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Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. The Summer Queen
  3. Dedication Page
  4. Family Tree of King George III
  5. Family Tree of Queen Victoria
  6. PART ONE
  7. Chapter One
  8. Chapter Two
  9. Chapter Three
  10. Chapter Four
  11. Chapter Five
  12. Chapter Six
  13. Chapter Seven
  14. Chapter Eight
  15. Chapter Nine
  16. Chapter Ten
  17. Chapter Eleven
  18. Chapter Twelve
  19. Chapter Thirteen
  20. PART TWO
  21. Chapter Fourteen
  22. Chapter Fifteen
  23. Chapter Sixteen
  24. Chapter Seventeen
  25. Chapter Eighteen
  26. Chapter Nineteen
  27. Chapter Twenty
  28. Chapter Twenty-One
  29. Chapter Twenty-Two
  30. Chapter Twenty-Three
  31. Chapter Twenty-Four
  32. PART THREE
  33. Chapter Twenty-Five
  34. Chapter Twenty-Six
  35. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  36. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  37. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  38. Chapter Thirty
  39. Chapter Thirty-One
  40. Chapter Thirty-Two
  41. PART FOUR
  42. Chapter Thirty-Three
  43. Chapter Thirty-Four
  44. Chapter Thirty-Five
  45. Chapter Thirty-Six
  46. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  47. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  48. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  49. Chapter Forty
  50. Chapter Forty-One
  51. Acknowledgements
  52. Select Bibliography
  53. The Summer Queen
  54. By Margaret Pemberton

‘Your great-grandmama, Wilhelmina of Baden, was also my great-grandmama.’ As they waltzed in graceful circles to the music, his voice thickened. ‘I wonder if you remember your final day, on your last visit to St Petersburg, sweetest Alix? Do you remember the way we scratched our initials and a heart in a windowpane of the little summerhouse at Peterhof?’

‘Oh yes!’ There was scarcely any difference in their height and, as her eyes met his, she said, ‘And no matter how old I may grow, I will never forget doing so, Nicky. Not ever.’

Absorbed in each other, they were oblivious of the attention they were attracting, for whispers concerning the interest that the Tsesarevich was showing in Grand Duke Sergei’s young sister-in-law were spreading around the Nicholas Hall like wildfire.

Aware of the whispers, and the reason for them, Ella and Sergei sucked in deep, satisfied breaths. Ella was doing so because a marriage between Alicky and Nicky would be the most prestigious marriage possible for her sister; Sergei because he, like Ernie, sensed Nicky’s innate submissiveness and was certain that if Alicky and Nicky married, Nicky would always follow Alicky’s advice, just as he was certain that Alicky would always follow his, Sergei’s, advice.

All of which meant that when the day came that Nicky became Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, the person wielding power over one-sixth of the world’s surface wouldn’t be kind, diffident Tsar Nicholas II. Via Alicky he, Sergei, would be the one wielding the power. His eyes blazed and his mouth hardened as he thought of how, if his plans came to fruition, he would one day – in everything but name – rule the largest country on earth.

PART TWO

HOPES

Chapter Fourteen

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MAY 1890, WINDSOR

Standing on the private deck of a cross-Channel ferry, Eddy looked towards Dover’s white cliffs with mixed feelings. He had been away for seven months on a royal tour of India and part of him couldn’t wait to be reunited with his mother and sisters, while an equally large part of him dreaded the thought of the obligations and the lack of choices he was so soon to be faced with.

When his grandmother welcomed him home – something he knew she would do very swiftly – the first subject she would bring up would be that of his future marriage. Her heart had been set on him marrying Alicky, as, for a short space of time, had his own. Now, with Alicky having refused him – and having done so with such determination that his confidence still hadn’t fully recovered – there were not many prospective brides left for him to propose to, royal and Protestant princesses of the right age being thin on the ground.