Kitchen

  “What happened? Why is two more breakfasts needed at the East Wing?” Chef Bernard had lamented, since he was busy preparing the next meal

  “Our new guest scared Lady Rhea off, Lady Veronique went after her and they both ended up not eating their breakfast” Isabella had explained the situation “Miss Hawking thought it was better to have them have it in private” at this the Chef tried to calculate how to prepare both meals, mostly because Lady Rhea was involved

  “Chef just let us two handle it” Elise had intervened “Lady Veronique already appreciates our cooking and I doubt Lady Rhea’s tastes are different”

  “You forget Lady Veronique has been eating my food for the past month” Chef Bernard had boasted “surely she will notice the difference”

  “There is only one way to find out for sure, isn’t it?” Elise had issued the challenge, her audacity earning gasps from all that had been listening in.

  “Do as you want, but I doubt your slop would suit Lady Rhea’s tastes” Chef Bernard had claimed unbothered, at those words Anne felt a strong rage.

  She used it to put her all in helping Elise making the meal, feeling proud as her latest batch of croissants was deemed good enough to serve.

  East Wing, Dinning Room

  Veronique was quite happy when the food arrived, seeing normal filling food over the fancy one, she started eating with gusto right after she finished drinking that disgusting cup of tea.

  At the least she was till she noticed Rhea looking at the food puzzled

  “Hey it’s not as fancy as the one you usually eat, but it’s still food and weren’t you hungry?” Veronique had questioned her, pausing on her meal

  “It just looks so…not pretty” Rhea commented seeing nothing of her plate was neatly arranged as usual

  “It looks like food is supposed to be” Veronique had simply said and waved her off “Who cares if the food looks pretty, it’s all going to turn into mush in your tummy anyway”

  “I guess” Rhea had tried a bit of the toast with peach jam “it tastes a bit bland”

  “Yea it’s because you are used to the fancy stuff” Veronique had explained then urged her to keep it up “but give it a chance and you will find the flavor to be just right”

  “Alright” the child ended up agreeing, mostly because it was the redhead telling her to do so

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Besides unlike the other stuff this one actually fills you up” Veronique ended up adding as she mindlessly munched on her own toast

  “Eh what do you mean?” Rhea seemed confused by the statement, at which Veronique just let out a sigh and ended up saying

  “You will get the difference as you keep eating”

  Rhea decided to trust Veronique on it.

  Main Wing, Dinning Room

  “I liked the other food better” Rhea had exclaimed during lunch making Veronique pale at her bluntness, as she nervously looked over the Duke, a look akin to someone caught with their hand in the cookie jar as the Duke had gave her a side glance

  “What do you mean Rhea?” Duchess Lucretia asked genuinely curious

  “The food me and Veronique ate at the East wing” Rhea elaborated “I liked it more then the usual breakfast” and thankfully for Veronique’s nerves she hadn’t said anything that would directly implicate her.

  ‘Last thing I need is the Duke getting mad at me for making his daughter like peasant food or something’ Veronique had thought, her eye twitching at the thought

  “Did you?” the Duke inquired giving suspicious glances towards a really pale Veronique, who was already worrying about the punishment she would get

  “Yes” Rhea proudly declared

  “I guess then we will have to try it as well, don’t we” the Duke decided to entertain such thing “Send word that whoever cook had cooked that breakfast they will have to serve us the same tomorrow”

  Miss Hawkings’s Study

  Their afternoon lesson was rudely interrupted when the man from this morning had just badged in, the two sisters had stood up and gravitated towards each other, Rhea hiding behind Veronique, while the redhead had a full on glower on the man

  “Excuse me sir, didn’t the Duke order you to wait a day before introducing yourself” Miss Hawking put herself right in between, shielding both girls from his sight

  “Nonsense, I am here so we might as well just start with our lessons” he had declared “I didn’t come over to waste precious time”

  “Who is this pig?!” Veronique had exclaimed full of outrage and righteous fury

  “Lady Veronique!” she was scolded instantly

  “Oh my name is Ivan, but I seem to understand this morning misunderstanding hadn’t been cleared yet” Ivan had introduced himself, at which Veronique just frowned at him and crossed her arms waiting for whatever explanation he was about to come out with

  “I would have done it myself at the end of our lesson, which you are interrupting” Miss Hawkings had declared indirectly telling the intruder to leave

  “Don’t worry Miss I just want to introduce an exercise then I will be out of your hair” Ivan had said nonchalant then sighed as if annoyed before telling his side of the story “But I guess I will start by apologizing for scaring the young Lady, you see I wasn’t unaware of the your silly seating rules and I have no intentions of marrying anyone”

  “…you promise?” Rhea had said, peaking at him from behind Veronique, while the redhead’s rage quelled at little at the explanation but didn’t disappear.

  “Of course, my only love is studying skills and it’s what I want to be doing for the rest of my life” he had affirmed with absolute certainty “So with that said I want you two to start with this” and with that he presented to them a pair of wooden squares which Veronique looked puzzled at

  ‘Those are just children’s toys’ she thought, seeing as they were those wooden rectangles with a marble sealed in, which one was supposed to lead to the exit of the labyrinth without falling in pitfalls by tilting it.

  ‘I really liked the bigger variant with a steering wheel as a child’ Veronique had reminisced out of the blue ‘mostly because I could win bouncing balls at them and I was really good at it’

  “Wait a moment how did you get past the guards!?” Miss Hawking had questioned alarmed the moment she noticed

  “They wouldn’t let me pass so I gave them a nap” at such confession Miss Hawkings just punched him away…he flew through the door.