A Noble Cause

II - News From the North

Two: News From the North

Many roads lead to London. The biggest city in the world since the fall of Rome shared this very characteristic with the Urbs Æterna. In one of these roads, several miles away from Wulworth Place, there was a carriage; inside of it, there were an earl and a countess, both local nobles from Argyllshire, Scotland.

The Earl of Argyll, Hans, who was neither an earl nor way Scottish, was indeed but a pawn in the old earl's game. The old earl, Connor O'Cain, ten years dead now, arranged a marriage for his beautiful daughter, Anne, the true heir of the earldom, with a German noble from one of the decadent states of what once was the Holy Roman Empire. With the fall of the empire and the subsequent rearrangements in Northern Germany's power structures, Hans's family sold most of their possessions in Germany for a hefty sum in the 1830s, which easily turned the Von Oldenburg family into the richest east of the Weser. This included, among others, their summer estate in Rysel, the gorgeous baroque palace twelve miles away from Oldenburg, six buildings in downtown Bremen and, Hans's favourite, their cattle farm. The only properties they kept were an estate they had in Kent and their enormous flat on the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, which is where they moved to and lived. It was there, fifteen years later, that Connor met the Von Oldenburgs and arranged the entire situation, which had a most profitable outcome for the earldom. It was as though the old earl had foreseen the money he could get with the union of his daughter to this throneless prince — and one might as well agree that he did, for he was extremely wise.

Luckily for Anne, the now Countess of Argyll, her husband turned out to be deeply in love with her and, to a certain extent, it was mutual, though, deep down, she knew she loved the thought of not having a terrible husband more than said husband. Still, Hans was most definitely tolerable. He did have a couple of mistresses here and there, mostly during some "business meetings", but he was, in his own way, a good husband.

"How long is it still going to take?!" the earl cried from the carriage window to the coachman. Anne impatiently fanned herself with a pink fan that was by far her favourite.

"We are going as fast as we can, sir!"

The countess laughed at the answer, dramatically bringing her fan down to rest on her lap. She looked at her husband, who simply shook his head in complete disapproval of the entire situation. Her manners were, sometimes, unbearable, which was a problem considerably intensified by situations he could have helped.

"Do not even think about it."

She chuckled.

"You know I am right. I do not need to say it: you know it."

"Say I might! It does not mean I have to acknowledge it right now."

She smirked and started fanning herself again.

"Well, you just have, my love... you just have."

She turned her face to the window and enjoyed the rest of the trip, savouring the feeling of being right yet again.

Naturally, one might wonder why on Earth they decided to take a carriage to London when a train was clearly the quicker option; well, you see, they did take a train, but, due to maintenance issues in the rails near Luton, they had to stop in Northampton, the previous station. They had left Edinburgh three days earlier, so they were not at all on a tight schedule; thus, Anne wanted to wait at a hotel in Northampton until they fixed the rails, so they could take the train the next morning or, at the latest, two days later. Hans, however, insisted they would only waste time in this and suggested, instead, that they took a carriage — as a car would not have enough space to carry their luggage — to Luton and, from there, the train. Unfortunately for him, it poured for hours and the conditions of the road (which one might usually call amiable, at best) worsened severely. As such, they found themselves isled at an inn somewhere in between these two cities for two days in a half, leaving them half a day to reach Luton, then take the train to London.