It took many weeks for Natasha to travel from Russia to England. The Nereide took her to Constantinople, where later she was given passage in a British battleship, Agamemnon, to Malta; from there a merchant ship took her to Marseilles, where she continued on by rail to Paris and then to London. It was not until March 1919 that she finally arrived at the house which MmeJohnson had leased on Michaels behalf. It was a comfortable Tudor house, Snape, at Wadhurst in Sussex; all the possessions stored at Paddockhurst had been transferred there, although of the horses only Tatas pony, Beauty, still remained, as did Natashas 1913 birthday RoUs-Royce

Natashas first concern was to bring back George from Copenhagen and he arrived with Miss Neamejust after Easter. Natasha was also thrilled to hear that Dimitri had arrived safely in England from Teheran and was living in London, though now, as an honorary captain, in British uniform rather than Russian. The British ambassador, Sir Charles Marling, and his wife brought Dimitri back with them, in defiance of the ruling that barred the admission of Romanov Grand Dukes. Sir Charles would be rapped over the knuckles for that, but he and his wife had become fond of Dimitri.

Dimitris sister Marie was also in London; her first marriage, to Prince William of Sweden, had been dissolved and in September 1917 sh had married Prince Sergei Putyatin, a kinsman of Princess Putyatinas husband Pavel/ Marie and her husband escaped to England through the Ukraine and Romania, leaving behind their baby son, Roman, with Sergeis parents; unhappily, the baby died shortly afterwards of influenza. The Putyatins and Dimitri set up home in a small rented house in an unfashionable part of London; Marie began to eke out a living knitting and selling sweaters, while Dimitri started a private course in economics and social science."*

* His tutor was the Socialist Dr Hugh Dalton, later to be Chancellor ofExchequer in the 1945 British Labour goveriinieiit.

Dimitris fellow conspirator in the Rasputin murder, Felix Yusupov, was also in London but the two scarcely met. Felix had his Belgravia apartment, and ample cash - he escaped from Russia with, among other things, two Rernbrandts but he had also disclosed the details of the planning and killing of Rasputin, disregarding his vow to Dimitri that neither would ever speak of it. Dimitri kept his word, but was deeply offended that Felix did not.

Dimitri went to Snape as soon he discovered that Natasha was there. They had not seen each other since October 1916; and in those thirty months much had happened. Together again, their reunion was clouded by the news of the execution ofDimitris father. Grand Duke Paul,* and by Natashas desperate worries about Michael. Where was he? Dimitri had heard that he was alive and so, repeatedly, had Natasha.

* Grand Dukes Paul, Uiniitri Konstainiiiovicli, George and his brother Nicholas Mikhailovk-h (Bimbo) were executed bv Firing squad in the fortress otSS Peter and Paul on January l. 1919

For the first weeks Dimitri became a constant visitor; Tata was eager to see him when she returned from Paris where, en route for England, Natasha had enrolled her in a French convent. I had quite got over my passion for him, but would nevertheless have loved to see what he looked like." The real question was whether Dinntri had got over his passion for Natasha. The bond was still there, and they teased each other as before, but Natasha was tormented by her fears about Michael and could hardly think of anything else. By the time that Tata arrived for the summer holidays, Dimitri had drifted away, trying to pick up the pieces of his own life.

Natasha had other worries. She had brought from Russia a small fortune injewellery, but she needed more money than had remained in the Paris account. It was more of a cash-flow problem than a crisis for she still expected to return home reasonably soon, believing, as did most exiles, that the White Armies would ultimately crush the Bolsheviks with the aid of the foreign troops now landed in their support. There were British, French, Japanese and American forces helping the Whites, albeit half-heartedly, but as Tata remembered, at most we expected ... to live abroad for perhaps three years.

In September 1919 Natasha sent George, then nine years old, to St Leonards-on-Sea College, a boarding school on the English south coast. With this and Tatas school fees, Natasha required funds from soniewhere. On Christmas Eve she was relieved to receive a much-needed cash payment of i oo from Copenhagen. The money, in a Danish account of Michaels, was transferred on the authority of General Biryukov, who had been on Michaels personal staff in Russia, and had escaped to Denmark. A second 1500 would be paid to her shortly afterwards. These sums gave the illusion of financial security, though they were the last she would receive from this source. There was nothing more to get.

