Chapter 14
Time passed for the Romanov family, and soon Nicholas was old enough to take a bride. When he told his family that he'd chosen his distant cousin Alix as his bride, his parents were quite surprised indeed. Melody wasn't entirely pleased with the selection since she found young Alix a bit flighty and too shy, but remembering that her son was an adult now, she let Nicholas have his choice of bride.
Not long after Nicholas and Alexandra married and produced their first heir, a daughter, Melody and her husband Alexander traveled once more to Copenhagen, however the trip was far too taxing on Alexander that soon afterward he had a heart attack and died. Melody was overwrought with grief, but she knew she had to soldier on despite it all.
As the years passed, Melody delighted in the birth of each new grandchild and found it especially interesting that all of the children Nicky and his wife Alix had were all daughters. When their youngest daughter, Anastasia was born, Melody had an especial fondness for her because she reminded her of how her own mother Ariel must have been as a child. Actually Melody found it quite interesting that her son's family was so much like her mother's family, that daughters would be born in such an abundance in the next generation just like her mother's, with specific exceptions of course.
Eventually Nicholas and Alix had their much needed son, and it was soon after that that Melody began taking Anastasia under her wing. Even going so far as planning to give her a Fabergé egg music box as a gift. The music box had dancing figurines which resembled Anastasia's parents as well as being slightly reminiscent of a similar music box her mother had told her that her own mother had many years ago. Even though the music box wasn't truly magic, it was the finest mechanics the Fabergé artisans could create.
One summer the family sailed to their summer palace in Lavadia, near the Crimean Sea. To make the voyage more lively, Anastasia prompted her siblings to skate along the deck on roller skates. Then when they arrived at the beach, Anastasia found a large, smooth board and made a slide to ride all the way into the sea.
When Melody saw it, she laughed and asked her grandchild about it. "So what do you have here?"
"Oh grandma this is my slide which I use to slide from here all the way into the sea. It's great fun, you should try it!" Anastasia giggled.
"Oh I would love to dear, and in my younger days I would have followed you in a minute, but now dear, I'm afraid that age has caught up with me." Melody sighed.
"Oh that's too bad grandma! How were you like in your younger days grandma?" Anastasia asked.
"Well I was much like you, full of curiosity and adventure, but still Ana with your red hair, you remind me of someone else. Do you want to know who it was?" Melody asked.
"Oh yes grandmother, who was it?" Anastasia asked.
"Your great-grandmother, Ariel. She was quite the woman indeed. Long red hair and full of adventures in and by the sea, just like you and then again not like you. Your grandmother had to be strong too, especially to be able to leave the only home she'd ever known, just to marry your grandfather Eric, who was a prince and later a king." Melody explained warmly to her granddaughter.
"Oh I wish I could've met her grandmother! She sounds interesting." Anastasia commented.
"Yes I too wish you could've met her my dear, because she'd have loved to meet you as well." Melody sighed as she stared out across the ocean, with a tear in her eye.
"Well then you can tell me stories about great-grandma and the various things that she did, while I play here. Here let me show you my new slide, see grandma!" Anastasia said as she giggled and ran across the beach toward her slide, then slid down it.
Melody just sat on her beach chair watching the action of all of her grandchildren as they frolicked along the shoreline in the setting sun, telling various stories to Anastasia and her other grandchildren.