The Romanov Diary

Chapter fourteen

February 16, 1918

The grand duchesses Tatiana and Olga sit together with Milo and Ophelia inside of the ballroom after breakfast. The girls have dug out their favorite albums to show their friends their old lives before the revolution. The photos never end, for they loved to photograph everything they ever saw to never forget it. There are pictures of their trips abroad, their parents and siblings, favorite officers and themselves. Pictures of Alexandra in white dresses on the Shtandart brings them back to warm summers on their yacht. Life in Tobolsk is actually not too different from the life on sea, and they have adjusted well. Milo tells them about his own albums, but trapped inside of his phone. The girls are astonished over his words about phones, selfies and coloured videos.
   "Awww look at Anastasia." Olga smiles and points to a picture.
The girls are children again, standing in a grove with white short dresses, hats and baskets. They're all smiling, except for the youngest sister who looks rather bored.
   "Is that Maria?" Ella looks at a young beautiful girl doing homework by her desk back in the Alexander Palace.
A photo of Olga and Tatiana comes to view, standing together with their mother. They were black high knee boots with white dresses down to their knees with a wide skirt and marked waist. The arms are puffy and their hairs are released, meaning they must have been under 16 years old at the time. Alexandra wears a long black dress, a white waist band and many jewels.
   "How pretty we were..." Tatiana says quietly and sighs loudly as she looks at her young self.
   "You still are!" Milo smiles and puts a hair behind her ear as she looks at him.
Tatiana and Milo look at each other and smile. Both Ella and Olga feel the awkward tension outside of their bubble. Therefore, Ella takes the album and stands up.
   "How about we go outside to get some air, huh?" She suggests.
Milo and Tatiana break apart and clears their throats. Olga giggles awkwardly and stands up.
   "I'll get the dogs." Tatiana says and runs off with her sister.
Milo and Ella are left alone, looking after two young women they've grown to become best friends with in just a matter of a few months, and they're terrified that their work won't be enough to save their doomed lives.

Alexei and his teacher Pierre Gilliard, a Swiss academic and author who was hired as the Romanovs French tutor in 1905, sit around a table in the library. Alexandra sits on a chair in the corner, knitting socks and stockings for the children. Pierre is a very nice and humble man, yet strict and firm. Fitting for royal children, so to say. He's been a part of the family for many years and he's seen them grow up into beautiful teenagers and grown ups. Alexandra has received many pleasing reviews about her children from their teachers, especially about Tatiana. The two oldest girls are very academically inclined and love to study. Maria doesn't share their passion for learning, but she always does her best. Anastasia and Alexei are smart, but find school boring. Many of their tutors have over the years complained about the two youngest siblings, how they laugh in classes, skip class and pull pranks on the teachers. Gilliard finds it rather charmy, but their parents are not happy with their behavior. When they first reached Tobolsk, many of the soldiers were stunned by how little the children knew, almost calling them uneducated. They may know much about languages and politics, but when it comes to ordinary life they're as lost as a lion would be on an ice rink. One day, a couple of natives walked by their house with reindeers, and the girls watched them from their windows. They asked so many questions about these "strange folks" that the soldiers began to wonder if they knew anything about their people at all.
   French is the official language in the Russian cort. When Alix became czarina she struggled with both the Russian and the French bit in the beginning. Her German accent sometimes broke through and she could even completely black out in the middle of a conversation. She's very different from the czarina before her, Nicholas' mother Maria. Maria was social, proud and very social as well as extremely popular within the nobel cort and the people. Alix is the complete opposite. Her children are taught the same languages, and they often prefer to speak in French or English, for they find it easier. But their exile has many demands on them, including an enforcement to only speak Russian behind bars, or walls.