Miss Hawkings’s Study

  Veronique couldn’t wait for this lesson to end, but at the same time she was bit worried about Rhea, the kid looked sour at lunch and her mood was doubt going to get worse since Veronique wouldn’t be at dinner and the kid might not even be aware of such thing.

  So in an attempt at avoiding a possible disaster out in public that could undermine Rhea’s reputation Veronique decided to go for a quick hug as soon as the lesson was over

  “See you tomorrow Rhea!” she had said as she moved away, only for the child to grab into her dress with tears in her eyes

  “Tomorrow? But there is still Dinner” it was just as Veronique feared, Rhea had been expecting for the redhead to be there and maybe even follow her around for the rest of the day.

  “Unfortunately Lady Veronique had only been allowed at the table because of our lessons, she won’t be allowed to dine in the Main Wing” Miss Hawkings explained “That’s a privilege Lady Veronique got to earn back” at that Rhea went and hugged Veronique herself, who hugged her back

  “Don’t worry we will spend more time together tomorrow” she reassured her

  “Promise?” Rhea asked sounding so sad as she slowly moved away from the hug that it made Veronique’s heart twist, when suddenly she had an idea

  “Pinky promise!” the redhead exclaimed crouching down so she would be on Rhea’s eye level and raising her pinkie

  “What’s that?” Rhea looked utterly confused by it and Veronique briefly wondered if such thing didn’t exist in this world thing or the kid just didn’t know about it because she was a noble.

  ‘Does Rhea even have friends her age?’ she wondered

  “Oh it’s a very special promise, you do it by shaking it with our pinkies and that makes it extra special” she tried to explain it at the best she could putting it in terms the child would understand

  “Lady Veronique, what kind of no sense are teaching to Lady Rhea?!” Miss Hawkings just had to butt in and she ran out of patience for the day.

  “The kind kids her age should know about” Veronique snapped at her, twisting her face towards the woman with a glare

  “Can we do the pinkie promise?” Rhea caught back her attention, which erased the anger the redhead was feeling, the kid was holding her pinkie out

  “Sure” Veronique sealed her promise.

  Corridor

  The first thing that Veronique noticed, now that she was alone, was that her hallucinations started acting like the usual again.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  This just reinforced her belief that she had subconsciously made them back off, which did work in her favor since it was harder for her to get randomly distracted during the lessons.

  ‘Not that I wouldn’t get distracted regardless’ she thought as sometimes wrestling her mind to stay in the moment was a bit hard.

  Gardens

  When she entered the gardens Lucia was there to greet her along with Kain, and to her joy the maid was holding in her hands a couple of leashes.

  “So how did my boys do?” Veronique had asked, immediately her two pups tried to greet her but Lucia was holding on the leash so all they could do was whine and pull, Bos actually started to bite at it.

  At the least till Veronique reached them and knelt down to pet them after passing her book for Lucia to hold.

  “They are not used to the l-leash, Lady Veronique” Lucia answered her “they got quite antsy and fussy w-without you, but we m-managed”

  “Good, I did think of getting them used to a leash to keep them out of trouble” Veronique admitted with a grin “but where did you find those collars and leashes anyway?” she asked noticing the old but reliable leather collars and leashes, which were fashionable in their own way.

  ‘Those are fine, but I will have to get some fancy ones for special events’ she thought knowing other nobles would look down

  “Kain got some s-spares from the H-Hound master” Lucia had brought light to that mystery, opening another question

  “We got an Hound master?” Veronique was starting to think it would be faster to ask what they didn’t have

  “Yes, M-Miss Atelier is our Hound m-master” the maid answered

  “Wait, did you say Atelier?” she asked to be sure ‘wasn’t that the same surname of the Duchess?’

  “Your step a-aunt, Valentia Atelier but from what I know Miss Atelier used to work there from b-before Duchess Lucretia even meet the Duke and she prefers to stay at the Kennels” Lucia clarified “I heard s-she didn’t approve of the marriage, but it could be a r-rumor” Veronique would keep that in mind but another matter came into her head

  “It would have been nice to know there was someone experienced with dogs that could have helped” maybe the whole deal with the library could have been avoided all together

  “…no…bad idea” Kain suddenly said his hand covering his mouth like he did in the morning

  “Why?” Veronique asked repealing the urge to just tell him to stop doing such thing

  “Miss Atelier is a d-difficult person” Lucia answered for Kain

  “How difficult?” Veronique asked already feeling fed up ‘almost everyone seems difficult in this household’

  “I heard she took away a v-visiting noble’s corgi, because she d-deemed them not capable of taking proper c-care of it”

  “…yea let’s avoid my Aunt” since she was a child trying to train two Dobermans it was probable her Aunt would take away Mos and Bos from her “Do I have any other family living there?” Veronique asked out of curiosity

  “Not that I know of…the late Duchess’s father used to l-live there, but since his wife and daughter died he went back to his e-estate” Lucia explained to the best of her knowledge

  “Grandma died too?” Veronique wondered what kind of accident killed the both of them

  “Actually s-she…yes she p-passed away” her maid was about to say something but stopped herself from doing so, the redhead was just too exhausted to pry.

  “Alright, let’s just head back for today” her dogs were too worked up to listen to her now anyway

  ‘I will try to start teaching them after they calmed down a little, the book did say to train them daily for no more then ten minutes a day’ she thought as she gestured to be handled the leash

  “Lady Veronique, be careful they p-pull a lot” Lucia warned her, hesitating to do so, Hanging Jaw seemed to share such worry as it was gesturing for her to desist with such idea

  “Don’t worry I can handle it” Veronique did remember her old pup had almost made her fall down the stairs a couple of times or stumble, but it only happened when she was already off balance or distracted so she didn’t expect a lot of trouble

  “If Lady Veronique is s-sure” and so Lucia handled her the leashes…then Mos and Bos thought it was the best moment to start running.

  Veronique suddenly felt like flying.