Chapter Thirty Alix
Chapter Thirty
Alix
“Uncle Max?” A three-year-old boy, a stuffed bear clutched tight in his hand, stared solemnly up at Maximilian. “Can you help me build a house?”
Alix watched Maximilian kneel, bringing himself level with the toddler. “Of course, Erik. What would you say to a pillow fort?”
She smiled as Maximilian began constructing a house for Erik out of sofa cushions and throw pillows. “If you want your walls to be structurally sound, you need to think about support,” Maximilian was saying. “Each pillow should have something holding it up, like so….”
“Typical Maximilian, trying to teach my son engineering before his fourth birthday.”
The Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Maximilian’s cousin, came to stand next to Alix.
She nodded in Maximilian’s direction before taking a hearty sip of her coffee.
Grandmama wouldn’t have let Alix walk around holding a coffee like that—Go sit at the table!
You look like a railroad worker, walking around with it in your hands!
she would have said. Not to mention that Grandmama would never have let Alix build a fort out of her decorative, tasseled silk pillows.
Things were delightfully casual here in Baden-Baden.
“It’s easy to see how much your boys love their uncle Max,” Alix remarked, amused. Maximilian looked so endearingly ridiculous, kneeling on the carpet in his shirtsleeves as pillows tumbled down around him.
Back in Darmstadt, after he’d seen Alix’s episode—after they had decided to start courting—Maximilian had invited Alix to Baden-Baden, the famous spa town on the edge of the Black Forest. It was several hours from Baden’s capital city of Karlsruhe, but Maximilian’s family had owned an estate there for over a hundred years.
It was customary for the Grand Dukes of Baden to take the waters every summer.
This was new territory for Alix: being courted the proper way, with chaperoned trips and the approval of both families. She knew that Grandmama, in particular, was bursting with excitement at the match—so delighted, in fact, that she hadn’t even insisted that Ernie join this visit to Baden-Baden.
And really, the house was quite full of chaperones.
Alix had already known that Maximilian was close with his family: because of his oldest uncle’s mental illness, he and his sister had spent a great deal of time with their uncle Frederick, the acting duke, and Frederick’s children.
Maximilian’s three cousins were like siblings to him.
Somehow, all those cousins had come to Baden-Baden at the very same time. The ducal estate was full to bursting with boisterous laughter and the shrieks of children.
Alix sensed that they were here for her sake. Not to pass judgment on whether she was good enough, as the Romanovs had done, but simply because Maximilian wanted them to meet her.
“Mama,” Erik called out to Princess Victoria, gesturing to the rather haphazard pillow structure. “Look at our fort!”
As if on cue, his two older brothers barreled in from the kitchens and began attacking the pillow fort with loud hollers. Erik laughed and joined them, kicking pillows to the floor, apparently eager to destroy what he had just so painstakingly built.
Victoria started toward her sons as Maximilian came to join Alix. He’d gone to swim laps at the baths very early that morning. Now that she stood closer, Alix realized that his beard and hair were still damp, curling softly around his ears, his lips.
“I didn’t know your hair was so curly,” she breathed.
“That’s because you’ve never seen me bathe.” Maximilian instantly seemed to realize what he’d said, and flushed. “I mean—that is, it gets this way when wet, and I was up so early…. I’m afraid I’ve never been a late sleeper….”
Alix could see the pulse at the center of Maximilian’s throat. She imagined she could smell the thermal springs on him, the mineral scent of the water mixing with a warm scent that was purely Maximilian. His eyes darkened, and she knew he felt it too—the pulse of attraction between them.
Then he took a step back, seeming to collect himself. “Are you ready to visit the Trinkhalle? The morning rush should be slowing by now.”
She nodded, allowing Maximilian to lead her out the front door and into a carriage. “I’m excited to see it. I’ve never taken the waters before, not even at Bath.”
“Do not mention Bath here, or you will find yourself quite unpopular,” Maximilian teased. “We in Baden-Baden think that Bath is by far the lesser spa town.”
The Trinkhalle was a massive neoclassical building, with thermal baths in the basement where men and women could—separately, of course—immerse themselves in the natural hot springs that had made Baden-Baden so famous. But most of the grand structure was taken up by the fountain room.
It was an enormous hall, all white columns and marble floors.
