Anthea, ready to stir up some trouble?<br/><br/>We all get to play along on this one!<br/><br/>After thinking it over, I think Olga should barge in on the modest mouse in her bath. It'll be very in character and funny.<br/><br/>Now, let's get down to the real devilry. I'm giving Olga a mission to destroy two women: Ingrid and Angelique. This will help her in her goal of making Alexei's life miserable.<br/><br/>With Ingrid, she uses Alexei's already established reputation as a womanizer (I refuse to pronounce it like Britney Spears) to shake Ingrid's confidence and play on the girl's one weak point - her lack of experience and confidence around men. That weakness should be pretty easy for Olga to tell right off the bat - the girl's a virgin princess sent from her home to a strange land to marry a man she must have heard is a voracious beast in bed. So, by playing to Ingrid's fears already in place, she is helping to set the stage for Ingrid and Alexei's estrangement...which will undoubtedly make her brother miserable to be married to a cold, distant woman.<br/><br/>With Angelique, the story is a bit different. Olga convinces Angelique (who hasn't been warned about Olga like Ingrid has) that Alexei is stuck in a loveless marriage and needs love and consolation in *every* way from Angelique...that perhaps if things get bad enough and Ingrid doesn't produce an heir (and who could produce an heir when there's no sex happening, LOL), she would be sent away, and Angelique could become the wife of Alexei.<br/><br/>Thus, Olga is driving everyone into a nice little catch-22. The more Ingrid sees Alexei with Angelique, the colder she'll be, and the colder she is, the more Alexei turns to Angelique who in turn welcomes him warmly and her own set of growing hopes...<br/><br/>See what fun we can have? Some of this will depend on our ability to let our characters stay in character and not "somehow know" that Olga is being insincere...especially if Olga is being sweet as pie. Alexei, of course, knows all about her, but if the girls don't spill the beans, there's no way for him to know that Olga directly planted those suggestions...<br/><br/>*rubs hands together evilly and cackles, then looks around, embarrassed*