God Save the Queen (3 page)

Chapter
5

Getting There

When we hit
London I was in complete shock. I wasn’t aware that our trip was already halfway over. I had silently cried myself to sleep and stayed that way until we crossed the ocean. I was still a little groggy when I felt a hand on my shoulder. It made me jump as I turned around to see Terrence looking at me with his huge puppy-dog eyes. Out of everyone here in this new twisted family, I realized that Terrence was going to be the kindly grandfather figure. Even if it was an act, I was strangely flattered by the effort.

“My dear, are you awake? Oh yes
, well, I guess you are now, aren’t you? I didn’t mean to startle you, but we are in London and you might want to get a bite to eat while the plane refuels. It will be a while before we will stop again.” I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I felt my stomach rumble. I nodded mutely.

“Oui
, oui,”
LaGard said with a smirk. He reminded me of the creepy uncle that no one likes to talk about because of his shady past. “You will want to, how you say, ‘stuff up,’
non?
Another four hours left.” He giggled like he was making a side-splitting joke. I went along with the charade and smiled back.

After LaGard was out of sight
, I decided that I’d better grab a bite, so I hoisted myself up from my chair and stepped into the aisle. But something streaked past me, nearly throwing me off-balance. Sure enough, a familiar flash of a silk black suit with a blonde mop barreled down the aisle to the exit doors. Kevin wasn’t even part of the twisted family in my eyes. He was the annoying neighbor that nobody liked but tolerated anyway. I’d had it with him by this point, so I hurried up to try and to catch up to him, planning to give him a piece of my mind.

When I finally
caught up with him a few feet from the exit doors, ready to pounce, he beat me to the punch: “What do you want to bark about now?” I was amazed at the amount of colossal nerve packed into one human being.

“I was going to ask if you are aware that you cut me off back there
,” I said to his completely emotionless face. “I already had one foot in the aisle and you practically mowed me down. I mean, you’d have to be blind not to have seen it. But did you stop to let me pass? Oh, no.” Now that I was listening to myself, I realized I sounded kind of ridiculous.

For a moment I was taken aback by the look of shock that crossed
Kevin’s face. “Oh! I didn’t realize… I was only thinking of grabbing a bite and I was still groggy from my nap and… Well, then, I guess I can only say, I promise it won’t happen again, Your Highness.” He capped it off with a roll of his eyes and stormed off ahead of me. I swear I heard him mummer “brat” under his breath.

And again I caught up
with him. I decided to address the most pressing issue first. “Look, let’s get one thing straight, all right? I’m
not
a brat. It’s just that I was told less then seventy-two hours ago that I’m going to rule a country and leave all my friends behind and, well, it kind of has me a little upset. And I hate dealing with stubborn, insensitive people.”

That last comment
obviously hit a nerve, because he froze on the spot and slowly began to turn. “Ok, let me tell you something. I am not a stubborn or insensitive person. I’m actually very easy-going most of the time and
extremely
sensitive. However,” he paused, as though he was trying to choose his next words more carefully, “when I am dealing with adolescents who can’t seem to grasp the full importance of what is going on around them, it’s so irritating that...” Another pause as he chose his words. “I would rather shoot myself in the foot.” The moment the words left his mouth, he seemed to regret it.

He opened his mouth to say something but I stopped him. “
Oh, please don’t do that,” I said sweetly. “I’ll be happy to do it for you!” I turned around and went back to my seat to sulk in silence. For some reason I completely lost my appetite.

When we took off
twenty minutes later, my hunger pangs came back full-force and I realized I was stupid for not getting something to eat. I was already getting nauseous from my empty stomach, when suddenly I heard someone say, “I was afraid you weren’t going to get something, so I took the liberty and got you this.”

I looked up to see Terrence standing behind my seat with a
cardboard tray with a burger, fries, and canned Coke in his hands. I thanked him wholeheartedly and gulped down the delicious meal. Afterwards LaGard took a seat next to me and explained to me what would be happening in the next couple of months.

First, I wasn’t going to be the sole power of the Russian government. They already had one in place, and it would be too difficult and perhaps
, as he said, “a bit bloody” if they just kicked them out and put me in charge. Instead I would be acting more in a ceremonial role like the Queen of England. The old government would still be in power, and I would have some say. But all in all, I would be a (his words again) “a treasured symbol” for the Russian people.

Second,
I wasn’t officially empress yet--or tsarina, which was just the Russian name for empress. I would have my coronation on my eighteenth birthday, on May fifteenth. This irritated me to no end. If I wasn’t going to be empress for another seven months, then why was I going there now? Even when LaGard explained that it was because I needed to learn things like protocol and what my royal functions would be, I was still full of rage. To think that I could have stayed home longer and not have missed our Halloween bonfire, and Thanksgiving, and caroling at Christmastime with my friends…

             
After LaGard left, I got really bored and just looked around the cabin. I saw Terrence and LaGard talking about some maneuver that would help the country’s economy, then some attendant offering them some drinks. My eyes made it over to where Kevin was sitting. He looked up from his book he was reading and threw an apologetic look towards me. I wasn’t buying it, so I looked back out the window. Slowly I drifted off to sleep again.