Morning light spilled in through the skylight, falling on potted plants and sofas arranged in small clusters.
Side tables held stacks of newspapers and magazines; and though a few visitors did recline to read, most were walking—strolling with their friends, exchanging gossip, all clutching the same metal cups filled with the healing Baden-Baden water.
Maximilian and Alix went to fill their own cups from the tap. Maximilian watched as Alix took a careful sip.
“Well?” he prompted.
“It’s not what I expected.” Not salty, exactly, but it didn’t taste like any water Alix had consumed before.
“That would be the high mineral content. It is said to cure many ailments: gout, rheumatism and joint pain, rickets…”
“Can it cure me?”
Alix asked the question in a whisper, but Maximilian huffed out a breath.
“There is nothing wrong with you, and your episodes are not something to be ashamed of. They are at most an inconvenience,” he declared. “I will keep telling you this as many times as it takes, until you believe it.”
“I…thank you.”
Alix drank again from the metal cup. Already she felt calmer, more centered.
Maybe the waters really were curative; or maybe it was this time with Maximilian, who accepted her as she was.
It was so nice, not trying to hide her condition.
Letting go of the anxiety that had strummed through her blood for so long, as frantic as a second heartbeat.
Maximilian started to lead her toward the mosaics on one wall, but Alix’s steps faltered. Her entire attention focused on the older couple walking toward her.
It was the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia. Nicholas’s parents.
They must have been traveling incognito, because they weren’t surrounded by their entourage of servants and footmen; and they were dressed in clothes that, while well cut and clearly made of expensive fabric, were unembellished.
They looked like any other aristocrats on holiday.
To add to the disguise, the tsar had shaved his famous beard. He looked thinner without it.
Alix saw the moment that Minnie caught sight of her—how she grabbed Sasha’s elbow and hissed something under her breath. Then the two of them started toward Alix with obvious intent.
“I seem to have spotted an old acquaintance,” Alix told Maximilian over the pounding of her heart. They can’t hurt me anymore, she reminded herself.
As they approached, Alix began to sink into an instinctive curtsy, but a quick hiss from Minnie recalled her. She paused, letting the tsar set the tone of things.
Maximilian stepped forward first, holding out a hand to shake.
“It’s lovely to meet you,” he said. “Welcome to Baden. I’m Maximilian.”
The tsar looked at Maximilian’s hand with evident bewilderment, as if someone had offered him a dead animal. Then he seemed to remember what to do, and shook it.
“I’m the Grand Duke Ivan, and this is my wife, Natasha. We met Alix when she was last in St. Petersburg, visiting her sister.”
So they were pretending to be Russian aristocrats. That made sense; it would have been hard to convince people they were from anywhere but Russia.
“Maximilian, dear,” the tsarina pleaded. “Would you mind fetching us more water? I would so love to catch up with Alix in private. Just some family matters about her sister.”
Maximilian glanced to Alix for confirmation; when she nodded, he went to do as they asked.
The moment he’d gone, Alix rounded on Minnie. “Is everything all right with Ella?”
“What? Oh, yes.” The tsarina waved a hand dismissively. “I just wanted to get you alone. Sasha and I are actually glad we ran into you. There are some things we’d like to discuss.”
“I’m not sure what business we could possibly have together,” Alix replied, with a touch of impertinence.
Minnie glanced at her husband. She was fidgeting, playing with a strand of blue-gray pearls around her neck. When she realized Alix was watching her, she let out a little breath. “These were a wedding gift from Sasha, if you can believe it.”
“It took five years for the jeweler to assemble the pearls. They’re from the Nile,” the tsar explained. “I told him to match Minnie’s eyes.”
The pearls were an exceedingly rare color, a deep azure that reminded Alix of a summer storm. And they were exquisitely matched. Each was the exact same as the others, each perfectly round. They were not diamonds, yet she suspected they cost nearly as much.
The tsar and tsarina stared at each other for a moment, their gazes full of love. It was disorienting and a bit disarming, seeing this side of them—knowing that they were more than judgmental parents who’d made her miserable. That they loved each other, too.
Then Minnie seemed to recall where they were, and stepped back. “Sasha, since we found her, you can go ahead and make the offer in person.”
The offer?
