"We must leave as quickly as possible," Illya finally said. "We don't know when they might return, possibly bringing reinforcements."
"But I can't just leave him!" Alexandra glanced helplessly at her husband's body.
"I'm sorry, but you must." Illya's heart ached for her, but he couldn't bear the thought of what would happen to her and the others if their assailants did come back.
Illya watched as Alexandra knelt beside the dead man and kissed his cheek. "I'll see you on the other side, Nicky," she told him, tenderly brushing the hair back from his forehead.
Illya felt a cold chill run up his spine. Could it really be...? No, of course it couldn't. The very idea was preposterous. And yet...
The group quietly filed back up the stairs and out of the building. The man who'd examined the dead man carried the teenage boy, whose face was twisted in pain. Besides himself and his partner, Illya counted ten people in all, six female and four male, including the teenage boy.
As soon as they were a safe distance from the building in which they had just nearly died, Alexandra introduced the others to Illya.
"These are my daughters, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia, and my son, Alexei," she said, indicating the four youngest women and the teenage boy. "Our family physician, Dr. Botkin, is holding Alexei. The others are our cook, Ivan Kharitonov, our footman, Alexei Trupp, and our maid, Anna Demidova."
Stunned, Illya looked over the group in wonder. "Do you mean to tell me that you're Russia's last Imperial family?"
"That is correct," said Alexandra.
With a start Illya realized that he and his partner may have just significantly changed his country's entire history.
"We must get you all somewhere safe right away!" he exclaimed. He longed to return to 1968, but without the Faberge egg, he had no idea how to do that.
The group traveled for several hours until they finally reached a railroad station.
"If we can make it to Germany, we'll be safe," Alexandra told Illya. "I have family in Hesse."
As they traveled, Illya and Alexandra got to know one another better.
"So what was it like for you, growing up in Germany?" asked Illya.
"My childhood was a rather sad one," Alexandra told Illya. "My older brother, Friedrich, died of hemophilia when I was only a year old. Then my mother and my younger sister Marie both died of diphtheria when I was six."
"That's terrible!" Illya exclaimed. "I'm so sorry!"
"What was your childhood like?" asked Alexandra.
"I was an only child," said Illya. "I grew up mostly in Moscow, but I spent a few years in Kiev. My parents both worked for the government, my mother in the department of health and education, my father in the department of national security and defense. It was a very lonely childhood. When I wasn't busy with my studies, I spent a lot of time playing the guitar."
"Did you ever marry?"
"No." He smiled. "I suppose the right woman just hasn't come along yet."
"Nicky was the only man I ever loved," said Alexandra. "I loved him from the time I was twelve years old, but because of religious differences, we didn't get married until ten years later. Nicky got tired of waiting for me to convert and gave into temptation for awhile. I forgave him for that indiscretion, and he was always faithful to me after that."
"That must have been painful for you."
"I would have preferred for him to have kept himself chaste and pure as I did, of course, but it was easy to understand how it's within the nature of young men to give in to such wiles."
"You must have loved him very much," said Illya. "I would consider myself to be a fortunate man indeed to have been loved as you obviously loved him."
To Illya, Alexandra seemed like no other woman he'd ever met. Although her life had been fraught with tragedy, she was such a loving and giving woman, devoting herself wholeheartedly and unselfishly to her husband and, undoubtedly, to her children as well. Illya felt that he would give almost anything to be loved by a woman as the late former Tsar Nicholas II had been loved by his wife, Alexandra.
