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Petersburg or all the changes the years might have brought to her Nicky. To write a passionate letter<br />
from afar is one thing; to have something to say to the person when you meet them is an altogether<br />
different matter, and Alix knows that she is sailing into an uncertain future. Going to one of the few<br />
places on earth where the flag of her grandmother may not protect her.<br />
And then a violinist began to play from the corner and any further discussion was unnecessary.<br />
An hour later the table had been cleared, the servants had departed, and Alix too had gone to<br />
her cabin, presumably to dream of salvation and men in white trousers. The true business of the night<br />
was about to begin.<br />
“We shall not concern ourselves with talk of protocol until some later evening,” the Queen<br />
said. “For Alix will need to be present at that lecture as well. From what I understand from Ella, a<br />
German princess is expected to curtsy to a Russian grand duchess, so she will need some direction.”<br />
A British Queen is expected to curtsy to a Russian tsarina as well, Emma thought, but she<br />
supposed the arrogance of the Russian court was indeed a subject best suited for another day. They<br />
had enough to cover tonight.<br />
“Miss Kelly,” the Queen continued, with the tone of one long accustomed to being in charge.<br />
“Will you now give us your summation of Russian history? Not the entire dreadful subject but rather<br />
just the most recent facts, the ones most pertinent to the matter at hand.”<br />
“Certainly, Ma’am,” Emma said. “I suppose we should start with the current tsar’s father,<br />
Alexander II?”<br />
The Queen nodded. “A good man, if memory serves.”<br />
“He accepted the need for reform,” Emma said, striving to keep her voice measured and matterof-fact.<br />
A week ago she had been mending Gerry’s underdrawers and she could hardly fathom the<br />
turns of fate which had brought her to this place and time, sipping sherry on the royal yacht and giving<br />
a history lesson to the Queen. “The Russian serfs are abysmally poor, which I suppose goes without<br />
saying, and Alexander II signed a bill early in his reign giving them the most basic sorts of rights and<br />
freedoms. Before that, the serfs were thought to belong to the land they worked and thus could be
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