Chapter One ~ 1878-1
2002 Words
Chapter One ~ 1878Lady Aletha Ling ran into the house, across the hall and into the breakfast room.
She knew that she was late, but it had been such a wonderful morning to be out riding in glorious fresh country air.
She had therefore ridden for longer than she had intended. As she entered the room, her father, the Duke of Buclington, looked up and she said quickly,
“I am so sorry to be late, Papa. Do please forgive me, but it was so lovely in the sunshine that I forgot all about the time.”
Her father smiled and Aletha saw with relief that he was not annoyed with her.
In fact he looked very pleased and she wondered what would be the reason.
She helped herself from the side table where stood a row of silver entrée dishes.
They contained fish, sausages, kidneys, eggs and fresh garden mushrooms.
Then, as she sat down at the table, her father enthused,
“I have received some very good news!”
“Good news, Papa? From whom?”
“As it happens from the Empress of Austria!”
Aletha put down her fork and exclaimed,
“Do you mean she has accepted your invitation?”
“She has,” the Duke said with satisfaction. “Her Majesty is coming here to stay with us for a week before she goes to Cottesbrook Park in Northamptonshire.”
Aletha gave another exclamation before she asked her father,
“So she is going to hunt with the Pytchley?”
“She is indeed,” the Duke said, “and undoubtedly Earl Spencer will be delighted.”
Aletha was remembering that three years ago the Empress Elizabeth had rented Easton Neston House at Towcester.
She had wanted to hunt with the famous Bicester and the Duke of Grafton’s hounds.
To say that she had caused a great sensation in England was to put it mildly.
The English had not believed for a moment the stories of her horsemanship, thinking that anyone as beautiful as the Empress would only be a ‘Park rider’.
In fact it was whispered that the two picked horsemen, Colonel Hunt and Captain Bay Middleton, who were instructed to give the Empress Elizabeth a lead, were not at all pleased about the assignment.
“What is an Empress to me?” Captain Middleton had asked the Duke. “I will do it, but I would far rather be on my own.”
He took back his words the moment he met the Empress.
Himself one of the best riders in England, he recognised her brilliance on a horse besides her incomparable beauty as a woman.
He had fallen deeply in love.
Young though she was at the time, Aletha had the idea that her father as well had lost his heart to the irresistible Empress.
The Duke of Buclington too was an outstanding rider and after the Empress had returned to Austria she had invited him to stay with her.
He had returned admiring her even more than he had done when she was in England.
Aletha guessed that he had been very anxious that his invitation to Ling Park should be accepted.
The tension of waiting had certainly made him somewhat disagreeable during these last few weeks.
But now at last the reply had arrived.
“I am so glad for you, Papa,” Aletha said, “and it will be very exciting for me to meet the Empress Elizabeth.”
Two years ago she had only been sixteen years old, so she had therefore not been asked to any of the parties that were given for the Empress.
Nor had she been able to go out hunting with her father.
She had in fact been at school the whole time that the Empress was in England.
When Aletha returned to Ling Park for Christmas everyone, including the Duke, was still talking about her.
She could readily understand that the Empress had become his ideal woman.
He had been very lonely and distressed after her mother had died.
And Aletha suspected that there were quite a number of women only too willing to try to make him happy.
But he had busied himself with his estates, his horses and, of course, his lovely daughter.
There was no doubt that the Duke loved Aletha and he hated being parted from her and he had sent her to a Finishing School simply because it was the right social thing to do.
Only now, when she was about to make her debut this Season, was she able to be with him day after day as they both wanted so much.
The Duke had raised his own pack of hounds over the years and he was very proud of their superior breeding.
Aletha, as she ate her breakfast, guessed that he was thinking of what would be the best days’ hunting that they would be able to give their distinguished guest.
Then suddenly the Duke put down the letter that he had been holding in his hand and said,
“I know what I must do. I just cannot imagine why I did not think of it before.”
“What is that, Papa?” Aletha asked him with curiosity in her voice.
“When she stayed at Easton Neston House, the Empress brought her entire stable from Hungary with her.”
“I had no idea of that, Papa.”
“We want more horses, of course, we want more horses,” the Duke said, “and I will buy them in Hungary.”
Aletha’s eyes lit up.
“That is what I have always wanted you to have, Papa,” she cried. “Besides the Empress loves Hungary more than any place in the world and the horses she rides come from there.”
“She may ride them,” the Duke pointed out, “but we are going to hunt them and I am determined to have the very best there are.”
“But, of course, Papa” Aletha nodded.
She knew that her father’s stables were already full of superb horses and his racing stable was outstanding and envied by everyone in the County.
Equally there was always room for more. She herself had always longed to ride the fiery, swift Hungarian horses that had captured the imagination of the whole of Europe.
“If you are going to Hungary, then of course, Papa, you must take me with you,” Aletha urged him.
The Duke sighed.
“I wish I could do that, but you know that I have to leave next week for Denmark.”
Aletha gave a cry.
