‘Hooligans,’ Alicky said dismissively when she was told. Alexei’s temperature had soared to one hundred and four degrees, and she had far more on her mind than worrying about yet another wave of unrest in Petrograd – unrest the Cossacks of the Petrograd Garrison would soon put an end to.

It was a telephone call from Ducky that first alerted her to the fact that the unrest was a little more serious than usual. ‘Are you and the children still quite safe, Alicky?’ she had asked, her voice tense and deeply concerned.

‘Safe?’ Ever since Ducky’s divorce from Ernie, she and Ducky had never been close, and they certainly weren’t in the habit of making telephone calls to each other. ‘Of course I’m safe. Why wouldn’t I be?’

There was a stunned silence from the other end of the line, and then Ducky said, ‘Because I’m in Petrograd and I don’t feel at all safe. There is uproar on the streets. Government buildings are being set on fire. A red flag is flying above the Peter and Paul Fortress. The sooner Nicky gets here and restores order, the better. What time do you think he will be arriving?’

‘He won’t be arriving. He can’t just leave army headquarters because of a disturbance in the streets – it’s nearly five hundred miles away. Are those gunshots I can hear in the background? Is a wedding being celebrated?’

Ducky said a word so rude that Alicky didn’t even know what it meant.

‘Ring Nicky, while you still have telephone contact with him,’ Ducky said, when she could trust herself to speak. ‘He has to return to Petrograd. Tell him that if he doesn’t do so as fast as is humanly possible, there won’t be a Petrograd for him to return to!’

Over the telephone came the sound of an almighty crash and then the line went dead.

Alicky frowned. Ducky was quite obviously drunk, and she could only suppose that the crash she had heard was her falling to the floor in a drunken stupor.

Nevertheless, she telephoned Nicky right away. ‘Sorry to be disturbing you, when you must be so busy, my darling. Ducky has telephoned to say there is civil unrest again in Petrograd and she wants to make sure you are aware of it.’

‘I am aware of it, sweetheart. Members of the Duma cabled me earlier this morning with an urgent request that I return at once. They are, of course, a bunch of old women, and I have dealt with the situation by telegraphing the military governor of Petrograd and insisting that he bring order to the streets immediately, and that calm must be restored by tomorrow at the very latest.’

Alicky loved it when Nicky sounded every inch an autocrat. ‘I wish,’ she said, her voice thickening, ‘that we were in bed together, my love.’