The invitation had arrived in a bundle of bills and solicitors letters and remained unseen for many days. It was only by chance that he had even seen it, and he wouldn’t have thought to come except that when he had seen the name there, written on the pressed white card in neat and perfectly spaced ink he had experienced the most dreadful visions that left him shaking and week at the knees.
Even now as he approached, hearing the dim roar of voices and music, Adith wasn’t sure he should come along at all. It was still so very far away and in his past experience early warnings weren’t taken or headed but still, maybe if he could just get a glimpse, to know that it had not been imagination. He clutched the invitation tightly in his hand, but he knew he couldn’t go inside. It had been through courtesy only that he’d received it, he was certain, and he couldn’t make small talk or bring himself to stand in a crowded room of people.
Instead, Adith slipped around the back of the building, towards where servants and tradesmen would be sent and found a window in which the drapes had not been fully drawn and through this he peered into the world to which he did not belong.