Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 370 012 Meeting Louisa alone can be done under the pretext of a home visit

Nikolai and Mikhail's study plans were soon handed over to General Langzdorf.

After reading it, the general was very satisfied, especially the part about homework. He did have the power to discipline the two princes, but he was not a parent after all. If it involved academic issues, he still needed to talk to the parents.

At this point, we have to talk about the current strange structure of the Russian royal family. There are actually only four adults in the family, namely Alexander and Louisa, Grand Duke Constantine and Queen Mother Maria.

As for the head of the family, after discussing with Langzdov, Solovyov also discovered that it was the young queen who was in charge.

It was fine for others. Although the things between Solovyov and Louisa had always been kept secret, it was inevitable that they would go to the parents at this time.
But he had to go, after all, Solovyov was now Nikolai's teacher.

Louisa also had a problem: after the Battle of Austerlitz, Alexander returned to St. Petersburg and rarely came to see her.

If he ran there too many times, it would be a small problem, but as it was now, Solovyov had to go.

If you go there, something will happen.

At this time, you need to prepare in advance.

For this reason, he still has to prepare carefully after returning home. After all, when talking in front of his parents, he always has to prepare content instead of just the sweet words he used to say.

After returning home, he saw Adela teaching herself something.

This girl was really studious and liked to manage accounts, so Solovyov really assigned her homework and asked her father to invite his business partners to help.

"Any progress, Adela?"

"I think this is a trick. Although I don't know how to use it, I can still detect who is cooking the books."

This girl is indeed smart, and Solovyov thinks she will be a good housekeeper in the future.

"I think these skills should be enough when you become a hostess."

"Brother, you haven't started a family yet, and you still have to tell me this."

"What about the Cossack?"

"You mean Captain Bao Hong? Although he is much better than the other troublemakers, he still doesn't meet my requirements."

After hearing this, Solovyov felt a little helpless. He had no idea what this girl's standards were.

This may be because she was too impressed by the officers making bears carry police officers on their backs.

"Oh, Adela, what shall I do? But I have something to ask of you, and I hope you can help me."

"Brother, your business is my business, we..."

Adela wanted to say something. If she wanted to marry her brother, then if the two of them got together, even if Solovyov's title was low, he would still be a titled noble. This kind of marriage between a noble and a commoner with a maid was extremely rare.

That is General Arakochchev, who is not married but has always been with his housekeeper.

Solovyov treated Adela as his sister. Although the girl's features became more and more beautiful, with the beauty of a French film actress, she would be even more attractive if she developed a little more.

However, he really couldn't do it. Even if Adela took the initiative to bring up this matter at this time, he would not agree.

Even Solovyov's mind was like a movie, considering which of those low-ranking officers without titles would be more suitable.

However, after thinking about it, there is indeed no such person. There are not many promising junior officers at present.

Some time ago, he saw a very heroic cavalry officer, Lieutenant Alexandrov. After looking at him carefully, he found something wrong. After all, no matter how developmentally retarded a young man is, his Adam's apple should be very obvious.

That’s right, the person Solovyov met was the “Russian Mulan” Durova.

But it’s better this way. If Solovyov proposed marriage to his adopted sister, he would probably be rejected, which would be a joke.

Why do you say that?
When Durova was serving in the Hussars, there was a daughter of a regiment commander who had been trying to court her, but was always rejected by "Lieutenant Alexandrov", which made her very angry, and Durova had to change to another Hussar regiment.

Looking back at Adela, the more he looked at her, the more beautiful she became. Solovyov felt that his stepsister was so beautiful that she even outshine his own sister, Yulia.

If her brother stared at her for too long, she would blush and turn around to continue her work.

"If you like, Adela, you can go to the Bald Hills estate in Smolensk. Prince Bolkonsky, or rather the old prince, needs a helper in the housework. I asked you if you would like to go there for a while. Prince Andrew's wife, Liza, the princess who sent you the embroidery, has a son and needs someone to take care of him."

Thank God, Lisa managed to pull through, although she was very weak after giving birth. It was really not easy for her petite body, and recovery after giving birth was a long process.

As for the old Duke, he was always weird, but he was always more tolerant towards those who came from outside to help.

Adela is very smart, so nothing should happen to her. The old Duke will only make things difficult for silly girls, not smart people.

In this environment, Solovyov made some arrangements.

But at Adela's age, for a noble lady, she might be ready to get married, but as a maid, she still has to wait, even though she has a high status in the family.

Then, Solovyov would take the prepared materials to the Winter Palace to meet Louisa.

Nikolai's academic performance is indeed a concern for Solovyov. The subjects he teaches are all good, and he can also write good essays.

But he really had no talent in some subjects. Painting was okay. Even Ekaterina and Anna, who were unmarried, liked this subject and brought their two younger brothers' interests along.

However, if one does not learn the serious subjects well and cannot develop in an all-round way, in Solovyov's view, although it may not be said that he is unqualified as a reserve monarch, he will inevitably encounter difficulties when he has to take charge of his own affairs in the future.

Solovyov knew that Alexander had begun to doubt whether it was God's will that he had a group of lovely daughters but no heir. Therefore, he had recently become obsessed with his wife Louisa, the Polish girl, or his other mistresses.

Although there were rumors that he had an illegitimate child when he was still the Grand Duke and not the Crown Prince, Solovyov was quite clear about the rumors about the boy named Lukash and they did not look alike.

It seems that the throne in the future, no matter what the order, will most likely belong to Nicholas, so education must be more strict.

