Free Alexandra by Carolly Erickson Page A

her as
‘belly-woman’ and ‘a round ball on shaky legs’) encased in an old-fashioned dress of black bombazine, her Indian servant at her side, presided comfortably over all, content
that her matchmaking had succeeded in bringing Ernie and Ducky together. Alone of those present, the queen was unaware of the gossip about Nicky and Alix; she was under the impression that, having
done her best to prevent any engagement between them, the possibility of their union no longer existed. 5
    The wedding day came, and in the royal chapel of the palace, amid masses of flowers and garlands of fir branches, Ernie and Ducky stood to repeat their vows. The ceremony had hardly concluded
before a violent thunderstorm broke, drenching the newlyweds as they drove off in their carriage and forcing the mayor to cancel the evening fireworks display.
    The rain continued all that night, and Alix, her head by now spinning with excitement, cannot have slept well. The ray of hope she had begun to glimpse two days earlier had broadened into a
beacon. There was a way, it seemed, to square the demands of her conscience with her heartfelt desire, she could enter the Orthodox church without formally abjuring the Lutheran faith. She could be
true to herself – and marry Nicky.
    On the following morning two more hasty conversations were held – the first between Alix and cousin Willy, the second another discussion with Auntie Miechen. She was no longer in any
doubt. No obstacles remained in her path. She was ready to accept Nicky.
    ‘[She] came into the room where I was sitting with the Uncles,’ Nicky wrote, describing the scene in a letter to his mother. ‘They left us alone and . . . the first thing she
said was . . . that she agreed! Oh God, what happened to me then! I started to cry like a child, and so did she, only her expression immediately changed: her face brightened and took on an aura of
peace.’ 6
    Later Alix would castigate herself for being so stubborn for so long. She asked Nicky to forgive her. She had not been able to see clearly, she had imagined barriers where none existed. Now allrestraint fell away, and the lovers embraced, their fervour all the greater for the long season of frustration that had kept them apart. ‘I went about all day
dazed,’ Nicky wrote in his diary. ‘I could not believe that all this had happened to me.’ Alix wrote her friend Toni Becker that she was ‘endlessly happy,’ and when
she and Nicky burst into the adjoining room to announce to Willy and the aunts and uncles that they had agreed to marry, she was radiant.
    Queen Victoria was the next to be told – and great must have been her astonishment! – then Aunt Marie and Uncle Alfred and the hosts of other relatives who indulged, Nicky wrote, in
‘an orgy of kissing’. 7 Telegrams were sent to Russia and elsewhere, and by evening many more telegrams had begun to pour in,
congratulating Alix and Nicky and wishing them happiness.
    ‘Please tell your dear fiancée from me,’ Tsar Alexander telegraphed to Nicky, ‘how much I thank her for at last consenting, and how I wish her to flourish for the joy,
comfort and peace she has given us by deciding to agree to be your wife!’ Xenia too sent her congratulations, and Alix wrote her an ecstatic note. ‘I cannot describe my happiness
– it is too great . . . And what an angel the dear boy is.’ 8 Alix and Xenia had long been on the most affectionate terms. Now they
would be sisters-in-law – and would be brides together, as Xenia was soon to marry her cousin Sandro.
    Over the following few days the engaged pair were together most of the time, eating their meals together, driving out in a pony carriage, having photographs taken, sitting together at the opera
and afterwards, late into the night, staying up together in the privacy of Alix’s sitting room with only Gretchen von Fabrice as chaperone. As one by one the wedding guests departed, Alix and
Nicky seemed to have Coburg to