This post was inspired by today's 5-minute writing prompt in the Freewriters Community - 19 february 2025, @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2652: a date
Enjoy !
Image by JamesDeMers from Pixabay
"Come, Prince Alexandr, your carriage is ready. You mustn't be late ! Do you have your letter of introduction ?"
"Yes, Ivan. We should be able to get to Berlin by St Valentine's Day. It's the last day of January, so two weeks should be plenty. Now drive !"
Prince Alexandr was resplendent in his uniform, the blue and red of a captain of the Leib Cuirassier Regiment trimmed with gold. But for this journey he was travelling in a carriage, as befitted the occasion. In his hand he held the letter of introduction to Mademoiselle Catherine D'Armagnac, a reputed and eligible beauty from a very high station French noble family.
Their parents had arranged this date; a romantic meeting on St Valentine's Day, set in Berlin as it was halfway between Paris and St Petersburg.
For two weeks, they drove hard across the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, being forced to regularly stop and show their passports.
Finally, on exactly the fourteenth day, they pulled in to Berlin. They arrived at the appointed place, and Prince Alexandr dashed into the palace to meet the beautiful lady all his hopes rested on.
The place was empty.
Finally, an old servant tottered into view. "Can I help you ?"
Prince Alexandr grabbed the man by the lapels. "My good man, what is going on ? I was expecting Mademoiselle Catherine and her entourage to be here. Where is she ?"
The old man shook his head. "Sir, she waited and waited, and left in disgust eight days ago."
"What ! But she knew we were to meet on St Valentine's Day !"
"Yes sir, that was eleven days ago. Today is the twenty fifth of February."
Prince Alexandr stared in confusion.
"It's the fourteenth !"
"No Sir, only in Russia is it the fourteenth. We haven't used your Julian calendar here in Prussia, or for that matter in France, in over a century and a half."
Things I had to look up for this post;
- When each European country switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
- What St Valentine's Day 1750 was equivalent to in the Julian Calendar.
- When the Russian Leib Cuirassier Regiment converted from dragoons to cuirassiers, and what their uniform was in 1750.
- How long it would take a horse-drawn carriage to make the journey from St Petersburg to Belin.
- Did the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth still stand between Russia and Prussia in 1750 ?
Yes, I like even my fiction to be well-researched 😁
Prince Alexandr and Mademoiselle Catherine are, of course, utterly fictitious. 🙂