Journal Entry Two

27. Februar 2020

I had been hoping to add more journal entries over the past couple of weeks, but the assassination attempt on King Jonas has left me physically and mentally drained. As each day ended, I had no desire to do anything but to close my eyes and sleep.

Right now, I am sitting on a handmade wooden chair, watching my country’s flag ripple in the rain-driven wind. It is just off the front porch of the royal’s cottage. My view, although distorted by raindrops running down my small bedroom window, is picture-perfect. The cottage faces one of our country’s largest lakes, which is currently surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

The weather has warmed, melting most of the snow on the ground level. I am exhausted from the constant barrage of news media and tabloid headlines related to the assassination attempt. If only they knew all the facts behind the event, but unfortunately, that would compromise the continuing investigation.

The royal family’s holiday will continue until this coming Sunday when we return to Eberbach. Next week I will be busy helping to coordinate Jonas’s official state visit to Russia. While in Russia, the king will head just east of the Ural Mountains to Yekaterinburg to lay a wreath at the Church on the Blood. Although I previously visited Russia with the king, this will be my first-time visiting Yekaterinburg. It is surreal just thinking about being at the same site where the Ipatiev House once stood. I wonder what will be going on in Jonas’s mind when he visits Yekaterinburg. What will he be feeling? What emotions will pour over him, knowing this is the same location as where his distant relatives, the Romanovs, were brutally executed in July of 1918?

I do wish that the Ipatiev House had not been destroyed in 1977 by the Soviets. Building a church where the Ipatiev House once stood, I believe, is an honorable tribute to Tsar Nicholas II and his family.

This afternoon, Queen Claudia and the four children are scheduled to go into town to see a film. However, since a new virus known as COVID-19 is making its way throughout Europe, I question if this would be within the family’s best interest. Should the weather break, Jonas and I will head out on a hike. It would be nice to go alone as we always had in the past, but not at this time. His security team is on high alert, meaning we will have an entourage of armed men accompanying us on the trail.

I wish my wife and children were here with me. They so love to spend holiday time with the Dietrich family, but the king’s security team now occupies the cabin where my family and I would have stayed.

I must end this entry now as I need to brief Jonas on today’s information related to the assassination attempt. I have a feeling he is not going to like what I have to say.