As for the Queen's bedroom, the girls were still sitting obediently on the sofa, watching their nervous uncle Nicholas biting his lips, while the other uncle Mikhail was very relaxed.

After all, the two people's homework is different. Although Mikhail's homework cannot be said to be excellent, it is at least a passing performance. "Your Highness, I think it's time to let..."

"Yes, I know what you mean, Colonel. Madam, please take the girls out. Misha, you can go out too. Of course, I don't mean you, Colonel."

Louisa was in a good mood today and even wanted to play a joke on Solovyov.

"There are indeed some problems. His Highness Nicholas's scores in some academic subjects are too low. Under such circumstances, if it were an ordinary family, it would be difficult for them to complete high school or apply for higher education. Therefore, I think we should strengthen our studies, pay attention to the courses that appear in class, and not have any practice of predicting questions. We must apply knowledge proficiently. Especially if you want to become an outstanding soldier, you must have a relatively good score in mathematics. It is not enough to just get a passing score."

Louisa's expression was calm, and Nicholas felt as if he had been pardoned after seeing it.

After all, his sister-in-law treated him the best. He was hugged by her many times when he was younger. Although it was far inferior to his mother's embrace, it made him feel safe.

In this family, the only one who has no ambition at all and still cares about her family is probably Louisa.

If there is some selfish motive, it is to maintain the marriage and leave some benefits for Baden.

Because of this, no matter how Czartoryski tried to seduce her, she refused to fall for it.

As for Solovyov? He didn't ask for a divorce and then elopement like Czartoryski did, which made the parties sound very embarrassed.

This young colonel, now Nicholas' tutor, did not say much. It was his appearance that successfully squeezed out Czartoryski's position in this regard, and it was kept very secret, which in turn maintained the image of the queen.

Of course, even if it was revealed that Louisa really had a lover, as long as she didn't give birth to a son, public opinion in St. Petersburg would still be very sympathetic towards her and nothing would happen.

As for Alexander, this guy knew that it was not easy to prevent thieves, and Louisa was more attractive to people.

When she first got married, Count Zubov was pursuing her there, and later Czartoryski, as well as those fanatical guards and the Tsar himself knew about a lot of love letters.

But Solovyov was never suspected. When he wrote to Louisa, he always talked about serious matters, or he would insert something in between the pile of words, which most people would not have the patience to read through.

Louisa kept all the real love poems or other cheesy little notes very well, and no outsiders knew where they were.

But what we want to talk about now is Nicholas' education.

Louisa is here and needs to express her opinion, without any emotional factors involved.

"Colonel, you should supervise Nicholas's studies, especially mathematics. Yes, history and Russian literature. Although you are not the teacher of Russian literature and some other subjects, you are from the Guards after all. You are different from other hired teachers and you need to pay more attention to them."

"In addition, His Royal Highness Nicholas excels in subjects such as French and German."

"But a Russian Grand Duke should be familiar with Russian. Nicholas, the Empress' grandmother came from a small German principality, and she studied Russian very hard."

Louisa doesn't like to brag about herself, but in fact her Russian is very standard, with no detectable accent and she's becoming more and more proficient.

But when Nicholas saw that his sister-in-law's expression became more serious, he felt a little embarrassed.

You know, my sister-in-law treats him very well, and even has a little preference for him.

It is indeed a bit unreasonable to let my sister-in-law, who has always been in poor health, worry about the course issues.

Fortunately, Louisa was here. If the Queen Mother knew about this, she would probably be beaten. Fortunately, she didn't intervene.

If Paul were still alive, he would also be embarrassed, after all, this family has very strict requirements for the prince.

"Then, we should strengthen this aspect. I am even thinking whether we can increase the number of noble children who can study with us."

"It's not necessary now. When the Imperial Village Middle School is built, there will be companions."

However, it is still somewhat difficult to establish a school now, as many parents of aristocratic children of school age still prefer to hire tutors.

On the contrary, there are many girls sent over from the girls' school.

After all, after they come out, some noble girls of not very high status also have the opportunity to become court maids.

Of course, it was rare for someone like little Katya to be qualified as a maid after returning. When she came in to serve snacks, Solovyov could still see the diamond brooch hanging on her chest, which meant that she was a maid beside the queen.

"Where's Natalia?"

"It's not her turn today, and I heard that a cavalry officer has been pursuing her. I don't know what the situation will be."

Solovyov felt a sense of crisis. The person Louisa was talking about was actually her historical lover, Alexi Okhotnikov.

He knew these Horse Guards officers too well, and to get closer to one target might be to get to the next, and it was somewhat risky.

If Okhotnikov targeted little Natalia, his target might be Louisa.

After all, it should be safer with a palace maid guarding the door, and the cavalry officer was not as good at secret infiltration and reconnaissance as Solovyov.

Although the necessary skills of cavalry actually include infiltration and reconnaissance.

However, the cavalry officers of the Guards often acted more recklessly than they planned carefully.

In this way, it can also be compared.

Solovyov has always been in Louisa's heart.

"It seems that another Natalia is about to get married, just like Shakhovskaya, who I consider a sister, she married well."

Although "little" Prince Golitsyn was short and had a slick tongue, he loved his wife very much and was afraid that someone outside would target her.
"I also hope Natasha can marry a good husband, for example..."

The family of shipbuilding tycoon Goncharov is actually more suitable.

Now that Nicholas was given a holiday, he suddenly felt free.

As for Solovyov, he could legitimately stay with Louisa, and if something happened to him, it would be logical and not likely to arouse suspicion.
(End of this chapter)