The Gardens

  Veronique had been expecting to just hang in the background and read her book while Rhea did whatever it is that she did, but it seems as if the kid got a weird fascination with her and was a bit hyper about her.

  Now this was a situation that should alarm her, given that technically Rhea would play a role in the whole getting sent to an insane asylum scenario, but such alarm stopped ringing the moment she thought it about for more then five seconds.

  Rhea didn’t actually do shit, she was more a victim of Veronique then anything and everything that ended up happening was from other people reacting in her defense, so all Veronique really needed to do was to treat her normally and not try to kill her.

  She eyed two of the Dead as they improvised a sword fight with their own severed arms, they had been at it ever since another Disarmed came along.

  It made Veronique wonder if all of those with similar injuries liked to hang up with each other, but coming back to her situation she honestly felt she was only in danger of getting sent to a mental asylum if word came out that she saw those things, while Mos and Bos would be safe as soon as she trained them.

  Having them a leash during public events would also help, but the bigger danger to them was no doubt that asshole of the Crown Prince.

  Regardless Rhea was currently gripping into Veronique’s hand and acting pretty much like a kid, probably one more behaved then the usual ones, but she could tell Miss Hawkings wasn’t pleased one bit about it and if Veronique had to guess it was more about the fact Rhea was being friendly with her specifically then some obscure etiquette lesson.

  Veronique was aware that her standing in the household was terrible, and probably Rhea was getting dirt just be hanging out with her, which was why Miss Hawkings was acting so cross but at the same time she was also holding her tongue about it.

  The Duke must have had a chat with her too.

  Still the redhead made an effort to not curse while Rhea was present and keep her language as clean as possible while entertaining the kid.

  Rhea seemed quite fascinated about Mos and Bos, along with the book in Veronique’s possession so their talking was mostly about those subjects.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “May I ask why Lady Veronique choose a book anthology about animals instead of something specific to your dogs’s breed?” Miss Hawkings suddenly spoke for the first time

  “The library staff was indisposed so I had to help myself and this was the closest thing I found” Veronique answered trying to keep her tone polite, the threat from the Duke to take the dogs away looming on her head “but it’s fine this is interesting too”

  “I have doubts the staff was anything below helpful” of course Miss Hawkings wouldn’t believe her “Did you do anything else unsavory?”

  “You can ask Lucia about it, she was there too” Veronique simply said hoping the matter would drop

  “You have to be very careful with those books, they are not toys to just carry around” the old hag had said in a scolding tone, no doubt thinking the redhead was merely playing pretend or something along those lines

  “I know they are not, I thought I would have time to read it, or were you expecting me to just stand in a corner and stare like a creep?” Veronique defended herself holding back the anger from her tone as much as she could

  “We can read in the sun room” little Rhea intervened

  “The sun room?” she asked not understanding what the kid was talking about

  “She means the Music room in the South wing” Miss Hawkings intervened, Veronique couldn’t hide her surprise about knowing they had a music room and the older woman noticed it it “You should know where it is”

  “I don’t get out of my room often” she weakly excused herself

  “You have been relegated to the East wing only in the past year, that’s not an excuse to forget your way around where you live” Miss Hawkings scolded her

  “I thought you were to supposed to just look and only start nagging during the lessons” Veronique couldn’t keep her mouth shut out of the sheer annoyance this woman was inflicting on her.

  “Don’t worry we got plenty to work on during our lessons” Miss Hawkings smugly informed her “and I don’t nag, I correct”

  “Whatever you say” Veronique decided to take matters into her hand and started looking around “Now I suppose this South wing should be…” she got a stick

  “What are you doing?” the woman asked puzzled

  “You said South wing, so I am finding south” Veronique responded as she found a good illuminated spot and planted the stick in the ground

  “I doubt putting some sticks in the dirt is going to help, but as you said I am here to observe” Miss Hawkings commented but the start of an infuriating smile was already making its way on her face

  “How does this work?” Rhea curiously asked

  “Well we know the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so I planted a stick in the ground to observe the shadow it makes and figure out the North, then we just got to walk the opposite way” Veronique started explaining not really getting too much into it cause she didn’t remember all the steps herself, she just knew it worked…and even if she did it wrong she got a fifty to fifty change to get it right by accident anyway.

  “But isn’t the South wing called like that because it faces the Main wing? How would knowing where the North is help?” Rhea had asked out of confusion holding a finger to her bottom lip.

  “Ah…I didn’t know that” Veronique slowly said red darking her cheeks as all of the Dead around her collectively froze to look at her, all while Miss Hawkings just gave a satisfied tight lip smile, the kind one would get from trying to avoid laughing out aloud.

  She needed to get that map as soon as possible.