“The young lovers met and fled Russia. They boarded a train and headed for Germany, where they married and lived with Johann’s parents for a time. But one day a letter arrived from Johann’s uncle. It seemed that some masked men had been to the uncle’s shop and were looking for the couple. Johann’s uncle swore to them that he didn’t know where they were, but they beat him anyway. The letter warned that if the couple was there, they should go into hiding immediately since the men would likely kill Johann and bring Marie back to Russia with them, along with the jewellery she had purportedly stolen.”
Garnet shifted in her seat. “So where did they go?”
“As far away as possible. To Canada. They sold the pearls and bought tickets for the ship passage over. With the little money that Johann had set aside, and with some that his father had given him, they set sail, bringing with them the sapphire jewels, a crucifix, and the hope that they would never be found by Marie’s family in the new land.
“When they landed in Montreal, they soon heard of a place called Berlin in Ontario, where people spoke German. They decided to go there and Johann quickly found work at a furniture factory. It wasn’t long before he had enough money to rent a modest home — just large enough to set up a clock- and watch-repair shop on the lower level. You may not know, dear, being new to the city, but Berlin is today called Kitchener.
“Marie and Johann settled into their new life and Sofia was born in 1898. She was a lovely child and they were as happy as could be under the circumstances. But, as you know, sometimes happiness doesn’t last. Sofia was only a few years old when Marie became ill and was diagnosed with a blood disorder. She lived for several more years but in that time suffered a succession of ailments, which only worsened her condition. By the time she died, a lot of the money earned from the business had gone to pay for medical bills, and Johann was left in debt.”
“In debt?” Garnet asked. “But what about the sapphire jewels? Couldn’t he have sold them to pay the bills?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Marie made Johann promise never to sell them or separate them. As a trained jeweller, he could have broken up the set and sold the pieces in various settings, but he did not do this. He respected his wife’s wish that the jewels be passed along as an heirloom to their daughter. So, Marie never wore the jewels for fear of being found, and they were never sold because of the promise.
“Sofia was fourteen years old when her mother died. She left school to look after the house and mind the shop when customers came in. But now that they no longer had to look after Marie, Johann stepped up business by making more clocks and also began to deal in art, selling the paintings of a few local young artists. He seemed to have an eye for beautiful things. He also made unique custom jewellery and, over time, word began to spread of his fine work.
“Then, one day, Reginald entered the shop to have his watch repaired. Still a bachelor at age thirty-four, twice Sofia’s age, he was struck by her beauty and her lovely red curls. Even though this was during the First World War, the fact that he was British and she was of German descent made no difference. She enchanted him. When he asked for her hand in marriage, she accepted, and Reginald asked Johann to design and make a sapphire ring for their engagement.”
Garnet wrinkled her nose. “Kind of old for her, wasn’t he?”
“Things were different then,” Elizabeth explained. “Especially for girls. They married and had children at a much younger age than nowadays. Sofia was eighteen when she married in 1916 and Albert was born the following year, but once again, happiness was shortlived. Tragedy struck in October 1918 when the Spanish influenza epidemic took Sofia’s life. It was a miracle that Albert and Reginald were spared, because many died. Reginald never completely overcame his loss. He never remarried and Albert was raised with the help of a nanny and then the housekeeper.”
“But what about Johann? What happened to him?” Garnet asked.
Elizabeth’s expression became grim and Garnet thought for a moment that he had died then, too, but her next words surprised her. “He survived the flu. In fact, he went on to become quite successful, at least until the Depression. Even then, he had enough money set aside so that he was never poor. And Albert ... well, he became the apple of his grandfather’s eye. They adored each other. But one night in the winter of 1939, several months before I met Albert, something very horrible happened.” Elizabeth paused as she turned her head and gazed unseeing through the window. Garnet waited for her to continue and soon wondered if she would ever hear the rest of the story.
“What happened?” Garnet asked softly.
Elizabeth turned back and licked her lips before speaking. “One night, a thug broke into the shop after closing, when Johann was alone. The place was vandalized and Johann was beaten so severely that he never regained consciousness. It was a shocking thing to have happened in the city, especially in those days. The police concluded that the motive was robbery and that Johann had simply been in the way ” Elizabeth’s voice trailed off.
Garnet’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t believe that?”
“Oh, I believe the motive was robbery. Johann had many valuables in the shop, some of which were taken, but most were kept in a safe. It’s just that ... Albert mentioned that he wondered if the thug might have been someone from Marie’s family.”
“Marie’s family? You mean like Count Mikhail or Aleksei?”
Elizabeth nodded.
“But why? It was so many years later.”
Elizabeth shrugged. “They had always been a threat. The thing is, Johann had no enemies around here and was well respected. But unfortunately, there were no witnesses and the snow quickly erased any footprints outside. There were no leads at all, almost as though the perpetrator had come, and then just disappeared into thin air. If Marie’s family was behind this, they had a mission: to kill Johann and get the jewels back.”
“Did the robber get them?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Albert said no. But if that is so, where are they? That is a mystery I’ve been trying to solve for most of my life.”
3
On the Angel’s Wings
Sunday was Garnet’s favourite day of the week. It was better than Saturday because she didn’t have to dust or vacuum, and she could laze about and stay in her pyjamas until noon if she felt like it. Garnet and her mother sometimes used to work on a piece of furniture on Sundays, but that hadn’t happened for a while now, at least not since they had moved to Kitchener. The antique oak dining table they had brought along from Owen Sound, and were going to refinish next, remained untouched in the basement. And to think of all the trouble it had been to move it.
They had found the table at a yard sale last fall, out in the country. It needed a lot of work and was heavy. No doubt that was the reason it had been one of the last unsold items, even though the owner had already marked the price down considerably. But her mother’s discerning eye had caught the unique carving just visible under all the layers of peeling paint, and she had said that if they stripped it all off, then lightly sanded the wood and stained it, it would be a fine piece of furniture.
That was months before they knew they were moving. And long before the discovery inside the lady’s writing table. The writing table was proving to be the biggest project of all.
The desk had belonged to Garnet’s grandmother, Nana. She had brought it over from England after the Second World War. When Nana went into the nursing home, Garnet’s mother hadn’t sold the writing table like the rest of her furniture. Nana had kept it in her room