DIPLOMATIC EFFECTS / CH. 24:SIGNS OF PROGRESS?
IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY, WEDNESDAY, 19TH MARCH
“Have you talked to your mother recently?” Nadiya asked, as they sat down together for lunch.
“No. Should I?” Sebastian asked.
“Probably best if you don't for a while. You might get cross with me.”
“Should I be worried?”
“Depends how well you know me, I suppose,” Nadiya said with a sigh. Knowing the answer was not well enough.
“What have you done, Nadiya?”
“You really want to know?”
“Yes,” Sebastian said.
“I've exercised my ducal authority with the full backing of the Tsar.”
“You're being vague and hiding your thoughts,” Sebastian accused.
“Am I? Amazing. I do want you to understand why I'm doing what I'm doing, but I expect you won't approve.”
“I won't?”
“Not unless you reject the idea of self-determination. I'm leaving them no options, you see. They must obey me, and fix their marriage.”
“You can't command love, Nadiya.”
“Sorry, but that's rubbish. Thinking people do it all the time: they refuse to let themselves think about an inappropriate relationship, they decide that such and such a person isn't so bad and they are interested in me and they more they think about it the more possible it seems and soon find themselves falling in love. I can command love, and I have commanded exactly that. And if they do not obey they lose everything, and if word of what I've commanded reaches the press the Tsar will count them guilty of treason. I make myself a monster, a tyrant. And you will help me in my goals.”
He looked at her in growing horror, “Why?”
“You'll help me by offering a home for them if the tyrant forces them from their home, strips them of their lands, titles, possessions and pension and leaves them penniless.”
“You wouldn't!”
“I will if they don't obey, and the Tsar will back me up, so they have no appeal.”
“Why are you doing this, Nadiya?” Sebastian asked.
“I am teaching them that their marriage is the most important thing they have, the only thing that no one will take from them. I would have explained more to your father, but he laughed at me for trying to intervene and tried to tell me I was bluffing. I do not think he will do so again.”
“Have I upset you so much?”
“Not at all.”
“Then why?”
“Because family is important, the building block of society. Everyone says it, but families are smashed apart left right and centre; by infidelity, avarice, gluttony, the lust for power. I would not do what I'm doing to an ordinary family, but your parents are noble through and through. I'm not depriving them of a job, but of position and authority. And they ought to know they have no escape from my authority. I hope they'll obey, but if not, you'll protect them from winter, won't you?”
“Of course. But you can't do this Nadiya!”
“It is my duty to God, to the Tsar, to the country, to them, and to you, also, to do all I can to try to help them save their marriage, Sebastian. They are past the point of listening to wise advice. They need a crisis, and I will supply them with a prolonged crisis. If you do go and visit them, tell them I said you can know my demands. They might not want to tell you, since some of them are quite extreme.”
“Extreme how?” he asked.
“I leave how much they share of my humiliating demands to their discretion. The mild ones are things like they must sleep in the same bed, and go to bed at the same time, and eat all their meals together.”
“Dad snores, Nadiya. You're condemning my mother to sleepless nights,” Sebastian said.
“Your mother can choose to live with that, seek medical help for him, or be driven from her home, position, title and everything else; her choice.”
“I thought you liked me.”
“I do, Sebastian. But do not ask me to persuade them, reason with them, or plead with them. They'll ignore me. Your father lost your love and respect because he wanted position more than either of those two, ordering you to do something that was against your principles. I'm not doing that, I'm not giving you any orders at all, you might have noticed. But I've ordered them to do something they swore to do, which would be entirely in line with their desires if they were only thinking straight.”
“I don't think you can command straight thinking either, Nadiya.”
“How is your thinking?”
“Me? I'm totally confused.”
“Oh, that's probably OK. Finances being what they are, I'm paying tonight, by the way.”
“You still want to go on our date?” Sebastian asked.
“Yes. Assuming you do.”
“I've been looking forward to it all morning.”
“So, please assume I've the best intentions for your parents.”
“While leaving them penniless.”
“If that's what it'll take to get them to pay proper attention to each other, yes. But I hope I'm just going to rattle them enough that they start thinking like the inseparable couple they ought to be.”
“I wonder how much my brother and sister would cope if you do what you've threatened.”
“Do you see them much?”
“Not really, they're still in boarding school. We chat by wrist-unit sometimes.”
“I'd like to meet them sometime.”
“What, face to face?”
“Yes. I'd like to talk to them about what I'm doing to your parents. Are they allowed visitors?”
“It's not a prison,” Sebastian said.
“Find out if we can arrange a visit this weekend, can you? Assuming you want to come too.”
“It's a long way to Smolensk.”
“Oooh, goodie, we can chat on the hypersonic. I'll pay if that's what's bothering you.”
“I don't understand you, Nadiya. It seems like you're pouring yourself into turning every area of my life upside down.”
“Only the bits that aren't the right way up,” she said, smiling at him. “And it's your fault.”
“Mine? What did I do?”
“Argued with your dad, sorted your relationship with God out. Did scary maths in the middle of the corridor.”
“It wasn't maths.”
“No, it was quantum computing theory, which is probably the scariest branch of maths on the planet to see in the hands of your friends. Just don't tell me if you've got a quantum decoder in your basement, OK? I wouldn't put it past Yelena, given what I've heard about her, and quite frankly I don't want to know.”
“OK, I won't tell,” Sebastian said. “But talking about state secrets...”
“Please don't talk about state secrets, it'll get you in trouble with my uncle.”
“Your uncle? The Tsar is your uncle?”
“Shhh.”
Sebastian bowed his head to the table and put his hands over his head.
[What's wrong?] Nadiya asked, touching his hand.
[I'm falling in love with the Tsar's niece, who's prepared to out-bully my bully of a dad, and I'm supposed to be an enemy of the system, that's what's wrong. What's going to happen next? Tea and sandwiches with the Tsarevna at a garden party?]
[Not until it's warmer. Lana's firmly opposed to garden parties when you can't safely sit on the grass.]
[I'm an anarchist, Nadiya. I can't hob-nob with royalty.]
[A philosphical anarchist, not a practical one, yes?]
[Absolutely.]
[So, you're fundamentally committed to the idea of everyone doing right in their own eyes.]
[Yes. As long as it doesn't hurt others.]
[So the would-be rapist and the would-be murderer don't get to have their fun.]
[Of course not. They don't respect other people's autonomy.]
[But you're a child of God so you must accept God's rule, and you ought to accept the brokenness of the image of God, it's perversion, and that every inclination of the heart of man is evil.]
[Well, yes.] Sebastian agreed.
[So you also ought to accept that God has given people rulers in order to limit evil, that is to say you accept the existence of a minimalist state as a necessity in this fallen world.]
[Yes.]
[So, the only issue is how big the state should be, isn't it? You'll notice that the size of the state has reduced very significantly since the return to absolute monarchy, and that the power of most nobles has been limited so that if your parents weren't nobles, I couldn't even force them sit down and talk to each other, let alone dictate a bedtime for them.]
[You've dictated their bedtime?]
[They were both acting like spoiled children in a strop, so I've treated them that way. Hopefully they'll act more like consenting adults as a result.]
[Consenting adults? Nadiya, you make it sound like you want them....] he cut his thought off, it was too embarrassing.
[I want their marriage to start working again, Sebastian. Emotionally, spiritually and physically. To do that, I'm basically requiring they to do the sort of thing that newly-weds do, or would like to do if they had the time. Take walks together; go on dates; go to bed at the same time; talk. If their hearts were in the right place, they'd probably consider it normal. As it is they think it's punishment.]
[We've left the topic again. How can I hob-nob with royalty?]
[Easily. Be respectful of their titles, but assume they're happy to have someone who won't bow and scrape before them. It shouldn't matter to you, surely? Isn't that the whole point?]
[You're amazing. I'd love to see what happens if you joined in a debate one evening.]
[Is that an invitation? Sounds interesting. But let's visit your siblings first, and also let's see what your mysterious leader says about the advisability of you walking in with a grand duchess on your arm. I'm not going in disguise.]
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DUCHESS OF MOSCOW COURT, THURSDAY 20TH MARCH
“You're holding hands,” Nadiya noticed. “So I presume you've read my instructions that far at least.”
