Robert Jones woke to the sound of a letter being pushed through the letterbox of his Cambridge cottage. He sat up, then heaved himself off his armchair. "Must have dozed off" he muttered to himself, stretching. He walked over to the door, and picked up the letter, noting the Araluen seal on it.
"So, what could this be? Do they want me to bunk a couple of farmers in the barn for the spring harvest or something? Or perhaps it's something to do with the incident which kept me on leave for three months..."
He opened the letter carefully.
"Looks like good quality paper, probably a court summons or something..."
He flipped the letter over and read it:
To Celebrate the belated 18th Birthday of Her Ladyship Countess Lafiel Tarrant
His Lordship the Marquis of Araluen Sebastian Tarrant
Requests the pleasure of your company at a reception for his daughter
on Saturday 23rd January 818A.S at Araluen Manor Cambridge
At your convenience you may bring your family and an additional friend but this is only extended to members of the nobility of the admiralty and the government.
RSVP by the 19th details are enclosed. Please present this invitation upon arrival.
His eyes widened slightly.
"A dinner party? Definitely not what I was expecting. Well, chances are if they're sending me an invitation they'll probably have sent some of the planetform higher-ups one as well. Should give me a chance to apologise about the incident in September"
He walked over to his wardrobe, and selected a black suit and matching tie. Then, realisation seemed to strike him.
"If the countess is running this, chances are she won't have bothered with much security. Best to be safe, I guess."
He opened his personal neural net terminal and began to type an RSVP indicating his acceptance of the invitation