Read Alexandra for Free Online Page B

invitation.
    When Alix, her brother and father arrived once again in Russia in the summer of 1890 the snow had melted and, in the immense expanses of agricultural land around Moscow, fields of green flax and
golden wheat stretched away towards the horizon. The vast stretches of meadow and plain were broken here and there by groves of birch and deep pine forests, and as the travellers made their way
along the rutted roads, they passed through dozens of small villages. Each village, it seemed, had its own blue-domed church, its own pond or stream; the small wooden houses, many of them
intricately carved with patterns of stars and flowers, garlands and arches, clustered along a single narrow unpaved refuse-clogged street. Here and there along the road, planks were laid down to
cover deep mudholes. In some places the wooden bridges crossing streams had been swept away by swollen waters, and the travellers had to take long detours.
    The quiet of the countryside, the long stretches of road between villages and the expansive forest glades, where the white trunks of the birches rose out of clumps of blooming forget-me-nots,
moss and thick grass, were soothing to the spirit; Alix, who craved quietand solitude, must have felt refreshed by her surroundings, despite her nervousness at the
prospect of seeing Nicky again.
    Ella and Serge’s summer house at Illinsky was a rambling, rustic structure with wide balconies skirting the large inner rooms. Light, flowery English prints covered the furniture and
curtained the windows, and fresh flowers brightened the wood-panelled rooms. They kept open house; friends came and went, sometimes staying for weeks at a time. The atmosphere was informal, and on
fine days everyone stayed outside as much as possible, taking a picnic lunch into the forest, hunting for mushrooms, swimming in the cool ponds or simply reading in the shade of a large tree. The
long hours of daylight encouraged wakefulness. Sometimes, on warm starry nights, gypsy choruses came to serenade in the garden, and all the neighbours gathered to listen, afterwards waiting up
together to watch for the break of dawn.
    Always in the background of Alix’s thoughts was what Ella had told her, that Nicky would probably come to Illinsky to join the rest of the family in celebrating Ella’s name day,
September 18. She daydreamed about him, longing for September to come. Yet in her soberer moments she ‘thought she would never get him’, and must have confided her anxieties to
Ella. 4
    Meanwhile Nicky had told his father that he was in love with Alix and wanted to marry her, and was fighting an urge to go to Illinsky even earlier than Ella’s name day celebration. He was
prevented from going, for the time being, by having to be present for army manoeuvres, but he confided to his diary that if he didn’t go, he would miss his chance to see her and would have to
‘wait a whole year, and that’s hard!!!’ 5
    As heir to the throne Nicky was not free to go where he liked, when he liked. His parents guarded his movements, as they kept close watch on whom he saw and where he went. They were still
pressuring him to marry the French princess Hélène, and he was still resisting. And there was a new complication in his emotional life. His father, thinking that it was time his
twenty-two-year-old son had a mistress, arranged for Nicky to meet the eighteen-year-old Matilda Kchessinsky, the newest star graduate of the Imperial Ballet School. The
dark, lithe Matilda, vibrant and charming, immediately appealed to Nicky, who fell ‘passionately in love’ with her while at the military camp in the summer of 1890. They were not yet
lovers – that would come in time – but, much to Nicky’s surprise, he now cherished two loves at once.
    ‘The heart is a surprising thing!’ Nicky wrote in his diary. He never stopped thinking about Alix, yet he yearned for Matilda as well. ‘Should I conclude from all this that I
am exceptionally