Rachel's safe, predictable existence is shaken up by an invitation to conduct a psychological autopsy on a colleague, Alix Price.
So far, I've found the courtship of Nicholas and Alix was a bit strange!
The first line of its counts, supposed to be descended from the dukes of Normandy, had as heiress Alix (died 1227), who married Raoul (Ralph) de Lusignan, known as the Sire d'Issoudun from his lordship of that name.
Enguerrand IV., sire de Coucy, died in 1320 without issue and was succeeded by his nephew Enguerrand, son of Arnold, count of Guines, and Alix de Coucy, from whom is descended the second line of the house of Coucy.
By the death of his father on the 1st of November 1894 he became emperor, and on the 26th of that month he married Princess Alix of Hesse (a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria), to whom he had been betrothed in the presence of his father during the latter's last illness.