Tatiana and Alexander

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Tatiana and Alexander (also known as The Bridge to Holy Cross) is the second book in Paullina Simons’s Bronze Horseman Trilogy. It follows Tatiana Metanova and her husband Alexander Belov as war and fate push them apart and then pull them back together.

Plot in brief:
- In the United States, Tatiana works as a nurse on Ellis Island with her son Anthony. She befriends nurse Vikki and Dr. Edward Ludlow. She fears Alexander might still be alive after finding a medal he won in the war. Using money Alexander hid in the Bronze Horseman book, she buys land in Arizona and becomes known as the “Angel of Ellis” for helping many immigrants get jobs.
- In the Soviet Union, Alexander survives dangerous orders and ends up leading a group of criminals toward Germany, hoping to escape to America. He reaches German soil and encounters Pasha Metanov, who survived a train attack and has joined the German army. Pasha agrees to surrender to the Germans, and they’re taken to Colditz. An escape attempt fails; Pasha dies and Alexander is imprisoned again.
- After the war, Soviet POWs aren’t released, and Alexander is sentenced to 25 years in a labor camp. Tatiana volunteers as a Red Cross nurse, finds him, and helps him escape. They fight their way across Germany to the American Embassy in Berlin, where Alexander convinces the American authorities to let them move to the United States.

Note: An earlier edition titled The Bridge to Holy Cross included epilogue chapters describing Anthony and Vikki, but these were removed when Simons began writing The Summer Garden.