With both George and Tata away at school, Natasha was left with little else to do but worry about Michael. She still believed she would see him again. In February 1919 there had been excitement when her brother-in-law Matveev, living in Paris, contacted her to tell her that the French Colonial Office had received a Top Secret report that Michael was in French Indo-China. A man claiming to be Grand Duke Michael Aiek-sandrovich was asking for a visa; the French authorities wanted photographs for identification. Natasha sent these to Matveev, who gave them to the French. They all waited on tenterhooks for news. There was bitter disappointment: the man was a fraud."

There were other false alarms. Michael was in Japan. Michael was in Siam. Each time there was joy, to be followed by despair. At the same time, there was nothing to say that he was dead. It was torture.

Natasha now faced another ordeal. The Dowager Empress, who had been evacuated by the British with her daughter Xenia, was staying at Mariborough House with her sister the Dowager Queen Alexandra. Natasha was summoned to see her, the first meeting with her mother-in-law since the dressing-down at Mariborough House six years earlier. On July 25), 1919. Natasha wrote to a friend. Captain Shirley Litchfield-Speer* to tell him that 1 have to go to London with Georgie tomorrow morning as the Empress wants to see us. It will be a very pemhte interview, so I am quite upset and even getting iU at the thought of the meeting.

* Captam Litclitield-Speer. otthe .miiii. which took Natasha to Mlta. after Natasha arriVL-d in F.ngland. Lkchtield-Spcer and his wife became her close triends.

In 1913 she had faced the Dowager Empress with Michael to give her support. This time she took Mme Johnson. To her delighted surprise the meeting turned out to be a happy occasion. The Dowager Empress made a fuss other grandson, and even sconced pleased to see Natasha. She was rather nice to me, Natasha reported to Litchfield-Speer, but I feel she does not like me and will never forgive me that I married her son. She told me that I had changed so much she would never have recognised me. I could not ask if it was for the better or the worse.

The Dowager Empress was, in fact, impressed by Natasha. The day afterwards she met Mme Johnson again, and said of Natasha: What a beautiful woman, she is so pretty, I had quite forgotten. Repeating that to Litchfield-Speer, Natasha added: 1 can tell you that, because you know me enough to know that I am very modest and not at all of that opinion.

The Dowager Empress refused to believe that Michael was dead, as she refused to believe the reports that Nicholas and his family had been murdered at Ekaterinburg. She would never accept the fact of their deaths, and would go on thinking that all were alive until her own death nine years later, in Copenhagen. At their meeting, Natasha tried to sound confident about Michaels safety, but in her heart she feared the worst. 1 am feeling quite rotten, she told Litchfield-Speer, because although

I had two good reports of rny husband from Russia, I had one very bad one from Colonel Davidson. He wrote to Mme Johnson that there is no more hope that my husband and her son are alive. It has become for me a real open wound, as I am thinking of this night and day and begin to lose the last hope. Alas! It is so hard to live without any hope!

Yet the hope went on, even after the blackest of news. In September 1919 Admiral Kolchak, signing himself as Supreme Commander of the White Army, sent a telegram to Omsk from Sukin. In reply to the letter of Countess Brasova, please inform her that all information I possess does not give any indication that the Grand Duke Michael Aleksandrovich is at present in Siberia or the Far East. His destiny is quite unknown after he was taken away ... and all attempts to find out where he is have not produced any results.

The only good news was for Princess Vyazemskaya. She had left Snape at the beginning of the year for Japan, hoping to find her husband who was reported there. Kolchak confirmed that he was alive, and at present in the general forces on the Eastern front and was seen recently in Omsk safe and well.

Kolchak* did not say that Michael was dead, only that his fate was unknown. It was the cruellest news: to know the worst would have allowed her to mourn; to be left with hope when there was none was ceaseless torture. Even in October 1919 Natasha was clinging desperately to the idea that Princess Vyazemskaya might yet tell her something about Michael.

