“Explain yourself before I decide your punishment” those words had taken her back, then she noticed with the corner of her eye a portrait to the right of the Duke.

  It was of Rhea small and innocent, in that moment the redhead remembered that the child was his favorite and understood her mistake.

  At the moment it didn’t matter if the Duke had even of ounce of love for her too, because she had inadvertently messed up with his little girl, even if she didn’t think what she did was a big deal to the high society she found herself in it must have been.

  “May I ask if Miss Hawkings will be punished too?” Veronique had put her heart at peace that she would get punished, since the Duke clearly disliked her, so she decided to focus her efforts into bringing the Old hag down with her and hope that the Duke wouldn’t take it out on her babies.

  “What makes your think Miss Hawkings should face punishment?” he inquired with a hint of curiosity.

  “She disrespected me by calling me a fool first, then I lost my temper” she recounted trying as hard as she could to keep her emotions in check, even if all she wanted to do was go an angry tirade against the Old hag for involving her Father in their small argument.

  Heck she wanted to go on a tirade about it right now.

  ‘I would really be a moron to do such thing in the presence of the master of this House’ Veronique thought instinctively knowing it wouldn’t be an approved behavior then added as a bad memory resurfaced ‘ugh but this feels like when I had to suck it up to teachers because they had the power to sink my grades’

  ‘and they still did’ she could barely keep her face from outright snarling from one particular memory about her grade being obliterated over a spelling mistake, or at the least she thought she was as the Duke was currently wondering if she was having a stoke.

  Still since she was making an effort to stay formal despite her own body rebelling to such thing, who knew keeping herself from slouching was so difficult? Damn she really wished she had obliterated those assholes when she could have, shouted in their faces till her face was blue instead of just taking it.

  “Very well I have decided on your punishment” his voice snapped Veronique out of memory lane and made her focus back on her current present.

  “Starting tomorrow your will join Rhea’s lessons with Miss Hawkings” the Head of house Aurelia declared, his voice sounding final and absolute without raising in pitch.

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  “What?” Veronique couldn’t believe she heard that correctly, or it would be more correct to say that she didn’t want to believe it.

  Spending time with the Old hag sounded awful

  “It’s clear you need to repeat your etiquette lessons” the Duke pointed out, having seen first hand that she was struggling with keeping basic etiquette and such thing wouldn’t be tolerated in public…yet from his prospective it was the most Veronique had ever done till now

  ‘At the least this time she tried to be formal’ he thought to himself ‘I wonder what brought this change’

  “But I need to train my dogs before they turn into a menace to society” came Veronique’s protest

  “Perhaps then I need to remove those dogs from this household” the Duke was quick to offer, or more like blackmail, without missing a beat.

  “No, no Mr Duke, I will gladly take these lessons with Miss Hawkins” Veronique immediately switched back to being formal as soon as her dogs were threatened.

  She was in position to refute the Duke’s orders.

  “Very well you are dismissed” the Duke was pleased ‘so it was Lucretia’s gift that brought up this change, I can work with that’ he absently thought as he resumed to read some documents from his informants

  ‘what’s that snake planning to do?’ he thought as he visioned them.

  “…but Mr Duke you didn’t answer my question” Veronique’s voice caught back his attention, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, having seen someone else in her place for a split second.

  “Don’t you think being forced to teach you is a suitable punishment?” the Duke recomposed himself so fast Veronique didn’t even notice his mask slipping, or his little trick to appease her.

  Miss Hawkings works in this household; it was her job to do as she was told and she wouldn’t be a senior member of the staff if she wasn’t a professional…and Veronique seemed to have calmed down enough to not throw hot pots of tea if all she was resorting was vulgar language.

  Even if he will still have a talk to Miss Hawkings to make sure she would be a fair teacher to Veronique despite past deeds.

  “Oh, that’s really clever Dad” still if the girl stayed this naive noble society would eat her alive.

  “Being a noble is all about subtlety” he said with a small knowing smile that went away as soon as Veronique’s full sentence registered in his head.

  His slightly good mood was gone in an instant.

  “Now go, I have work to do” the Duke said in a severe tone, he intensely stared without blinking his eyes as the girl tried to curtsy him and left.

  Only when the door was completely closed and he heard her footsteps get fainter he broke character and held his head in his hands with a long sigh

  ‘Why did you do this to us?’ he thought, his eyes going to the vacant wall to his left, where traces of missing portrait were still visible to those with a keen eye.

  -

  Outside the Study

  -

  “Dad is really awesome!” Veronique naively expressed her admiration

  “I doubt I could ever be like him” she admitted knowing something like subtlety was way out of her league, then a thought crossed her head

  ‘Thinking about it, why am I so comfortable with calling him dad?’