<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="text-decoration: underline">January 5th, 1886</span></span><br/><br/>"You may take the invitations now, James", the man's voice sounded while he handed the invitations to his butler. The butler took the invitations as instructed and bowed to his master before leaving the room. <br/><br/>As soon as he left, the man went into the library. He always sent out invitations from there, as everything he needed to do so was kept in the room. Of course, Lord Allerton's guests would never get their invitations via the post, that would be unbecoming. But the invitations had been placed into envelopes, the envelopes had to be set with the name of each recipient, and then one of the younger members of the house staff would have to take every invitation and deliver it by hand.<br/><br/>Sitting down with the invitations and envelopes, the man started checking for the names. Seeing Ms. Bradley's name made the man raise an eyebrow. He would have wished the master wouldn't invite the lady. She was a lovely person, it was not about that. It was about the rumors. Everyone in society was talking about the relationship the man kept with the young lady. With a sigh, he wrote her name on the envelope and put the invitation inside.<br/><br/>The other people the man was inviting were to be expected. The Garfields were family, and even though the relations seemed to be strained, it would still be bad form not to invite them. The Forges had been business partners to the Allerton family in the past, but something had happened to cause a rift, and he knew Lord Angus was trying to get things back on track. Hopefully, he would succeed.<br/><br/>Once all of the invites had been placed in the envelopes, the butler sent his son John to deliver them in hand. As soon as that was done, the man went back to his occupations.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FFFF00"><span style="font-weight: bold">Miss Victoria Bradley</span></span><br/><br/>Miss Bradley was sitting at home, sewing, when she heard the ring on her door. The young lady knew that she wouldn’t have to tell one of the servants to open, as she had a very efficient staff. <br/><br/>As she expected, her butler didn’t take long at all to open the door and receive the invitation. As soon as he noticed what it was, the man handed it to one of the ladies who worked in the house. The woman took the invitation and went into Victoria’s bedchamber.<br/><br/>“Miss Victoria”, the woman whispered. For some reason, Mary was always walking on eggshells around the girl lately. The woman had been Victoria’s governess as a child, and was now her chambermaid. As soon as the girl had lost her mother, Mary had took on a mother role and developed a motherly love for her. That was why she wasn’t happy at all with the invitation Victoria had just gotten.<br/><br/>“There is an invitation from Lord Allerton, Miss. It is for a masquerade come next Sunday”, the woman announced, handing the invitation over to the girl. Victoria read the invite and seemed pensive. “I believe I have a new dress that will look nice with a mask”, she mused. <br/><br/>The maid shook her head. “Why will you go? You should decline, to prevent even more rumors, dear”, the woman advised kindly. Victoria sighed. “If I do not go, the rumors will still exist”, she replied quietly. Picking up the invitation, she RSVP’ed informing she would attend and returned it to Mary. “Please, do have it sent back right away”, she required, not wanting to stall and change her mind.</div>