“We do try to obey your decrees, your grace,” the baroness said.
“Your grace, I sought this meeting to ask for your mercy towards my wife,” the baron said, in a bussiness-like manner.
“I am listening, Baron Smolensk.”
“Her health is not good, your instructions make it sound like if we fail to meet your standards in any point.... it will not be good for either of us. Please, be merciful to her.”
“You suggest I should expel you from your home and not her?”
“If you deem it necessary, your grace, I would prefer that to her sleeping on the streets.”
“I would not, Baron Smolensk. That would mean that I'd be working against my purposes. But I do not think either of you will sleep on the streets. You have relatives you can rely on, I'm sure.”
“Then, your grace, we must bow to your will. I trust you will permit us to retain a small lodge and pension as I abdicate my title.”
“Abdicate? Don't you dare! Why on Earth do you think I want the hassle of finding a new baron?” Nadiya asked him.
“You are friends with Sebastian, I presumed...”
“That I want you to hand your title to him?” Nadiya laughed, “Oh, no, Baron Smolensk, he wouldn't thank me one bit for that. That is not at all my motive. You do not need to imagine or guess what motivates me, I've told your wife my motives quite plainly. Perhaps you should discuss it on your candle-lit date tonight.”
“My I speak freely, your grace?” she asked.
“As long as you don't insult God, the Tsar or myself, you may say whatever you like, baroness Smolensk.”
“You say you want us to work on our marriage, thank you for that, but why do you ask us to humiliate ourselves?” she asked
“Is it humiliating to go on a date with your husband?”
“Not that, but writing the letters....”
“You'd prefer that I ask the Tsar to have you spied on in your own bedroom? I thought that writing to a close friend or relative would be far better. Do you not have such a confidant you might write such things to? Did you never?”
“Well, I did, but...”
“Now sounds like the perfect time to renew that friendship, then.”
“But by the Tsar's decree, I'm not allowed to tell her why!”
“Oh, that's easy. Tell me who it is and I'll do the explanations.”
“The Tsarina,” the Baroness said in a small voice.
“You have an excellent choice in friends, Baroness, and I'm sure my aunt will be looking forward to hearing from you since she helped me draw up the list. Do note that it doesn't need to be in written form. You could visit her in person.”
“With my husband's hand firmly clamped in mine?”
“I think that would be hard, wouldn't it, as I understand he's still banned from court. He'll have to wait at the guard-house.”
“You do insist on humiliation, then,” the baron growled.
“I do not, Baron Smolensk. I insist on you at least pretending that you love one another, in the hope that as you live the pretense it will become natural and true.”
“We do love one another,” he thundered at her, “that's why I offered to abdicate to keep a roof over my wife's head!”
“Really? The last I heard you were planning to separate. I interpreted your offer to abdicate as just wanting to keep your pension.”
“Sebastian put you up to this, didn't he?” he accused, slumping in defeat.
“No. If anyone did it would be Tsarevna Svetlana, who pointed out that among the Mer its the duty of all to ensure that marriages stay strong. And we do want to have a continued good friendship with them. So, you can call it politics if you wish. But Baron, there's one very easy way to keep a roof over your wife's head: fall back in love with her, and help her fall back in love with you.”
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“Falling in love is a temporary hormonal thing.” he said, “It can't last more than a year or two.”
“But the echoes should still be there,” Nadiya said, “you should still think what a fortunate man you are to have her as your wife, and she should be thinking what a kind and considerate man she has as a husband. Plus, of course, none of your children should be worrying about their parent's marriage. Thank you for declaring your love for one another. It's the one thing no Earthly authority can confiscate. Build it and treasure it, and you don't need to worry about any of the rest.”
“Love won't keep a roof over our heads.”
“You know, Baron, that's probably the stupidest thing you've said to me yet. The roof over your heads is entirely dependent on you not displeasing your tyrant of a grand-duchess, and it is exactly your failing marriage which displeases me.”
“Grand Duchess,” the baroness asked, “is there something beyond obeying your commands that would please you more than obeying the letter?”
“Of course there is, baroness. But the thing that would please me most is beyond what I can command: don't just sort out your relationship with each other, sort out your relationship with God too.”
