AUTHOR’S NOTE
When I visited Budapest at Easter in 1987, I found that it was one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
At the same time everything was very different from when the Empress Elisabeth of Austria found it the joy and delight of her heart.
During the Revolution, as is always inevitable, much of the inside of The Royal Palace had been gutted, but it has now become a Museum.
The Karolyi Palace was pulled down in 1933 and a great number of the older houses have been lost.
Although there appears to be no poverty, I was aware of the constrictions that being behind the Iron Curtain imposes on the Hungarians, who have always loved to be free.
As I was driving along beside the Danube with exquisitely beautiful views on each side of the road, I asked,
“‘Where are the horses? It seems extraordinary to come to Hungary and not see horses!”
“You are now in the Holiday Area,” I was then informed, “and you have just left the City, which is the Business Area. The next area is Agricultural and after that, a long way away, you will be able to see some of our superb horses.”
I can imagine that nothing could be more frustrating to a Hungarian when horses have always been as much a part of his life and his family.
When I left Hungary, my passport was inspected three times at the Airport by soldiers wearing large pistols at their belts.
I can only assume that they were ensuring that I was not a Hungarian trying to escape!
Chapter One ~ 1878
Lady 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