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Chapter Sixteen
The Winter Palace – The Imperial Gardens
June 22, 1889
2:20 PM
“I trust you did not find my invitation for you to join me in my daily stroll untoward,” Ella said.
“But I wished to speak to you privately.”
“Of course,” Tom said, as if a summons to an imperial suite was an everyday event. This was
the second time in three days that a woman had insisted that they should meet alone and he could only
hope this time did not end as badly as the last.
“Is my grandmother well? I have never known her to travel with a doctor.”
“It’s a precaution only, I assure you,” Tom said, offering Ella his arm as they strolled through
the small enclosed garden behind her apartments. She ignored it.
“I’m sure the solstice dinner was distressing to her.”
“It was an interesting evening for everyone present.”
“She has no intention of allowing Alix to marry Nicky, does she?”
“I assure you that I am not privy to Her Majesty’s private thoughts.”
Ella looked at him out of the corner of her eye. She truly is lovely, Tom thought, suddenly
seeing how Ella might have once been proclaimed the most desirable princess in Europe. She’s a bit
of a tyrant and a bit of a prig, but God knows they all are, and as princesses go, she does have a
certain fire.
“What you mean is that you’re too ethical to reveal facts to which you are undoubtedly privy,
which speaks well of you as a private physician. Tell me, Tom, is there some sort of doctor-patient
confidentiality, just as that which exists between a person and his solicitor?”
She was good. The use of his given name, tossed in so casually, and the belated decision to