Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 380 022 Little Katya is favored by the "old witch" (Part 2)

After seeing that the guests were seated, the princess' wife said: "We are not here for anything else today. It is Katya's name day, and she is also an adult."

When the old lady spoke, Nicholas was confused: "To enter the palace, you must be sixteen years old to be an adult, right?"

"It should be considered, but Your Highness, your sister Elena is about to get married at this age."

Nicholas has little impression of Elena, the most beautiful of the five sisters. After all, she and the eldest sister married separately when he was very young, and he is not as familiar with the third, fourth and sixth sisters.

But he has reached the age of sensibility, and he can think clearly even if his brain is stubborn.

Of course, he is not a fool, and he knows something.

Solovyov had been in St. Petersburg for a long time. It had been almost ten years since he was brought here by Dmitri Volkonsky. This kind of name day celebration was for a distant relative who lived here as a guest, so it was somewhat interesting.

The two older sons of the old tutor, even though the eldest son was blind, had married wives and had sons. The second son was very familiar with Solovyov, and the two had studied the four-stage tactics together.

As for the third son, Solovyov actually did not have a good impression of him.

In particular, his sister was a good friend of little Katya. If little Katya married Sergei, it would not be a good match.

Solovyov said this completely based on experience.

Of course, he did not know that if little Katya married Sergei, she would be very unhappy.

Although this prince looked good and had some knowledge, his personality was not very good, and he was also quite lustful.

Although little Katya is a bit slender and has received strict dance training since childhood, she is pretty good in any case, but compared with this firewood girl

Not only did Alexander and Louisa know that this marriage was not good, Alexander also said after the two got married that little Katya could remarry a new husband and give a large dowry.

However, the girl was devout and finally refused.

What's more exaggerated is that even Moscow and Ryazan knew that this marriage was not good.

Tolstoy's mother was in the ancestral manor at the time and heard about it. She also wrote it in her diary, thinking that such a lovely girl did not get her own happiness.

As for the later, there was something more unfortunate. She became a widow in her thirties and had no children. Her husband felt that he owed her, meaning that all the inheritance should be left to his wife, but the will was lost.

Then, these nephews of Sergei launched what Prince Vasily Kurakin wanted most, seizing the property of his uncle and driving away his aunt.

If it weren't for the fact that little Katya had many close friends in the palace at that time, and her elder brother was in Petersburg and her second brother was in Moscow, she would not have been kept in the palace. Alexander II took good care of her and kept her in the palace for 35 years until his death.

Of course, Solovyov couldn't have known so many things, he just felt that this matchmaking was a sour matchmaking.

However, he had to offend the wife of the tutor, which was nine years ago, and it didn't matter if it happened again.

And Vasily Vasilyevich, he and his wife had two sons, and he was confused, but considering that the princess was from his family, he couldn't say anything.

Although others were not surprised by the strange behavior of the princess, it was too abrupt to force a turn here under the pretext of celebrating little Katya's birthday and mention the intention of her youngest son Sergei and Prince Vasily's daughter little Katya to get engaged.

Prince Vasily was obviously hesitant, and he looked at his daughter again, reluctant to let her go.

But this marriage is indeed a good match. The youngest son of the Grand Tutor, Sergei, is also talented. Although he is not as good as his second brother, he has published some articles and is considered to be talented.

Because he has been away from home for a long time, Prince Vasily seems to think that this marriage is good.

In this regard, he is not as deep as the young Nicholas.

After all, who is this Sergei? Because the Grand Tutor's family often appears in Alexander's court, what is he like? Uh

It's not a very good impression, so some people still frown.

The confused Prince Vasily and his family did not express their opinions at this time, and the old Grand Tutor Saltykov came out again.

"If we can marry Prince Krimsky, it will be an honor for our family. I just don't know what you think."

If we continue, there is actually another way, which is to let Sergei and little Katya get along in the same room for a while.

Solovyov was too familiar with this matter. After all, his friend Pierre fell into this trap, allowing Prince Vasily of the Kurakin family to succeed and marry his daughter Helen into the Bezukhov family.

Although Helen was a natural socialite and very beautiful, Pierre was at a disadvantage in this matter.

Therefore, for Prince Vasily Vasilyevich, who always had high hopes for him, Solovyov did not want his daughter, his sister's friend, to be married off so easily and become the little princess of the Saltykov family.

That "old witch" would also bring some trouble. She was like a puppeteer manipulating puppets to let her husband speak out.

This old man can't even decide whether to serve oysters on the table, but he has a high position, and what he said is nonsense, but it has weight.

But the guests all seem to think it's not appropriate.

The strange thing is that little Nikolai leaned close to Solovyov's ear and said, "Sister Katya has a beautiful figure. It's really inappropriate for her to marry Prince Sergei, who is in the Guards but has not served much. Such a good sister should marry a warrior. Boss, you."

Although Nikolai is a stubborn kid, he seems to be a little precocious and knows the means of matchmaking. Just don't say it anymore.

"Your Highness, it's not appropriate to say that."

"You are so old, and you haven't married yet. This is not right! When my royal brother and royal sister-in-law got married."

The child talked more and more outrageously, making Solovyov embarrassed, and he covered his mouth without courtesy.

This caught the attention of little Katya, who stood up and said, "Baron, it's really rude of you to cover His Highness's mouth like this!"