* Admiral Kolchak wai caprured and hot by the Bolsheviks in lo. 3”4

In truth, Princess Vyazemskaya knew more than she told Natasha. As early as March 1919. Tata had written secretly to Litchfield-Speer: "The fact is we have received very bad news about my stepfather: they say he has been caught somewhere in the Ural mountains and murdered on the spot. Ghastly details we have also been given. Mother knows nothing about this. The princess is trying to find out all about it, she is sending letters to anybody she can think of that might know something.

Yet rumours continued to torment Natasha. After Michael was reported to be in Shanghai, Natasha wrote that 1 have to hope, otherwise it is too hard to live! . . . I sometimes feel so depressed and tired of life and think it would be better to die, than to live such a miserable and aimless life. But I try not to complain, and I always have a smiling face.

Her comfort was her son. She wrote to George several times a week and apologised whenever she missed a regular letter. 1 have not written to you for three days, but that doesnt mean that I have not been thinking of you my darling . . . She also went to see him, hiring a driver to chauffeur her to the school in her Rolls-Koyce.

By 1920 Natasha had decided to remove Tata from her French school and to enrol her at Cheltenham Ladies College in Gloucestershire. Tata was now seventeen, and a touch too precocious for Natashas liking; a year or so of strict discipline would do her no harm. There had been growing concern about her at home in Gatchina and just before his exile to Perm, Michael had written in his diary: Before dinner, Natasha, Miss Neame and I had a serious talk with Tata. She has a very difficult personality.

Money was becoming a worry again. Litchfield-Speers son John would remember being in London with Natasha in her KoUs-Royce and stopping at a Bond Street jewellers, where she sold an enormous pearl. She would sell more and more ofherjewellery over time, though as yet she still thought other financial problems as temporary. Even the news, passed on to her by friends, that 24 Nikolaevskaya Street had been destroyed in fighting in Gatchina, did not cause her great distress. The house, she told Litchfield-Speer, is quite destroyed, but she said no more about it. What would have incensed her was to have discovered that the Bolsheviks later changed the name of the road to Uritskaya Street, in memory of her hated enemy at the Cheka, and the man who had exiled Michael to Perm.*

* It is stiU Uritskaya Street: No 24 k now a smaU apartment block. Gatchina was badly damaged during an abortive White advance on Petrograd in October 19191 Gatchina was, for a time, renamed Trotsk in honour ot Trotsky, who had commanded the successful defence ofPetrograd; on Stalins orders he was niurdered in 1941 i Mexico.

The lease on Snape came to an end in 1920; Natasha moved to Percy Lodge near Richmond, Surrey, which had the advantage of being nearer London. She was still able to think of living in style; she was also sufficiently confident of her financial position to enrol George at Harrow, one of Britains most famous and expensive public schools. The headmaster, Lionel Ford, booked him into his own House, which he would join from his preparatory school in January, 1924 when he was thirteen.

At Percy Lodge Natasha entertained lavishly, wining and dining a new circle of friends. She needed people around her, for she could not bear to be alone. Gradually the full realisation must have borne in on her that she could no longer hope to see Uncle Misha again, said Tata. Since he was the one person above all others that she loved, the private emotions must have been terrible. People helped her forget, and to cope, and it mattered not that sometimes they were people more interested in her connections than in her friendship.

One added problem with which she had to cope was as unexpected as it was distressing. Tata, barely turned eighteen, and still at school, had secretly married.

Tatas husband was Val Gielgud, then an undergraduate at Oxford, later head ofBBC radio drama.* In 1921 what mattered was that Tata was a schoolgirl, he a student, and both were far too young for marriage. Natasha, when she found out about it, was at first disbelieving and then enraged.

* The elder brother oftheacturSirJuhnCiicIglid. -{• Mamoiitov died in December. 1939-

Natasha had met Val Gielgud earlier, when Tata introduced him to her at Percy Lodge. Natasha had not been impressed. She paralysed him by asking his intentions. When he told her that he wished to marry me, and she found out that he had no money, he was more or less shown the door, said Tata. Natasha ordered Tata not to see him again, threatening to cut off her pocket-money.

Determined to marry none the less, Tata wrote to her father Sergei Marnontov then working for an opera company in Tallin, Estonia; Mamon-tov had not seen Tata for some years, but he gave permission willingly, enclosing io as a wedding present.

