To The End With You

C h a p t e r T w e n t y-T h r e e

Photo: Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna Romanova with her eldest sister, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Romanova 1913

June 1913
I was gleefully skipping around Aunt Olga's hallways in the palace. We were playing hide and seek, even Olga and Alexei joined which took me by surprise. Anastasia was currently counting to twenty. I was passing by one of the rooms when I overheard a private conversation between Mama and Papa. "She isn't herself, she looks so Danish compared to eight months ago. She doesn't look like our маленький цветок. Your mother just turned her into somebody else. She doesn't look or act like our daughter, we must take her back!"cried out Mama.

"Sunny, you know that wouldn't be a good idea. Think of her and her health, think of what the Russian people will think, or the Russian court,"Papa explained. "We should have never skipped her pregnancy! We should have announced that she was going to be born to the public!"Mama cried. "Sunny, you know that wouldn't have been a good idea, think of what would have happened to Maria or Anastasia,". "Nicky! I'm tired of the public as viewing her as a distant cousin! She is our baby!"

"Boo!"I felt two hands touch my back out of the blue. I flinched in surprise and then saw that it was little Anastasia. She gave me her famous smirk, "Found you! You are very bad at hiding you know?" I started walking away from the room our parents were in so they couldn't hear us, with Anastasia following me. I just nodded giving her a small smile. "Say, did you find the Big Pair yet?"I asked. Anastasia shook her head no. "But it will be faster to find them if you help me."she convinced. Although at the beginning of the game one of the rules was that the seeker couldn't get help from the people they already found, I didn't care because I needed to speak with Olga and Tatiana urgently.

I helped Anastasia and we ended up finding Marie instead. Her spot was the worst, even mine was better and I wasn't hiding. She hid underneath a bed and her feet were sticking out. Anastasia slowly tip toed towards Marie's legs and signaled me to be quiet. She motioned for me to come over. I slowly made my way next to Anastasia. With her hands she showed me what we're going to do.

At the same time we grabbed onto one of Marie's legs and pulled her out of underneath the bed. The once deadly silent room turned into bloody murder. "SHVIBZIK! YOU LITTLE DEVIL!" Marie shouted as she turned around giving us a death stare. If looks could kill Anastasia would be laying lifeless on the floor. Anastasia laughed at her so hard that she was holding her stomach wiping away a tear. The unfamiliar woman and two ladies in waiting ran in with a look of panic.

"What is going on?!"the woman demanded to know. Maria got off the floor and dusted off her dress. "We were just playing hide and seek, Anastasia scared me Madame."Maria explained. The woman nodded her head and shot Anastasia a glare, "If I hear anymore screams, I won't hesitate to punish you and tell your mother Anastasia."the woman scolded. "Yes Madame Fermor."Anastasia muttered not taking the warning seriously.

The woman gave her one last glare and left with the ladies in waiting following her. Anastasia turned towards Maria and started to laugh again while pointing her finger at her. Maria slapped Anastasia's finger out of her face, "Shvibzik! You are cheating Vanya isn't supposed to help you!"Maria scoffed. When Anastasia's laugher died down she just shrugged at Maria, "Did you see where the Big Pair hid? Vanya needs to seem them urgently.", "I think I know where Olga went."Marie said. "I think she went to hide in one of dining areas."Marie recalled. Anastasia started to quickly lead the way to one of the closer dining rooms.

Maria and I trailed behind her, "Who was that woman?, Madame Fer-," Maria cut me off as I struggled to remember the woman's name, "Madame Fermor is our new Governess.", I nodded my head as we walked in silence. "How is living in Denmark?"Maria started.

"It is nice, quite boring though,"I replied scanning the passing by rooms. "Why is that?"she questioned. "Well for starters my sisters aren't there with me,"I nudged her, Maria gave me a small smile before having her gaze fall onto the floor again, "What else?"

"Apart from my family not being there with me, then I only have one close person to socialize with and that is my lady in waiting, Ella.", Maria nodded her head and stayed silent for a second until she spoke up again, "You really do miss us? Because I- we really miss you." I smiled at her as our long walk around the palace hallways continued, "Yes I really do miss you all.".

"Do you- , Are you-, well do you still-,"Maria started to stutter. I looked at her in confusion until I realized what she wanted to ask me, "Yes, they still see me as sick and yes I still go to church two days a week, but I seem to be getting better in their eyes,". Maria stayed silent, we started to approach the dining room where Olga was supposedly hiding. Anastasia went down on all fours to check under the table but no luck. The three of us checked around the room but no track of anyone hiding here. We left the room to move on to the next dining area. "What must you speak to the Big Pair about?"Maria asked. "It's nothing,"

"Vanya I'm not a little girl anymore, you can tell me what's going on,"she pushed. "No, it's nothing really," Anastasia was ahead of us checking every room we passed by, just in case any of our siblings were there. "No, I know it is something important because I could tell by your face you look like you have seen a ghost! But you insist on leaving me out, shutting me out. Before the incident we were very close, almost inseparable. Now all you do is talk to the Big Pair! It's always Tatiana or Olga! What happened to the little pair?! It gets lonely Valentina, especially since Anastasia is always with Alexei! I understand he is sick and deserves all the attention needed but I have no one!"Maria broke, she finally broke. All the things she kept bundled inside came out. She was standing in front of me, her eyes swelling with tears.

"Why do you keep pushing me away?"she muttered softly. I stayed quiet not breaking eye contact with her. Anastasia was so far ahead that she couldn't hear Maria's outburst. "Mashka! Vanya! Let's go!" She yelled out. The both of us walked over to join Anastasia. We found another room but to our avail no one was there. "Mashka, I thought you said Olya was in one of the dining rooms!"Anastasia frustratedly muttered. "That's what she told me! Maybe she is in the third dining room."Maria sighed.

Maria and I started to walk in silence again, "Listen Maria, I am sorry. I had no idea on how life was like for you before and after my coma. It's just- it's hard because a lot of things are going on and I don't even think you know half of it. Explaining it would be time consuming.", Marie looked at me with little sympathy but mostly hurt, "I have a lot of time so you can tell me later. But at least tell me what you were going to talk to the Big Pair about."

"They don't know I'm your sister."I simply stated. Maria looked at me with an confused expression, "What?", "The Russian public doesn't know that I'm your sister. They think I'm some distant cousin or someone like that."I explained. Maria had a baffled expression, "Did you know?"I questioned. Maria shook her head no, speechless of what she just heard. "How do you know this?"

"I overheard Mama and Papa speaking about it."

"FOUND HER!"Anastasia's voiced echoed through the hall.