Chapter 23: February 9th, 1698

It was a beautiful day at Sayes Court in London. Despite a year passing, Feliks was better positioned now than ever, and life improved for him. He along with the others chosen a year ago, were made members of the Imperial Guard that were sworn to protect the Czar from any that might prove a danger to him.

Almost a month after joining the regiment, Feliks was trained in the manners and military protocol of the Preobrazhensky regiment. They all wore the same green-colored uniforms just like he did except for officers that typically wore green or red. Naturally, for the elite guard that protected the Czar, the requirement was to be tall, standing six feet in height, but this was not a problematic issue with Feliks’s capable shooting. He, like Bataar and the other men, was made the rank of Soldat. He was initially part of a ranking system that was almost completely abolished and merged with the new ranking system that was now established. Within nearly a year, he was on the verge of becoming a Kapral (Corporal), but his current assignment was delaying it.

For Feliks that was getting used to living the new life in the palace as a guard, this quickly changed in March of 1697 when Czar Peter wanted to modernize Russia whether they liked it or not. Russia was falling behind the technological gap that Europe was enjoying. Medicine, science, warfare, currency, administration, law, ships, and armies were drastically better than Russia had. For the Czar, this was unacceptable. He was a man raised with new ideals that he enjoyed while Russia was still trapped behind. To him, his goal was to do something about it. He wanted Russia to upgrade everything for the better. His love for the sea, seeking political alliances with other nations, improving and introducing ideas, expanding to the ocean, all of it was motivating him. That month, the Czar decided enough was enough and put forward a massive mission to go and talk to the nations of Europe, much to the shock of the Russian people themselves. It was the first time the Russian leader was leaving the country to engage in a diplomatic mission.

Feliks got the surprise of his life when after getting used to standing guard at the palace for long periods at attention, he overheard the mission being established to go to Europe. By this time period, he caved in and grew a small mustache that his body would allow. He along with seventy other guards, chamberlains, interpreters, and other walks of life, were chosen to go with Peter to Prussia (Essentially modern-day Germany and Poland). Czar Peter made his intentions clear that his goal was to do everything to gather as much information on potential friends, potential enemies, learn technology, improve his abilities as a shipbuilder, gather workers and officers from other lands to assist in modernizing the military, and that he would do it almost like an ordinary man. His job was to appear as an average person, even changing his name to Peter Mikhailov to disguise himself from the public as his “ambassadors” did the work. The fact he was a tall man only made people notice him, though.

The year was all in all a fun year for Feliks serving as part of the “Grand Embassy.” Guards were dressed lightly and comfortably, parties were familiar in Europe for the Czar so much that the general public viewed the Czar as a party animal that commonly wrecked the area with his men, while the population looked at the Grand Embassy with wonder. Czar Peter himself felt very happy with the people of Europe. He gained alliances with Prussia, learned shipbuilding from the Dutch that had some of the best shipyards in the known world, and was now in England to learn of any other sciences, mathematics, skills, and alliances that they had to offer.

Feliks enjoyed the parties and lavish treatment they were offered. His mission was still evident in that he had to protect the Czar, but compared to Russia, which was harsh in its winters with a population that did not entirely like him too much, he was respected well in England. His job was easy and comfortable. Even Bataar was brought with the Grand Embassy, although they barely had a chance to see each other. Bataar was often separated and guarding other men, so they rarely had an opportunity to talk to one another. Feliks wanted to get a chance to associate more with the ‘friendly giant’ as some referred to him, but the job made things difficult. They had different watches at different times, assigned to other areas, and assigned to guard separate people, making things very difficult. However, this was all to change in late January when the Grand Embassy arrived in England.

Upon arriving in England, Czar Peter and his Grand Embassy had made a home in the Sayes Court owned by the writer and poet John Evelyn. It was offered to the Grand Embassy to reside in by King William the third for Peter to live in during his stay in England. He enjoyed the location due to its close location to the dockyards. The estate was beautiful, with a manor large enough for him and most of his men. It was a two-story building with five windows in the front with a door in the center. The green fields that lined the surrounding area linked up to the nearby street. By the manor was the beautiful parterre (garden) that resided by the estate, filled with an orchard of fruit trees, walks and recesses, banquet gardens, and hedges.

Feliks, along with other men, including the Czar, was moving in items into the manor. The sunlight bore down on them, but the coolness of the air resided. It was, all in all, a very comfortable environment, better than the cold winter he had last year to go through in Moscow.

“Man, I can live in England forever,” Feliks commented to a soldier named Maksim as they carried in personal belongings, including a heavy bag.

“Me too,” Maksim commented. “Too bad everyone speaks English here and not Russian. My English is crap.”

“Mine too,” Feliks responded. “At least the people are as friendly as the Dutch were.”

They stepped inside the manor as they put the personal belongings down by the door, where another group of men picked them up to bring them inside. They proceeded back to the wagon again to get more items.

