Her Bright Spirits

The Emperor of Russia's four daughters - Olga, Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia - are best friends as well as sisters. Being in an unusual position as daughters of the one of the world's most powerful men, sometimes it feels that they are each other's only true companions. They must savour all the time they have left, though, as they are rapidly changing from beguiling little girls hidden away in the palace nursery to charming young women whose names dominate gossip magazines with talk of which foreign princes they will one day marry.

It is 1913, and the imperial family is celebrating three hundred years of their family's rule. The tercentenary celebrations mark the beginning of the last full year the girls have to just be sisters; to venerate their youth.

But beyond the gates of the Alexander Palace, a different fate is in store for the sisters and their family. Europe is a freight train of politics and tensions charging headfirst into the modern era, and the House of Romanov, steeped in tradition and antiquity, must change with it, or else be crushed under the wheel of time.

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NOTE: This story is not on hiatus! Chapters will be written and published as and when they are ready, but there will not be a consistent update schedule between February and July 2020, while the author sorts out some "real world" shenanigans. This note will be replaced once a schedule has been organised.