In the evening, the hurried footsteps echoed in the corridor, Pugachev, dressed in a red formal attire, followed by the guard through the wide corridors of the Kremlin Palace, and arrived at the anteroom.
Thud, thud!
"Your Majesty, the President of the Royal Academy of Sciences has arrived," the guard announced upon entering.
"Mmm."
Pugachev adjusted his clothes and was about to enter the anteroom when a hand suddenly stopped him. He looked at the guard in confusion, but the guard said, "Her Majesty did not allow you to enter."
"What? Wasn't it Her Majesty who summoned me?"
Pugachev's face was full of befuddlement, not knowing what Katerina was really up to, summoning him only to not meet him....
The guard did not answer his question and stood like a statue guarding the door to the anteroom. The dusky sunset cast its glow on Pugachev, who felt like a clown in a circus, laughed at by the passing maidservants and guards.
What a joke....