The wedding took place on August 12, 1921, during the school holidays. Afterwards they celebrated with a lunch and an afternoon at the cinema. Tata then returned to Percy Lodge in time for dinner, her wedding ring strung around her neck on a chain.

Natasha found out about the marriage just before Tata was due to return to Cheltenham Ladies College. She was so furious that she ordered Tata out of the house. Tata, with her husband away in the country, ended up on the doorstep of a house in Londons Primrose Hill, the home of her old governess Miss Rata.

With Tata gone, Natasha moved again, this time to a fashionable apartment at 26 Bolton Gardens, in South Kensington. By now, all hope had faded for Michael. There was no trace of him anywhere, and all that was reliably known was that on the night of June 12/13 he had been abducted from his hotel in Perm. The inescapable presumprion was that he was dead, even if the circumstances of his death were as yet a mystery.

By 1924. six years after his disappearance, Natasha accepted the fact that Michael had been shot dead by the Bolsheviks in June, 1918, though she did not know the full details and never would. She was alone, and she needed to hnd a means to survive. She began the battle to recover Michaels funds; to do so she would need a court order effectively declaring Michael to be legally dead.

On July 5, 1924 the High Court in London gave such an order in granting Natasha letters of administration of the English estates of the late Grand Duke Michael Aleksandrovich of Russia, Michael, in the words of the grant, died on or since the 12th day ofJune 1918, at a place unknown, intestate. The value of Michaels assets in Britain was given as only 95 but it was the order not the money which was of significance.

It was also to have immediate significance for Grand Duke Kirill. Since Michael was legally dead, Kirill would now declare himself Emperor.

There had been an unwritten agreement among the Romanovs that, while the Dowager Empress was alive and still unable to accept the deaths other sons, no member of the family would claim the throne. Kirill ignored this, waiting only for the moment when Michaels death was sufficiently established to allow him to succeed him.

In June 1917 Kirill had been given permission by Kerensky to go to Finland; he remained there with his family until 1920, when they all left for Germany. Later, he and his wife Ducky and their three children made their home in St Briac, a fishing village on the Brittany coast. From there, on August 8, 1924 ~ month after the High Court order in London -Kirill issued his first manifesto, declaring himself Guardian ofthe Throne. That was a meaningless title, which confused everyone, but it emboldened him to move on a month later to a second manifesto in which he proclaimed himself Emperor of All the Russias.

In this manifesto he stated that the Russian laws of succession . . . do not permit the Imperial Throne to remain vacant after the death ofthe previous Emperor and His nearest Heir have been established. That neatly covered Nicholas, Alexis, and Michael. Kirill based his claim on being the senior member ofthe Tsarist House, and sole legal heir.

His action divided the Romanovs, as well as the many thousands of monarchists now living in exile, in France, Britain, Germany, the Balkans, and the United States. Of the seven surviving Grand Dukes, his brothers Boris and Andrew acknowledged him as Tsar, as did Michaels brother-in-law Sandro. The four others - the former Supreme Commander Niko-lasha, his brother Peter, Miche-Miche and Dimitri - did not; neither did the Dowager Empress, who was scathing in her condemnation. She wrote in protest to Nikolasha from Hvidore:

If it has pleased THE LORD GOD, as he acts in HIS mysterious ways, to summon My beloved sons and grandson to HIMSELF, then, without wishing to look ahead and with firm hope in the Mercy of GOD, I believe that HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR, will be elected in accordance with Our Basic Laws by the Orthodox Church in concert with the Russian People . . . lam sure that, as the senior member of the HOUSE OF THE ROMANOVS, You are of the same opinion as Myself. Maria.*"

KiriU expected bitter opposition. He told Michaels sister Xenia, 1 know full well that I can expect no mercy from all the malicious attacks and accusations of vanity. The attacks on him were, however, founded on more than malice and charges of self-aggrandisement.

