Veronique and Rhea’s Temporary Room

  It was the day of the Banquette and Veronique wasn’t happy.

  It wasn’t that she was annoyed she had to wear a frilly pink dress ugly as sin, which she was already making schemes in her head to go and cleanse in fire afterwards, or the fact that in few moments someone was going to come in and mess up with her hair.

  No, it was the delicate and fancy looking collar and leash that Mos and Bos had to wear, Veronique understood that they needed to dress up to impress, but she could see it from a distance that they were flimsy at best and worst of all it was clear her dogs had a clear dislike of those.

  “Keep calm pups, you only got to wear it for a day” Veronique had said and was answered by a double whining “yea yea I know you don’t like it, I don’t like this thing too but we all got to deal with what we got” she tried to console them

  “Lady Veronique I-I could put their usual collar u-under the new ones” Lucia had suggested “they might be more c-comfortable with it if it’s not t-touching their n-neck directly”

  “And you think the nobles won’t notice? Mos and Bos don’t have a lot of fur” Veronique pointed out since they had short fur, which at the moment was shining from the bath they got from a dog groomer they had called in for the occasion ‘I wonder what kind of shampoo made it shine like that, damn I should have asked’

  The unplanned bath was another reason both dogs weren’t happy, they were way more calm when Veronique did it to them herself and they weren’t used to the deep clean they got.

  “The new c-collars look wide e-enough to h-hide them” Lucia had said, indeed it seemed that way “we could t-try and s-see how it l-looks?” she had asked

  “Alright let’s do it” Veronique was dubious it could work, maybe if Mos and Bos were something long furred like a Husky it would be possible but there was no harm in trying

  “Err as I feared it looks a bit bumpy even if those new things are paper thin” Veronique didn’t like the result at all, their usual collar had a perfectly visible bump underneath the new and it wasn’t possible to loosen it more without completely showing the other collar “and they still don’t look happy to wear them”

  “I am s-sorry Lady Veronique” Lucia had apologized sounding genuinely sorry that it didn’t work out.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Don’t be Lucia, it was worth a shot” Veronique dismissed the apology focused on her dogs already acting out due to the new collars

  “A shot?” Lucia was confused by the phase

  “I meant a try” the redhead was quick to correct her blunder “Anyway screw this, I don’t trust this things they look too flimsy and they hate them, so let’s just put them their usual collar and leash” she had decided, there was no way Mos and Bos could behave with those new collars on

  “Are you a-afraid they m-might get loose?” Lucia had questioned her decision as the child fully removed the fancy collars.

  The Dogs immediately calmed down.

  “Not quite, I know that even if they did I should be able to keep them under control, but I don’t know how a noble would react on seeing them loose so it’s to be better safe then sorry” Veronique elaborated her thought process, deeming that it quite probable that Mos and Bos would have eventually gotten loose sometime during the Banquette.

  “What w-would the D-Duke say?” Lucia had raised a good point, the Duke would probably be upset about it and wave a rant about keeping up appearances

  “The Duke shouldn’t have insisted I bring them along, he knows I am still training them” Veronique decided to die on that hill “and he should have given me something steadier, not this crap”

  “The n-nobles will talk” the maid had reminded her

  “Let them talk, I am sure I got enough rumors about me that the state of my Dogs collars is the last thing they will remember” Veronique couldn’t care less about what the nobles thought of her “Honestly I think this dress is horrendous enough they wouldn’t even notice”

  “It’s not t-that bad” the blonde had tried to make her feel better about it, at which Veronique gave her a look and asked utterly serious

  “Would you wear it?”

  “…No” Lucia had to admit, Veronique let out an huff in response, just then the hair dresser arrived

  Dressing Room

  They put her hair in an intricate braid decorated with all sorts of pins, it went from the top of her head.

  ‘Why I got some many colored beads in my hair? Was the make up really necessary’ it was the first thing Veronique thought upon seeing the end result ‘ugh I look like tacky single old woman or someone’s weird aunt trying to look younger but ending up doing a clown cosplay’ she wasn’t pleased it was as if the staff had conspired to give her the worst look ever and to make things worse this hairstyle was already killing her scalp ‘well the staff hates me, so it’s probably what happened’ she came to the bitter conclusion but kept herself calm.

  Something that had gotten much easier as she practiced Hover everyday, which meant she might not even need to drink the tea anymore in the near future.

  ‘Of course it would start to taste better just when I am about to stop drinking it’ Veronique had thought feeling slightly bitter about it ‘Maybe I wouldn’t even have to get another cup, I might be able to register Hover before next week’ just then people walked in the room, Veronique turned and saw Rhea in an exquisite blue puffy dress and her hair held back by a simple bow with a jewel in it.

  A simple and adorable outfit that perfectly suited the little child

  “Veronique why are you dressed so weird?” Rhea had asked innocently, Penelope seemed to be trying to hold her laughter at the question as Veronique simply looked ahead with a blank look.

  ‘Yep the staff definitively has it out for me’