26

"Has he not arrived yet?" The Countess voiced out to the guards at the Lancaster door, who just looked down, and one after, shook his head. That indeed was a nightmare!

"What takes him so long? It is almost striking twelve, and yet no one?" The Countess complained in frustration, hastening through the living room to the window she was used to looking out of to observe Victoria's admirers.

"There is none!" she sighed in frustration, as suddenly she saw the figure of Lord Beming, with him a token of gift, walking down from the gates towards the Lancaster's solitary standing compound. No lad had come today. Not even one! And the clock had struck 12, midday!

"Is he to be serious?" The Countess sighed in frustration, as she certainly ascertained the figure was indeed the aging Lord Beming. She hushed a little, and then walked down the living room and right towards the Earl's library-office.