HIATUS.

ind. grand duchess tatiana nikolaevna romanova. history based. loved by el. / heavily under co. /

[belayaknyazhna]

hiatus until further notice.

tbh i’m not sure when i’ll regain the muse but y’all will hear from me <3

[proudshot-deactivated20190813]

Send 👍 if you like my character portrayal; please say why.

[rp-meme-slut]

Send “🚢” If you ship our muses!!

If multi muse, specify the muse please!

[belayaknyazhna]

tfw you just catch the bride's bouquet.

[belayaknyazna-deactivated201710]

belayaknyazna:

                  SHE WANTS REVENGE         lyrics starters.

RED FLAGS AND LONG NIGHTS

’ It’s never hard to tell when things are done. ’ ’ She looked into my eyes and a voice said: RUN. ’ ’ It’s alright, whether it’s two weeks, two years or just tonight. ’ ’ You can occupy my every sigh. ’ ’ You can rent the space inside my mind, at least until the price becomes too high. ’ ’ I can find a reason that we should quit. ’ ’ I can find a reason to do it. ’ ’ I can find excuses for all my shit. ’ ’ I need red flags and long nights. ’ ’ It’s not that it’s my fault, it’s just my style. ’ ’ He’s not into you, he’s into the idea of. ’

THESE THINGS

’ There’s nothing to see here. ’ ’ No one cares when the show is done. ’ ’ I heard it’s cold out. ’ ’ She’s locking me out. ’ ’ It’s cause of these things. ’ ’ Let’s make a fast plan, watch it burn to the ground. ’ ’ I try to whisper so no one figures it out. ’ ’ I’m not a bad man, I’m just overwhelmed. ’ ’ Lovers hold hands to numb the pain, gripping tightly to something that they’ll never own. ’ ’ No mistakes, only now you’re bored. ’ ’ This is the time of your life but you just can’t tell. ’

I DON’T WANT TO FALL IN LOVE

’ I knew that this would happen, that things would go this way. ’ ’ This was never planned. ’ ’ I know that you’re the right girl. ’ ’ But do you think that I am the right man? ’ ’ Right face, wrong time. ’ ’ Too late, so deep. ’ ’ Can’t sleep, can’t eat, can’t think straight. ’ ’ I don’t want to fall in love. ’ ’ You say it’s not a problem. ’ ’ You say it’s meant to be. ’ ’ But love is not an option. ’ ’ Our love is never free. ’ ’ And things are not so easy. ’ ’ So cold and we’ve been burned. ’ ’ That’s the price of one more lesson learned. ’

OUT OF CONTROL

’ Oh my God, it’s my favorite song! ’ ’ We can’t slow down even if we tried. ’ ’ Our hearts steady-beating, the sweat turns to cold. ’ ’ We’ve got nowhere to go. ’ ’ We’ve got nothing to prove. ’ ’ Instead of dancing alone I should be dancing with you. ’ ’ Or maybe it’s only you. ’ ’ Either way, let’s begin. ’

MONOLOGUE

’ Lover, forgive me. ’ ’ My guilt is my only crime. ’ ’ I’ll carry it round till it breaks me down every time. ’ ’ This is the time of night when the moonlight shines down and we can reveal who we truly are. ’ ’ Just give me the safe word. ’ ’ Take your hand and smack me in the mouth, my love. ’ ’ A half open mouth and the whole truth that no one would take. ’ ’ Pretend all you want you can cry to your heart’s own beat. ’ ’ We will take love and swear upon the things that we just can’t keep. ’

BROKEN PROMISES FOR BROKEN HEARTS

’ Pay attention, my love, cause it’s over. ’ ’ At the tip of my tongue is the price you weren’t willing to pay. ’ ’ Still this is something akin to a breakdown. ’ ’ Broken promises for broken hearts. ’ ’ When you look back now was it special? ’ ’ Was it nothing but anecdote that you can tell now and then? ’ ’ I delude myself it was worth it. ’ ’ From the beginning I could see exactly how it would end. ’ ’ I wanna wish you away. ’ ’ I wanna kiss you away. ’

SISTER

’ She smelled like 2am. ’ ’ This could only turn cold. ’ ’ No touching tonight. ’ ’ Tuck me in. ’ ’ You better lie down cause the angels are watching. ’ ’ Quit the talking. ’ ’ You can hurt me, do whatever you like. ’ ’ Shut your mouth, the angels are listening. ’