“Doesn't your Bible have something to say about what you're doing to us?”
“Yes, baron. It does, for instance there's 'the man who loves his wife, loves himself,' or in the Psalms there's something about paying respect to God's appointed king, or He will become angry, and your way will lead to destruction. As I told Sebastian when he asked me why I was doing this to you, all I'm asking you to do is what you'd have been happy to do if your heart was in the right place.”
“I told you there was no point in trying to convince her,” the baroness said, with too much force to be neutral.
“Baroness” Nadiya said in a sharp tone, “I thought you'd agreed to stop doing that. Your love for one another is all you have to keep a roof over your head, remember? Scoring points means losing love.”
The baron looked at Nadiya in shock. Her telling off his wife seemed to suddenly make it real. “You actually mean it, don't you? You're going to try to judge how much we love each other, and throw us out if we don't improve.”
“If you can't improve otherwise, then you'll become a homeless baron with a small income. If you still don't improve you'll become a homeless nobody with a small income. If you still don't improve, you'll become a homeless penniless nobody, seeking mercy from your friends and relatives that you don't need to sleep on the streets. Perhaps then you'll realise that each other is all you have in this life that can't be taken from you at my whim. And if you do realise that within a year, then you might get some of what's been taken back. But I can't leave the barony empty for a year; I don't want to leave it empty for a month, but I will if I need to. Put some effort into your marriage, I beg you, before it's too late.”
“And if it's already too late?” the baroness asked.
“The very fact you're both here means it's not, lady baroness.”
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SATURDAY, 22ND MARCH, SMOLENSK HYPERSONIC STATION.
“Nik,” Alisa, youngest child of the baronial family of Smolensk, asked her seventeen year old brother “why would the Grand-Duchess want to talk to us?” He was two school years ahead of her, and therefore in times of trouble she fell back to her childish assumption that he ought to know everything. She was often disappointed.
“Dunno,” he shrugged. “But it's neat that she's taking us out to lunch, and bringing Sebastian.”
“It's going to be about Mum and Dad, isn't it.”
“Maybe,” the master of the polysyllabic response muttered, looking at his feet. He'd read on the net that they'd separated, but hadn't told his sister.
She worried enough anyway.
“Is she really old?”
“Pardon?”
“The Grand Duchess. It sounds like she ought to be really old, like, forty or even fifty.”
“Alisa, she's the same age as the Tsarevna. Just started university.”
“She's younger than Sebastian?”
“Yes. You've seen her, on the news, surely? Talking about helping poor families and helping poor children get on well at school.”
“No way! Duchess Nadiya? She is the Grand Duchess of Kaliningrad? You never said!”
“I thought you knew.”
“She's not old, she's beautiful.”
“Yeah. I'm so going to get teased about going on a date with her grace. But Smolensk is part of the Grand-Duchee of Kaliningrad, which means if she says she wants us to give up our places at school to some poor kid, we have to.”
“That's not going to happen, is it?” Alisa asked, in horror.
“I hope not. But it's not going to just be a social visit is it? Sorry, Alisa, I don't want to worry you. I just don't know what it's going to be about.”
“The transport's coming soon, though. I am going to pray,” Alisa declared. “That's better than worrying.”
A few minutes later, all the doors opened and the chimes sounded for everyone to get out.
“No way!” Nikolas muttered, “They're holding hands!”
“Without gloves,” Alisa added.
“Nikolas, Alisa, allow me to introduce my girlfriend, Nadiya.” Sebastian greeted his siblings.
“And Nikolas, be polite,” Nadiya added, as he decided that she must either be a thought-hearer or really dumb to be holding Sebastian's hand.
“Are you going to marry Sebastian?” Alisa asked.
“Too early to tell,” Nadiya said, “since we only met eight days ago, but I am very open to hearing anything you think I should know.”
Alisa blushed and decided she'd better not tell her Sebastian was an anarchist.
“He isn't the dangerous sort,” Nadiya corrected, “so don't worry.”
“Why do I feel I'm only hearing one side of the conversation?” Sebastian asked.