Speaking of which, this girl is very knowledgeable about etiquette. She knows the rules very well at the age of fifteen.

In the future, she will make the girls in the palace respect and fear her, and get the nickname of "Mother Goose". All the "little hooves who don't know the rules" will be sent to her to learn the rules.

Therefore, Solovyov also felt a little embarrassed. Even this girl didn't call him like usual, but said it very formally. When the name "Mishka brother" came out, this girl said it was sweet and greasy, but calling "Baron" controlled Solovyov.

This made Sergei clever. Good guy, this girl is not old, but she actually made Solovyov, the most promising young officer in the Guards, who killed at least dozens of Frenchmen on the battlefield, obedient.

What will happen if this daughter-in-law is married?

Sergei thought too much. Little Katya had two ideals. One was to become a noble lady with excellent manners like Her Majesty the Queen, and the other was to marry an outstanding young nobleman to be his wife and manage the household as the hostess.

As for being a maid in the palace, it was an obligation and responsibility. For this girl, it was a career.

However, it was Nicholas who spoke unexpectedly at this time.

"I think Sister Katya and Prince Sergei should feel that each other is suitable for each other. After a period of adaptation, it will work."

He knew a lot about marrying a wife, and this was a Russian tradition. You have to adapt before getting engaged, and there is a cool-off period before getting married.

Nicholas, this child, not only messed up other people's marriages, but also understood that there was another weirdo in the Russian royal family. Compared with the empresses, except that they all kept little white faces, their style looked quite normal.

As for Queen Mother Maria, she didn't have a lover of real significance, so she shouldn't be able to do the job of empress.

And what about the tsars? Ivan the Terrible of the previous dynasty was just a hot-tempered one. There were many strange people in the Romanov dynasty: Peter the Great changed his customs and cut his beard, Peter II was a weird kid, and Peter III was a well-known German stick.

Later, Paul is needless to say. He was Soloviev's boss who respected him very much, but his behavior was indeed quite strange.

As for Alexander, when he was still the Grand Duke of the Imperial Grandson, he already had the tendency of "Why did Your Majesty rebel?"

Although, this man later succumbed to reality and became the emperor of all Russia honestly.

As for Nicholas, I can only say that the male members of the Romanov royal family, regardless of whether they were the original direct line or the Holstein collateral line after Peter III, all had a kind of abstract beauty, which was quite in line with the matching mechanism of the Slavic region.

He was indeed interesting in this way.

Then, the "old witch"'s behavior could not continue anyway.

This time, Solovyov did not offend the "old witch", but Nicholas became the "little villain", causing the princess's wife's plan to fail.

However, Solovyov also felt that Nicholas was either not smart or too stubborn. It was difficult to change what he had determined, and he was openly provoking such trouble.

When Paul was there, he liked to be a matchmaker. If Nicholas did not guide him well, he might be a special person to break up the couple. Even if it was not suitable, it would be considered a merit.

Their family's inheritance of the father sounded terrible. Everyone inherited different characteristics, and then they might be in the opposite direction. It might be a feature of the Russian court.

As for the princess's wife, although the family of the tutor was very powerful, His Highness's words and calling him over would ruin the plan.

It was a kind of cleverness that backfired. It was quite troublesome to call this child.

However, when this matter reached Alexander, he told Louisa about it when he went to visit his pregnant wife.

"Lisa, have you heard what happened in Nikolai Ivanovich's house?"

"No, Your Majesty, but what happened?"

"It seems that my dear sisters have not come to you to tell you the stories that happened in his house during this period."

Speaking of which, the "old witch" was often made fun of by the girls in the royal family. After all, she was too weird.

Even when Paul gave her a ribbon, she actually held a piece of musk in her hand and could talk to people for half a day.

In short, she is a weirdo.

Seeing that Louisa was willing to listen to him, Alexander then said: "Nicholas was invited by the princess to the official residence on Palace Embankment Road to celebrate the name day of Prince Krimsky's granddaughter Catherine. At this time, she proposed to marry this Katya to her youngest son Sergei."

After hearing this, Louisa also frowned.

"That doesn't sound right. If Prince Sergei wants to marry, he shouldn't choose a girl like this. As for the proposal on this occasion, should we get engaged directly or wait for a while?"

"It seems that he wants to get engaged immediately."

"That's not good, especially for a girl like this. If she comes to my side as a maid, she should find a husband who is of the right status and knows how to love her, not someone like Sergei."

"Yes, Seryosha. He is indeed not suitable. He should find a woman who matches him in the social scene."

For Alexander, after all, the man in question is the son of his guardian, so it is not easy to interfere directly.

"So what happened in the end? Sasha, you told me this, there must be some stories."

"That's right, Nikolai actually brought it up, it's not appropriate. Then, the princess's wife can't say anything. I'm very surprised, Kolya is only 10 years old, he already understands it. As a brother, I really have to work hard in the future to find him a wife that he will be satisfied with."

When Louisa heard this, Alexander's words were indeed inconsistent, but Nikolai's innocent words made her think of something.

If these girls around her are not engaged yet, they should be carefully selected when finding husbands for them in the future, and they should not make strange things that this "old witch" can do.

As for little Katya, she hasn't thought about it yet.

"It's just that, I think I have to find suitable husbands for the court maids in the future, and even if Katya and Prince Sergei are really engaged, there should be a probation period before that. Love is mutual, and if one party feels it is not suitable, they should be free."