It was quite likely to be the most unexpected arrival on the day, not necessarily in terms of who but how, a car driven by
Arthur Whitaker, the Duke of Rosevale sat outside the residence it was a four by four with space simply because the other Achkaerinese guests had elected to take the scenic route in getting to the Governor's Residence. Arthur stood leaning against the car's boot door looking at his watch musing over how long it was going to take, it wasn't drastic yet they still had plenty of time to turn up and be presentable for dinner. It was a few minutes later while he was sliding through some emails from his eldest granddaughter that his ears picked up the tell tale sounds of the approach.
The rest of the Achkaerinese guests had elected to travel from the airport to the residence by bicycle, the headliner as it were was
Crown Princess Serenity with her she'd brought her two daughters
Astrid and
Lisa and this to a large extent explained by they were on bicycles because Serenity had bought the two girls their first bicycles a few weeks earlier and they'd been wanting to go on a long ride with them - and by long ride that meant outside the grounds of the Avalon Estate, Lisa had gotten the hang of it a bit quicker but then she'd probably ridden before so she'd been able to dispense with the stabilizers quite quickly Astrid on the other hand was still using them and was essentially riding a tricycle as a result. Additionally the presence of Serenity merited as one would expect security, normally this would have been Lydia Daniels but due to who the Governor of Wellow actually was or more specifically who the Governor's sister was Lydia had 'accidentally' double booked herself and so
Julian Lawson was handling the security - which would be about the least surprising thing of the day.
As they rode along the path to the residence Serenity had Astrid alongside her and Lisa in front of her, she wanted both her daughters where she could see them and Julian was up ahead of Lisa. There were two other bicycles in the group, the one behind Serenity that was essentially sweeping up the rear was being ridden by
Hope Shearney, she was probably the last person within the Achkaerinese nobility that would be expected to turn up to this but there were two reasons the first was that she was working with Serenity on the Legacy Sport Foundation, they had some big plans and it was a good chance to talk through them, the second reason was because of who rounded out the Achkaerinese party because on the bike riding at the head of the group was Julian's sister
Sammy Lawson and Sammy didn't normally socialize with the likes of the people who'd be at the ball so bringing someone from the world of sport like Hope along, someone Sammy did know, was meant to help the Achkaerinese cyclist feel a little more at ease with the situation. Of course there were no prizes for guessing why Sammy was actually with the group - Julian had decided it was time that Sammy finally met Harper. The other thing to note was that while everyone else was riding mountain bikes Sammy was of course on a road bike.
As they rounded the corner and saw the gates of the residence it predictably turned into a race which also predictably Sammy won by a long way, she even had enough time to stop near where Arthur was standing just in time to see Julian come in second and then of course came the inevitable
"Not fair." Julian said "Really not fair."
"You should know better than to race me by now." Sammy said taking off her helmet as the others arrived
"How late are we Arthur?" Serenity asked as she got off her bike
"You've got plenty of time." Arthur said "Been a few arrivals but they came by car."
"Julian you did make sure we have somewhere to change for dinner in there right?" Serenity asked
"Harper has it in hand." Julian said "I'll go and ring the bell."
"I'll get the bags." Arthur said