“Really?” Nadiya said, “you must need some mud washed out of your ears. Anyway, option one is pizza or something similar in a park somewhere, option two is we go for a walk and a talk and then a light meal and then another walk. We'll go somewhere more civilised this evening.”
“Option three is that the park is the garden at home,” Sebastian said, “letting Alisa and Nik change into clothes suitable for Sergey's,” naming a famous restaurant.
“Sergey's?” Alisa almost shrieked, “Really?”
“They had an empty table,” Sebastian said, “and that was before I named any names.
“It's supposed to have gone down hill recently,” Nik said.
“No,” Alisa corrected, out of loyalty to her friend, whose parents worked there, “It's just that they've decided to ban some famous people for bad behaviour, and a whole lot of their fans decided to boycott them.”
“Well, it's a long time since I've been there, but I have happy memories of their food and I'm not at all worried if they have standards for behaviour,” Nadiya declared.
“You've been here before then?” Sebastian asked.
“Of course I have, s6illy. I've even been to your house, but I was only about ten or twelve at the time. Our parents were in some kind of meeting together about taxes, all day long. I think I spent my time in a tree-house with you Alisa, does that sound possible?”
“Having a doll's tea party?” Alisa asked.
“And then secretly washing the jam out of the doll's hair,” Nadiya added.
“I'd forgotten that!”
“Hold on, where was I?” Sebastian asked.
“Pretending to have a headache,” Alisa said. “You'd decided you didn't want to talk to any girls apart from me, so you got a headache every time one visited.”
“And you missed the trip to Sergey's because of it,” Nick said.
“No,” Sebastian said, “I missed that trip to Sergey's because Dad said 'she's a pretty girl and the niece of the Tsarina and maybe you'll get to dance with her, and just think what opportunities that dance might turn in to.' And I really wasn't interested.”
“But now you are,” Nadiya said.
“Big difference.” Sebastian said “I asked you out before I knew you had any title. Dad's attitude was chase girls because of their title.”
“Not that I had a title then, just connections. Blame grandma for the title, by the way, please.”
“Who's grandma?”
“The late duchess of Moscow, also known as the Tsarina's mother. She decided it was only appropriate that a princess play with duchesses, and drew up a list of titles that had no holders. And hey presto, I have the right to order your parents around. Which is one reason I wanted to talk to you two. You might hear some rumours and I'd like to tell you the truth as I know it.”
“They're not getting a divorce are they?” Alisa asked.
“If they do, I've failed.”
“And they're in trouble,” Sebastian said.
“Oh, we're all in a whole heap of trouble in different ways, Sebastian. Them, you, and your siblings, me. Hence this visit.”
“Why are you in trouble, your grace?” Alisa asked.
“Because I've asked the Tsar and Tsarina to support me in what I'm trying to do, and if I fail then I make them look bad. At which point I don't imagine things will go too well for me.”
“You're taking a risk no one asked you to,” Sebastian said.
“Thank you for not calling it needless,” Nadiya replied.
“I didn't realise that aspect to it,” he carried on. “And I didn't understand. I guess I still don't, but... thank you.”
“I won't say it's my pleasure, any more than hearing court cases is a pleasure, but like that, I do it willingly because I see it as my duty.”
“You hear court cases, you mean, as a judge?” Alisa asked.
“Yes. Not regularly. But I've heard a couple. For some reason, in the first one, the corrupt high court judge thought he could intimidate me.”
“But not the second one?” Alisa asked.
“No. I guess word gets around.”
“Do I dare ask what you did to the first one?” Sebastian asked.
“I applied the law, Sebastian. Trying to intimidate a judge so she does not pass a harsh sentence is attempting to pervert the course of justice. Since it was a royal court, it has certain penalties. I really had no choice except to apply the prescribed penalties.”
“What was the prescribed penalty?” Alisa asked in a quiet voice, “the bulldozer?”
“No, Alisa, bulldozing the family home is the penalty for actually perverting the course of justice. There was a large fine, but there were other consequences too, which probably meant more to him. Being happy to have injustice to his benefit meant that he lost the right to appeal, for instance.”
“So by trying to intimidate you, he instead put himself entirely at your mercy.” Sebastian summarised.
“Yes, except he left me no chance to be merciful”
“Can you say what happened?”