I didn’t wake up until we
landed at St. Petersburg. It was about two in the afternoon and the jet lag was beginning to hit me. Though Terrence warned me that it would, it was worse than I’d expected. As we disembarked and walked past all of the terminals in the airport, I was overwhelmed by everything. The monitors were flashing strange symbols that looked alien to me. I passed people wearing much more stylish clothes than in Littleton, and though they were talking to one another, it sounded like they were just shouting out random noises. When we got to the car it was raining hard.              

As I
looked out the window, trying to take in my new surroundings, I heard a door slam next to me. “Catherine Palace, please,” Kevin said as he slid into the car. I was not going to talk to him until I was forced to, I promised myself.

The car started rolling away from the airport, and I kept looking at all of the surroundings of my new home.
We passed a statue of a man climbing a steep rock with his horse. I recognized it from the cover of a book about Peter the Great. Along with the many houses and apartments of the city, we then passed a large pale yellow building, which had a domed center. The driver informed me it was the Tauride Palace, which had been turned into a municipal building. After that we passed the Hermitage, one of the world’s great museums, which I knew I had to go see later on. Yep, that was my inner nerd emerging. The apartment complexes looked a lot like those you’d see in New York, but they had a brighter exterior and most were seated by the Neva River. I was even in shock when we passed the grand Church of the Savior on Blood. I saw sign after sign of the same gibberish that I had seen in the airport, and in my head I was trying to figure out the comparison of a kilometer to a mile. Now I had wished I paid more attention when we covered conversions in math class.

             
The palace was about fifteen miles outside of St. Petersburg, in a town called Pushkin, about twenty minutes before we arrived. During the drive, I couldn’t help but compare the surroundings to my old home. It looked nothing like Littleton. Then I saw three girls walking down the street in their strange, brightly colored clothes and big puffy jackets, and it brought back memories of Maggie and Sadie. I wondered how they were doing, and if they had already found someone to replace me. The minute I figured out the time difference, I decided, I was going to call them. Then I saw a pig running in the front yard of someone’s slightly rundown house, and I instantly thought of Andy Marison.

A few minutes later
I heard the driver say to Kevin, “Would you liked to be dropped off at the front entrance, sir?”

             
“Yes, that would be fine, thank you.” He leaned over to me and whispered, “Welcome home, Anya.”

             
I looked up to see what exactly my new home looked like. I was astounded at what I saw. The palace was huge, and even that is an understatement. It appeared to be a shiny greenish-teal against the grey sky. It had nearly one thousand windows on one side alone; all of them trimmed in white with golden leafing at the top. The palace appeared to be about four stories high. On the roof stood five pillars with golden tops which resembled upside-down onions. I suddenly found myself worrying that I would get lost in a place like this.

As I sat there gawking
at my new abode, the car came to a stop. The door on my side opened and a white-gloved hand reached inside to help me out. I expected to feel the raindrops when I stepped out of the car, but I felt no such thing, for the glove-handed man was holding an umbrella over my head. I’ve always loved the rain and had looked forward to feeling it cooling my head, but I had been denied even this simple pleasure. That was when all the emotions that I had been keeping back for the last twenty-one hours finally hit me. I tried to choke back the tears and was successful, but I knew that my victory wouldn’t last.

             
I asked the white-gloved man if he could kindly not put the umbrella over me. He gave me a brief look of confusion, but then graciously tipped the umbrella away from my head and the rain drops began battering the top of my hair. It was raining even harder then it had been when we left the airport, which I was happy about because now I would be able to cry without anyone noticing. I slowly let the tears fall down my face as I followed Kevin to the palace arch. By the time we got there I was soaked and I couldn’t tell my tears from the rain. When we got to the walls of the arch, I let my back rest against it while I tried to compose myself. I realized I was unsuccessful when I felt my knees give out before me. All thoughts ran through my head as I slid down the wall and listened to rain spatter on the ground.

             
Nothing was ever going to be same from this point, I told myself. Of course, I had said that to myself already a hundred times that day, but the full realization now washed over me along with the rain. I would be treated differently from now on, like a Dresden china doll put on display, never to be touched.
No
, I thought to myself,
that is not going to happen, because that’s not who I am
.
I won’t let myself be treated that way. I’m going to fight! And I will win.
I looked up and saw a hand in front of me. Kevin was really outdoing himself to be nice to me. I pulled myself together and declined Kevin’s hand to help me up. I brushed right past him and walked up the steps to the palace entrance, prepared to fight.

