Since then, both she and Nicky had come to regard Father Grigory as a miracle-worker they couldn’t do without. He alone was able to halt Alexei’s haemorrhages, and he did so with nothing more than his presence and his prayers.

To the doctors and blood specialists who had been in attendance on Alexei since he had first been diagnosed with haemophilia, there was no rational explanation for how the presence of the starets brought the bleeding to an end. With his filthy hands and dirty clothes, he was an affront to their profession and they labelled him a fraudster, accusing the holy man of being able to judge when an internal bleeding episode might end of its own volition and taking advantage of that moment.

Not knowing of the dreadful disease Alexei suffered from and that it was the reason for Rasputin’s presence at Tsarskoe Selo, Nicky’s family were equally outraged by his presence at the palace. For as well as having a reputation as a healer, Rasputin also had a reputation for depravity.

When Nicky’s ministers had come to Alicky with police reports detailing Rasputin’s visits to St Petersburg’s brothels, she had refused to believe them and then, over time, she had begun ignoring them. Not even the report of his having raped a nun could shake her faith in him, or her need of him. Only Rasputin could bring an end to the agonies Alexei suffered, and that he could accomplish that miracle and relieve Alexei’s suffering and keep him alive was all that mattered to her. Anything else she treated as wicked lies.

A human whirlwind burst into the room.

‘Mama! Mama! Aunt Ella has arrived and, when the two of you have finished talking, can I show her the new puppies?’ Alicky’s eleven-year-old daughter Anastasia threw her arms around her mother’s waist. ‘Please do say I can, for perhaps she would like to take one of them back to Moscow with her?’

‘I don’t think nuns are allowed to have dogs.’ The nerves in Alicky’s stomach had tightened, for she knew why Ella had come from Moscow to speak to her. ‘But if Ella would like to see the puppies, then of course you can show them to her.’

‘Thank you, beautiful Mama!’ Anastasia hugged her fervently. ‘Thank you. Thank you! Thank you!’

Alicky’s heart filled with fierce maternal love. Anastasia was a force of nature. Everything was either wonderful or dreadful. There was no in-between. She was also a tomboy. Whereas her older sisters would never dream of climbing the imperial park’s tallest trees or, when at Livadia, swimming way out of their depth, Anastasia relished such challenges. She was rumbustious and naughty and endlessly entertaining, and if there was any light in Alicky’s life, a very great part of it was because of Anastasia.