Telling herself that things could be much worse, and that at least Maudie hadn’t been writing with news that Eddy had become engaged, she opened the letter from Alicky:

Dearest Kindred Spirit,

I have so much to tell you, I don’t know where to start. I want to begin by telling you of the most wonderful, amazing thing that has happened to me – of how I have met the one person I am destined to go through life and eternity with. But if I do that, I will never get round to telling you about St Petersburg and about Ella’s wedding, which was spectacular beyond belief and which, because there had to be a Lutheran service as well as an Orthodox one, went on for what seemed like forever. The wedding took place in the chapel of the Winter Palace, which is not at all like a Lutheran chapel and is all white and gold, and all through the service it was full of the smoky scent of incense (which I liked, but which made my papa cough dreadfully). Ella wore a Russian-style dress of white and silver that fell into an ermine-edged train, yards and yards long. Her veil was held in place by a jewelled coronet that had once belonged to Catherine the Great, and she looked so untouchably beautiful that I found it hard to believe she was my sister.

What you will not believe is that I was one of the bridesmaids and my gown was white muslin and I wore a coronet of roses. I didn’t know I was to be one of the bridesmaids until the very last moment, for Papa had been told that Ella was to have only Romanov bridesmaids. If I had known beforehand, I would have pretended to be sick and would never have left Darmstadt, but I was given very little time to be terrified beforehand and then, throughout the long candlelit ceremony, the person I know is always going to be my other half was standing by the side of the altar and his eyes held mine all the time, and so I wasn’t sick with nerves.

Have you guessed yet who this very special person is? He is Sergei’s nephew, Nicholas (and also one of my second or third cousins). He is sixteen and the kindest, gentlest person in the world. He is also the most tremendous fun. The royal family do not live in the Winter Palace. They live nearly all the time at Peterhof, which is a summer palace set amidst vast gardens and lakes and fountains a few miles from St Petersburg. It’s within sight of the sea, and that is where we all stayed in the days after the wedding.