Chapter 6

Welcome Home

             
I was just as amazed by the sights inside the palace than outside. I had to catch my breath as I looked around. The walls were an ivory white, but throughout there was gold molding that covered an almost woodsy pattern. In front of me was an enormous marble staircase that separated and went different ways at the top, then made its way to the middle again and then went down a tunnel. At the top of the red-carpeted stairs were eight large pillars the same color as the exterior of the palace. As I was soaking in the amazing room I was standing in, my eyes caught a glimpse of the ceiling. It was an incredible mural that depicted heaven, easy to tell by the swarm of angels that were encircling one sole man. It sort of reminded me of my situation at the moment.
I
was that sole man, except that I had yet to find any of my angels. I seemed to be surrounded by demons.

             
I was so overwhelmed by everything around me that I didn’t notice the servant who placed a blanket or shawl around my shoulders. Nor had I noticed the people that lined in front of the grand staircase--around fifteen uniformed servants, I guessed, all standing at attention. LaGard suddenly appeared before me, looking me up and down with an expression of distaste and maybe a little anger. I looked down at myself, almost surprised to find I was soaked to the bone from the rain. “What happened to you?” he whispered. “Didn’t the doorman offer you an umbrella?”

             
I nodded with a slight smile on my face. “He did, but I didn’t want it. I love the rain. And I think I still have the freedom to make a few decisions without someone pre-planning everything for me, thank you very much.”

             
I slowly brushed past him, and walked over to Terrence, who was standing in front of the line. “Welcome to your new home, Anya. I would like you to meet your staff here in at Catherine Palace. Now, as you may or may not know, LaGard and I are your mentors. We will be guiding you so you will better understand how to rule the country when the time comes. Now it is time to meet everyone else.”

             
He pointed to the first two women who looked about my age. “This is Mari and Avery. They are your ladies-in-waiting.” I never really understood what a lady-in-waiting was (though I had assumed it involved some waiting around for some reason), so I just smiled and said hello. Next I met the cook, Mrs. Rontes, who reminded me of what Mrs. Potts from
Beauty and the Beast
would look like if she weren’t animated. Then I met the doorman, Donnie, then the royal gardener, and so on.

             
As I was introduced to the staff I noticed that none of them actually sounded Russian or even had Russian names. I didn’t understand it so I brought it up with Terrence as I met my horse groomer. “You see, my dear, we are all descended from Russians who served the Romanovs. So it is as if we are merely filling in the roles left for us.”

             
“Oh, I see, so your great-grandpa or something was a mentor as well?”

             
Terrence smiled. “Well, not exactly. You see, the families before had their elders to look up to as mentors. My great-uncle was actually part of the royal court. But seeing as I am something of an authority in Russian society and the court already has members, well, I volunteered to help you.” In a strange way it was all beginning to make sense to me.

A
s we continued strolling down the line of people, I came face-to-face with two huge, burly men who looked about the same age as Kevin. One had brown curly hair with a huge grin on his face. The other was a little shorter and he had dark black hair and had a grimly serious face.

             
“This is Antonio, and his brother Barnes. They will be your bodyguards.”
Great, just what I need
, I thought,
someone to watch me all the time and make me paranoid
. Still, I managed to smile as I greeted them.

             
“Hello, Antonio. Hello, Barnes.” Antonio said hello, but I was a little taken aback when Barnes just nodded. Antonio saw my reaction to his brother and quickly stepped in.

             
“Allow me to explain, Miss. Barnes doesn’t talk to anyone but me. I really don’t know why but he’s just been that way since we were little.”

             
I nodded and replied, “Well, don’t you worry, Barnes. By the time I’m empress I’m sure I’ll manage to get at least a hello from you.” I smiled and began to walk away, and I swear that I saw Barnes hold back a smirk.

             
Yet my own smile quickly disappeared as I saw Kevin standing at the end of the line. “And, of course, you already know Kevin. He will be your personal assistant.” He added with a laugh, “He might be around you more then your bodyguards!” Terrence grabbed his stomach and continued to belly-laugh as he walked away.
That was supposed to be a sick joke?
I thought.

             
I stood there, no doubt scowling at the idea that I would have no choice but to work with Kevin for about seventeen hours a day. He couldn’t have missed my reaction, because he blurted out, “Look, it wasn’t my idea,” he said, then quickly looked down at the floor, avoiding eye contact.

             
“Obviously,” I said, crossing my arms defensively. “Because I make you want to shoot yourself in the foot, remember?”

             
Kevin sighed, as if surrendering to what promised to be an endless battle of wills that lay before us. “Well, the first bit of business,” he said, getting busy with clipboard in his hands. “Mari, Avery, can you please show Her Highness where her bedroom is?” He kept looking at the sheet on the clipboard as he walked away. “You have all day to settle in and get accustomed to your surroundings. I’ll stop by your room tomorrow morning and prep you for the day.” With that, he disappeared into the tunnel.