US

’ Late last night I was looking through pictures. ’ ’ Flooded with memories I lied on the floor. ’ ’ Still I can’t forget. ’ ’ All the fiction and lies, all the tears and the laughs take a walk through the past. ’ ’ You and I hand in hand as we look at this thing called us. ’ ’ I tried my hardest to cry but it just wouldn’t come. ’

SOMEONE MUST GET HURT

’ Please don’t touch me. ’ ’ I’ve come too far to let you bring me down. ’ ’ You think that I’m easy. ’ ’ Try as you might you can’t have me now. ’ ’ I can tell you’d like some company. ’ ’ I can’t fix you when you don’t want me. ’ ’ I call for the witness, present the facts, write down the little things. ’ ’ They say the heart is resilient in black and white. ’ ’ You swore there’d be no strings. ’ ’ Under the sound of my footsteps this time there will be no long goodbye. ’ ’ How can I trust you? ’ ’ How could you need me to know? ’ ’ It’s getting to be so cold. ’ ’ The decision is in and I won’t break. ’ ’ Well, someone might get hurt and it won’t be me. ’

TEAR YOU APART

’ This mindset, maybe it’s right. ’ ’ At the right place and right time, maybe tonight. ’ ’ Wanna make out and kiss hard – wait, nevermind. ’ ’ It’s cute in a way till you cannot speak. ’ ’ It’s only just a crush, it’ll go away. ’ ’ It’s just like all the others, it’ll go away. ’ ’ You pray it all away but it continues to grow. ’ ’ I want to hold you close. ’ ’ Lie still and close your eyes. ’ ’ So lovely, it feels so right. ’ ’ I want to fucking tear you apart. ’

[andhungry]

richard siken sentence starters.

quotes are all taken from various poems out of richard siken’s poetry book crush.  feel free to change pronouns/etc if needed.

❝  tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.  ❞

❝  tell me we’ll never get used to it.  ❞

❝  there are so many things i’m not allowed to tell you.  ❞

❝  i swallow your heart and it crawls right out of my mouth.  ❞

❝  i want it back now, baby. i want it back.  ❞

❝  i’m sorry. we know how it works. the world is no longer mysterious.  ❞

❝  that’s a nice touch.  ❞

❝  i like him and i want to be like him.  ❞

❝  i’m sure you remember, i was on the phone with you, sweetheart.  ❞

❝  history repeats itself.  ❞

❝  there are many names in history, but none of them are ours.  ❞

❝  you could drown in those eyes.  ❞

❝  but damn if there isn’t anything sexier than a slender boy with a handgun, a fast car, a bottle of pills.  ❞

❝  sorry about the blood in your mouth. i wish it was mine.  ❞

❝  i couldn’t get the boy to kill me, but i wore his jacket for the longest time.  ❞

❝  you wanted happiness, i can’t blame you for that, and maybe a mouth sounds idiotic when it blathers on about joy but tell me you love this, tell me you’re not miserable.  ❞

❝  there is no way to make this story interesting.  ❞

❝  i want to tell you this story without having to confess anything, without having to say that i ran out into the street to prove something.  ❞

❝  tell me we’re dead and i’ll love you even more.  ❞

❝  you will be alone always and then you will die.  ❞

❝  i’m sorry i came to your party and seduced you and left you bruised and ruined, you poor sad thing.  ❞

❝  who am i? i’m just a writer. i write things down.  ❞

❝  i take it back.  ❞

❝  here is the repeated image of the lover destroyed.  ❞

❝  you still get to be the hero.  ❞

❝  what more do you want?  ❞

❝  love, for you, is larger than the usual romantic love. it’s like a religion. it’s terrifying.  ❞

❝  no one will ever want to sleep with you.  ❞

❝  you know that recently we have had our difficulties and there are many things i want to ask you.  ❞

❝  you had not expected this.  ❞

❝  walk a mile in my shoes.  ❞

❝  a man takes his sadness down to the river and throws it in the river but then he’s still left with the river.  ❞

❝  you are weak and hollow and it doesn’t matter anymore.  ❞

❝  hush, my sweet. these tornadoes are for you.  ❞

❝  that sounds overly valorous.  ❞

❝  do you love yourself?  ❞

❝  i don’t have to answer that.  ❞

❝  you wanted more.  ❞

❝  i had a dream about you.  ❞

❝  there’s nowhere to go. there’s nowhere to go.  ❞

❝  in these dreams it’s always you: the boy in the sweatshirt, the boy on the bridge, the boy who always keeps me from jumping off the bridge.  ❞