The tsar grunted, turning to Alix. “I was going to approach your father, but it’s quite convenient, actually, that we ran into you. What would you say to a hundred thousand rubles?”
It was such a blunt, unprecedented question, Alix just stared at him. “Excuse me?”
“I don’t know what that would be in German marks.” He shrugged carelessly. “Suffice it to say, it’s a small fortune.”
“You could add it to your dowry,” the tsarina offered. “Or think of it as a wedding gift!”
“What?” Alix asked, bewildered.
“Marie told me that you are courting that German fellow,” the tsar explained, as if he couldn’t be bothered to recall Maximilian’s name.
“You and Maximilian could use the money to build a new home,” the tsarina said, evidently striving to sound reasonable.
The tsar snorted. “Or save it for your daughters’ dowries. Perhaps one of them might make a grand marriage—to an English prince, as you failed to do.”
Alix stared at them as comprehension sank in. “You’re trying to bribe me to marry Maximilian?”
“Of course this isn’t a bribe,” the tsarina said smoothly. “As I said, it’s a gift.”
Alix still felt dizzy with the strangeness of it all. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Maximilian and I only just started courting.”
“Perhaps, in that case, you wouldn’t mind writing Nicholas a quick note?” the tsarina insisted. “You could tell him that you have moved on, and that he should too?”
“We will send the money directly to you once Nicholas receives your letter,” the tsar chimed in. “You have my word.”
Shock, and outrage, snapped through her like a whip.
“I am afraid that I’m no longer corresponding with His Imperial Highness,” Alix said coolly.
“We know! He won’t stop talking about it!” the tsar bellowed, then lowered his voice. “We had so many options for him. Hélène of France, Alexandra of Greece, Marie Louise of Hanover—”
“He says that he will not marry,” Minnie cut in, perhaps sensing how utterly rude it was to list all the women whose worth they ranked above Alix’s. “He insists that he will rule alone, let Misha be his heir, and then Misha’s children can carry on the throne after him.”
“I’m sorry for your troubles, but I don’t see what this has to do with me,” Alix said stiffly.
The tsarina hesitated, then seemed to decide that there was no other way to say this. “We fear that he is refusing to marry because he is still pining for you, Alix.”
Something snagged in Alix’s chest. Though it had hurt, burning Nicholas’s letters, she had convinced herself that it was for the best—that Nicholas would move on, as she was attempting to do. That he might find someone who made sense for him, as Maximilian did for her.
To learn that he was refusing to marry, defying his parents…
No, she couldn’t think about him. That path only led to heartache.
“Are we agreed, then?” the tsar pressed. “You’ll write Nicholas, telling him that you have chosen someone else, in exchange for our very generous gift?”
“No,” Alix said slowly. “We are not agreed.”
Sasha’s expression grew thunderous. “Don’t be foolish. This is a lot of money. More than you’ll ever see in your lifetime, girl.”
“That makes no difference to me.” She spoke carefully, each word deadly crisp. “I am a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. I cannot be bought.”
The tsar’s face had grown bright red with rage. “I command you to write my son! Tell him that you two are over!”
“I’m afraid you’re in no position to command what I will or will not do. I am not your subject.” Alix tilted her chin up stubbornly. “You may control all of Russia, but as you constantly remind me, I am just a minor princess from Hesse. You have no dominion over me.”
Minnie’s lips pursed in disapproval, but Alix saw a different expression flit across the tsar’s face, something that might have been respect.
She should have waited until she was dismissed. After all, they were the Tsar and Tsarina of All the Russias, and she was just Alix of Hesse.
But that no longer mattered to her.
“I believe we have nothing else to discuss,” she declared. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…”
Alix turned and walked away. Not far off she saw Maximilian, balancing the four metal cups of water. He hurried to catch up with her.
“Are you all right, Alix? I have your friends’ water cups….”
“They were just leaving.” She plucked the cups from his grasp and set them on a side table. “And to be honest, I should like to leave as well.”
“The mineral water doesn’t sit well with everyone,” Maximilian said sympathetically. “Can I show you the gardens?”
As Alix headed out with Maximilian, she refused to let herself look back at the tsar and tsarina. They could watch her retreating form, knowing she had done the unthinkable.
She had told them no.