The Tsar's Wife

Olga's Letter

Olga wrote to the Romanovs often, though she only wrote directly to Alexandra, Nicholas, or Tatiana, and gave her regards to everyone else in her letter, telling them all she loved them and wished to see them again as soon as she could. But when Nicholas had briskly handed her a letter whenever the !ail arrived, she was shocked that she had received a letter with Olga's beautiful cursive scrawled across the from of it, her name wrote in English. It was strange that Olive was receiving a letter from Olga since she didn't even write to Anastasia or Maria that often, and they were her blood sisters. Olive had tried to hide her shock, slipping the letter into her pocket nonchalantly so she could open it later.

Once she had escaped from her lessons with Pierre Gilliard, which she had learned to hate just as much as Anastasia and Maria now that they were constant, though she didn't dare complain because she would very well need the knowledge, she sat at her small desk, the letter remaining closed on her desk as she stared at it, her hands holding her head up. Her brow furrowed in thought and confusion, she picked the letter up slowly, examining it. Olga had wrote Olive's name as well as her own in perfect cursive, and the letter was dated December 13th, 1924. Today it was December 19th, so the letter had taken six days to mail and it would probably be another two weeks before Olga would receive a reply.

Olive gave a huff, tearing the seal open and taking out the letter. She unfolded it carefully, seeing that Olga had written an entire page, and wasn't sure if that was a good thing or bad. Olga's writing cursive was a bit messier than her cursive on the front of her letter, and Olive noticed at the end of the letter, Olga signed her name in a strange way. She didn't read it at first, her eyes skimming through the words but not actually registering what the letter said, and after a few moments of just staring at the letter, she gave a sigh and began to read.

Dearest Olive,

        I have received word of yours and Alexei's engagement through mother as well as papa, and I have wrote a letter to congratulate you and my dear little brother. May your marriage be as blessed as mama and papa's.

Olive finally understood why Olga had written a letter to her, Nicholas and Alexandra had told her about the engagement and Olga must have wanted to congratulate her directly instead of through a letter to someone else, in order to appear proper and all. It was distinctly like Olga to think like that, and Tatiana would do the same if she needed to. Olive smiled a bit and kept reading on.

Do you want to know a little story? Whenever papa proposed to mama, she actually refused it! Mother was a devoted Lutheran and didn't want to convert her religion, even though she was madly in love with papa and had been ever since they met at aunt Ella's wedding to uncle Sergei when she was only twelve years of age and he was sixteen!

Olive hadn't ever heard of that little story before and was a bit surprised she hadn't before, it seemed like something Maria would insist on telling because she had such an eye for romance, but perhaps Maria didn't know the story, and Nicholas or Alexandra had told Olga it only, though Olive was sure Tatiana knew too if Olga did. It seemed like something Alexei would mention to her, though he hadn't before. He told her of Nicholas's desire to marry Alexandra, and how he had refused to marry any other and his parents had agreed to the marriage because Alexander III was on his death bed and needed Nicholas to marry so he could become Tsar. Olive loved that little story Alexei had told her, she though it was sweet.