The Ring of the Queen (The Lost Tsar Trilogy Book 1)
Page 44
Part XXXX
I never take anything for granted. I may slip any minute.
-Eartha Kitt
Boris answered his phone. He said hello a few times. The connection was bad. The number was shown as unknown on the phone. I was nervous. Every time a phone rang, we all jumped a little bit. We didn’t know how to act anymore. The idea that the government may or may not be looking for me was driving me crazy. The reports on TV were designed to keep me on edge. The press was putting out what they were told to. It didn’t take a genius to figure that one out.
One minute they were looking for me. The next minute they’d stopped because they had a report that I’d left the country. There were people waiting at the airports and consulates. Every time Boris looked at headlines on his phone, things changed. Last night on TV I was an enemy of the state and the next day I was a hoax. Every move seemed designed to make me wonder. It felt like they thought I was watching the news 24 hours a day. They were right. It was propaganda at its very best.
I wanted to go back to Lydia’s house and see what was on the television this time, but Lydia thought that we should make one more stop. The palace is Peterhof, and there’s no place on Earth quite like it. Peterhof is where Catherine the Great had Peter III arrested so that she could run the country. Peterhof was where Peter the Great lived. Peterhof has elaborate fountains, grand ballrooms, amazing architecture, and infamous throne room. That was the room that we'd come to see.
Lydia knew the curator at Peterhof too, which was how we got in to see the room. We strolled through the halls of the great palace at our leisure. Each palace that I visited seemed more ornate and extravagant than the last. I couldn’t believe it when I got to the throne room. There was the throne with the family crest of the Romanovs, and over it hung the picture of Catherine the Great sitting on her white horse, ready to lead her country once her husband was out of the way. She was wearing the uniform that I had in the back seat of Lydia’s Pathfinder.
I couldn’t deny it. She was truly a wonder of the world all on her own. I was in awe of this woman. Her strength alone was unfathomable to me. I could understand why a country that was overrun by corruption would be filled with citizens who wanted to find a compassionate leader to help them rise above their problems and move ahead in the world.
I couldn’t believe that anyone would think that leader was me.
Catherine’s entire life was about a job. The job was to run one of the greatest empires in history, but it was still a job. I'd read about monarchs over the years. Most of them didn't sleep a lot and were what we in the modern world called workaholics. From what I'd learned that day, she didn’t have a real marriage. She always had to be on like a modern starlet. How do you learn to live in such a bright spotlight? I couldn’t imagine living like that.
It all started at Peterhof. That’s where she took over. That’s where she showed the world how tough she really was and showed the whole world what a woman could do. Modern women should be proud of her. I had to learn more about her. I had to know who the person that I was named after truly was. I decided to study Russian history a lot more once I finally got home. I decided that day that Russian History would be my PhD. I needed to know more about the people who were my ancestors.
I’d never seen anything quite like St. Petersburg. It was no wonder that they’d made most of the city a world heritage site. In addition to the palaces that we'd visited there were dozens of other historic buildings. We drove by historic buildings on every street in the older part of town. I’d never seen anything like it. In the early years of the city, every Tsar had built their own palace. That’s a lot of palaces. The only one that wasn’t so big that it was surreal was the Chinese Palace at Oranienbaum. We left Peterhof at 4 pm in a bad storm, but in St. Petersburg it was barely mentioned or noticed. I loved it there. It was like a trip to Oz to me, and I didn’t care. The world of St. Petersburg was surreal to me. I could stay in Oz forever. It wouldn’t bother me one little bit.
We arrived at Lydia’s house as her family was preparing dinner. Lydia’s husband was a good cook. That night was homemade pizza. I couldn't believe how universal pizza was. I felt that Lydia must keep some odd hours, because her husband didn't ask where we’d been or why we were so late.
There were no messages. There were no missed calls on any of our phones. I was worried. I believed that Peter was trying to help us. I didn't believe that he would leave me hanging. We shared something special. Maybe I was confusing our one night together with true feelings, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something special existed between us.
Why didn’t he call? Why didn’t Dr. Zemecki call? Something was wrong. I turned on the news. I’d never watched the news so much in my life. I flipped through every news program I could find. I heard nothing. It was as though the ring of the queen and I had never happened. They were intentionally keeping something out of the public eye. I felt it. What was it? I wished that I knew more about the government so that I could read the situation better. If I could get a bead on what they were trying to distract people from, I could figure out what to do.
I was starting to get paranoid. I would sound insane if I said that the government was trying to lull me into a false sense of security. It sounded crazy. I wished I was crazy. The unfortunate truth was that we were all waiting for the other shoe to drop. Boris even said so. He said that he thought there was no way that they would just let it go. Mafiosos don’t ever let anything go.
We ate and watched more news. We talked about it and tried to make sense of it. Tania was more relaxed now that she’d gotten out. A little fresh air and distraction helped a lot, besides, that was the reason that she’d come. To see Russia and learn about the Tsars. She didn’t like the darkness. It still bothered her to no end. I didn’t mind it myself. I thought it was kind of mystical. I thought it added something to the mystery.
We watched a sitcom that was produced in Kiev, Ukraine. It was strange. It reminded me of Friends, but more formal. It was funny, but different. I watched Lydia and her family watch it. They loved it. They said that it was the most popular TV show in the country. I didn't see it, but I didn't live in Russia.
10:00 pm. The news was on again. The airports were closing down for the night for the storm. Trains were still running. There was 16 inches of snow expected during the night. It didn’t seem to surprise or upset Lydia's family. Tania said she couldn’t take it if she lived there. She kept saying that she would kill herself if she lived there. Lydia and her family didn’t understand why anyone would have a problem with the weather there. I found the differences fascinating.
Lydia could go and live somewhere warmer, but she didn’t want to live anywhere else. I understood that. I loved it there. It felt like home to me. I had no idea why. I thought it was something about being a Romanov. I’d never liked the cold or the dark before, but it was different there. It didn’t feel as cold to me. It was dark, but it was beautiful in the moonlight. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I belonged there. It was true. I was a Romanov.
I didn’t want to go to bed. I was worried about Peter. Everyone said things were fineand that he would have called if anything were wrong. They all went to bed. I sat there with the remote flipping from one news program to another. I knew that there was something wrong. I didn’t know how, but I knew. Tania said that I was losing my mind. I knew she was right.
I finally slept, to no avail, because the phone on the table behind my head woke me at 2:00 am. The TV was still on. I’d fallen asleep while glued to the screen, trying to find the disaster that my head kept telling me was out there. I knew something was wrong. Why else would a phone ring at 2:00 am?
The Ring of the Queen