             
The household staff was dismissed, but I stayed to talk with my (I could hardly think of the phrase without rolling my eyes) ladies-in-waiting. Avery and Mari were very chatty and I could tell that we would become fast friends. They explained to me how Catharine the Great had made the palace the way it was today. They took me on a quick tour of some of the downstairs rooms, some of which were the size of airplane hangars. The ballroom nearly made me fall on the floor, I was so stunned by its size and magnificence. Why, I wondered when we stepped into small dining room or, the Courtiers-in-Attendance Dining Room, were there windows built into a wall that didn’t look outside? Mari seemed to read my thoughts. “The mirrored glass in the false windows reflects the light from the real windows on the opposite wall, Miss,” she said, “making the room look bigger and brighter.”

             
As we continued our little mini-tour, they told me they were both from Ireland and when they were invited to serve the Empress of Russia, they couldn’t refuse.

             
“We’re not from the richest place, Miss,” Mari said as she fiddled with her hands, “so it seemed like a grand opportunity.” When I asked where they would be sleeping, Avery smiled and pointed to a little building out the window. “There, Miss, those are the servants’ quarters.” I looked at the little ramshackle hut. It was completely unacceptable.

             
“I won’t have this. You two will be taking a room next to mine. I’ll talk to LaGard in the morning about it.”

             
Both girls looked stunned. “Ah, Your Highness, I don’t think…”

I put my hand
up in protest. “Please, none of that ‘Your Highness’ nonsense. It makes me sound about forty years old. Call me Anya.” I wanted them to be my friends, not my servants. “And I want to do this. There is no way that you’re living in that little rundown shack when there are plenty of rooms here in the palace.” The two looked grateful, which did my heart good. At least I had made two people happy so far.

We
went up the grand staircase to my new bedroom. Avery quickly popped in to see if the room was ready, while Mari kept telling me how wonderful this room is. I really wasn’t expecting that much. The minute that Avery opened the door, I was happy that I was incorrect.

             
My room was actually a suite of rooms. The first was a very pale yellow, with white trimming. It was like walking into a little living room, complete with a huge flatscreen TV and plush loveseat sofa, with chairs to match. In the next room was a bed four times the size of any king-sized bed I had ever seen. The bed frame had to be mahogany, judging from its rich, dark-reddish color. The sheets were ivory, which complemented the trim on the walls. As I felt the silkily smoothness of the quilt atop this wonderful bed, I noticed two more doors. “More rooms?” I asked in amazement.

             
I entered the closest room, which was the bathroom. Yet this bathroom was the size of a typical living room in America. There was a walk-in shower on the left, and in the middle a little sitting room--just in case I needed company to watch me wash my face, I supposed. There was a private stall for the toilet, and a sink which Mari told me was modeled after the Trevi Fountain in Rome. And at the far end of the bathroom was the bathtub of my dreams. There was a staircase--a staircase!--leading to this bathtub that was big enough to fit a whole royal family. And right behind it, a stained glass mirror depicting the birth of Venus.

             
After finally getting enough of the bathroom of heaven, I decided to see what the next door in my bedroom led to. I had a hunch, and when I opened the door, I was happy with what I saw. It was a walk-in closet the size of four average-sized rooms. It was crammed wall-to-wall with dresses and outfits that even the highest-paid Hollywood celebrities wouldn’t be able to afford. Towards the far end of the room were cabinets and shelves loaded with what seemed to be hundreds of diamond necklaces and bracelets, and pearls galore. And the shoe collection! There were so many high-end designer shoes that I wasn’t sure if I would be able to wear them all during my lifetime. “Wow!” was all I was able to gasp.

             
As I was leaving the room, I noticed something that had escaped my attention when I entered. There in a tall glass showcase was a long, deep purple, floor-length strapless evening gown. The bottom was ruffled and there were silver broaches sewn into the dress at strategic points. The top of the dress was embroidered with an elaborate gold pattern that worked its way down to the waist. Next to the dress, hanging from an elegant hook, was a eye-mask made of black velvet with a gold trim along the edge. On top there were black feathers sticking out. It looked very old-fashioned and very elegant.

             
As I was examining the gown and mask, Mari exclaimed, “Don’t you just love it!”

             
“We picked it out just for you,” squealed Avery.

“
For me?” I said, turning to them in surprise. “Yes, I do like it, it’s… beautiful, but what’s it for?”

             
Mari and Avery both looked at each other before shouting, “The Halloween Masquerade!” They started jumping around in a little circle for a full minute before giving up.
Well, at least they’re happy
, I thought as I looked at my Halloween costume one more time. I thought once again of the Halloween bonfire Sadie and Maggie had planned, and how much I wanted to be there.