She would order two of her aides-de-camp to accompany her so that she could race her latest acquisition, a black stallion she had named Satan, against them.
Satan was justly named because he was ferocious with what the grooms described as a fiendish temper and he had already injured three stable boys who attempted to saddle him.
To Ileana he was a challenge and a delight and if she dreamed of anybody in her huge blue velvet bed with its carved headboard and canopy supported by golden angels, it was of Satan.
The Palace of Zokāla was one of the most romantic in the whole world.
Ileana’s grandmother, having fallen passionately in love with her husband after a marriage which had been arranged simply because it was politically suitable, had determined to create a background to match the ro