❝  will you love me even more when i’m dead?  ❞

❝  you didn’t show up. i kept waiting.  ❞

❝  i swallowed crushed ice pretending it was glass and you’re dead.  ❞

❝  i don’t really blame you for being dead but you can’t have your sweater back.  ❞

❝  you can sleep now, you said. you can sleep now. you said that. i had a dream where you said that. thanks for saying that. you weren’t supposed to.  ❞

❝  hello darling, welcome home.  ❞

❝  please keep him safe.  ❞

❝  i just don’t want to die anymore.  ❞

❝  you want to die for love, you always have.  ❞

❝  you didn’t think you’d feel this way.  ❞

❝  you saved my life. i owe you, i owe you everything.  ❞

❝  please, just for one night, will you lie down next to me, we can leave our clothes on, we can stay all buttoned up.  ❞

❝  you’re all i ever wanted and worth dying for, too.  ❞

❝  drive into that tree, drive off the embankment. ______, make something happen.  ❞

❝  we are not dirty.  ❞

❝  you keep singing along to that song i hate. stop singing.  ❞

❝  here is the sink to wash away the blood.  ❞

❝  this is not harmless. you are not breathing.  ❞

❝  i will come back from the dead for you.  ❞

[belayaknyazhna]

    LIKE for a lyrics starter !

[belayaknyazhna]

anastcsie:

       “ tatya,  do you forget where i’ve been for the past decade ?  i didn’t exist so far as everyone else was concerned.  the communists were more than happy to erase all memory that there ever was a time before them. ”  the word is spat out with rather disdain.  living among them had been bad enough when she hadn’t known her position in society truthfully.  now,  it’s filled with an even higher level of bitterness for all the crimes that had been made against her family. 

        nona was only doing what she thought was best.  the favorite granddaughter,  the youngest,  had returned to her family,  and it was cause for celebration.  but it was more than that for anastasia,  it was acclimating her to a world that she had forgotten about completely over the decade.  it was’t a secret that her older sister wasn’t approving of all these things,  and so she takes a break from putting her hair up for another ball for a moment to look at her sister directly. 

        “ tanushka…  i’m starting to get just as tired of this as you.  i want nothing more than just to spend an evening alone with you and nona,  to personally catch up on everything and to be a normal family,  not an imperial one.  but she’s trying to make a statement,  that the family is still strong. ”  that they would one day go back and take their throne,  no matter what those men back home thought. 

         “ please,  be gentle with her.  i worry for her heart.  i will talk to her tonight after this last party for a long time,  i promise.  but,  you should promise me something in return,  that you will try and look like you’re enjoying yourself tonight.  i’ll stay on your arm all night,  if you want,  fend off any man who dares think himself good enough for you !  please.  if not for nona,  then for me ?  your favorite baby sister ? ” 

[belayaknyazhna]

princeandrci:

his injuries have left him in somewhat of a haze —- attempted recovery is a painful occupation, a consuming one, and though he may have been notified that the tsar’s daughters would be present, that he’d encounter the grand duchess had, for some reason, seemed impossible. only upon receiving this introduction is his mistake realized ; and though his tightly bandages torso will not permit a proper bow, his head deeply nods in the weighty and shamefully late acknowledgement of power.

“ forgive me, your imperial highness, my mind was elsewhere —- i did not recognize …  ”  he’s lived below but not far from royalty for the entirety of his life, but this familiarity with the upper class does not spare prince andrei his embarrassment —- he should know better than this, and will surely spend hours agonizing of his mistake, as he does with every err, no matter how insignificant.

albeit rather awkwardly, he takes the compote ( suddenly not interesting in drinking it ) and fights the urge to rub his forehead, as though the small action will cure the ache festering within his skull. whether it’s the sound or the stress, he doesn’t entirely know.

“ my name is andrei bolkonsky, if you will, your imperial highness, officer for —- well, i suppose it hardly matters. ” he won’t, after all, be returning to his command ; the bullet that tore through him, that fosters anguished infection ( his face is already pale from effort, and his eyes have difficulty focusing, so present is that pain he hides ) has ensured that much.

