L.O.T.N

1873, three ladies are sitting on a picnic blanket behind Lord Sinclair's estate. The three ladies sat in a triangular shape on the red and white squared blanket as they watched their children play together.

"Oh, Lucille please do be careful. We wouldn't want your fine dress getting dirty now, would we," Agatha Sinclair shouted to her six-year-old little girl who nearly resembled her to a T. Agatha Sinclair is labeled as the richest woman in England, only a close second behind the Queen. Her husband, Lord Robert Sinclair, is his majesty's second in command. It is often rumored that it is the Sinclair's fortune, combined with the fortune of Agatha's maiden family, the Roswell's, that keeps the monarchy funded.

"Yes mummy!"

"I have heard a rumor," Eugenie Blake said as she set aside her piece of lemon cake. The two other girls looked at her expectantly. "I have heard from my Jeffery and Susanna's nursemaid who heard from her husband, James Seymour, who serves in Lord Cyrus Cromwell's household as a cook, that Lord Cyrus Cromwell himself has been put into an arranged marriage with Victoria Smitherson...and is going through with it." There was a moment of silence before all three ladies burst into laughter.

"The poor lady," Willowmina Carlton said through her laughter. There had been rumors for years on why Lord Cromwell never seemed interested in marriage. One of the more infamous ones that was supposedly started by a mistress of his is that he is extremely unsatisfactory in the marital bed, meaning he is extremely impotent. What stopped the laughter was a crying four-year-old girl running up to Willowmina with the older children following suit, all going to their mothers. Willowmina swept the child into her arms.

"Oh, my darling Georgiana," Willowmina said as she gently and soothingly rocked the young girl from side to side. "What happened to you, my sweet?" The young girl didn't respond and continued to sob. Willowmina turned to her son Dominic, who is three years his sister's senior, and asked him what happened.

"We were playing, all of us, and we were running down the hill and she tripped, mama. She says she hurt her hand." Willowmina instantly checked her daughters' hand and saw nothing but a scratch on the back of in. She kissed it three time before looking back at Georgiana.

"See my darling," Willowmina asked as she showed her the small scratch. "It is nothing but a scratch. I think you shall live." She kissed the young girls' cheek and sent her on her way to continue playing with the other children.

"Pity, isn't it," Agatha said solemnly. The girls gave her strange looks.

"Pity," asked Eugenie.

"It is a pity that they cannot stay like this forever. Our daughters will soon each be wed with children of their own and our sons will soon have estates in their name with numerous responsibilities, never having a second to remember days like this," Agatha said as she watched her daughter pick daisies from the field. She turned back to the girls, only to see Willowmina looking awfully sullen. "Willowmina, my dear, I'm sorry if I've upset you." Willowmina shook her head and eyed the girls before looking towards Georgiana, who was now taking part in a race with the other children. Agatha and Eugenie sat in silence and waited for their close friend to say something. Anything.

"Nicholas informed me this morning that he has arranged a married between Georgiana and the Williamson boy...the older one. Henry." Eugenie gently grabbed her hand and Agatha gave her handkerchief as a sign of comfort.

"I don't understand. Georgiana is only four and Henry is fifteen. Surely Nicholas can listen to reasoning as to why she would not marry someone eleven years her senior," Agatha pondered outwardly. Willowmina drew her gaze from her daughter to Agatha.

"He says that they will wed on her fifteenth birthday. Oh, ladies, I am so very terrified for her."

"How could you not be? Rumors about Lord Williamson about him beating his wife have been circulating for many years," Eugenie said. Willowmina shook her head once again.