The greatest practical objection to KirilTs action was that the White Russians were united only in their opposition to the Bolsheviks; even among those who favoured a return of the crown, many wanted the decision on the form of government to be settled by a constituent assembly — in short, the same terms as those set out in Michaels manifesto of March 1917- constitutional monarchy might follow the downfall ofthe Bolshevik regime, and monarchists naturally hoped that it would, but the critical need was to overthrow the Bolsheviks, not divide the opposition.

Nikolasha, stiU widely respected by White Russians, summarised their views when he issued his own manifesto, in the wake ofKiriUs. The aim, he said, was to re-establish the rule of law in Russia without stipulating the form of government — in effect, a restatement of Michaels manifesto. And if Russia were to restore the monarchy, it was not necessarily KiriU who enjoyed greatest support as Emperor. The so-called Supreme Monarchist Council, which claimed to represent majority monarchist opinion, favoured Dimitri. This high-minded organisation, clinging to the small print ofthe imperial laws, held that the three Vladimir brothers — KiriU, Boris, and Andrew — were excluded from the succession because their German-born mother had not adopted the Orthodox faith at the time other marriage. It did not help that KiriU had married a divorcee and, more importantly, his first cousin.

One other objection was the abiding memory of the red flag on the tower of his palace in Petrograd and his arrival at the Duma wearing a red bow as he marched his marines to pledge their support to the revolution, breaking his oath ofaUegiance while Nicholas was still Tsar.

KiriU damaged the imperial cause then; by proclaiming himself Emperor in 1924 ~ dividing monarchists and dismaying the White movement at large - he damaged it again. He would never adn-lit that, nor would his son, Prince Vladimir, elevated to Grand Duke and Tsarevich in his fathers manifesto. Under the rules introduced by Alexander III, only the sons and grandsons of Tsars could be Grand Dukes; Vladimir was the great-grandson of Alexander II and was thus entitled to be styled only as a prince. But since KiriU caUed himself Emperor, it foUowed that Vladimir should be called Grand Duke.*

* After his fathers death in 13 Vladimir did not claim to succeed him as Emperor, but became Head ofthe House ot Romanov; he would style his only child, Maria, a Grand Duchess, and her son by .i Hohenzollern prince would become Grand Duke Georgv, though at birth he was Prince George of Prussia — a Germ.in, not a Russian.

They were aU empty titles. But KiriU handed them out anyway. Natasha was given the title of princess in 1928, to be formalised seven years later as Her Serene Highness Princess Romanovskaya-Brasova; George found himself Prince Brasov. In the case of Natasha, being a princess was worth about as much as being caUed countess. What was stiU worth something was having been Michaels wife.

Michaels assets outside the reach of Bolshevik Russia were stiU considerable; so were his brothers. Natasha and George had some claim to both; George also could expect some legacy on the death of his grandmother the Dowager Empress. No one was sure how much was involved, but clearly it would take a long time before any substantial monies would be released.

The most identifiable and substantial claims Natasha could make on her own behalf, or through George, were in Finland and Poland, both now independent countries. In Finland, there was a small estate at the viUage of Halida, which Michaels father had purchased privately in 1892 for ioo,ooo roubles; that produced some money, for the Finnish government agreed a settlement." Natasha also knew of ioo,ooo roubles in the Ukraine, from a sugar refinery which had once belonged to Michael, but that proved impossible to get. In Poland, Michael had owned land estimated by the 1930s to be worth 600,000" - a sum which would have made Natasha a very rich lady indeed, if she could get her hands on it.

As for Nicholass assets, their value would be the subject of immense dispute but the assumption was that they would amount to many millions of roubles, in bank accounts in London and Berlin. The Berlin court dealing with the German-based assets would be told - by Prince Lvov and Kerensky in evidence they provided on behalf of the former Provisional Government — that the estimated figures in foreign funds were between seven and fourteen million roubles. Not aU of that was in Germany; but whatever the sum involved, Natasha and George could establish a right to some part of it, along with the other identifiable heirs with equal claim.

However reassuring the future prospects, the reality for Natasha during the 1920S was that while lawyers haggled, the actual cash in her pocket was ever dwindling. She had survived so far, partly by selling jewellery, as well as her birthday RoUs-Royce.

