from Russia with love

Dmitri Brassov was the only son of a Wealthy industrialist family, he was born in 1875 in Ekaterinburg (Yekaterinburg).

He was well educated and his family were very wealthy having a large house on the edge of the city, with stunning views to the Ural mountains.They also had a Dacha in the forests about 20 miles away.

Dmitri loved his parents and like any wealthy family or landowners, they had serfs and servants.Unlike many of their kind, the Brassov s were extremely kind andgenerous to their serfs and workers and servants!

Dmitri loved his parents as their only child, a younger sister had sadly perished soon after birth,nearly at the risk of his mothers life.

Luckily Mrs Brassov had recovered, but unfortunately future pregnancies were forbidden as the risk was too great.She therefore considered herself very lucky to have Dmitri, who 17 years old was growing into a very good looking lad.

Mrs Brassov had connections with the Tsars family notablythe Grand Duke Vladimir, by a somewhat distant relative, who at one time had been a mistress to the Grand Dukes brother, Paul Alexandrovich, and therefore was still a great friend of his.

It was a long time since she last heard from this relative, so it came as a surprise to receive a letter from her.

The contents surprised her even more!!

The servant Katya brought in the letter on a silver tray and after seeing the seal asked Katyato retrieve the paper knife off her husband, who always had a great deal of correspondence to deal with.

Mrs Brassov was handed the paper knife, much to her husbands chuntering,She deftly opened it and started to read, adjusting the gold and enamelpince-nez, a present from he husband from the renowned Faberge shop. on one of his visits to St Petersburg on business.She fell totally silent as she read, causing her husband, to pause from his letters and watch her intent and changing expression.

"Well?" he said, "What is so exciting about your letter?"

"Oh my Goodness of all the Saints!" she said crossing herself several times, in the Russian Orthodox way."Well?"said her husband impatiently,beginning to loose patience as she hummed and ah d!

"Sorry Damian", she said after an age,"It was such a surprise after so long!""Well what did it say!!!"

"It was from Countess Arabievskaya,the Vladimir s! want Dmitri to be a companion to their youngest son Andrei, as he is a very quiet solitary boy and rather overshined by his elder brothers, Cyril and Boris!So they think a friend for him may bring him out and more confident".

Well we shall have to think it out, and see whether Dmitri wants to travel and live there for a while.

It says he will live in the Vladimir palace on the Neva, but a lot of the time the boys spend at the Palace in the grounds of the Alexander palace.

(Just to give you a insight intosome of the characters,the Vladimir s were after the Imperial family, one of the richest and most influential of the time,they had tremendous wealth as the Grand Duke was the son of Tsar Alexander the second,he had married in 1874 a Duchess of Mecklenburg, who became known as Marie Pavlovna the elder as there were two, to save confusion she was affectionately known as "Miechen"

She had amassed a collection of jewellery to rival the the Imperial collection, sporting the largest emerald that had belonged to Catherine the great!.

She also had numerous other famous stones.Rubies and sapphires of great size and price.After the marriage of Nicky, to his German born wife, later to become Tsar and Tsarina,Alex the Tsarinas cold manner and her dislike of ritual,resulted in Miechenturning into the major Hostess in St Petersburg.)

Therefore Damian and Irena, Dmitri s parents,considered it a great honour for him to be chosen as companion to Andrei.

They asked Dmitri what he thought that evening, explaining it was a suggestion and needed him to consent.

Hejumped at the chance of being a companion to Andrei as there were not many of his age andinterests near them.

It was decided that his mother would accompany him to the Vladimir s in a fortnights time.

On the train journey, his mother explained more about the family he was to meet with.She explained about the marriage and they had three sons and a daughter,should have been five but like their own family one had died soon after birth.Because of their closeness to the Romanov family, the children were all Grand Dukes or Duchesses. The journey seemed long to his mother, but Dmitri was loving it, as he had not travelled far beyond Ekaterinburg!

They arrived at the station in St Petersburg, to be greeted by two coachmen who took their cases and led the way to their coach.

The journey took them all the way to the Vladimir palace, which like several of the Imperial palaces fronted the River Neva.

the Hermitage and several others such as the Yusssopov s were close by.

