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“I believe your husband is a member of the royal guard?” Ella asked.
“Yes, Your Imperial Highness.”
“And does he ever discuss his work with you?”
The notion was so ludicrous that Tatiana almost laughed. She and Filip did not have
discussions of any sort. Their marriage did not take that particular form. Furthermore, even had he
been so inclined, there was probably nothing about his work which merited discussion. The grand
duchess seemed to be under the impression that Tatiana was married to an inspector or detective, a
man with cases which required deduction and analysis. She did not understand that Filip’s primary
function was to absorb stray projectiles, nothing more.
“No, Your Imperial Highness.”
“So he is discreet,” Ella said, still misunderstanding. “Which is a good thing, I suppose. But it
is obvious that much strikes you as odd about the scene before us.”
“The position…” Tatiana said, tentatively. No one had shown the slightest interest in her
opinion about anything since she had moved to the palace and it felt odd to be speaking openly now,
especially to a woman of rank.
“The final pose of the ballet,” said Ella, with a nod. “Intended as some sort of message to the
survivors, no doubt.”
said.
“I have been trying to envision the sequence of events that would lead them there,” Tatiana
“And how might you imagine it? Speak freely.”
Tatiana narrowed her eyes. “They assumed their pose on the floor and then…he cut his throat
and then she…took the knife from his hand and cut her own? Something in it all seems terribly
wrong, unnecessarily cruel. For if two young lovers were determined to die by the blade of a single
knife wouldn’t he do the deed for her and then follow behind himself? And another thing,” she added,
gaining confidence as she spoke. “Romeo and Juliet fell on their daggers, which would have been a
much easier way to die than the arrangement before us. Faster, more definitive, and one could not
change one’s mind half way though, which is an advantage in a method of suicide. But these
youngsters must have cut their own throats and inflicting those sort of deep gashes which would have
taken nerves of steel. A feat it is hard to picture a young girl performing, even if she was looking into
the eyes of her dead lover.”