Sixteen years later …
Katrina woke up earlier than usual. It was always seven o'clock that she woke up in the morning, but today, she found herself awake at half past six.
Light snores fill the room and she told with her body halfway to look at her cousin, who was deep asleep. Natya was not going to wake up even when her alarm clock would go off.
Finding sleep, no longer in herself, Katrina turned off the alarm clock for today before moving into the bathroom and getting dressed. She pulled on her pajamas, letting go of the shorts that she had been wearing to bed and covered herself to become more presentable. Even though the men knew better than to look at her, a man's eyes could never be trusted and she would hate to be the reason for her father blocking someone's eye out.
He had done that before and he would do it again.
She breathed in and out rhythmically, like she had seen in the yoga tutorials before pulling on a fluffier robe on the silk one. The house was warm, but she always liked to be dressed fluffy.
Her throat hurt when she swallowed, so she guessed that it was time for some ginger tea. It was more like ginger chai, that she had recently started to appreciate. The family kitchen was on the ground floor and she moved towards it. There was no one on the ground except for a few patrolling soldiers whom she did not look at.
She turned on the gas, and pulled out the utensil, before putting more than half a cup of water in it. Then she proceeded to get some ginger that she threw in the pan once the water started boiling.
Katrina inhaled the ginger steam. It had already started to soothe her somehow.
"Should I be afraid of my sixteen year old daughter getting out of bed on her own?"
She jumped and found her father at the entrance of the kitchen. "Papa."
Ivan smiled. "Usually, it takes your governess to threaten your lovely fluffy robe to get you out of bed. Is everything alright for you to come out of it on your own?"
She chuckled and nodded. Katrina moved towards him and wrapped her arms around in a hug, enveloping him in a hug. "Good morning, Papa."
"Morning, dear one." He placed a kiss on the top of her head. "May I have some of the brew as well?"
She giggled at the word 'brew'. her father was a truly Russian man, and anything foreign was not easily accepted by him. So when she had to let the chai boil a bit to get the flavors, it was apparently a brew. But at least he had started to like it.
"Sure," she added another half cup of water and then brought over the barstool from the other side to sit and wait.
The only thing in her thoroughly Russian home that did not suit the decor was the kitchen, and that her father had added. It was after her cousin and she had shown an interest in cooking that her father had decided for a separate kitchen to be made. It was to make sure that she would not step in the kitchen that was full of soldiers who could not even eat or even breathe in her presence.
Yes, her father was that strict and it was not really given that she was homeschooled. Hence, the governess.
"How have your studies been?"
"Good, papa." She cleared her throat. "If you don't mind me, I would like to ask you something… it can be a birthday present too!" She added quickly, an incentive for him to listen to her and agree.
He chuckled. "There is only a small quantity of things I do not have the power to give you. The rest, ask for the word, sweetheart."