The mountains and trees moved at an alarmingly fast rate for Eliza, as she sat in the train carriage and peered out the window. It looked as though the world was flying by her and all she could was sit and watch. She was distracted from her momentary thought of putting her head out the window to feel the breeze against her cheek, by a cough from the person across her. Reminding her that he was still there.

With a sigh, Eliza sat back against the hard cushions of her seat and continued to stare blankly at the wall in front of her.

Annoyingly, just as she was about to doze off, the person spoke up again.

"It would do you some good to have some manners, being a young lady as you are.", he said.

When she didn't reply, he droned on, "You know, when I was a boy, girls were much more well behaved, and would be elated on the prospect of going where you are."

Eliza grumbled. She hated it when people started talking out of the blue on topics, they knew nothing about, not that they tried to learn anything. For these people believed their own opinions to be supreme over anyone else's.

"I will certainly keep that in mind good sir, the last thing I'd want to do is disappoint your high hopes on how women should behave", she said derisively.

The man however, didn't notice the contempt in her words and resumed the silence that had enveloped the carriage earlier.

Eliza, cast a sideways look at him. He was a stout man, of at least 40 with perfectly manicured gray hair, and an arrogant light in his eyes.

The sooner she got out of this train, the better.

No, she corrected herself, her destination was far, far worse than this train ride could ever be. She was going to the Armeshire manor, off the Eastern Coast of England, and the man sitting across her knew this, because he too had been invited to the Manor, along with a couple others who would be arriving later on that day.

She hadn't the slightest idea why she was going to that dreadful place, besides the invitation and train ticket she had received in the mail a fortnight ago. But, the owners of the Manor, Lord and Lady Armeshire were an illustrious couple, and no one in their right minds would turn down an invitation by them, or so her mother said, as she dropped her off at the train station earlier that day.

Eliza could only assume that this invitation was for their infamous yearly festivities, to which they invited a handful of lucky nobles, and lesser dukes and barons.

But if so, this could be the worst thing Eliza could ever imagine, for she despised these sorts of things, with formal balls and dances and having to put up drunk men and polite conversations.

Alas, as far as she knew, she was the only one.