They had gone to a riding school that was somewhere in Belgravia and found half-a-dozen of her father’s friends there. They were all gentlemen who made a fuss of her and told her she was a pretty child.
They had sat in the balcony and watched a woman who, with the grace of a Queen, was breaking in a wild horse with severity and yet with an expertise that Alita had known was remarkable.
Many years later she had seen her mother’s frown when her father mentioned the name Skittles and she had learnt that the woman she had watched had been Catherine Walters, not only the most notable woman-rider in the country but also the most notorious courtesan.
Ladies either pretended never to have heard of her or shuddered when her name was mentioned, but she was the only woman in England to jump the ei