“I wonder how long we will be here?” Feliks asked.

“It’s up to the Czar. Honestly, I don’t miss home.”

They walked up to the wagon that had the Czar in it. Peter was busy talking to another man in the carriage that worked in the nearby dockyards. Feliks overheard the conversation as he picked up a bag from the back of the carriage.

“Excellent, most excellent,” Peter spoke to the other man in the carriage. “They said that they have a gift awaiting me in the dockyards. Anything is welcome. Tell your majesty that I accept whatever gift he offers most graciously.”

“I assure you that you will like it,” The other man in the wagon responded. “The king hopes to continue forging an alliance especially against his own enemies.”

“Trust me, I have no desire to ally with the French as long as the King denies the Turks any leeway. My fleet is still trapped at Azov, and I can’t get it anywhere. I need a deep water navy. Russia has no excuse to be tied up the way it is.”

Feliks picked up the belongings from the back of the carriage as he proceeded back into the manor. He walked alongside Maksim as they carried more bags with them. “The Czar has never been happier in Europe. I heard that one of our ‘ambassadors’ is coming here as well.”

“It is true. Lefort has finished up his talks with some of the dignitaries and is going to move in for a little while here.”

“That is good news. My friend Bataar guards him. I rarely ever get a chance to talk to him.”

“Your friend that is the size of our Czar?” Maksim asked. “I understand. He has been with Lefort wherever he goes. They might rotate him with other guards eventually so that way he is with the Czar and us more often if they are not going to do it today.”

“I rarely get a chance to sit down and talk to him, but it would be nice if we are working together more often.”

“You never know,” Maksim commented as they set aside the bags at the entrance for the other men to pick up. “Schedule does change, and before you know it, we’re all working together again. Nothing has been normal for us this whole year, but it also makes it quite fun too. Practically party every day and the women ... wow, they are beautiful. I thought our women were beautiful, but the English, if I were not married, I would be all over those women.”

They walked back at the carriage as Maksim whispered to him. “I also heard that our Czar is spending a lot of time with that singer Miss Cross. I wonder if he is having fun with her?”

Feliks smiled as he shook his head. “Do you know what the schedule is for today besides resting in the new home?”

They reached the carriage as they picked up some more bags to move in. Feliks could overhear the conversation in the carriage again.

“Franz Lefort is returning soon. He should be here anytime now,” the man the Czar was talking to told him. “I heard he is making headway with your schedule here for the next several months.”

“If there is nothing for me to do, I will be at your docks,” Peter told him. “I want those schematics. Those ships are solid in design. No wonder you British control the ocean so much. You have more ships than the population can wield it. Perhaps you should have Russians crew them? We have more people than what we know what to do with.”

There was laughter in the carriage. “And you will be the captain? Right?”

“Of course!” Peter’s voice responded. “Give me a ship any day. If our ports weren’t frozen over right now, I would sail back home.”

Feliks sighed as he and Maksim picked up the next set of bags as they walked back to the manor. “I swear I hear him tell every person that same story. Just keeps reminding me of home at times.”

“You got anybody waiting for you back in Moscow?”

Feliks always hated answering this question to anyone that asked him. “Yeah ... there is somebody I miss. I ... really miss her.”

“Are you a father?”

“Yeah, she is watching over our baby right now. It’s ... been too long.”

Feliks tried to shake off his thoughts as he continued to move the bags into the mansion.

An hour had passed by the time the men finished moving some of the last of the bags and items into the manor when another carriage had arrived. The Czar had moved into the mansion as there was a guard outside the estate. It was Feliks’s “watch” as he stood by the door to watch a new carriage arrive.

“That should be Lefort right now,” He commented. “Sire! Lefort has returned!”

There was a shuffle inside the manor as Feliks watched the door of the carriage open up. Two guards that were riding the forward section of the carriage got off as the guard in the carriage came out. It was Bataar as he looked around the manor. His eyes eventually befell Feliks as they both smiled at one another.

The door opened as the Czar walked out of the manor and onto the walkway leading to the street. He eventually reached Lefort as he got out of the carriage. Feliks could overhear the conversation as Peter and Lefort greeted each other. Bataar and the other men started grabbing bags and boxes as they carried them into the manor.

“Lefort! How was the Parliament?” Peter asked him, slapping his shoulder.

“Most excellent, Peter. We have a schedule we got set up for the next several months. The King is most excited to have you here. He kept telling me that he has a gift waiting for you that you will like.”

“I kept being told about this gift. Where is this gift I keep hearing about?”