IT’S TO BE CONSIDERED    his mistake -- but the one who is supposed to be offended or at least to bestow the hapless man with her gracious excuse is only further embarrassed. tatiana is quick to correct him ( and quicker yet to turn obviously pink ) ,

❝ ---- oh, please just tatiana... tatiana nikolaevna. ❞ is it a hopeless situation yet? the grand duchess decides to attempt to smile nevertheless ; not a big deal, they are not even in petrograd, after all !   ❝  it’s... purposely that we don’t look all that imperial.  ❞  a white lie -- it’s how they almost always look, and tatiana is not very fond of it at times, secretly, of course. 

this time, however, is not one of those, and she is even more glad to hear some details on her new acquaintance from himself. perhaps unknowingly, but he’s making it less stressful for her : the less the conversation is like small talk and the more substance it has, the easier it is for tatiana to find common grounds. especially, and not even so surprisingly -- granted she does have some background -- when it comes to military men.

her expression becomes almost childlike ( he will have to excuse her for that ) , eyes lighten with interest,  ❝ ..officer bolkonsky? awfully glad to meet you, i ---  ❞  it’s only now that she notices his condition and immediately scolds herself for idle curiosity when the officer is barely standing, while brave enough to hide that... or too proud to show it, perhaps.

❝   would you like to sit down?  i --- would like to hear about your regiment still, andrei --- i’m sorry, i didn’t catch your patronym.   ❞

[naragun-deactivated20161113]

I highly recommend you follow the person I reblogged this from.

[belayaknyazhna]

freigeiist:

Perhaps not. No matter how reluctantly he admitted that - Even words had their limits. “I would just like to know how I can help instead of idly watching your grief.”, he replied calmly, eyes staying on Tatiana. She was his wife and he wanted to assist her in such an horrible situation. 

       IF ONLY    she could appreciate his words -- though did he really have anything to offer her other than just them?  ‘  you should negotiate with them. show your own people that you are ready to support the bolsheviks despite what they did -- that’s how you should act. that’s how you keep what is yours.  ’  the family has been evacuated to a safe place. she knew what that meant. her sisters would rather die than be separated from mama and papa. how ironic -- she was the one that got sacrificed for the sake of war postponed -- the war that was destined to happen. she was sacrificed, separated from her family and yet she lived. and they... 

'   you know it better than anyone else. don’t let my grief stop you. i will -- support you, whatever you decide to do in the end.  ’

[wisdomchosen-deactivated2016021]

LEONARD COHEN LYRICS STARTERS ( PT.1/? )

They are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever.

I suppose that he told you everything that I keep locked away in my head. 

I’ve lain by this window long enough to get used to an empty room. 

Stay awhile until the night is over.

I’m just a station on your way, I know I’m not your lover. 

You chose your journey long before you came upon this highway. 

One day you caused my will to weaken with your love and warmth and shelter. 

I told you when I came I was a stranger. 

It’s you, my love, you who are the stranger.

They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can’t go on. 

Oh I hope you run into them, you who’ve been travelling so long. 

It begins with your family, but soon it comes around to your soul. 

It’s time that we began to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.

Well you know that I love to live with you, but you make me forget so very much. 

Your letters they all say that you’re beside me now. 

I forget to pray for the angels and then the angels forget to pray for us. 

Then why do I feel alone? 

I’m standing on a ledge and your fine spider web is fastening my ankle to a stone. 

For now I need your hidden love. 

I’m cold as a new razor blade. 

You left when I told you I was curious, I never said that I was brave. 

Oh, you are really such a pretty one.

Yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new.

In city and in forest they smiled like me and you.

You know my love goes with you as your love stays with me.

Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye. 

But let’s not talk of love or chains and things we can’t untie.

And where do all these highways go, now that we are free? 

You are locked into your suffering and your pleasures are the seal. 

I balance on a wishing well that all men call the world.

We are so small between the stars, so large against the sky.

Are you a teacher of the heart? 

We teach old hearts to break. 

I spent my hatred everyplace, on every work, on every face.

Who is it whom I address, who takes down what I confess? 

We teach old hearts to rest. 

I showed my heart to the doctor: he said I just have to quit. 

But you stand there so nice, in your blizzard of ice, oh please let me come into the storm.

If I, if I have been unkind, I hope that you can just let it go by. 

If I, if I have been untrue, I hope you know it was never to you. 

Like a beast with his horn, I have torn everyone who reached out for me. 

I need you, I don’t need you. 

And what can I tell you, my brother, my killer? What can I possibly say? 

I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you.

I’m glad you stood in my way. 

[belayaknyazhna]

                            ❝ ..GOD WILL SURELY HELP US. 

                                     – and we will meet again in better times. // img credit.

[belayaknyazhna]

sokrovennyi:

     So different and yet so similar——one, a tool of the ages whose life would continue indefinitely to bear the burden of the many, and the other, a phantom, a shell of an existence ruined by what could have been called an extension of his very arm. Two different individuals, yet both broken, perhaps irreparably so. Not everything could be explained so neatly with words. Sometimes things were far better left unsaid until the right moment presented itself. 

                 ——It allowed the guilt to settle in better. 

     “No thanks necessary.” Rather than put it back in his pocket, he left it on the windowsill for quick access. The pack would be gone within the hour at this rate, of that he was certain. 

     “Well, that is a safe guess. I find it increasingly difficult to sleep these days.” The dark circles under his eyes could attest to that. “Going for a walk does not have the same effect it once used to…or perhaps I simply like it better indoors.” Away from everything for a few brief moments.

     “But your company is always appreciated. Having a smoke with someone else is much nicer.” He paused for a moment—a mere second to prevent the silence from settling in. “Do you need anything, Tatiana? Necessities or any such thing?”

                               ❝ ---- I’M SORRY  to hear that, ivan.  ❞

and she was ; despite her personal pain, sometimes nearly unbearable, she noticed his troubled looks, his restless gestures ---- couldn’t do anything about that, really, but perhaps he indeed would find her company soothing. at least she could hope so, for she didn’t know, couldn’t figure it -- or him -- out.

..he was cold, reserved, and -- beautiful, like frosty patterns on window panes ; you had to be warming them with your fingers for enough time for them to begin melting, for them to reveal the window in its natural transparency. but how could she even begin to melt his icy armor?

indeed, he was like a creature from fairytales she was told by her nannies as a child -- an icy prince, son of winter herself... but she digressed, didn’t she? perhaps it was easier that way, to be distracted, if only for a while, from something as haunting as her recent past was.

                            ❝   --- but i’m glad you find my company enjoyable.  ❞

it wasn’t frosty outside yet, and it was unusually quiet indoors ; no drunken laughter so common at this hour, no songs, no noises, nothing. it seemed that night as if that godforsaken hotel was populated by ghosts --- and maybe that’s what they all were, couldn’t that be possible?

❝ i don’t know. i haven’t thought of it -- i... don’t even remember what day it is today. do you buy any newspapers at all? maybe i should... sorry, i don’t know. lost my train of thought.  ❞  

it still happened -- and she would always grow paler than usual when it did.

❝  ..what are you-- we going to do?  ❞  

[hawkeyedinc]

mania ( 2018 ) — fall out boy sentence starters.

STAY FROSTY ROYAL MILK TEA.

i think i got too many memories getting in the way of me.

some princes don’t become kings.

you only get what you grieve.

the only thing stopping me is me.

it seems like the whole damn world went and lost its mind.

all my childhood heroes have fallen off or died.

even at the best of times i’m out of my mind.

THE LAST OF THE REAL ONES.

i was just an only child of the universe, and then i found you.

you are the sun and i am just the planets.

you were too good to be true.

what’s inside you?

i know this whole damn city thinks it needs you, but not as much as i do.

you’re the last of a dying breed.

i wonder if your therapist knows everything about me.

i’m here in search of your glory.

there’s been a million before me.

my head is stripped just like a screw that’s been tightened too many times.

i’m here at the beginning of the end.

if they find you, i will protect you.

i’m done with having dreams.

you drain the fear from me.

HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T.

i never really feel a thing.

i woke up.

i took too many hits off this memory.

i need to come down.

hold me tight.

hold me tight, or don’t.

this isn’t how our story ends.

i got too high again.

i love you to death.

i can’t pretend we were lovers first.

were we ever friends?

i’m past the limit.

the distance between us sharpens me like a knife.

WILSON ( EXPENSIVE MISTAKES ).

i was gonna say something that would solve all of our problems.

i got drunk and forgot what i was talking about.

there’s nothing more cruel to be loved by everybody.

there’s nothing more cruel to be loved by everybody but you.

i’m gonna run away and never see any of you again.

i hope the roof flies off and i get blown to space.

i always make such expensive mistakes.

you’re the eighth wonder.

i’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color.

i’m on the wrong side of paradise.

i didn’t plan on showing up at all.

i hate all my friends.

i miss the days when i pretended with you.