“The evidence was clear, he'd accepted bribes of various sorts, abused his office and set murderers free and convicted innocents in their place. He tried to lie under oath, but he wasn't convincing, even without the truthsayer. After attempting to bully me into having the case dismissed on an irrelevant technicality, he didn't ask for, deserve, or receive any mercy except a week to repent of his sins.”
“You sentenced him to death?” Alisa asked.
“I didn't have much option, or any doubt that he'd knowingly broken the law, or that the law was just.”
“You don't think the evidence might have been flawed then? Or deliberately constructed against him?” Sebastian asked.
“He claimed that, yes. So we have two options: he was lying, or someone had planted evidence in his bank-balance and his purchase records of fine art, and had persuaded two truthsayers chosen from a pool at random to giving false testimony,” Nadiya said
“Two?”
“At different points of the trial.”
“So you're confident you've got the right man?”
“Sebastian, do you believe I might have been misled?” Nadiya asked.
“I've learned a bit about planting false evidence,” he said.
“Oh, so have I. I dismissed quite a lot of evidence against him as untrustworthy, actually.”
“You did?” he sounded relieved.
“Faked pictures, electronic files which couldn't be verified. But I was left with a lot of far more trustworthy evidence, and his own constant lying under oath. And no, he wasn't trying to protect anyone, or being blackmailed. That was also asked.”
“Can I ask what the technicality was?”
“The initial evidence against him was so clearly fake it wasn't even presented in court. He claimed that should have invalidated the whole case.”
“Shouldn't it have?” Nikolas asked.
“Against a possibly corrupt high court judge? No.”
“So justice was done,” Sebastian said, “and it wasn't just someone being crushed by the system.”
“I don't particularly like the death penalty, but he had innocents condemned either because they couldn't bribe him or because others did. Yes, justice was done. And the person who planted the false evidence that got him investigated in the first place has been found guilty of forgery in absentia, and if they're found they'll be handed a suspended sentence.”
“What's a suspended sentence?” Alisa asked.
“In this case, they spend an extra month in jail if they're found guilty of another crime, but if they don't, they don't.”
“A month? Weren't they trying to pervert the course of justice?”
“Less, if they come forwards voluntarily. And it's going to lapse soon, anyway. Were they trying to pervert it, or give it a nudge in the right direction? You see, the evidence was carefully contrived to make the police look to see where the real evidence was. It is therefore assumed that it was planted by a victim who'd got nowhere talking to the police.
"So, the system dislikes their methods of bringing the evidence to light, but is quite well disposed towards what it believes is their motives.”
“And if it wasn't a victim?” Sebastian asked.
“Then perhaps it was a deep-cover agent,” Nadiya said, “or just someone who had a grudge against corrupt judges and they way they mistreat people and trample justice underfoot.”
“What's a 'deep-cover' agent?” Alisa asked.
“Someone who's very involved in an illegal group but is really working for the secret services, but it's not like they go home every night to their nice flat and take off their mask — their so-called cover is their whole lives,” Nadiya replied.
“Do you know any?” Sebastian asked.
“How would I know? Actually, I think I'd probably try to avoid knowing. That way I can't accidentally put their lives at risk.”
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SEBASTIAN'S FAMILY HOME
“I haven't been here in three years,” Sebastian said, looking around.
“We've missed you,” Alisa said. “And now Mum and Dad are separating...”
“I didn't think you knew!” Nikolas exclaimed.
“Your thoughts leaked,” Alisa admitted.
“That's one reason I wanted to meet you,” Nadiya said.
“What, leaky thoughts?” Alisa joked.
“No, your parents. Like I said, I've gone out on a limb with the Tsar. On my own, I have only one real threat — I can remove from them their titles and their right to use this house. With the Tsar's support I can make more precise demands of them and make it far less likely that they'll decide to call my bluff. Oh, I almost forgot, a warning, you must not talk about this, because if the press get wind of it, your parents could be tried for rebellion against the Tsar, i.e. treason. I'll try to not tell you enough for that to happen, but I do want you to understand. I'm putting your parents under a lot of pressure, with dire threats over their heads, to fix their marriage or else. I hope and pray it'll work, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. They've got a lot of bad habits to unlearn; they've both been treating their marriage as something of not much value; already that's changing, I think. I think they're starting to pull together, think of one another as well as themselves. So, if your parents seem stressed, that's why. If people say anything about your parents acting strangely, it's entirely possible they're doing I've told them to. But you mustn't tell anyone that. What you can say, depending which makes sense in the context, is they're working on their marriage or they're under a lot of pressure.”
