The duke had never been disrespected on anything even close to such a grand level in his life. Well not by a commoner at least.
He was going to forgive her though. As according to his talkative subordinate, she just might be his and his brother's only chance at surviving this damned curse. By this grace, as long as she managed to prove useful, she'd face no repercussions for her offence. She'd be working for free though.
Or so he thought.
All this in mind he found himself doing something quite unlike a noble. He called off his guards, starred her straight in her disdain filled and yet hauntingly mesmerizing eyes through the glasses that shielded them, answering back all her questions at his own leisure. Astoundingly he even found time to make sure he was getting a kick out of frustrating her while he was at it.
"And what nonsense exactly was written by your noble self in said summons?"
To this question his answer came only after he leisurely unfolded the offensive note before reading it out word for word. At the end of which gasps of shock and incredulity escaped the lips of all the ladies present in the room.
"WITCH NEEDED URGENTLY. Signed Duke ----- Lupus."
Three words and a name signed at the end. A monstrosity of a note written by an ignorant green horn of a young man.
Done reading he neatly folded the note up, pocketing it before returning her gaze to continue his attempt at pushing her buttons ignoring the wide eyed looks directed at him by the shocked ladies of The Hearth. "I do not see what the problem is Madame. Are you or are you not capable of executing all sorts of special tasks?" In this way, a provocative brow cocked, he held her gaze challenging her to do her worst.
Eyes narrowed the Madame simply scoffed at his childish antics and only after pushing securely back into place her glasses which had slipped down her nose bridge a bit did she offer a response to his immature (in her opinion) jabs, "It seems my reputation precedes me."
Her rudely sarcastic commentary due to his prior mental conditioning does nothing but cause a smile to settle at the bottom of his eyes. This gives a mischievous twinkle to them as he flippantly responded with a good natured "It does," seemingly unaffected by her caustic rebuffs.
The Madame at this point felt she had realized what he had come to do.
From the moment she read the message on the request note the Madame had been trying to figure out what the request maker could possibly want from her. However, at that moment from the look in his eyes even without having to peer into his soul, she was certain that this young man, still wet behind the ears was playing with her.
Or at least he was attempting to. This to her was an absolutely confounding discovery.
Especially if one were to consider that she was reputed to be a woman of intimidating intelligence and a thoroughly off putting countenance. A reputation that even she was well aware of. The very silliness of the situation considering this was enough to leave her wondering, just how idle noble men were these days.
Otherwise, how was one supposed to explain the fact that the famously non-religious Young head of the Lupus duchy chasing witches? Especially his choosing to do so in a rival establishment?
In her opinion he was seeking a thrill and she was far from being in the mood to participate in his childish games.
After figuring out his intentions the Madame was far too busy to continue wasting her precious time on the petulant (in her opinion) noble before her. As a result, her formally mildly disgusted eyes condensed into a look of indifference.
This less than subtle change in mental state transformed the previously seemingly approachable but annoyed woman into a figure far out of mortal reach. Her aura in response changed displaying in all its glory her acclaimed temperament to its fullest.
With a dash of anger of course.
This child had come into her establishment to cause mischief and she would not be pardoning him easily.
"Well then, Lord Duke," she began her tone coming out as chilling as it did at the start. Yet with the addition of her current gaze, all on the receiving end of her onslaught even with the lens of her glasses dampening her sharpness a bit was getting a completely different feeling.
If before they got the feeling that she was angry at them, now they felt without the backing of the blue blood running through the veins of some of the people making up their group, they wouldn't even be considered living people to her.
It was a stark change that lead to a slight widening of the formally relaxed eyes of the offending young duke and his in quote no good friends.
"What pray tell of my reputation did you hear your grace that prompted your surprise visit today?" The Madame as relaxed as if she were not the one giving off murderous vibes slowed gradually to a stop opting to leisurely lean on the banister before her rather than actually approach and entertain her guests.
Contrary to her to her otherwise relaxed pose however, she still had a look piercing enough to chill the blood even through the lens of her glasses leveled at them all. She was not going to humor them in whatever game they had planned and was not afraid to show it.
Now no matter how nice the young duke was feeling on this day he was a noble. He had received a nobles training and had a nobles' pride and said nobles pride would never allow him to stay on the receiving end of such disregard from some one of a lower status peacefully.
Fortunately for their mission, before the young duke could strip all pretenses of civility and remind this commoner of her place he was held back by his talkative close friend and subordinate. Who now that in retrospect had been uncharacteristically silent the entire time, well until then at least.
"W-We had heard th-that y-yo-you were good at so-olving problems?" With the amount of stuttering he was doing it was a wonder he was able to spit out what he wanted to get across. This was only natural though.
Baron Psittacine was known for his long winded and honestly bothersome talks but this was only amongst his close friends, family and people of similar interests and dispositions. It was an actual miracle that the socially awkward young man was even able to get any words out when faced with such a beauty.
Especially in a situation such as the one now, where said beauty was imposing such suffocating pressure onto him.
Even when said beauty never even bothered to spare him more than a bored glance from the very moment she stepped in to their line of sight. A glance that in all honesty would never even had come his way had he continued to remain mute.
"Yes we do solve problems." The Madame drawled lazily indifference pervading her every word as she signaled for the assistance of the security detail under her employ. "Problems we find not troublesome or interesting. Your request in my opinion fits neither of those criteria. So as much as it saddens me, and it doesn't mind you, I'll trouble you to leave my establishment. Business has been busy these days and I have no time to entertain whatever this is."
The Duke held her gaze steadily for a moment, only breaking away to look at his friend who had broken out into chuckles. The Marquis, who previously busied himself enjoying the refreshments laid out before him, at this crucial moment choose to good naturedly raised his tea cup to the Madame in a show of peace. "Your customer service truly is as impeccable as rumored." Only to offer sarcasm riddled compliment with a smile on his face.
"As appreciated as the complements are, I would still appreciate you all leaving my establishment." The Madame wanted them out and she was not budging on this.
As much as it pained the young nobles to endure her polite yet disregarding way of brushing them off, they had to continue opposing her. This was a matter life and death after all. And their noble's sense of entitlement aside, this woman was their only hope at the moment, well at least the only one they knew of.
Hence as impatient as the young duke was to leave this place, the continuous anxious glances being shot his way by a certain baron were enough to keep him from leaving. After all this was their only lead to saving his brother from his current suffering. So the proud young duke of house Lupus could only step up his game and take this woman seriously.
"Listen, Madame. We really don't want to be here either but thorough investigation has us believing you are the only one we can reach out to for the purpose of solving our current problem." His lazy drawl was gone by now showing he was done playing and now down for business. His natural resting bastard face however was not earning him any favorability points unfortunately.
"Your note said you needed a witch. We have no witches here." Even if he was serious but so was she.