The Lives Of The Romanovs

The Dowager Empress

Vladimir

The chauffeur pulled up to the Anichkov Palace, I was in complete awe. The palace were beautiful beige and white colors. The architecture was elegant. To me, the palace was much nicer than the Alexander Palace, in spite of it being smaller. I could easily live in something like it.

The doors were opened for us and we walked inside. The freshly polished marble floors with light-green walls. Paul gasped and started to spin around.

"Paul, stop that." I scolded him as I handed my coat to the butler. "Thank you, sir."

The butler looked at me confused. As if I had just asked him a complicated mathematical equation. "Um...you are welcome, your highness."

"Prince Paley! Paul!" The Dowager Empress exclaimed as she approached us. I smiled at her and bowed. She scoffed and hugged me. "Oh, you do not have to bow at me. You married my granddaughter. That means we are family."

"I suppose. Paul, come here!" I shouted after my son. One of the maids was walking back to us, holding hands with my son.

"Here, your highness." She laughed.

"Ah, thank you." I chuckled and picked Paul up. He widely smiled at the Dowager Empress. "Paul, can you say hello to your Prababushka."

"Prababushka." Paul muttered. The Dowager Empress could not help but awe at him.

"He is so much like his dear mother. Not just in his looks, but his personality. Paul is this family's new angel." The Dowager Empress grinned up at me. I was always told that. As a joke, I claimed that Maria's ghost possessed Paul. I was the only one who found it even remotely funny. "Come, Prince Paley. The tea and cookies are ready."

As I followed her around the corridors and going up the elevator in her home, I was absolutely in love with her palace. It was very regal and elegant. I envied her home very much. The tearoom in her home was even more beautiful than the one at the Alexander Palace as well. I wondered what it was like to live in such a large palace alone. The Dowager Empress must've been lonely. Maybe even lonelier than I was.

"Peach or green tea?" The Dowager Empress asked as we sat down. I set Paul on my lap.

"Peach, please."

The footman came over and poured us our cups of tea. We were quiet for a moment. Suddenly, a wide grin spread across the Dowager Empress' face.

"May I hold him? It has been too long since I have held a baby."

"Of course, your imperial majesty." I replied and handed Paul over to her. Her weak arms were hardly able to keep him up. She plopped him down into her lap. The Dowager Empress spoke to Paul in a "baby voice" and made funny faces at him. He giggled and could not get enough of his Prababushka.

"Prince Paley, you do not have to call me by my title. Call me Babushka."

I was stunned. Her sudden kindness toward me was odd, but allowing me to not call her by her title was even more strange. Perhaps there was something she needed to tell me. I was just utterly confused by the Dowager Empress.

"Alright...Babushka." I gulped, almost feeling guilty for not calling her by her title. "You may call me Vladimir."

"Very well. How is my son and Alix?"

"They are the same. Your son adores me more than ever now that Paul and I live at the Alexander Palace. But the Tsarina dislikes me. Do not tell her, but I still believe she has never liked me."

Babushka scoffed. "Do not tell her, but I have never liked her. Alix is good for my son, but she has put Russia at jeopardy so many times. Especially with Rasputin."