Grand Admiral Franz Lefort was one of the closest circles of friends of Czar Peter. He was one of a set of foreigners that worked his way to respect the Russian court and worked with the Czar. Born in Geneva, Lefort worked in the French and Dutch armies before going to Russia. He participated in several battles, from the Crimean campaigns to the successful Azov campaigns where he was in charge of the Russian Navy. By the time of the Grand Embassy, he was placed in charge of it and served on diplomatic assignments talking to dignitaries. This often made him a part of the Czar’s travels and caused him to be away as well. This is why seeing Bataar climb out of the carriage after being separated for some time; put a smile on Feliks’s face when they saw each other.

“Your gift, as they keep telling me, is waiting at the docks near here,” Lefort replied to the Czar. He struggled to get out of the carriage.

“Careful, careful, my friend,” Peter held out an arm for the Lefort to get out of the carriage. Lefort put his foot on the stone below as they began to walk to the manor.

“Ugh ... I am feeling that age kicking in again. I am feeling those carriage rides every time I travel.”

Peter wrapped his arm around his shoulder as he walked with him to the manor. “Nonsense, my friend. You still have twenty years left on you. Russia needs you more than ever.”

“Well, the good news is that I will be here for a little while. The schedule looks pretty good. We should be able to get a full tour of everything that the British possess in the next several months.”

They stopped walking to the door as they spoke to one another. Feliks stood there as the two men talked to one another.

“I need mathematicians, Lefort. The Dutch shipbuilders were excellent, but they don’t have the skills to pass on to each other. Everything they did was by instinct. Instinct is not the perfect way of passing it on to others. I want our men to know how to build a ship. I want them to know how big a keel needs to be before they put the framework down.”

“Then you might be excited with the people that I am trying to get you to meet. I have been trying to arrange a meeting with you and some of the best mathematicians and astronomers they have here. Christopher Wren, Issac Newton...”

Peter’s eyes lit up as he had a surprised look on his face. He got very excited. “Issac Newton! The man who wrote Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy!? I read his books. I want to talk to him. I must talk to him!”

“You will, Peter. I already have things arranged to go see the Royal Mint in the following months. He is head of there right now.”

Peter was excited to hear the news. “Come, let’s head inside. You must be tired. We have a nice place to settle and relax.”

They both walked past Feliks as he watched them step inside the manor. He was used to seeing the Czar so happy. To him, seeing the leader in such a happy mood was rewarding to see at most. His attention fell back to Bataar and the other guards as they walked past him. Bataar could easily carry the bags and heavy boxes with personal belongings with ease as he carried them into the manor.

Bataar nodded his head as he walked past him. Another guard, his relief, came up behind him and tapped his shoulder. “Bambuk, I am relieving you. Go and help out and bring those bags in.”

Feliks looked at the man. “Thank you, will do.” He proceeded to the carriage as he went to grab some more bags. There was not much in the carriage as Bataar already got most of it.

“That man, I swear,” he said to himself. “Bataar is a one-man wrecking crew. Those boxes he carried must have required three men to carry them. Oh well ... I will get a chance to talk to him after all this. Good to see an old familiar face again.”

It was an hour later when everything was moved inside, and everything was unpacked. The men earned a good break. Everyone had a chance to go to different places in the manor to relax, rest, or enjoy themselves. It was later mid-afternoon. The sun was still out. Maksim was playing a Gusli instrument that he brought with him to the Grand Embassy. The Gusli was one of the oldest instruments used in Russia, with his having twelve strings on a wooden board that could be plucked. Its flat shape made it easy to carry and travel, making Maksim a regular musician for the other men. Another soldier brought another instrument called a Volynka (Slavic Bagpipe), but nobody was playing it yet. The sound of Maksim’s playing reverberated throughout the property as the men sat on the porch listening to his playing. A fellow soldier joined by gathering wooden spoons and banged them together to add to the beat.

Feliks sat a distance away on one of the benches listening to the music as he enjoyed the scenery of the vast garden on the property. Only the palace could even rival the looks of the place, but the wonderful thing was he didn’t have to be on watch while enjoying the scenery. It was something he knew was going to last for a limited time for him. Once he returned to Russia, it would be a harsh environment again for him.

Feliks’s concentration was distracted by a pat on his shoulder by someone else. “There you are!” a soft voice came to him as he looked up. He noticed that it was Bataar.

“Bataar, it is good to see you again. Finally, finally not being held down by watches, work, or being separated. Finally, get a chance to talk to you again. How is everything?”

Bataar, with an excited look, went and had a seat on a nearby bench next to Feliks by a patch of growing flowers by the garden. Both of them were dressed in black attire but not wearing any headdresses.

“Glad to be finally back with the main group now instead of wandering around with the ambassador. It feels like we never have the chance to talk to one another. How long was it since we spoke to one another?”

“Two weeks ago, and that was for a minute,” Feliks commented. “I remember the last time being like that too before that. When are you and the ambassador departing again?”

“Actually, I am no longer going to be with the ambassador this time. Someone else is taking the responsibility this time. I will be you, the Czar, and the men here for at least the next several months assuming there are no directed changes.”