The Duke’s Study

  “Something concerning you Miss Hawkings?” the Duke had started the discourse as the woman before him seemed too intimidated to speak

  “It’s about Lady Veronique” she had started but trailed off as if she couldn’t find the correct words

  “Madame Luise already informed me, I heard you went a step ahead and are already teaching Veronique an active skill?” he nudged the conversation and at the same time posing the unsaid question on why she went so far off her duties

  “Yes my lord, Hover it’s an harmless and inconspicuous skill, Lady Veronique should be able to use it at her leisure in any moment” Miss Hawkings explained herself then added quietly “I am sorry I had to involve Lady Rhea in it as well, I couldn’t find a way to not make her feel left out”

  “I understand, but I rather assign a specialist to supervise” the Duke wasn’t going to outright reject Miss Hawkings’ idea, but they had a reason to be cautions “We don’t know how Lady Veronique’s excess of mana could influence even the most basic skills, but something tells me this is not why you requested this late meeting” he took a guess knowing Miss Hawkings’s proud character

  “I am afraid the staff is mistreating Lady Veronique” the woman informed him, and he wasn’t surprised to know

  “Go on, what makes you believe such thing?” yet if such accusation came from Miss Hawkings, then things could be worse then he expected and if so he needed to intervene

  “I had asked Lady Veronique why she didn’t pick a book specific to her dogs’s breed for a better result and she had told me that it was the closest she could find to what she needed because the library staff didn’t help her” Miss Hawkings had summed up the previous events “I had thought she was lying and didn’t put much weight to it, but I was proven wrong today when we went to the Library”

  “They mistreated her with you present?” the Duke had an hard time to believe such thing

  “Actually, I followed Lady Veronique’s suggestion see how they acted with her when no one was present” Miss Hawkings words surprised him

  “What did Veronique suggest?” he was curious to know, even if most of the surprise came from the woman actually listening to Veronique’s instructions

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  “Lady Veronique would loudly enter the Library and make a show of slamming the door shut to keep the attention to herself, while I was out of sight and didn’t let the door close the whole way so I could see everything from crack while the staff was too focused on Lady Veronique to notice” Miss Hawkings explained “I saw with my own eyes as Mr Kepler and his staff completely ignored Lady Veronique’s presence and got in the way of her even trying to look at the books by herself” and went on to denounce what she had seen

  “I will address Mr Kepler’s transgression tomorrow, but I doubt you would accuse the staff of mistreating Veronique just for this accident” the Duke declared then fished for more, because he knew there was more or else Miss Hawkings wouldn’t have been so nervous in the first place

  “Lady Veronique has some glaring holes in her memory” the woman had said at last

  “Explain” the Duke demanded to know more

  “She didn’t even know her way around the estate and its apparent she has no recollection of some past events or even basic information that she should know about” Miss Hawkings started elaborating “At first I thought she was merely ignorant or distracted, but then I realized she forgot why you had her sent to the East wing and didn’t even know she had missed out on her prior skill assessment”

  “This is troubling, could it be the mana messing with her mind?” the Duke made an hypothesis, already thinking of calling for a specialist

  “I don’t know, but I found out from Doctor Franklin that she had an head injury in the past year, but when I asked about it he wouldn’t answer” Miss Hawkings had shared her findings

  “I wasn’t informed of anything of the sort, are you sure of such thing?” the Duke needed more before acting, if anything to avoid future conflict and sowing distrust by giving out baseless accusations, but if Veronique’s injury had been hidden from him and the library staff as whole felt so comfortable with disobeying his orders then such things need to be deal swiftly to avoid more incidents of the sort.

  “Doctor Franklin himself let it slip out, but I didn’t have the time to grill him over it on the spot” Miss Hawkings would declare, but something was off with her story and it wasn’t hard for the Duke to poke at it

  “I see and how come you were with Doctor Franklin today?” the unspoken question was what where you doing at the Infirmary if you were supposed to with the girls?

  “Lady Veronique had a nosebleed after I made her fall, she even passed out while I carried her there and I left Lady Rhea unattended in the care of the maids” Miss Hawkings had no problem to confess, even if she felt ashamed for the injury and was sure to be punished for it

  “I understand” the Duke was fully aware that the woman would never do anything to hurt the kids intentionally and was probably blaming herself more then she should over it “I will act the information you have given me and get to the bottom of this, you are dismissed” he came to a decision, all of his staff was fully aware that he wasn’t the kind of man to drag out punishments.

  Meaning if the Duke had any intention of discipling Miss Hawkings he would have done so immediately

  “Thank you my Lord” the woman was grateful for his mercy and bowed at him

  “You always worry too much, I know you wouldn’t hurt Veronique on purpose and Rhea was in the care of the maids” the Duke explained himself “all I ask of you is too keep guiding her and Rhea to the best of your ability”

  “I will my Lord”