Auditions began a day after Dmitri announced his grand scheme. Vlad and he made handbills and soon, many women got interested in it. They wrote their names on a list, which was hanging on the gate of a palace. Dmitri felt like the majority of the women in St. Petersburg was there.

And to say that auditions for the Grand Duchess Anastasia were going well would be a complete and utter lie. The tea had run out halfway through viewing. 1000 actresses; and Dmitri could sense his friend's patience was wearing down. And he couldn't blame him.

So far, out of those 1000, only 13 naturally had the same hair colour as the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Of those 13, 3 had the 'Romanov eyes'. The rest of the actresses did horrible dye jobs or didn't try at all!

"Nice, nice, very nice, thank you." Dmitri forcefully smiled as he crossed off a name on the list.

"I look like a duchess and dance like a feather!" The actress cried before exiting the palace.

"O-kay, next please," Dmitri muttered.

A slightly older woman slowly walked onto the stage, a long brown fur coat trailing behind her, a cigarette holder protruding from her lips. Once she reached the centre, she wheezed, gasping for air.

"Grandmamma! It's me!" The actress said in a deep, sultry voice, dropping her coat to the ground, revealing the shorter version of a sailor's dress. "Anastasia!" She rolled her hips and took a puff from her cigarette.

"A… are you kidding me?" Dmitri thought to himself, his jaw dropped to the ground in shock. Vlad let out a frustrated groan and slumped onto the desk.

Soon after, each of the girls got worse and Dmitri felt like sleeping from boredom, but he must persist for her! Natsya's out here somewhere! He knew it…

The sun was about to set and yet, they still couldn't find the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Now, all hope was gone. The last few girls of the day found out that it was actually a 'get-rich-quick' scheme and they threatened to report Dmitri and Vlad… oh, how awful today was!

"Well, you tried my friend…" Vlad said as he sipped his tea while reading the newspapers "Anastasias don't grow on trees!"

"I'm not giving up!" Dmitri persisted as he waved his hand dismissively "I'll go to Siberia to find an Anastasia…"

"You've never been to Siberia." Vlad said, flipping the papers nonchalantly. Dmitri sighed in defeat and looked up and down at Vlad, head nodding as an alternate plan formed.

"No! Just no! I don't want to dress up in drag for the rest of my life!" Vlad cried as he knew what Dmitri was up to. "What did I do to be your friend?"

"It was me or Bolshevik firing squad!" Dmitri reminded.

"You saved my life!" Vlad thanked gratefully.

"A rash act of kindness. Completely out of character!" Dmitri sighed as he fiddled with the music box he found earlier "How do you open it?"

"It's a fake!"

"How would you know?"
"No one spots a fake like Count Vladimir Popov. Biggest fake of them all…" Vlad sighed. However, Dmitri wasn't listening, he knew he had to find his Natsya… somehow, he sensed that she was alive…

Oh shoot! Another cliffhanger? Ah well, since exams are over and the term break is coming up soon, I will be a little faster in writing these chapters...