sun.
The whole place was, without a doubt, a little piece of heaven set amongst the development’s many other secluded homesteads, some vast, others discreet, all in their own grounds, while this one, occupying the end of a leafy cul-de-sac seemed to have a charm all of its own.
The exterior was whitewashed and gleaming behind its shining, exotic foliage, while the interior was airy and light, filled with unusual and beautiful paintings – apparently many done by Gabe – and various treasures collected during their travels around the world.
‘Have you ever been to the South of France?’ Cristy had thought to ask.
‘Oh yes, several times,’ Evie assured her, ‘but not for a few years. I think the last time was when we visited an old friend of Gabe’s in a small town called Vence. Do you know it?’
‘Not really,’ Cristy replied. ‘And do you all live here, in this house?’ she’d asked, as Evie showed them through to the garden.
‘We do,’ Evie had confirmed with a smile.
‘Gabe has his studio and private rooms upstairs, and Lukas and I have a lovely suite in the West Wing.’ She giggled.
‘The place isn’t big enough to have wings,’ she added quietly, ‘but it’s what we like to call it.
Mostly though we’re here, in the kitchen and sitting room, or out on the deck – when we’re not going about our busy days, of course.
We enjoy one another’s company, which is lucky or this little arrangement would never have worked. ’
Arrangement?
‘Are you here all year round?’ David was asking Lukas now, as Cristy admired a vividly coloured sculpture, apparently from Sicily. ‘I’m just thinking of how hot Florida gets in summer,’ he added.
‘Oh boy does it,’ Lukas agreed. ‘No, we close the place up in April and drive to Wisconsin where we generally stay until just before Thanksgiving.’
‘What’s in Wisconsin?’ Cristy wondered as Evie passed around the iced tea.
‘Lake Geneva,’ Evie replied. ‘Gabe’s cousin, Salina, has two cottages on the shore.
We always take the smaller one and very often Verity and her family are in the other.
We were hoping you’d meet her while you’re here – she and her husband have a place at Port Royal, that’s the really fancy neighbourhood of Naples – but they’re in Brazil right now and we’re not sure when they’re back. ’
Unable to imagine – at least for the moment – anything much fancier than where they were, Cristy said, ‘So how did you all come to be here?’
Evie twinkled. ‘It’s all down to Verity,’ she replied, as if sharing a secret.
‘If it weren’t for her heaven knows where any of us would have ended up, especially Gabe.
Howeeeever,’ she drew out the word, ‘we thought we’d start at the beginning – or Lukas will, and Gabe will fill things in as we go.
’ Lowering her voice she added, ‘You’ve probably already gathered that he’s not much of a talker, but rest assured he takes everything in and he feels things very deeply even if he doesn’t always show it. ’
Wondering, not for the first time, if Gabe, apart from being photophobic, might have other issues, Cristy discreetly set up to record.
Perhaps he’d suffered some sort of damage from drug abuse over the years?
Certainly his reticence was marked, and the way he occasionally veered off subject could be both disconcerting and puzzling.
‘So, are we all ready?’ Evie asked, rubbing her hands excitedly.
‘Bring it on,’ Lukas encouraged, while Gabe managed a half-smile and next to Cristy David stretched out his long legs preparing simply to listen and, later, be a helpful sounding board as they went through it all.
After checking everything was working, Cristy said, ‘Let’s just treat it as a chat, OK?
We don’t have to be formal, or even chronological with events – that can always be sorted in an edit.
But as you seem to have discussed how you want to tell the story I’m guessing you’re going to start us off at the beginning, Lukas? ’
He nodded and beamed. He really did have the most engaging way with him, seeming so full of warmth and good humour. However, his expression sobered as he prepared to share his memories, and his dark eyes appeared to lose focus, conveying a more serious and reflective side of his nature.
LUKAS: ‘You have probably learned by now that Janina and I are originally from Georgia – county, not state – but our father was Lithuanian so we moved to Vilnius when we were still quite young. This became a very fortuitous move in later years, but I will come on to that.
‘We have another sister, Audra. She is older and was already married to her husband, Yuri, when Janina took the decision to leave Lithuania. She, Janina, was nineteen at the time, headstrong, beautiful, eager to explore the world … She had many qualities – and failings – but they only made her, in my opinion, even easier to love. We always believed she’d grow up to achieve great things, not only because of her beauty and lively spirit, but because she was intelligent and compassionate, interested in people, and oh boy was she daring.
She was definitely the risk taker in our family, the one who showed us how to be brave in the face of our many adversities.
We were very poor, you see, and our adopted country was still suffering from the after-effects of the Soviet occupation.
So few opportunities for us, and so often very little food to eat. ’
CRISTY: ‘Can you tell us a little about your parents?’
LUKAS: ‘We barely knew our father, he died soon after we moved to Vilnius, and our mother passed away the year before Janina left. Looking back, as I often do, I believe Janina was not seeing things clearly because of grief, and out of fear of what would happen to her now that she no longer had our mother to advise her. I told her I would always take care of her – we were very close, we always had been. I wouldn’t say I was a father figure to her, I was too young for that, but by the time we are talking about I was working very hard to keep us in our mother’s apartment and to make sure we could eat.
Janina wanted to help, of course, but the path she chose was not one that either I or Audra approved of.
‘We didn’t know about it at first, only found out later that she’d been introduced to an overseas employment agency by a co-worker at the hotel where she helped in the kitchen …
I am sure you know many stories like this, of young girls who are promised better lives in faraway lands by unscrupulous men …
It is tragic how many fall for it and I’m afraid Janina was one of them.
‘It was through these traffickers, because that’s what they were, that she came to meet Gabe.
They – the agency in Vilnius – were acting for clients, usually men, in search of “housekeepers”, “companions”, “secretaries”, “nannies for their children” …
There were all sorts of opportunities, and there was, of course, no mention of sex work or dance clubs or worse, but even if there had been I think some girls were so keen to get to the West that they’d have gone anyway.
Janina wasn’t one of them. She truly believed she was going to keep house for a man with aristocratic connections and a lot of money.
She was even shown a photograph of him and, in spite of him being a clear twenty years older and having no name yet, she insisted she already trusted him.
He had kind eyes and a lovely smile, she said. ’
GABE: ‘I was also shown a photograph of her and I knew right away that I wanted to meet her.’
Cristy’s eyes moved between the two, picturing the scenario Lukas was painting and reflecting on how romantic they were making things sound.
Love at first sight by photograph, organized by a criminal gang?
An instant connection with a stranger who Janina must surely have feared was far more likely to be a tyrant than a saviour?
LUKAS: ‘Neither Audra nor I were aware of the arrangements to smuggle Janina out of our country until they were already made. As soon as I knew of them I tried to stop Nina, of course, but by then she had built up such a rosy picture of how her life was going to be, working for this aristocrat, living in a big house with plenty to eat and always warm, that she refused to listen. Audra was very angry and afraid, we both were, but then suddenly one day Nina had gone and there was no more we could do, other than wait for her to be in touch to say she was safe.’
GABE: ‘She was safe with me.’
LUKAS: ‘But we didn’t know that. She was still very young and she’d allowed herself to be transported out of her country by evil strangers in order to be delivered to someone who might not even exist.’
CRISTY: ‘When exactly was this?’
LUKAS: ‘The end of ’96 – before Lithuania was a part of the EU, so Janina would have been an illegal immigrant in the UK, if that was in fact where she’d been taken.
As far as we knew she could have been anywhere.
I tried to find out from the agency where she might be.
I was desperate, but I had nothing to offer that they wanted in exchange for information, and each time I confronted them they had me beaten up.