Rebel Princess, Curse Not the King, and Far Flies the Eagle by Evelyn Anthony

Author:Evelyn Anthony
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504047722
Publisher: Open Road Media Romance
Published: 2017-07-27T16:00:00+00:00

When the Empress was informed that her son’s liaison was still unbroken, she surprised her intimates by losing her temper. The terrible placidity of Catherine in the face of death, sorrow or danger had become a legend, and the fame of it had spread through Russia and across the world. Nothing disturbed this amazing woman, nothing ruffled that smooth forehead or wiped the smile from her painted lips.

Wars, revolution, the defection of her lovers, even the death of Gregory Orlov had failed to induce any but the most dignified reaction or a becoming grief. But Catherine had an Achilles heel. One man could be relied upon to shatter the façade of calm and that man was her son. In the days of her love affair with Potemkin, she used to cry, to rage and despair like other women, but that period was half forgotten. The beautiful, sensuous Empress, who then had still been in the full golden bloom of maturity, had now become a corpulent old woman nearing seventy, who dressed simply, ate and drank frugally in an age of gluttony, and loved to play the doting grandmother with Paul’s two sons. Only at night this domestic pose was abandoned, and the ageing Empress retired to her bedroom with a lover nearly forty years her junior.

Outwardly serene, as secure in her power and as clear in her vision as a woman half her age, Catherine’s inward disintegration only became apparent when Paul Petrovitch was mentioned.

The reminder of his existence was a searing irritant. He still lived, enjoying the sights and sounds of changing seasons, using the gift of the senses which she prized for herself above all others, while she had fought down the impulse to imprison and then to exterminate his hated person from the world for nearly forty years.

Potemkin had stopped her, thwarted her sovereign will, she reflected angrily, aware that at last she really did resent his interference, and that the extraordinary domination he had exercised over her seemed to be fading.

So the germ of wrath grew in her mind, nurtured by the stories of her spies in Paul’s household, who reported that Catherine Nelidoff had stood the test; that though she wept and lost weight, she stayed under Marie’s rule, until the Czarevitch had stepped in and rescued her. Now she occupied a nominal post with the Grand Duchess, and Paul’s extramarital idyll was resumed. Consequently his health had improved, they told his mother regretfully, but in spite of the Nelidoff, M. Araktchéief’s influence was still very strong. He was encouraging his master into greater severities and was even rumoured to be jealous of the gentle Katya’s influence. But it was yet too soon to be certain about that.

Catherine listened and then began to storm with anger. It was the fault of Marie Feodorovna, who had mismanaged her opportunity, and of Gregory Potemkin for suggesting compromise as usual.

To intervene now, when the breach was outwardly healed, would make her look ridiculous, and to remove Mistress Nelidoff privately would only provoke her besotted son into rebellion.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.