"As you wish, Your Majesty."
Count Stroganov placed a hand over his chest and bowed. Then he looked up at the Tsar and asked quietly, "Your Majesty, regarding that matter?"
Catherine II knew he meant Alexandra's conversion—yesterday, the ambassador to France had told her that by French custom, a Russian Princess of the Eastern Orthodox Church was required to convert to Catholicism after marrying into France.
She nodded without hesitation. "Yes. Tell the envoy that I agree."
For a Romanov family princess, changing her faith was an exceedingly grave matter. But Catherine II needed this marriage alliance more than anything to save her throne, so no matter how great the matter, it was no longer a matter at all.
On the eastern side of the Winter Palace's Raphael Gallery, a young maid lifted her skirts and hurried to Alexandra's side as she practiced the piano, leaning close to whisper in her ear.
The Russian Princess sprang to her feet. Taking the maid with her, she walked out of the room with stately composure. Only after confirming that no one was nearby did she ask anxiously, "An engagement? So rushed? Is it a prince from Saxony or Mecklenburg?"
Those two countries had each proposed marriage to Russia half a year ago, but nothing had come of it afterward.
The maid struggled to hold back her laughter, looking utterly innocent. "I don't know that yet. Perhaps it's one of them."
"Grandmother agreed?"
"It seems so."
"Didn't she say it had already been refused?"
"It seems Count Zubov and Count Bezborodko arranged it."
Alexandra clenched her little fists tightly. "Ha! Those two ought to fall into an inkpot clutching their ill-gotten black-hearted money! Yes, they must have taken a huge sum. I can hear the rustle of them counting gold coins all