Maria felt desperately cast down by this answer. Her own aunt did not know her, and did not believe any of the others who had contacted her.

“Write again,” Peter urged. “Press your case. There must be personal stories that only you and she would know.”

Maria took his advice: Do you remember when Joy stole a piece of cherry cake you had laid on a low table and stood trying to appear innocent although there were crumbs on the floor between her paws? Do you remember how hard I cried when my fingers were trapped in the door of the royal train on the way to Livadia and only your special bonbons could make me stop? Do you remember the time Anastasia threw a snowball at Tatiana and knocked her out cold because she had accidentally scooped up a rock inside the snow? Please know it is me, beloved aunt. Who else would share these memories?

Still the reply was not encouraging: You could have heard these stories from a member of the royal household. I’m afraid the only thing that will convince me is to meet you face-to-face and compare your current appearance with that of the niece I last saw sixteen years ago.

Maria showed the letter to Peter. “What if I traveled to Copenhagen on Matthias’s ship and Olga decided I am an impostor? I was an innocent seventeen-year-old when last she saw me, and now I am a thirty-three-year-old mother of five who mends factory conveyor belts. My own mother would not recognize me.”

“I am sure she would know you,” Peter soothed. “If you like, we could pay for the Karl Bulla photographic studio on Nevsky Prospekt to take your likeness and send that to her.”

“If only I had my old camera. Do you remember when I took your picture?” She smiled, remembering his unease in front of the lens. “No, I doubt Olga would recognize me from a photograph, and the experiment would be an expensive one. Either I go there in person or I do not.”

Peter spoke carefully, and she knew he wanted her to make up her own mind. It was her family, after all. “I will support you if you decide to go. My only concern is that once you have left the Soviet Union, it will not be easy to return. Matthias might have to smuggle you in, like contraband.”

Maria shuddered. She knew in her heart she was not brave enough to do this without Peter beside her. He was the strong one. She fell silent for a long time, and Peter left her to her thoughts.