“I had forgotten. Oh, Papa, must you really go?”
“How can I refuse?” the Duke asked. “I am to represent Her Majesty Queen Victoria and she was talking to me about it only two days ago.”
“It would be much more fun for you and me to go to Hungary,” Aletha asserted.
“I agree with you,” her father replied. “But it is impossible, so Heywood will have to go for me.”
James Heywood was the Duke’s Estate Manager.
But in a rather different relationship than was usual for men in that position.
To begin with he was a gentleman and secondly he had been outstandingly brilliant as an amateur rider and won a great number of races on his own thoroughbreds.
Unfortunately he had lost almost all his money through unsuccessful speculation.
He was therefore forced to work for his living rather than just enjoying himself by riding and breeding horses.
It was the Duke’s father who had realised Mr. Heywood’s capabilities and potential and had employed him nearly twenty years ago.
James Heywood was getting on to be an elderly man, but his eye for a good horse was still as keen and experienced as it had ever been.
The Duke, who was always extremely busy, had trusted him to buy most of the horses he possessed.
“Yes, Heywood must certainly go,” he said as if thinking it all out aloud. “We shall want eight or ten outstanding horses besides those we already possess.”
“I suppose we shall have sufficient time to train them to the English countryside, Aletha questioned, “and to acclimatise them by the autumn?”
Her father smiled.
“Shall I say we will do our damnedest? So I shall look forward to the Empress’s delight when she sees what we have provided for her on her visit to Ling Park.”
There was a distinct look in her father’s eyes when he spoke of the Empress that Aletha recognised.
She wished now, as she had wished so often before, that he could find somebody to take the place of her mother.
She knew that she personally would feel jealous because she wanted him to herself, but she longed for her father to be happy.
The Duke was still a very handsome and attractive man.
He had married when young and his son, who was now twenty-three, had been born the following year. And because his wife was not very strong there was a gap of five years before Aletha arrived.
The Duke had not yet reached his fiftieth birthday and, as he was extremely athletic, he had the figure of a young man, even though there were just a few grey hairs showing at his temples.
‘It will be lovely for Papa to have the Empress here,’ Aletha told herself unselfishly.
However she could not help thinking it very sad that she and her father could not go to Hungary together.
It would certainly have been an adventure and one that she would have greatly enjoyed.
She understood, however, that he could not refuse to do what the Queen required of him.
After that the London Season would be in full swing with parties and balls every night and there would be a thousand Society events that the Duke would be involved with.
Also as a debutante she was to have a ball given for her in London and be presented at Buckingham Palace to the Queen.
“I must get in touch with Heywood at once,” the Duke was saying. “Is he here or is he at Newmarket?”
Aletha thought for a few moments.
“I am almost sure that he is here, Papa. I saw him two days ago and I know that he is going to Newmarket next week.”
“Then I will send for him and send for him immediately,” the Duke said. “What are we waiting for?”
He rang the gold bell that stood on the table beside his elbow.
The door opened.
As was traditional, the servants were not in the room during breakfast.
Bellew the butler appeared almost instantly and the Duke ordered,
“Send a groom as quickly as you can for Mr. Heywood,”
“Very good, Your Grace.”
He responded to the urgency in the Duke’s voice by moving from the room more quickly than he usually did.
As he left, the Duke asked Aletha,
“I am just wondering if we should have the Queen’s Suite redecorated?”
“I think it is quite unnecessary, Papa,” she replied. “You had it done two years ago for Princess Alexandra and also the rooms occupied by the Prince of Wales. They have hardly been used since then.”
“I suppose not,” the Duke agreed, “and then we both know that all the Empress will be interested in is our stables.”
He spoke complacently and they were both well aware that the stables at Ling Park were superlative and so the envy of every other landowner nearby.
“This will certainly delight our huntsmen,” the Duke carried on. “They have been rather downcast recently by being overshadowed by the Bicester and they will surely be piqued that this year the Empress has chosen the Pytchley.”
“That will give them an excellent reason for polishing themselves up,” Aletha said, “and I will need a new riding habit.”
“I suppose from Busvine, the most expensive tailor in London,” the Duke smiled.
“Of course and you, Papa, will need some new boots from Maxwell.”
“I hate new boots!” the Duke complained. “My old ones are very comfortable.”
“They are not smart enough,” Aletha insisted.
She then rose from the table as she spoke and kissed her father’s cheek.
“I am so glad for your sake, Papa, that the Empress is coming. I know it will make you happy and all the smart gentlemen in London who give themselves airs and graces will be green with envy!”
The Duke laughed.
“You flatter me. You know just as well as I do, my dearest, that the Empress Elizabeth is coming for the horses and not for me.”
“Now you are being mock-modest, Papa,” Aletha teased, “and it is well known that the Empress loves handsome men. A little bird told me that when you were in Vienna she danced with you every night and many more times than she danced with anyone else.”
“I cannot imagine where you get all this nonsensical gossip from!” the Duke complained.
- Writer
