Rivals for Love Read Online Free PDF

know, the Empress Catherine fell in love with Potemkin, a strange, stormy, unpredictable man, who also fell deeply in love with her.”
    â€œI do recall the story – ”
    â€œMost Russians believe that the Empress secretly married Potemkin in 1774,” she continued. “There is no doubt that she very often refers to him in private as ‘my beloved husband’, and alludes to herself as his wife.”
    â€œDo you think it is true, Violet?”
    She shrugged her shoulders.
    â€œIt does not matter one way or the other. What is important is that although the Empress showered riches on Potemkin and persuaded the Austrian Emperor to make him a new Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, he quickly became restless in his captivity.”
    â€œI have heard that tale,” murmured the Duke.
    â€œAfter two years of life in the Winter Palace he developed a craving to travel.”
    The Duke gave a laugh.
    â€œThat I can understand.”
    â€œOf course you can,” agreed Lady Violet. “But Potemkin is a General, and he went to Novgorod and later on to the Turkish wars.”
    The Duke nodded slowly thinking he knew all this anyway, but he was wondering just how it could concern himself.
    â€œBefore Potemkin departed,” went on Lady Violet, “he provided a lover for the Empress. This started a long chain of lovers, which won the Empress the title of, ‘ the Messalina of the North ’.”
    â€œThat was indeed such a long time ago,” mused the Duke. “Surely she is too old now?”
    â€œActually not,” came back Lady Violet. “No one knows how many young men she has slept with. The most handsome and the tallest soldiers have always been picked as guards to her apartments.”
    She was silent for a moment before resuming,
    â€œNone of the official lovers last for more than two years. They are all in their twenties and when they are dismissed they leave the Palace with a fortune.”
    â€œCan that really be true?” wondered the Duke.
    â€œSir James Harris, when he was Ambassador in St. Petersburg, estimated, Edward told me, that the Empress had spent a total of two hundred and fifty million roubles, the equivalent of five million pounds, on her lovers.”
    â€œFrom what I hear they deserved it and more,” the Duke chortled somewhat cynically.
    â€œI do agree with you, Varin, but at the same time, while she has grown older and has lost a great deal of her attractions, she still finds it impossible not to desire every tall, dark, attractive man she sets eyes upon.”
    She was quiet for a moment.
    Then the Duke enquired quizzically,
    â€œAre you really saying that although the Empress must now be at least sixty, she might still make advances to me ?”
    â€œLooking as you do, I am perfectly certain that she will make a great fuss of you and it will be very difficult for you not to agree to everything she asks.”
    â€œYou astound me, dear Violet. In fact I still find it hard to believe that any woman – ”
    â€œThe Empress is not just any ordinary woman,” interrupted Lady Violet. “She is a Dictator and a Leader in every possible way. She gets her own way and not even Potemkin, much as she adores him, could ever control her in any way.”
    As she spoke, Lady Violet was recalling the past.
    At sixty years of age the Empress Catherine was very different from when she had first seen her. She did not want to tell the Duke that the Empress had become immensely stout and that her long black luxuriant hair, of which she had been so proud, was now completely grey.
    She had also taken to using an enormous array of skin lotions and cosmetics. She sent to Paris for them and to every other Capital City in Europe. But nothing could conceal the crow’s feet, the lines and the old age spots on her neck and hands.
    Her eyesight was failing, but she refused to wear spectacles because she considered them