The Kitchen Boy

“That’s the least of our worries.”

“Yes, of course…”

Again the Heir ordered me off into the woods, and I turned the troika and started our pursuit of wild Siberian tigers and bears. Suddenly, however, a real monster appeared in the form of a guard, who blocked our route into the living room. He was tall, big-shouldered, had a long greasy mustache, and he wore a filthy tunic and rumpled, baggy pants. From his shoulder hung a long rifle with a rusty bayonet on the end, and hanging from his belt, of course, was a hand grenade.

“Get back,” he ordered.

I halted the chair and looked from the guard to the Tsar, then back to the guard.

“The women are here,” said the guard, his voice as deep as it was abrupt. “You must return to your rooms. They will wash the floors.”

“But can’t you see I’m cutting my husband’s hair?” protested Aleksandra Fyodorovna, glaring imperiously at him.

“By order of the komendant all of you must return to the far room.”

“Just five more minutes,” she said, not as question, not as a request, but as a statement of fact.

“Now!”

“But-”

Nikolai Aleksandrovich, brushing off his shoulders as he rose from his chair, calmly said, “Actually, Alix, I think you’re finished. If you take any more off I’ll be bald.”

I watched as she looked momentarily into the soft eyes of her husband, then, her eyes burning, turned her attention on the guard. Her lips trembled as if she wanted to lash out at him, her skin got all blotchy and red. And then in one quick swoop, the Empress threw her cutting shears on the dinner table, gathered up her long skirt, and stormed out of the dining room.

“You must forgive my wife – she slept poorly last night,” said Nikolai Aleksandrovich, starting after. “Come, Alyosha. Let’s get out of here so the charwomen can clean.”

I followed after my master, pushing the wheeling chaise and Heir out of the dining room, into the girls’ room, to the left, and into their bedchamber, where Aleksandra Fyodorovna stood, her face bowed into both hands. Weeping quietly, she shook, and I witnessed the Tsar go up and embrace her from behind. In the flash of a second, she spun around, throwing herself into his arms.

“There, there, my Sunshine,” he said, kissing the top of her head.

“Forgive me, Nicky. Forgive me, please, my darling. I know my greatest sin is my irritability. You know how hot-tempered I am. I want to be a better woman, and I try, I really do. For long periods I am really patient, and then out breaks my bad temper. It is not so difficult to bear great trials, but these little buzzing mosquitoes are so trying.”

“Of course they are, my dearest.”

“I long to warm and comfort others – you know I do – but I don’t feel drawn to those around me here. I am cold toward them, and this too is wrong of me.”

“All that matters is that we seven are together and safe.”

“Yes, yes, of course, my love. You’re right. Always right. Oh, how I love you, my treasure, my life. What bliss you have given me.” She sighed, pressed her cheek against his, and keeping her voice low, said, “But where is the sister today? Why didn’t she come with another letter? Oh, Nicky, I’m so scared. We will hear more, won’t we? Promise we will!”

“I swear with my heart, all my heart.”

I stood silent and still behind the wheeling chaise, and both Aleksei and I, as if staring upon a silent film, didn’t flinch, only stared on as the Tsar whispered something in her ear, and she half laughed and half cried, her polished nails digging into his muscular back. A few moments later I heard the rustle of clothing and turned to the open doorway. All four grand duchesses, their hands and long skirts powdered with flour for the first time in their lives, were looking upon their parents as well.

Hearing them, the Tsar turned, his face reddening. “Well, so, all of us are here, are we?”

Tatyana Nikolaevna, the second daughter and the most responsible of them all, softly said by way of explanation, “The floors are to be cleaned.”

“So they are,” replied her father as he tugged at his collar. “Gospodi,” dear Lord, “but it’s hot in here, isn’t it, children? So… who’d like to play a game of bezique?”

Thus, for the next two hours, we passed the time playing a type of pinochle, not just the seven Romanovs and me in the bedchamber, but Dr. Botkin, Demidova, and the footman, Trupp, all of us day by day compressing into one unit. Only cook Kharitonov was allowed to carry on as before, and his meager cooking filled the whole of the closed-up house with its smells. Potatoes, beetroot, and more compote. That was the lunch we later took at one o’clock, though by that time it was so stuffy, the heat so intense, that no one much felt like eating. Really, it was broiling in there, not a movement of air. On the street it was thirty degrees, so God only knew how hot it was inside.

The Reds had evicted the Ipatiev family with barely any notice, and after lunch the Emperor found one of Mr. Ipatiev’s own books, Sea Stories by Belamor, which the engineer had left behind as he fled. Choosing a passage, the Tsar read aloud to his son until close to two-thirty when we were allowed into the garden for an entire hour on account of the intensity of the heat. All of us went out, including the Empress. As innocent, as unsuspecting as they would be on the night of July 16-17, the Romanovs descended those twenty- three steps, passed out the door, and into that untidy little garden. Dr. Botkin and Trupp managed the rolling chaise, and Nikolai Aleksandrovich himself carried his son down the steps. I followed the girls who followed their father as he paced a circle, while the Heir and his mother took refuge from the fearful heat beneath the branches of a lilac bush.

There was nothing to cling to in our lives but our regimen, and at four-thirty, just as punctual as ever, I helped serve tea in the drawing room, where all seven Romanovs and Dr. Botkin were gathered. Cook Kharitonov sliced some of the fresh bread, which was still hot, and I carried it out on a plate along with a bit of butter, handed it to Demidova, who in turn placed it on the tea table. This produced no end of delight for the grand duchesses, who were quite proud of their creation. It wasn’t white bread, the preferred sort of the nobility, for both Aleksandra and Kharitonov had been carefully hoarding what little white flour we had for Aleksei, thinking it more healthy, more digestible. Rather these princesses had made real Russian chyorny khleb, black bread that was dark and earthy and so deliciously sour. An endless stream of questions and comments and praise followed.

I was just returning to the kitchen when the door burst open and six unknown men stomped into the room, led by none other than the komendant himself. A flash of unspoken terror shot through us all: Had Sister Antonina been found out? Was the rescue plot so quickly dashed?

His voice trembling like a schoolboy’s, Nikolai Aleksandrovich quickly pushed himself to his feet, and said, “Good afternoon, gentlemen. May I-”

Avdeyev looked in Nikolashka’s direction, and muttered, “S’yad!” Sit!

“But-”

“Sit down and be quiet!”

Good soldier that he was, the Tsar sank back down, and all of us watched in terror as this group of thugs moved from the drawing room, into the dining room, and then proceeded into the bedchambers. Maria Nikolaevna and I, peering through the open doorways, watched and tried to discern what they were saying, but of course it was impossible. Their voices were low and deep, a lot of grumbling went on. For what purpose had they come? I looked over at the Tsaritsa, who was clutching the Tsar’s hand, her eyes clenched shut in fright. Would they search the rooms, tear apart their things in search of evidence against them? Might the “medicines” be discovered?

But then… then…

The group of men was going from one whitewashed window to the next, and I whispered to Maria, “It looks like they’re checking out which windows can be opened.”

“They must be from the regional soviet.”

And so it became evident that they were in fact a soviet – a council, a committee – that had been formed to decide which, if any, windows might be unglued. For more than twenty minutes these Reds went from room to