Sebastian

“I finally had to admit that there could be no cure for Paris.”
― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife

“Many years later he insisted, ‘They knew it was the end when I was with them’; that evening, though the words remained resolutely unspoken, everyone had a clear sense of what might lie ahead.”
― Helen Rappaport, The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra

“had royal brides ever had freedom of choice?”
― Helen Rappaport, The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra

“So anxious was the tsar to keep the Balkan states faithful to Russia, it was asserted, that he intended ‘to utilize his four daughters, who are not to marry four Russian Grand Dukes, nor even four unorthodox Princes of Europe’. No, the four grand duchesses of Russia, so the rumour went, were to become ‘Queens of the Balkans’, with Olga a bride for Prince George of Serbia; Tatiana for Prince George of Greece; Maria for Prince Carol of Romania and Anastasia set for Prince Boris of Bulgaria – although other press reports had gone so far as to claim that Boris was in fact about to be betrothed to Olga.29”
― Helen Rappaport, The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra