The Lives Of The Romanovs

The Whitest Lie

Olga

Papa's words shook me. What happened? How did it happened? Nothing was adding up to me. How was Josiah Henry dead? Anastasia came to my mind. Oh God, and she was pregnant. No, this had to be a terrible nightmare. This was not truly happening to us.

"Papa...what happened?"

Papa shook his head. Tears were forming in his eyes. "According to the Okhrana officers, Josiah tried to attack them. They had no choice to shoot him."

"He was shot?" I trembled. "Josiah was so kind...he-he would have never attacked them."

"I know."

"He loved Nastya so much."

Papa stood up from his desk. "I know that, Olenka. I wish to open an investigation on the incident."

"This was not an incident! Josiah was murdered in cold blood! He was killed because he was a Jew. I do not support Judaism...but he was still a human being." Tears were running down my face. My fear and sadness for Anastasia was immense. My poor little sister. She was alone now. What would she do?

"He was shot in the chest three-times. Three bloody times. The worst part is the officers buried him in mass grave for criminals."

"He was not a criminal!" I shouted. "Josiah is the victim, not your officers."

There was a moment of silence. I could tell that there were many thoughts running through Papa's mind. He had a lot to think about now. There are times like this in life where we are so shocked and panicked. That is how I felt when we were on holiday at Spala in Poland. The year was 1912 and Alexei had jumped from the bathtub on to the floor. He suffered a horrendous bleed and nearly died. I prayed and prayed over my brother. Father Grigori came to heal him, of course. Fortunately, Baby made a full recovery. But I was so fearful of Alyosha dying that I had a difficult time eating or sleeping for days.

"Papa, what will you tell Anastasia?" I whispered, almost afraid someone would hear me, even though we were the only two in the room.

Papa cleared his throat. "Josiah Henry hanged himself. He committed suicide in his hotel room. I need to forge a note."

"A note?! Suicide?! This is insane! This cannot be happening!"

"But it is, Olishka! We must protect Anastasia! She must never know what truly happened to Josiah. Discovering he was murdered will only break her heart more."

"She's pregnant." I muttered. Papa looked up at me with wide eyes.

"Sh-She's what?"

"She's pregnant with Josiah's child. She is around two-months along. Do you understand now? Anastasia is going to have an illegitimate child. This will ruin her reputation, even worse than being married to Josiah could have been."

Papa smacked his hand on his desk. He seemed to be trying to contain his own anger. His overwhelming guilt.

"Dammit. No, no, no. Poor Nastya...my poor baby." Papa started sobbing. It was first time I seen him so heartbroken like this in a long while. The night Maria died was the last time I saw him so utterly heartbroken. I walked around the side of the desk and wrapped my arms around him.

"I will find something in Josiah's handwriting. Oh, I do not like lying."

"We must. We have to protect Anastasia. We cannot allow her any more heartbreak. I will tell her tomorrow morning, and you see if there is a note from Josiah anywhere."

The next morning, I woke up bright and early. I wondered where a note from Josiah would be. I had not seen him place anything before he left, nor had anyone mentioned anything. But I think Papa had a harder job, and that was breaking the news about Josiah's death to Anastasia. How have we be caught in this mess? This was a terrible thing that had happened in our family. I checked for a note in the bedroom of Anastasia's, Tatiana's, the Maple room, the Mauve Room, and the billiard room. However, there was not a single letter or note from Josiah anywhere.