Lèse-majesté

Part 27

Chapter 26

The following day an ornate carriage bearing the crest of The Earldom of The Deranged family made its way towards the Palace housing the Dowager Queen-mother. It was gilded with gold and thus shone in the sunlight as the coach driver urged the horses to a stop in front of the Palace's now closed gates.

"Halt! Who goes there?!" One of the Knights on guard duty called out while placing a hand on his sword hilt.

"How dare you stop a carriage belonging to the Deranged Earldom!" The coachman exclaimed. "My mistress is here to meet with the Queen-mother!"

"Javier, what is the hold-up?" A voice questioned from inside the carriage.

"Apologies Mistress, but these guards are denying me entrance on the property." The coachman spoke rather apologetically.

"For what reason?" The voice asked once more. "The Queen-mother and I had this meeting planned for months,"

"Well... you see... there's been a recent outbreak of criminals from the colosseum....." The Knight nervously entered.

"Are you saying my mistress is one of those criminals?!" The coachman accused. "The honorable Earldom of Deranged would never accept such an insult!"

"But the criminals might be hiding in the carriage...." The other knight reasoned.

"Why I have never....." Javier began but was stopped by the voice asking if they'd let them enter once the knights' have searched the carriage.

The knights looked at each other before agreeing amongst themselves. Dealing with Nobles was both a hassle and tricky. If this meeting with the King's mother had been scheduled before the mandate to not let Lady Theodora leave then turning away this Noble would be an insult to both parties.

The coachman scrambled down from his seat to open quickly open the door once the Knights' agreed to the inspection. Out of the carriage two, wonderfully dressed, ladies stepped.

"Please search to your heart's content," The lady with black hair uttered as she indicated for the knights to look inside the carriage.

"Excuse me, but who is she?" The other knight asked, pointing to the blonde with short hair. It was almost never that men saw women without long hair. At most the hair would be cut to just past the shoulders so that it could still be styled. Yet this woman had her hair in quite a militaristic cut.

"The future Lady of House Deranged," The black-haired woman announced, startling not only the guards but also the blonde with the short hair.

"The carriage is clear," The other knight announced as the ladies bored once more. The knights then proceeded to open the gates for the carriage to pass.

"Hey... is this really alright?" The knight asked his colleague as they closed the iron gates to the estate with a clang. "We were ordered to not let anyone pass."

"We didn't see anything, we didn't hear anything." The other knight muttered. "My experience with Nobles is that you should not anger them. We're commoners and what we did was basically accuse them of treason. It would have been worse if the Dowager Queen had personally invited them and we sent them on their way. So keep your mouth shut." The other warned.

"Isn't Javier a marvelous actor," Lady Heather proclaimed once the carriage had stopped at the entrance, thoroughly out of the earshot of the knights. The ladies were being helped back on solid ground by Javier who blushed.

"Thank you for your praise madam," The coachman bowed, trying to hide his blush, before going to park the carriage. Meanwhile, the doors to the mansion... or rather Palace opened. To greet them was one of the Dowager's Ladies-in-waiting. A woman who introduced herself as Sasha.