Since life in London is three times more expensive than in France, Natasha moved to Paris in 1927. It made more sense anyway: she had family connections there, including her brother-in-law Matveev and many of the Mamontovs, her former in-laws. Her old friends the Putyatins were in Paris, and the Vyazemskys had a restaurant in Nice. Dimitri had also moved to Paris, and was working for a champagne company; in 1926 he had married in Biarritz an American heiress, Audrey Emery of Cincinnati.*

* Their son, Paul, would be born in London in 12. The marriage failed, however, and in 1937 Audrey went back to the United States, taking Paul with her. He would become a colonel in the U.S. Marines, and later Mayor ofPalr-n lleach, Florida. Dimitn died oftuberculosis in Switzerland in 1942, at the age of fiftv-one.

Leaving George to complete his last year at Harrow, Natasha moved into an apartment at 9 rue Berlioz. George joined her in July 1927. He had done moderately well in his three years at Harrow, where he was registered as Count Brassow. He was naturally good at languages, but the school would later say that his academic progress may have reflected a certain lack of tuition earlier in his life*. His first reports showed him next to last but thereafter he rose to middling and stayed there. In Paris, Natasha enrolled him in the exclusive, and equally expensive, Ecole des Roches at Verneuil, fifty miles to the west of Paris; he would go on from there to the Sorbonne.

George brought with him to France his prized and beloved Norton motor cycle, which he insisted on driving at high speed, much to the terror of Natasha. He was now growing to be as tall as his father had been, with the same slim figure. He was uncannily like Uncle Misha, thought Tata. He had the same look about him; his voice was similar; he even walked in much the same way.

Some emigres among the divided Russian colony in Paris mentioned his name as the true successor to the imperial throne in preference to the disliked and discredited KiriU, but George treated the claims made on his behalf with indifference, tinged with amusement.

It was in Paris that George, though not his mother, became the first beneficiary of the various interests which, on paper, sustained Natashas hopes of financial security in the future. In 1928 the Dowager Empress died, three years after the death other sister the Dowager Queen Alexandra. Hvidore, their joint property in Denmark, was sold. King George V and his sisters waived their claims; the proceeds were therefore divided equally between Michaels two sisters, Xenia and Olga, and George.

It was a handsome legacy. The full amount was i 1,704. Georges one-third share was a very welcome windfall. He put some of it immediately into the purchase of a new Sports Chrysler motor car.

In July, 1931. having finished his final examinations at the Sorbonne, he decided to celebrate with a holiday in the south of France. He and a Dutch friend, Edgar Moneanaar, planned to drive to Cannes, George promising Natasha that he would be back in two weeks in time for his twenty-first birthday.

Before leaving, George and his friend had a meal in Natashas apartment; she then walked downstairs with them to watch them go off. That afternoon, as Natasha was playing bezique with friends in the sitting room, the telephone rang in the hallway at 5 rue Copernic, the apartment she had taken off the Place Victor Hugo. The Chrysler had skidded on the road near Sens, and crashed into a tree. The nineteen-year-old Dutch boy, who had been at the wheel, was killed. George was in hospital; both thighs were broken and he had severe internal injuries.

Natasha, distraught, took the first train southwards, arriving at the hospital in Sens just before midnight. She sat by his bed all night, but there was no hope for him. George died without recovering consciousness at 11.30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 21, 1931-

His body was brought back to Paris and he was buried in the cemetery at Passy. The funeral was attended by hundreds; Dimitri, who so many years earlier had vowed that, should Natasha ever suffer grief, he would be at her side, walked alone behind the coffin; Natasha, her stricken face hidden behind a black veil, followed behind. In public she refused to weep. 1 must pay tribute to my mother, Tata would write. George was her favourite child and her last link with the man she had loved; yet in spite of the crushing blow she refused to show her deep sorrow in public. She met the situation with amazing courage; that is a virtue she never lacked.

Natasha bought two plots lying side by side at Passy, the fashionable cemetery near the Trocadero in Paris.* George was laid in one. The other she kept for herself.

* Natasha was not over-impressed by [he title which KiriU gave her. She used it, but the cenietery receipt shows that she bought the plots in the name of Mme de Brassow.

