If he had been asked he probably would have lied but in truth Rufus Barma had never expected the lady who his affections had belonged to for such a long while to say yes. He was utterly shocked when his servant had come back from the Rainsworth house with good news for the first time in the man's life.
As soon as he had fully processed the fact that he was soon to be on a date with the wonderful woman he had loved for all of eternity, he hurried to get ready for the date. Duke Barma, being the type of man that he was, drove everyone in his household insane every time he had to pick out an outfit. This instance was probably the worst of all those occasions.
First, the now filled with pride Rufus had Reim take every single article of clothing out of his closet. It would have been a laborious task for most, but considering the fact that this man had practically been doing it since birth it was quite easy for him.
While Reim pulled out every piece of attire deemed appropriate for a date with the Duchess of his master's dreams, Rufus began to take a bath. This may seem like an ordinary occurrence for the Duke. It was almost exactly the opposite. He had servants pull out every single soap and bath salt in the closet. Then, Rufus took about an entire hour simply splashing about and singing to himself. The result of his endeavors to smell as best as he possibly could and somehow become calm and chill ultimately resulted in a bubble covered bathroom mess that a certain servant would most likely be forced to clean up by himself.
After Rufus's bath, he came out from his private restroom and walked to his enormous vanity. He called upon Reim to stop pulling out clothes from the wardrobe (yes, he was still doing that after an hour) and come brush his master's hair. Reim promptly did what he was told and walked over behind Duke Barma.
Oh, god If Break ever heard about this I would never hear the end of it, Reim thought as he performed the ridiculous request of brushing each section of bright red hair 100 times. Rufus was always aiming to get some sort of reaction out of everyone and this command was no different. Since Reim was pretty much the closest servant to the duke, he had learned it was best not to show any signs of a reaction and just go along with any ludicrous things that were asked of him. After all, if you reacted you were just playing along with Rufus's games.
It took around another hour for the hair brushing endeavor to be over and done with. Then Rufus rose from his plush velvet stool and walked towards the heap of clothing piled upon his bead. He began to vigorously disqualify ensemble after ensemble, promptly throwing them on to the floor and creating yet another mess that his number one servant would have to clean up later. As he did this, he mumbled things like "too boring" and "she'll expect me to wear that."
After deliberating with himself for awhile on which outfit was best, he finally decided on what Reim considered to be the most flamboyant outfit in Rufus's entire collection. It was a white suit with a long tailcoat and gold buttons, black pants that flared out at the calf, and a blue button up shirt. This was all topped off by the duke's long flowing mass of almost unnaturally bright red hair which made practically everything flamboyant.
Rufus then took a glance at his pocket watch, realizing it was almost eight. He rushed out the door and called a carriage, leaving poor Mr. Lunettes and the other servants in the mansion to clean up his mess by themselves.
"What could it be that you two are talking about so secretively?" Cheryl asked her granddaughter and the man closest to her.
"Nothing!" they both responded simultaneously, startled that the duchess had wheeled behind them so quietly.
"Oh, I see. Gossiping are we?"
"What exactly are you implying we were talking about, Grandmother?" Sharon said making her best innocent face.
"Oh, nothing," the old woman said with a laugh. If they don't want to be honest with me, then I'll just play dumb.
"Excuse me, Duchess Rainsworth, but Duke Barma is here to pick you up for your date," a servant said politely as she opened the door to the study.
A/N: Sorry this took so long! I was busy over Thanksgiving break and I never got around to it… I had promised myself I would make this chapter at least 3 pages long but I only made it to two… I need ideas! So if you have any suggestions, please review or private message me! Hope you liked it! -Saha
