Tatiana and Alexander: A Novel(212)

She inhaled, and her hand covered her mouth.

And then because she was Tatiana and because she couldn't help herself, and because he wouldn't have it any other way, she ran to him and was in his arms, generals or no generals. She flung her arms around him, she embraced him, her wet face was in his neck.

His head was bent to her, and her feet were off the ground.

Though much is taken, much abides; and though we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are--

Unyielding.

Barrington, Leningrad, Luga, Ladoga, Lazarevo, Ellis Island, the mountains of Holy Cross, their lost families, their lost mothers and fathers, their brothers in arms and brothers are etched on their souls and their fine faces and like the mercurial moon, like Jupiter over Maui, like the Perseus galaxy with its blue, imploding stars they remain, as the stellar wind whispers over the rivers all run red, over the oceans and the seas, murmuring through the moonsilver skies...

Tatiana...

Alexander...

But the bronze horseman is still.