‘Did she really just say robot in a pseudo medieval setting where just trying to explain what such thing might as well be a one way ticket to straitjacket at best and a burning stake at worse? Shit, do they have religious fanatics there too?’ she thought low key panicking

  “I mean tools, a mechanism, like a clock…ehm…think of it like opening and closing the faucet, we can’t be like that, we have feelings and a sense of self” Veronique fumbled on her words trying to get herself out of the metaphorical hole she dug herself into.

  “This is true to an fault, but not what’s expected of a noble in a public setting” Miss Hawkings retorted slowly

  “Aren’t we in our home?” the redhead pointed out

  “You are wrong Lady Veronique, the Dinning room in the Main Wing is a public space and the meals consumed there are still a public event for all the staff in the household” the woman informed her “you were banned from there for a reason and the stunt you pulled makes me question the Duke’s generosity of giving you this second chance” Miss Hawkings looked at her straight in the eyes as she said such thing, which was probably why she noticed to the lost look on Veronique’s face “Wait…don’t tell me you have no idea what you did?!”

  “…maybe?” it was all Veronique could say

  “Oh for Luminance” It must be the closest thing the woman had to cursing, then she started explaining after taking a long sigh “Only the candidate heirs sit at the left of the Duke, as a simple member of the family you were supposed to sit one place from the Duchess” she then added to provide more context “You were banned from the Main wing precisely because you refused to accept you weren’t a candidate anymore and threw a tantrum over it”

  “why Veronique can’t be a candidate?” Rhea suddenly asked out of confusion

  “That’s because…she was proven to be unsuitable” Miss Hawking said hesitating as if she meant to say something else, then her expression steeled as she referred back to Veronique accusingly “what I don’t understand is why Lady Veronique doesn’t seem to remember such thing?”

  “…ehm sorry I have no idea” Veronique tried to shrug the question off knowing full well she couldn’t say the truth “So why one seat from the Duchess?” she changed the subject

  “It’s a sign of respect and acceptance of your position” the woman explained “sitting next to the Duchess would communicate that your challenging the Duke’s authority”

  “What if more family members arrive? I don’t know some uncles, cousins” Veronique kept asking hoping to distract Miss Hawkings so she wouldn’t pry more on the matter of her not remembering things that she clearly should know about.

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  “In that case your spot is still the same, you are still directly related to the Duke and as such you outrank the rest of the family” Miss Hawkings seemed to fall for it

  “What if a someone with a rank higher then the Duke attended?” the redhead continued with the questions

  “Then they would be allowed to sit next to the Duchess since they already outrank the Duke” Miss Hawkings responded “you will have to move only if it were more then one guest, but that would only happen if several members of the royal family decided to attend all at once, which would be impossible”

  “Why?” Veronique kept the act up even if she didn’t really care about the answers

  “The Royal family would never sent out more then a single member to attend any event to avoid showing a clear preference to one Noble family over the others” the woman responded

  “What happens if one of the guests sits next to Rhea?” she quickly thought of another question since Miss Hawkings did imply earlier that all the family members were to sit to the right.

  “Guests don’t usually sit at the main table if not expressively allowed by the Duke, in that case they do sit to the left, but it is proper of them to sit one seat away from the candidate heirs” she could hear Miss Hawkings was starting to get upset

  “Why?” she kept pushing

  “Because doing so expresses an intention of marrying into the family” maybe it would have been better to not know such thing

  “Err but she’s a child” now that was disgusting

  “Betrothals have happened younger, but it is indeed of bad taste if an older noble were to suggest such thing” the woman responded with an clear hint of disgust in her voice, which made Veronique’s opinion of her better.

  “I don’t want to get married” Rhea worryingly said in a quiet scared voice

  “The Duke would never allow such thing before you are of age” Miss Hawkings was quick to reassure her “anyway if Lady Veronique has finished setting me off to tangents, we have other matters to discuss” dang she noticed

  “…yea” the redhead admitted bracing herself for some more questioning and wondering what she could do to get the older woman off her trail

  “So what does Lady Veronique think she did wrong?” Veronique was pleased to know that she got away with her blunder from earlier

  “Well?” the woman demanded an answer, which the redhead needed a moment to think about, all she knew for sure was that she royally messed up by sitting in the wrong spot, but for the rest she didn’t have much of a clue aside of one other thing.

  “Everything” she ended up answering

  “…Pardon?” this seemed to take Miss Hawkings back as she totally wasn’t expecting such answer

  “Well there are probably some rules about just sitting, which utensils to use to eat, how to eat, walk, maybe even breath” Veronique sincerely said “ and I doubt planting a stick in the garden was ladylike behaviour, so I probably did everything wrong…even if I wouldn’t be able to say exactly what useless rule I broke”

  “You would be correct, but don’t fret I will make sure to refresh your memory of all of those rules in a way you will never forget again” Miss Hawkings took a few moments herself to respond

  ‘Was that some kind of threat?!’ she thought not liking the way the woman was looking at her with such determination in her eyes.