The Lives Of The Romanovs

The Arrival

Maria

It was official as of three-days ago. Igor, Dmitri, and Vladimir would be coming to stay with us the Alexander Palace for a couple months. Oh, I was absolutely so thrilled at the idea of it! I adored Igor and Dmitri immensely, and I was excited to meet Vladimir.

Finally, the night came when they would arrive. I sat at my vanity and touched up my hair. I sprayed some of my lilac perfume on to me. Anastasia walked by me and made a disgusted face.
"My goodness, Maria. It's just a dinner."
"It's not just a dinner, Nastya. We're having guests."
Anastasia grinned. "You're just trying to look your best for Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley."
I scoffed, trying to hide the fact she was right. "Unlike you, I actually care about how I look. I remember that time at the opera house and you ruined your white gloves because you couldn't stop eating chocolate truffles."
Anastasia groaned. "I was only ten!"
"Please, you'd still eat chocolate with white gloves and have no shame!" I shouted. Anastasia picked up a book from the desk and threw it at me. "Ow Anastasia! Why must you make such trouble? You are an idiot!"
"I know you are, but what am I?" Anastasia stuck her tongue out at me. I groaned loudly and crossed my arms. I probably would have went up and slapped her had Olga not walked in at that moment.

"What in the world is that all that noise about?" Olga scolded. "Anastasia, what did you do?"
Anastasia gasped. "What makes you think I did something?"
"Because every time Maria is upset, it's always your fault."
"It is not my fault Maria doesn't have a sense of humor."
"Little Pair, please. Papa asked me to come and retrieve you both. The guests will be here any minute now. Mashka, you look absolutely beautiful tonight. As do you, Anastasia." Olga gave a wan smile at each of us. I gave a weak smile back at her. Anastasia still had her arms crossed and an upset look on her face. I walked over to her and wrapped my arm around Anastasia.
"Please Nastya, you're not going to make me have to kiss your face one-hundred times, right?"
Anastasia giggled. "No, I won't. I'm sorry."
"Oh, it's alright. Now come on, I'm hungry." I replied. Olga. Anastasia, and I walked out of the room and down the hall and down the stairs together. The Alexander Palace was by far our favorite home. The walls were white with gold-lining on the walls. The carpets were red and the chandeliers were a gold. It was smaller than the palaces like the Catherine Palace and the Winter Palace. But that was alright with us, this place was our home and where we wished to remain.

The three of us came downstairs to find Papa, Mama, Tatiana, Father Grigori, Rebecca, Alexei, and Anna Vyrubova. Anna was the best friend of Mama and her closest confidante. There were others like Lili Dehn and Anya Demidova. But nobody compared to Anna.
"Hello everyone. I'm sorry I'm a bit late to the party." I laughed. I was greeted by a hug from Father Grigori.
"It's alright, dear child. You are here now and that is what is important." Father Grigori smiled. Rebecca stood quietly by his side.
"Hello Rebecca, it's lovely to see you again." I said in English. She smiled and curtsied.
"It's lovely to see you again, Maria Nikolaevna. You look excellent this evening." Rebecca said in Russian, trying to communicate in my mother tongue. However, her Russian was very poor. So if her Russian was poor and Rasputin cannot speak English or French: how in the world do they communicate?
"Oh, my heart is racing! It has been way too long since we've seen dear cousin, Dmitri." Tatiana grinned.
Olga chuckled. "What about Igor? Aren't you happy to see him too?"
"Well, of course! But I was just thinking about Dmitri in the moment." Tatiana blushed. Papa and Mama had smirks and exchanged looks with each other. That was the subject we had all been secretly thinking. With the war over now and all the soldiers are finally able to come home: Will Dmitri finally propose to Tatiana? They had been madly in love with each other since 1915. Neither of them knew it, but the love was there. Another subject was trying to find someone for dear Olga. Now, there was Igor and he was very fond of her. But Igor was too...reserved. Even though in a lot of ways he was social, Igor preferred to stay at home and read rather than have a large party. Besides, Olga was too caught up on her "Mitya Shakh-Bagov." She loves him deeply, but I think he's only fascinated with her because she's a grand duchess.

The footmen opened the doors of the palace and our attention turned. It was snowing quickly outside and the carriage was rather small for it to carry three people. But nevertheless, I saw Igor and Dmitri come out of the carriage. They were both in their imperial uniforms and they came inside. Tatiana ran and threw herself at Dmitri, who laughed and hugged her back. Anastasia hugged Igor and I went to Dmitri.
"Hello Dmitri." I smiled. Tatiana let him go and then he hugged me.
"Dear Maria, I haven't seen you since...Summer 1917? My god, you've grown so much."
I let him go and looked at the doors. "Where is your brother?" I asked. Dmitri rolled his eyes.
"He's my half-brother. Vladimir decided he wanted to help the footmen get his luggage."
"Oh...did he not have servants growing up?"
"No, he did. Vladimir has just always been...so pure-hearted, as my stepmother would say. If you ask me, he's just a liberal."
I furrowed my eyebrows. I didn't know too much about politics. There were liberals and conservatives, and that's all I knew. Tatiana took my arm and leaned in my ear. "Liberal means that Vladimir focuses on Social Darwinism and believes the rich should help the poor."
"Oh, I see." I nodded. "Well, what's wrong with that?" Dmitri chuckled and shook his head.
"There's more to it than that, beloved Tatya. But I don't feel like talking about politics right now."
I walked away so Dmitri and Tatiana could speak. I went over to Igor, but I was beat by Alexei who practically grabbed him. Igor threw Alexei over his shoulder and started spinning.
"Oh my, Alyosha! You have grown so big! How old are you now, seven or eight?"
Alexei laughed. "I'm fourteen, Igor!" Igor set Alexei down.
"I do not believe you. Fourteen-year-old boys have muscles and I don't see any." Igor grinned. Alexei laughed and flexed his arms. Igor playful gasped. "Well, I have been proven wrong once again. You might just be the strongest boy in Russia!" Alexei laughed and just Igor a large hug.
"Ah, I've missed you too. Don't worry, I'm not leaving for a long time."
"You better not." Alexei let him go. He then ran over to Dmitri instead. Olga came over to Igor and gave a shy smile at him.
"Hello Igor."
Igor picked up Olga's hand. "Dear Olenka, I've missed you so." He brought her hand up and gently gave it a kiss. Olga blushed terribly and slowly took her hand away. Igor turned his attention to me.
"Ah, dear Maria." He pulled me into a side hug and gently kissed my head.
"Hello Igor. I'm delighted you're here." As P.O.
"I'm happy to be here. I can not wait for us to catch up on our lives."
"Me neither. We all have missed you, especially Olga." I smirked. Her eyes widened and she looked at me. Igor simply blushed and let me out of his hug.

That's when the doors finally closed and we could feel it. We turned to look at the doors. There was tall man who stood. He had a long-face and dark-brown hair. His eyes were a deep brown and his coat was covered in snow. My breath was taken away just at the sight of him. He dropped his suitcase on the ground. We were all looking at him in mesmerization.
"Hello everyone." Vladimir weakly smiled and nodded at us. "My name is Vladimir Paley."