“But you're not going to tell what sort of pressure?” Nicholas asked.
“I've told you some, but if they give up on their marriage they're going to end up without any money, too.”
“And we'd be kicked out of school,” Nicholas said.
“No. That's another thing. You're welcome to pray about your parents, but don't worry about yourselves. Your school fees will be paid, and if I have to confiscate this house then first off it won't necessarily be forever, and secondly, I'll make sure you have somewhere you can stay until you reach working age.”
“What about university?”
“Study hard, and the state pays your tuition fees,” Nadiya said. “Don't study hard, and you're taking a place from someone else, and you shouldn't be there.”
“And accommodation?” Nicholas asked.
“Might not be as comfortable as you'd like, but then that's more motivation to study and get a good job, isn't it?”
“Won't Sebastian get the title?”
“Your parents know I can remove it from your family entirely. They also know that Sebastian has said he doesn't want the title. I think duty isn't a word he likes much.”
“Nadiya! That's not fair!”
“Well, would you freely accept the duties of the barony and of providing for your brother and sister if I have to carry out my threats? You'd almost certainly need to spend a year out from study, putting things in order and learning everything your father should have taught you and probably didn't before you ran away. Smolensk has more than its fair share of issues; it's not an easy place to be baron, if you're going to do the job properly. And I'd require you do it properly.”
“I don't want the title, but I'm not afraid of the duty, your grace.”
“Can't have one without the other,” Nadiya said. “Sorry, Sebastian. That's like saying you'd be happy to have the duty of catching criminals and getting them properly processed by the system, but don't want to be a policeman. Which one is it?”
“If you give me the job, your grace, then I'll do it,” Sebastian said, resignedly.
“Isn't he being formal!” Nadiya commented to Alisa. “Hey, Sebastian, you don't need to be formal, I'm your girlfriend.”
“I'm starting to wonder if that was a wise move,” he said.
Immediately, she grabbed his hand, [{concern} Really?]
[{confusion} I don't know. I do like you, I'm starting to see why you look so beautiful — you're so whole-hearted. I'm... I'm afraid I'm not going to measure up to your standards. And I'm confused about whether you've decided I'm a deep cover agent, and if so, why you'd think that, and what you think you coming to my house as the countess would do to my cover if you do think that, and ... just what you see in me really, and ... it feel like my head's going to explode, it's so full of questions.]
[Sorry, I've been told I can be scary sometimes. I'll try and be less forceful.]
[No. Don't be, I love how straightforward you are. I'm full of enough contradictions for the two of us. Just tell me what you think.]
“OK, Sebastian wants to know what I think, So, I think God arranged our meeting and I'm not going to second guess Him. I also think that you telling me you had doubts about us was really scary; scarier even than when someone with the gift asked me to go and try to persuade his Majesty, the Tsar, not to start the fourth world war when Svetlana was on Mars. So, I'm guessing I'm more deeply in love with you than I thought.”
“World war four?” Nikolas asked in a small voice.
“Didn't happen, tensions resolved, ancient history, don't worry about it. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.”
“Scary for a while though,” Sebastian said.
“You knew about it? No, don't answer, best if I don't know.”
“Like other adults in the country, I knew that tensions were high. Various patterns of behaviour could be seen by the observant, too.”
“And you're observant, OK.”
“I'm not very observant, but I know some people who are.”
“Who talked. OK. Don't tell me more, please. Ignorance is far more blissful than being conflicted between my feelings for you and my a duty to tell someone you learned an official secret.”
“You're half-way convinced I did, aren't you? As far as I know, I don't know anything I shouldn't but my lecturers will tell you I don't know some things I should, which is a different problem.”
“Thank you,” Nadiya said, amazed how relieved she felt.
