His Perspective

4- Interrogation on the Bridge

Misha's POV: 

I watched Maria closely, as I always did. 

Her actions and her laughter, her smile, and the worry in her eyes. 

She was lying to us. That didn't bother me. Kidnapped victims always knew how to lie, and they did it quite often. What was bothering me was that I actually cared about why she was worried. 

Well, no, that didn't bother me either. I knew why I cared. 

I had fallen in love with her. I loved her more than anyone I ever did, even my previous fiancee, Emilia. 

I smiled as I watched Maria joke around with Shurik. Still, whenever she wasn't smiling, I could see the worry in her eyes. Something was bothering her. And that bothered me... because it meant she was hiding something and Stephan would notice that she was hiding something... and if she didn't tell him right away then I would have to be the one to get it out of her. 

I hoped that Maria would have enough sense to tell Stephan. 

~~~

"She better tell me what's going on," Stephan said as he took a drink from the bottle. All of us were gathered in the room, waiting for Stephan to decide on whether we were going to interrogate Maria tonight or not. 

He had noticed her worry as well- it took him a little longer than me, but that wasn't important. So tonight, after our wonderful day spent in St. Petersburg city, Stephan asked us all to decide on if we need to question her. She was off- distant and distracted. The entire night. I had hoped she'd tell me what was wrong so that we would have to avoid this encounter. Unfortunately, I wasn't lucky enough. 

"Okay. Okay, I'm going to bring her in. And she better spill." Stephan walked out of the room. 

Eugene turned to me. "She didn't say anything? No hints?"

I shook my head. "I think we might be reading into the situation too much." 

He raised an eyebrow. 

I ignored the question. 

Stephan came in with Maria looking scared. Damn it. 

That meant she was totally hiding something from us. 

"Sit." He told her.

She did as he said.

"This... crisis we have. You know about it, don't you?"

"Hmmm, crisis?" She paused. "No clue. I don't know about any crisis. You don't let me go to any of your gatherings and so I wouldn't know about anything."

"Really? Funny, because we did allow you to go the ball, did we not?" Stephan asked.

"Yes, you did."

"Perfect. What happened at the ball?"

Maria smiled. "Oh, it was so brilliant! I wore a white dress with large red and pink roses or peonies. I have trouble differentiating between flowers, but I am almost positive it was one of those types of flowers. I do remember that it was held at Kremlin's Palace! I had never imagined that one day I would be in the walls where the great Kings and Queens of Russia, let alone dance at a ball just like they had at one point in history! We walked in, the walls-"

I watched her carefully. This wasn't her, she didn't babble like this unless she was nervous or hiding something. 

It was smart of her to do this, but she didn't realize just how much experience we had had with interrogations. And this was a classic move.