The Duke’s Study

  Mr Jerkings was standing before the Duke, looking as if he aged over a decade

  “Still no news about the missing maid?” the Duke had asked looking straight at the head butler, he was completely serious and giving his full attention to the matter at hand.

  “No my Lord, I am afraid not” Mr Jerkings replied, his tone was sad almost resigned as if he had already prepared for the worst

  “Are you certain she didn’t leave out of her own will?” the Duke questioned just to be sure

  “Yes, my Lord, we have contacted her family and they have no news of her either” Mr Jerkings had reported “besides her things are still in her room, so we are suspecting foul play”

  “Inside the Aurelia estate? How is it possible?” the Duke asked

  “Margaret is quite curious, she has the habit of listening on conversations between the staff to gossip about it during her off time” Mr Jerkings explained a possible scenario “She could have listened in on something too private or” he trailed off

  “Or?” the Duke urged him to continue feeling as if he wasn’t going to like one bit what he was about to hear

  “The Guards didn’t see Mr Kepler leaving the premises” Mr Jerkings ended up saying “We fear he may be hiding somewhere on the Estate and Margaret disappearance could be connected to it, but it’s a stretch”

  “Why is it a stretch? And why wasn’t informed of this earlier?” the Duke’s feeling was right, he didn’t appreciate at all not being informed of such things earlier

  “Margaret had been missing from the day before Mr Kepler was fired, so there could be no connection between the two events” Mr Jerkings explained the situation then added to answer the other question “and we didn’t inform you of Mr Kepler because we needed time to confirm the information first”

  “What about the guard you had assigned to Veronique, did you intend to ever inform me about it?” the Duke followed up bitterly, making the head butler flinch and be at a loss of words before he caved and started talking

  “I had thought of it being a necessity due to Veronique’s maid background” Mr Jerkings came clean knowing it was pointless to lie

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  “What about Veronique’s maid?” the Duke pushed, wanting to know everything as it should have been his right in the first place

  “She’s his younger sister” Mr Jerkings had confessed then added, his head low out of shame “I am sorry my Lord, I have failed to do a proper background check on the girl and I thought the guard would keep Lady Veronique safe just in case Lucia had bad intentions”

  “So you stayed silent hoping to cover your mistake without my notice” the Duke accused him

  “I am s-“Dear, don’t be mad with Mr Jerkings I was the one to tell him I wanted to deal with the Maid personally and to not bother you about it” Duchess Lucretia interrupted Mr Jerkings apology and took responsibility from him

  “Is that so?” the Duke inquired completely displeased

  “I know how sensitive you still are on the subject so I wanted to spare you some grief” the Duchess had voiced her reasoning for acting this way, but to the Duke it wasn’t enough

  “Knowing the two of you went behind my back gave me far more grief, I am the leader of this household and I must know everything going on within those walls no matter how unpleasant they may be” he scolded them, then emphasized in a warning tone “Never do such thing again”

  “Of course my Lord” they both said in chorus, he had essentially let off with a warning, but they both knew there would be consequences if they did such thing again

  “Now Lucretia what were you planning to do with the maid?” the Duke focused on his wife

  “I investigated her family’s situation” Lucretia started explaining “They are still quite upset about what happened to him and still think-” “Stop saying him as if he’s some sort of bogeyman, his name was Pietro” the Duke interrupted, he had grown annoyed of everyone avoiding saying their names and given what Mr Jerkings and Lucretia had just done because they thought he was too sensitive on the subject it was time he got over it.

  No matter how much it would hurt him to hear her name again.

  “Very well, they believe Pietro was innocent and are quite critical of the Aurelia, but as far as I could find out they were completely opposed to Lucia coming to in this household” Lucretia illustrated her findings “I am still trying to discern the maid’s true intentions, but we can rule out the rest of her family for whatever she is planning”

  “In short you are still trying to assess the situation, but have no plan of action” the Duke wasn’t impressed and decided to take matters in his hands “Very well have Lucia called to me, I will deal with this” he would solve this within the day.

  “But-” “No buts, I prefer to solve what’s in front of me before it becomes a problem, I will gauge Lucia’s intentions myself” the Duke wouldn’t be deterred of his intent, then he focused back on the head butler “Mr Jerkings go give Commander Regulus the order to organize a search for Margaret, she could have gotten lost in the Outer Garden”

  “It will be done my Lord” Mr Jerkings obeyed and was out of the room after bowing to the Duke

  “Alfred, do you really think Margaret got lost in the Outer Garden?” Lucretia had asked

  “It’s improbable, but it’s still worth to try” Alfred responded in a tired tone

  “Lucia’s family critical views are slowly turning the population against us, I am afraid of what could happen once the news of Margaret’s disappearance spreads” Lucretia voiced her fears

  “It will take time for the commoners to regain their trust in us, but the Aurelia won’t fall for so little” Alfred reassured her “and I will be ready to face whatever comes our way”