CHURCH.

if you were church, i’d get on my knees.

you’re holy to me.

take the pain.

you’re doomed but just enough.

i love the world but i don’t love the way it makes me feel.

it’s getting hard to know what’s real.

i’m just a human trying to avoid certain doom.

HEAVEN’S GATE.

if there were any more of me, i’d give it to you.

one look at you and i’m on that faded love.

i’m a missile that’s guided to you.

go out in the world and start over again.

would you give me a boost?

i got dreams of my own.

i want to make your dreams come true.

please come through.

you’re the one habit i just can’t quit.

CHAMPION.

we’ve made a mistake.

i’m back with a madness.

i’m the champion of people who don’t believe in champions.

i got nothing but dreams.

i’m just young enough to still believe.

i’m young enough not to know what to believe in.

if i can live through this, i can do anything.

i got rage every day.

the only thing i do is sit around and kill time.

SUNSHINE RIPTIDE.

i don’t even have my own attention.

you say don’t ever change, but you don’t like me the way i am.

don’t ever change.

the world tried to burn all the mercy out of me.

i’m just playing house.

i have no idea what i’m doing now.

there’s not atheists in foxholes.

the pressure is getting to me.

it’s time to throw in the towel.

you came in like a wave when i was feeling alright.

you are my truest feeling yet.

i love you so much.

i love you so much, it’s like oxygen.

i do the best with what i have.

YOUNG AND A MENACE.

we’ve gone way too fast for way too long.

we were never supposed to make it half this far.

i lived so much life.

i think god is going to have to kill me twice.

oops, i did it again.

i was young and a menace.

i woke up on the wrong side of reality.

there’s a madness coursing right through me.

i’m here flying off the deep end.

i’m here to become the best yet.

BISHOPS KNIFE TRICK.

i’m pedal to the metal.

this is my pity party.

these are the last blues we’re ever gonna have.

let’s see how deep we get.

the glow of the city will lead us back.

the glow of the city will lead us back to places we should have never left.

i don’t wanna live inside a cage.

i’m struggling to exist with and without you.

i know i should walk away.

i’m trying to get it all back.

i can’t seem to get my grip.

[belayaknyazhna]

sokrovennyi:

     “I believe there are still things which you cling to——subconsciously, perhaps, but they have yet to die. You, at present, hold firmly to the belief that someone will be able to return you to the earth and allow you the peace you are entitled to. And so the story will go, as they say. It is simply a matter of when.”

          ‘  PERHAPS SO.  ’  most definitely so.  ‘  we’ve already established, ivan, that you are a highly intelligent man and a smooth talker at that. we have been talking for hours, yet i still fail to understand. what do you WANT from me? what do you NEED to proceed?  ’ 

[belayaknyazhna]

sovietperil:

          ❛   –  ah.  illya is fine.  or sir, if you must, but  YOU  should hardly worry about titles, highness.   ❜   of course, his mother would have bowed to her, most likely, and lavished upon her compliments about how grand she was, how honored they were to be in her presence.  she is lovely enough, of course, but he has the distinct feeling  THAT  is not what she wants.  ( if he had to say, he believes she would not be here at all, given the option. )   ❛   I have not had the pleasure, no.  my mother would urge me to say something like, I cannot imagine they are as charming as you, but I must be honest: you seem  …  UNCOMFORTABLE,  if I may be bold.  no shame if you are, of course.  I do not believe most are as content as they seem in these situations.   ❜

        WELL, THAT  was some audacity on his part ! --- of course, she is uncomfortable, but even with her far-from-perfect knowledge of the rules of a certain PROTOCOL. tatiana thinks to point that out to a person like her in a situation like this is almost bordering on rudeness. her cheeks nearly on fire, she suddenly finds the courage to look him in the eye and ( oh god! ) speak her mind, ‘  well, sir, you are quite correct, i am, and -- wouldn’t you be in my position? or, perhaps, you are ------ and that is why?  ’ oh. she should have guessed.  ‘  well, there is no need to be stressed about my presence. especially since you already feel bold enough to point something like that out to a grand duchess.  ’  talk about whose mother would kill whom first.