“But you were trying to not think about something about me you don't want me to hear.”
“True,” she agreed.
“So, since knowing there's something you don't want to share is sort of stressful for relationships...” he wheedled.
“You want me to tell you something that I think might be stressful for our relationship so that you don't worry about it and get stressed about our relationship?” Nadiya asked.
“Urm, yes.”
“I can't just tell you some things about it, and satisfy your curiosity?”
“Hmmm. I suppose you could try.”
“It occurred to me while talking about learning the duties of a baron.”
“I'm guessing you're not going to suggest a book.”
“No,” Nadiya agreed.
“And you think I'm going to be upset about who you think I should learn from?”
“Yes. OK, satisfied?”
“I'm guessing that the obvious person would be my Dad if only we were talking. It's not like he has a faithful steward who knows all and does all.”
“Oh. You weren't supposed to guess,” Nadiya said, in good-natured exasperation.
“He's a good baron?”
“From what I see, he does a pretty good job as a baron, yes.”
“And you don't just want my parent's relationship healed, do you? You'd see that as just a half-measure, and my Grand Duchess doesn't do half-measures. You want the whole family healed; the building block of society. You told me.”
Nikolas and Alisa looked at Sebastian in amazement, to hear him talking so calmly about it.
Nadiya noticed, and couldn't help saying “You can now make your siblings faint by saying 'OK, I'll try'.”
Sebastian sighed, “I was reading my Bible this morning, and it was all about honouring parents. Can I go and make a couple of phone-calls?”
“A couple?”
“Restaurant first? See if there's space for two more.”
It was too much for Alisa. She rushed her big brother and hugged him, with tears of joy running down her face.
Five minutes later, Alisa rang her father. “Daddy, Grand Duchess Nadiya is taking us out to Sergey's tonight.”
“Is she now? That's... very generous of her,”
“Yes, and there's space on the table for two more,” Alisa said.
As planned, Sebastian stepped into the camera's view beside Alisa, and said: “And father, her Grace has been talking to me about duty, and God has been talking about honouring my parents. I would very much like it if you and mother could come and join us. And I'm quite sure that Alisa and Nikolas would too.”
“This is meant to be the carrot to go with the her Grace's stick, I presume?”
“No, baron,” Nadiya said, “this is a first attempt by your son to try to heal a deep rift. I agreed, of course, but it's all his idea.”
“And in this time when you've demanded I put my marriage above all else, where does my relationship with my run-away son fit in the hierarchy? I have no desire to fall into some trap by failing to obey the letter of your instructions, your grace.”
“Then Baron Smolensk, be reassured that there is no trap, that I bear you no ill-will, although you'll have noticed I am being strict with you, I'm sure. All the outrageous lengths I'm going to to save your family from falling apart are aimed at nothing more nor less than that.” She took a breath and added, “I've heard from Sebastian that you wanted him to form a friendship with powerful connections. Sebastian didn't recognise who I was when he asked me out, and was moderately horrified when he saw me out of disguise. So, you have your powerful relationship and Sebastian knows he's not interested in me because of them. So, well, you asked for it, and you might have noticed that all of us cousins are cast in roughly the same mould.
"I desperately hope that my efforts won't hurt Sebastian's feelings for me, but I'm not going to earn his Majesty my uncle's displeasure either by not doing everything I can to weld you and your wife into the inseparable one you should be, or by not sticking to my word if you fail me. I'm not in any way bluffing that I'm prepared to leave you poor and title-less if that's the only way to keep you and your wife united in marriage, but I'd very much prefer you had another few decades to teach Sebastian how to take over your duties when that time comes. He tells me he isn't seeking the title, which is a really good thing because right now I don't think he'd do a good job at all. But he also claims that he's realised he's not going to run from the duty if it falls to him, either and he's willing to learn.”
“And if you decide you need to take take the title from me, you'll give it to my son, will you?”
“No. Like I've said, he's not ready, and that wouldn't be fair on your people. I'm far more likely to put my education on hold, maybe drop out of university entirely, so I can give them the attention they deserve myself. I've said I don't want to have to take the title from you Baron, now you know part of what it will cost me. But believe me when I say I will do it if it is necessary for your marriage.”