The Bleeding Swan

II

It was noon when the entire Von Rostov family gathered in our living room to listen to the message of His Royal Highness, King Marcus II, over the radio while drinking tea from our china cups. It had been two days since Uncle Boris had left our home and we had not yet received any news as to whether he had arrived safely in Leningrad in the Soviet Union. It was a really long way, so we probably won't know anything soon.

I was sitting on a comfortable sofa wearing a white lace dress. I had white gloves on my hands and I was holding a cup full of tea. My sister Rozalia was dressed similarly, who simply loved to copy my style of dress. Not only did she imitate it. While I was sitting upright, despite the fact that I had a comfortable chair back, Rozalia was straightening her neck even more. I was convinced that my sister was competing with me in a contest of slow tea drinking. Fast sipping of the drink is highly inappropriate. Tea should be drunk slowly and its bitter taste should be savoured. I knew that Rozalia was doing it as slowly as possible, so that I could finish drinking before her. While sipping the drink, it was tasteful to bend my little finger slightly. It came easily to me, it was almost a natural reflex to bend my little finger with grace and unforced lightness at a perfect angle. Rozalia was doing the same as me, but I think that I was doing it much, much better.

Edmund, of course, had no tact whatsoever and was almost lying in his chair. He wasn't even holding a china cup holder in his hand, which drove me crazy. I won't even mention holding the cup in his hand properly, because it was just some kind of spectacle of a completely unfunny comedy. I, however, was only making meaningful faces in his direction with grace and calmness. I was surprised that even while drinking tea together, my twin brother didn't want to dress properly. Yes, he wore a white shirt and smart trousers with braces, but it was literally impossible to ignore the fact that his shirt collar was crumpled. I had the impression that Edmund, with his behaviour and appearance, would be more suited to working in a barn than having tea with our respectable family. He had not even combed his hair. He just sat contentedly with himself with this storm of black unkempt hair on his head, which also drove me crazy.

Grandpa Francis behaved similarly to my brother. He rested his back in a comfortable armchair and the saucer of his beautiful teacup was lying somewhere on a distant, small table. The newspaper he had been looking through since the wee hours of the morning lay crumpled on top of his elegant trousers, which didn't look good either. Granted, his shirt wasn't creased, but he didn't look as good as he should have when he was also what my brother was lying in an armchair, drinking tea and smoking his fat cigar. I was sure that instead of tea my grandfather would have preferred to be sipping his evening brandy somewhere alone in the privacy of the house by now.

Only my mother Luna, my dad Gregory senior and my grandmother Gertrude were presentable. Both women were dressed appropriately for the occasion, their backs were straight and both cups and cup holders rested in their hands. My father Gregory senior, was also looking good. I knew that the man under the tie would also have wanted to light his cigar by now, but he realized that it was necessary to have tea with his family first. That's simply what the rules of ethics and good manners dictated, which simple people don't even know about. That was what made us different from the people of Hight Water. Class, good name and upbringing.

- Today, the third of September 1939, I, your King Marcus II announce that we are at war with the Third German Reich. - The voice of King Trialndu on the radio sounded. -With the agreement of the Prime Minister and our western allies, after the failure of the Third German Reich to carry out the ultimatum issued by us, the leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler, has left us no choice. His unlawful aggression against our northern neighbor Poland cannot be tolerated...

A voice on the radio, belonging to the king himself , spoke. Suddenly, however, Grandfather Francis spoke up:

- The King will drag us into the war to clear his opinion of the crown after the last war.