Life meant very little to Natasha after the death of George. At fifty-one she was still beautiful but her hair was snow-white. In private she gave way to her grief. At the apartment of her close friend Princess Tamira Eristova, whose husband had served with Michael, she would collapse sobbing, What is left for me now? Why should I go on living? My son! My son! My son! I cant bear it. Oh, Misha! Oh, Georgie!

Natasha could not be consoled. She would weep and weep ... eventually she would cease her terrible crying, drink a glass of tea, and leave - eyes dry, back held straight, head held high, to return to her empty apartment.

Tata was an added cause for her distress. Her first marriage to Val Gielgud ended in 1923 her next husband was a distinguished writer and music critic, Cecil Gray, by whom she had a daughter, Pauline, in 1929; her third husband, Michael Majolier, had been a midshipman on the Agamemnon which had taken Natasha and Tata to Malta. As in Natashas case, Tatas third marriage to her Michael - by whom she would have another daughter, Alexandra - would last for the rest of her life, though Natasha would not know that.* Thinking about Tata, Natasha had little reason for cheer; she rarely saw her, and because of that absurd gypsy life you lead she often did not even know where she was living.

* Tata died in England, ar Wanstead, Essex, in i<,)6t).

In Paris, Natasha never gave any outward sign of her sorrow or her personal anxieties. In l933, just after moving to a new apartment at 22 rue Washington, she obtained an identity card, made out in her new name of Princess Brassow; she had dyed her hair to remove any trace of white; and on the official form she completed she gave her birth year as 1886, reducing her real age from fifty-three to forty-seven." As always, Natasha believed in being no older than she looked.

Despite her continuing cash problems there still seemed reason for optimism. The lawyers representing her claim on the Polish estates had been sufficiently confident to advance her a subsidy against her prospects, in return for a percentage of the proceeds: the case would drag on for several years more, but at the end of it she could expect that her financial position would be secure. Nothing could fill the void in her life, but at least she would not be poor.

Under the 1921 Treaty of Riga, by which Bolshevik Russia recognised the independence of Poland, the Polish government was entitled to sequester any imperial property within its borders; Natasha argued that at the time of that treaty Michael was already dead — a fact which would be established in 1934 by disclosures in the Soviet Union, albeit without admission of any responsibility — and that his estates belonged to his heirs, who were commoners; therefore the land was not imperial and not subject to the treaty provisions. In 1937. three-day hearing, the Polish judges found against her. Natasha got nothing.

She did a little better, however, in respect of the assets of Nicholas and Alexandra. She began the action in December, 1933- joined by Michaels two sisters, Alexandras two surviving sisters — Victoria, the Marchioness of Milford Haven, and Princess Irene of Prussia - and Alexandras brother Grand Duke Brnst of Hesse. In January, 1934. Berlin court recognised all six claimants as heirs."° The value of German currency had been virtually destroyed by hyperinflation, and it was estimated that the real value of Nicholass assets had shrunk to the equivalent of 25,000 at best - though that was not a small amount in those days. It was not until 1938, however, that a certificate of inheritance was issued to the heirs. It was the first time Natasha had ever been treated as an equal of the Romanovs.

That was not the end of it, however. Shortly afterwards there was a petition to have the certificate revoked. The plaintiff claimed that her name was Anastasia, the daughter of Nicholas: her story, which she would maintain with extraordinary success for forty years,* was that she had escaped the massacre of her family; if she was Nicholass daughter, the money was hers. That claim would fail ultimately, but not until 1961.

* DNA testing eventULiUv demonstTatcd that she was not Anastasia.

Natashas expenses over twenty years had been far greater than any money she had managed to acquire, or borrow. To meet her costs she had continued to sell her jewellery, piece by piece. Some bills remained unpaid. When Natasha left England she had put a large number of possessions into storage but had never paid the fees, now amounting to 200. Tata, living in England, learned through a newspaper notice that the goods deposited by Countess Brasova were to be sold unless payment was made. Neither Natasha nor Tata had the money.