Irena gasped when she saw the size of the palace, and the Coachman ledthe way through doors and into and up the Grand staircase, to where Marie was waiting to greet them.

She took Irena totally by surprise as she threw her arms around her and kissed in the Russian tradition on both cheeks.

She hugged Dmitri much to his surprise and bade them both sit on the gilt and white French rococo settee.

After the formalities were completed she took Irena to her suite, while a maid took Dmitri along enormous richly decorated corridor, to meet his charge.

The made opened the door and showed him into the room where a lad a bit younger than himself sat on a chair by the window.

The maid bowed and left, leaving Dmitri feeling very awkward,

he surveyed his "charge",who smiled at Dmitri.

Taking the bull by the horns, Dmitri strode across to the lad and shook his hand and said

"So you must be Andrei, I take it!".

The lad nodded,

"I am Dmitri Brassov and I believe we are going to be friends!"mustering up his total courage, at a lad who was richer, more regal and lived in fantastic surroundings far superior to his own.

"I hope so!" said the lad, "I do hope so!".The way he said this made Dmitri instantly like the lad, there was no pomposityor looking down at Dmitri.

If anything the lad looked sad and solitary.

"Now then" said Dmitri again taking the lead." What do you like to do?, and more important what is there to do here?".

Dmitri had noticed that apart from an inner courtyard with palms etc, the palace was right in the centre of the city, with no where to ride or gallop,or take a pleasant walk on the estate.

Andrei answered,"I have only come here to meet you, normally we stay at our house in the grounds of the Alexander Palace! That smuch nicer, there are walks and beautiful gardens and a park to ride in!""Sounds wonderful", Dmitri said, trying to sound encouraging.

"When your mama returns to Ekaterinburg, we will go there,I love it there!".

Dmitri studied Andrei s features, he must be nearly 17 but with his soft skin and rather feminine features, he had very little facial hair,he looked a lot younger.

But Dmitri found he had taken an instant liking to him.

They all ate together in a small saloon and after their meal, Andrei whispered to Dmitri,"Do you play Chess?"

Dmitri nodded and they took their leave of the assembled group.he followed Andrei up some stairs to his bedroom,and entering Dmitri couldn t help but gasp at the sumptuous bedroom.

there were to large beds at the end of the room, one of which had Dmitri s boxes and cases on an adjacent table.

Once the two of them were alone, his charge seemed to relax and was chattering all the time about Dmitri s family, his house,what was Ekaterinburg like.Andrei certainly dispelled Dmitri s first impression,he was definitely seeing a different side to Andrei.

"Now then as its getting late, I usually use a game to get to bed".

"I play it with Sasha. my manservant,every time you loose a main chess piece, you have to take off an item of your clothing and same for me"!

" Not the pawns!, just the main pieces, makes it more fun, are you game Dmitri?"

"the loser has to put out the lights naked!"

"What does Sasha do if hew loses?" asked Dmitri."He has to hold a table napkin over his man parts and make his way back to his quarters,he s 65!" said Andrei laughing and even Dmitri laughed, visualizing Sasha with just a napkin over his vitals, making his way back.

"Luckily there are only the manservants in this side of the house, because he has been caught once or twice"."He s a good sport, been with the family for years, interesting guy knows all the history and the intrigue of the family."

The two of them started their game, and as it turned out both well matched so getting toward the end they were both down to their underdrawers,and laughing all the time.

Dmitri could not help looking at Andrei, with just the fine linen of his underwear covering him.He had, despite being tall and thin,an attractive body, and Dmitri could see the outline of a very impressive man part.He felt his own part twitch as Andrei jumped off the bed and his swung and bounced as he played his move.

It finished then with Dmitri checkmated so he got naked and had to turn out the lights.The moonlight flooded through the window and as he extinguished the final light, he caught sight of Andrei naked by the window,silhouetted in the moonlight.

Dmitri scockreacted at the sight of this slender lad stood by the window.

"Come here and look at the moon on the Neva, I love it like this", said Andrei and the two of them both naked stood and looked at the moons reflection on the River!Dmitri looked at his new charge and saw they both had semi erections.(To Be continued)