The Kaiser invited us to his study room where he showed us his family portraits, or rather, half of the entire world's royal dynasties.
My paternal grandmother Dagmar is the sister of the British King George V, making him a first cousin of both my mama and papa. That's also the reason why they look exactly the same that even the old Queen Victoria got confused when she saw them on the same room.
Papa and King George were extremely close. They wrote letters and poems for each other calling their bond as indestructible and often professing their admiration on each other.
They also shared the same values and characters. Both were uninterested with politics, reserved, unworldly and deeply religious.
But George have Mary. An obedient, sensible and very cautious wife with unwavering devotion to the throne and to her King. Papa on the other hand had a domineering, hysterical, vain and hotheaded wife who never took " no" for an answer.
In the end, George managed to save his kingdom and abandoned papa's call for help.
Had he helped us, my family would still be here. But he turned his back on us.. the Kaiser didn't.
Kaiser Wilhelm pledged his support to me and to the new Tsar, Alexei. He said he would help us in whatever decision we made and he would not interfere with our wishes. He offered us one of his palaces if we choose to stay in Germany but if we wanted to leave and go somewhere else, he said he would provide us with financial assistance as well as personal guards and soldiers to protect us from our enemies.
But there was one thing that he couldn't do.. He could not help us to restore the monarchy in Russia because he had just lost the war and the mood of his army and the entire German population were at the lowest making it impossible for him to declare another battle, especially against another country.
I had something in mind. I told him that my brother and I will go to England to meet the man responsible for the death of my family... to meet King George V..