Desperate to find something to sell, Tata rummaged through the cases in the storehouse, and discovered a mass of elaborate orders and decorations, in gleaming gold and silver. Apart from Michaels Russian orders he had been given others by Britain, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Japan, and Siam. Tata persuaded her reluctant mother to sell them, and then took them to Sothebys, the London auction house. There was much excitement. It was the best and most important collection ofchivalric orders ever available on the market. The auction was fixed for December 15, 1938

The Sothebys brochure described the collection in mouthwatering terms. The Most Noble Order of the Garter, presented to Michael by Uncle Bertie in 1902, was magnificently complete and it was probably the first time that the complete regalia has been in an auction room. Then there was the Order of the Bath, the Russian Order ofSt Andrew, the Badge of the Danish Order of the Elephant, the Collar and Star of the Norwegian Order ofSt Olaf, the Badge and Silver Collar of the House of HohenzoUern, the Order of Merit of Oldenburg, the Habsburg Order of the Golden Fleece, the Italian Annunziati, the Portuguese Order of Christ and St Benedict, the Japanese Order of the Chrysanthemum, the Siamese Order ofMaha Chakrakri — worth perhaps together io,ooo." Indeed, it might be very much more.

Tata was elated. For a week or so we wined and dined out daily. The celebrations proved premature. Firstly the Danish court wrote to Sothebys to complain. Their decorations were not for sale. The Order of the Elephant was thus withdrawn. Then Buckingham Palace demanded return of the two British orders. There was some surprise about that. As The Times explained, it is a rule when a member of either Order dies for his heir to return the insignia to the authorities. There has, however, been a general impression that the rule did not apply to royalty, British or foreign.

Palace officials in London were kind but firm, said Tata. When she said that she had borrowed against the sale, their reply was that she should have been better advised. However, they did murmur that an ex-gratia payment might be made to Natasha; in fact, Natasha got nothing.

With the British blocking the sale, the other countries followed suit. The sale was cancelled. Only one country, Japan, took back its decoration but courteously made an ex-gratia payment in exchange. At the end of this fiasco, Natasha was even worse off. Money had been borrowed against the expectations of wealth; experts who verified the insignia had to be paid fees. In consequence more had to be sold. Michaels beloved golden flute went for ioo." Other items in storage were taken out and sold off. Natasha made no complaint, but Tata was desperately sorry for her. 1 could cry when I think of my mother, she wrote, of the hopes I raised and the sore disillusionment which followed. She is without means.

Natashas only consolation was to refuse ex-King Alfonso of Spain his curious claim to have title to the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece, as an heir of the Habsburgs. Natasha would have none of it. Why should I, she wrote to Tata, hes only another refugee like me.

Tata, living in England, would not see her mother for many years after that dispiriting experience. War broke out in September 1939, and in June 1940 Paris was occupied. Tata would know no more about her mother until 1946 when her young daughter Pauline went to Paris to find her grandmother. 1 was shocked by her plight, Pauline would remember. She did not complain at all, but I could see that she was starving, and her clothes, though clean and well-pressed, were very shabby. Her poor little gloves were more darns than material.

There was no trace of any money now. Home was a boxroom in the roof space of an apartment block at ii rue Monsieur, on the Left Bank. The tiny room had been offered to her by a Russian emigre. Mile Annenkova, who seemed to find satisfaction in their change of fortunes. Mile Annenkova took no rent, but she took pleasure in treating Natasha like dirt and being as rude as she possibly could, noted Pauline. Natasha never made any protest. She had nowhere else to go.

The Mamontov family in Paris did what they could for her: despite her long-ago divorce they welcomed her cordially and gave her tea and drink and things to eat, as she looked so pale and thin. Natasha had come almost to the end. Sometimes friends — Prince Felix Yusupov among them — would give her a little money, and from England Pauline sent her a regular sum, saved from her own small salary, though it could never be enough. Five years after Pauline first met her, Natasha discovered she had cancer. On learning that, her landlady threw her out."

Natasha, the uncrowned Empress as Sandro once described her,"" was taken to the Laennec, the charity hospital around the corner. She died at 3.50 p-i- on January 23, 1952. Afterwards they buried her beside her beloved George. Their grave is marked by a Prussian cross of stone, above a chest-tomb of green-and-black marble, with the simple, gold-lettered inscription: Fils et Epouse de S.A.I Grand Due Michel de Russie