Knight distanced his eyes a last to his already fast asleep mother. He knew that despite how much he wished to stay, his night shift at the Lancaster door was waiting, and he needed to go back to Lancaster hastily. Duty was one thing he respected, and once he set his mind on something, he made sure to see it through to the end. He could not just abandon being a guard at night, despite his mother thinking otherwise. He therefore turned his back away from his mother, and opened the door—he needed to get out.
"Where to, Prince Harry?" One of Lady Evelyn's guards called out. He was the head of the house and made sure everything in the house was in order, day and night.
"I need to reach somewhere," Knight stated, walking farther away from the now closed door where the queen slept, toward Lady Evelyn's front living room door, as the head guard followed him. The doors opened, and they both walked out to the outside verandah and stairs.
"I need to know where you're headed," the head guard stated, his head low in respect but stubborn as all guards needed to be.
"I shall be safe. You can head back inside," Knight instructed, still walking down the stairs into the pathway. He seemed unfazed by the head guard. He already had an idea that his mother had probably called for him to be guarded, followed, and kept in order.
"Lady Evelyn ordered not to let you out of sight," the guard's voice specified as Knight sighed, waiting for the guard to reach where he stood –down on the ramp.
"I need to leave, please…!" Knight pleaded, his face soft and a little pale due to the cold dew that was already falling.
"I am ordered!" the guard's three words added, as he distanced his eyes up high to the sky, the cold embracing his balaclava.
"Give me a horse instead, and one guard. He shall return with the horse. I shall tell none! Please_" Knight pleaded.
"Witty, pity, who stands there in the cold!" Lady Evelyn's voice was harshly heard calling out from inside the mansion.
This made Knight hastily climb up the ramp and stairs leading to the front door living room, which was suddenly slightly openned, revealing a hands-on-waist Lady Evelyn; her hair wavy, with no normal cane that she was used to using. "Head back to Lord Hordy's room! You seek to run away at night, the short hand barely even ticking twelve, to dawn another day!" she bitted, as Knight, in embarrassment, entered the door, and the head guard followed.
"My apologies!" Knight specified, slightly bowing. "Tell Mother nothing of this!" he requested in a low tone, his eyes on Lady Evelyn, who smelled of lavender perfume. She had clearly just come out of the bathtub.
"Huh!" Lady Evelyn blurted, slightly showing her hand for Knight to take. He knew she wanted him to escort her to bed, and so he did, as he eyed the wall clock up high in the Somerset mansion—time had already run past him. The Earl would surely question his royalty, when he had barely even had a week or two to prove himself.
"You like her much?" Lady Evelyn questioned as they both climbed up the stairs leading to the first of her floor. Her room was in the left big chamber, and in the right big chamber was her late husband, Gareth Somerset; she let none enter that chamber. And she was the best of many who coldly awaited his death—she seemed not petrified. She had waited for it long. Any lady married off to one off her likings longs for the day the good Lord comes and takes either. Lucky is she who is always second!
"I have no girl in a brothel!" Knight insisted. He had taken a while to reply, however.
"So you have one?" Lady Evelyn added as they stood at the front door of her resting chambers.
"No!" Knight insisted, his eyes pleading, but he mirrored himself pleading not enough to depict the statement as a true lie and misinterpretation of him not being home much.
"You lie still! Ha!" Lady Evelyn questioned, her face a scowl searching that of Knight. Knight had no word to say. But one thing he knew, if it were not that he was a Prince, the news of him having a brothel lady would have already been transported by the winds somehow, to all eligible spinsters and grandiose mammas who sought husbands for their daughters –Lady Evelyn Somerset the greatest gossiper of all time.
Lady Evelyn however, waited not even for a good night, from Knight; she walked off, as the guards closed the door, and Knight was just left on the outside.
He made a slight sigh of frustration at the guards at the door, then turned back to the stairs, climbing down, and on the last step, he sat on it. The silence of the room created a gracious environment for him to indulge in his thoughts. The ticking of the Somerset's wall clock was what was just heard as he sat there. He thought of his life—a guard's life he stood and opted to be. He thought of his mother telling him how he needed to seize duty first and then later, or maybe never, find love. He wondered why they thought low of him, having a Lady in the brothel!
He thought of all that as he distanced his eyes to the guards on the Somerset's large living room doorframe. He observed the left guard, who seemed already tired from standing a while, out of the way one of his right legs bent. He sure was new to this. Knight's first guard duty was a disaster too; he almost cried standing rooted at that door.
And then on the left of Lady Evelyn's living room was a well-wrapped present; Edward had ordered from God knows where, and God knows what it was! But Knight knew it was for Lady Victoria, and he, Knight, was still here. He had not acquainted himself with her, and even if he called out to her, known as the guard, or through the letters, she would barely fall for such a kind of lowlife. He had noticed Lady Victoria's mother, the countess, valued the worth of a man before smiling or detesting them. He had noticed Andrew, her brother, was a hard nut, but he cared dearly for her. He had noticed Amelia, the second sister after Lady Victoria, already felt the pressure of society, by the way she looked up to Victoria with pitiful eyes. She seemed more petrified by the idea of introduction than any other. She was not even introduced anyway.
He had noticed Victoria; her forceful smile, just to show how grateful she was for Edward's gifts. He had noticed the smile lighted up not, as each day passed. If she felt things, Knight thought, he would have noticed her longingly staring at the flowers, or even heading out to feed the little peacock, even at night after dinner. This thought of Lady Victoria greatly troubled Knight. It should have been easier for him to just celebrate; her heart was yet not trapped. But he did not celebrate; he was worried and thought much. If she were bought everything as days passed and still did not light up at his brother, how would simple writings make her heart flutter? He wondered.
As Knight thought, he had not noticed Lady Evelyn Somerset already out of her chamber, observing him. She liked the boy! And she wondered what troubled him as much. Of course, she knew the boy would never have a lady in a brothel. And she hastily brushed off Lady Hardington's call a day ago, stating Knight had come as a caller for her daughters. What was it troubled he? She wondered, as Knight stood and headed to the left of the living room, to Lord Hordy's given room of rest. Knight detested his brother Edward!
At the same time, in the Lancaster mansion, Lady Victoria's sleep was already out and away. She had slept early just after dinner. She had just finished the book, and hence had nothing for entertainment, or better, to aid her to pass time till sleep arrested her later.
She thus slightly opened her canopy net, and let herself out of the cozy bed, and up into the desk where she placed the two letters that had arrived. One from her maid Larny, and the other from the guard.
"He had not escorted her today!" She recalled.
She took the letters and read the words again slowly and effectively. 'A man seeking attention,' she read the words over and over again, not noticing the little grin that formed in her innocent smile. She wondered who the anonymous man would be, probably a tall one with blue eyes like hers, or worse, a beast who is too afraid to face her. She distanced her eyes to the skies, and the energy again of asking who the sender was ingrained her. She hence stood from her chair, put on a robe, and barefoot, opened her door, which usually had a single or no guard at night. Her want was the guard on the door.
She thus distanced her eyes to the living room door from where she stood on the rails outside her door. The standing guard, to the right, was the only one in attention, and the other was nowhere to be seen. She wondered where he probably would be.
"Probably making fire", she thought, a small smile forming on her face, as the Earl, her father, suddenly walked from the library hallway to the living room, making Victoria rush to her room, slowly close it, and head to her bed. Reason being, probably the Earl would come to check on her and see if she were okay, in case he had caught a glimpse of her. However, the only question that tapped her head was, where was the guard on the left? And how was she to assess the anonymous writer in the tapestry of admirers at her door?