The rest of the day, Becca focused on setting up all the details for the wedding banquet. I helped as much as I could, but at some point, it was too over my head, so I snuck out with James to get him to help me practice my dancing.
Luckily, he was able to describe everything to Becca quickly, so he had enough free time to help me out. In my past life, I was a pretty average dancer, but I had never done a serious ballroom dance before. Also, this was a new world and culture, so they might have a brand new type of ballroom dance that I had never seen before.
I wanted to make our first ballroom dance together in front of all the nobles especially special, so I had to find any free time I could to practice.
James taught me the steps and we quickly started to practice. James asked if I wanted to bring a female maid in to play the part of my partner, but I didn't want to do something that would potentially make Becca jealous, so I told James to play the part of my partner.
Other noble men might find it awkward to dance with another man, but I was secure enough in my masculinity that I didn't care. I just wanted to learn as fast as possible without Becca noticing.
When we first started, I wasn't so bad that I was stepping on James feet, but I was always a beat or two behind the rhythm. After an hour of practicing, a maid came in saying Becca was calling for me.
I met her at the entrance of the manor. The carriage was ready to go, so I assumed she wanted to go out somewhere. "Hey Becca, what's the plan?"
Becca looked a little distraught, "where were you just now? I was so focused on planning the decorations in the ballroom that the moment I turned to look for you, you were long gone…"
I tried my best to explain to make her heart be at ease without revealing what I was doing. "Me and James had to step out to do something…"
Becca pouted, "I thought you said you would let me know about all of the Duchy's business deals, so I can help you manage it as equals."
"Just trust me, it's best for you not to know until the time comes. It's going to be worth it."
Becca locked eyes with me and the look of love she gave me was to the level of someone who would trust that person with their life. Then she smirked, "I was just pulling your leg. I know you would never leave to dilly-dally while you knew I was working hard on something. Now come on, we are going into town to try to find a suitable dress."
Once we were inside the carriage, I asked, "how many dress shops are there in town to visit?"
I was used to my world, where shopping for clothes with your girlfriend would take all day long, looking at countless different clothing stores.
Becca enlightened me, "there is only one shop in town that is of a good enough quality to make a dress for a Duchess to wear to her wedding banquet. We just have to hope they have a ready to wear dress in stock that looks good enough and can be adjusted to fit me in time…"
I reminded her, "if worst comes to worst, you can still wear the dress you originally had for the wedding banquet. Even if it looks ugly, at least it will be of the right quality."
Becca sighed, "I know, the really problem is that if I'm wearing such an ugly dress, it will be hard to convince the nobles that our loving relationship isn't just an act we are putting on."
"I can see how they would think that…but even if our first impression is suspicious, they will be convinced once we act that way from now on and start created our laws."
Once we reached the dress shop, a worker come up to us enthusiastically. "Hello Duke and Duchess Harrison, please take a seat and make yourself comfortable."
Once we were seated, the middle aged women asked, "how can I help you today? We have plenty of exquisite designs in our catalog this season. Plenty that have never been worn before and would suit a Duchess such as yourself."
Becca put her hand on her head awkwardly, "actually, we need a dress for our wedding banquet this weekend. The one we were originally planning to use got damaged by accident."
The workers smile immediately vanished. She muttered in a low voice as if thinking to herself in dismay, "this weekend…that's impossible…"
Becca quickly chimed in, "don't worry, we understand the difficulty of our request. We just want to look at your ready made dresses and see if any could be used as a last resort."
I also added, "money is no object, so I hope you can make us your number one priority even if there are other orders that came first."
The woman explained, "the fact that you are the Duke and Duchess automatically made it so you were our number one priority. The really problem is time. If our best seamstress worked on it day and night, it would still take a full week…"
I sighed, "I see. Well then, please show us the ready made dresses you have in stock and hopefully we can find something that catches our eye."
The woman bowed and ran off. "I'll bring over everything we have!"
Sadly, after looking through all the dresses, Becca did not have much hope. "None of these dresses are dresses a bride would wear. They are much too casual..."
I leaned over and whispered in her ear, "so what do you want to do? Pick the best one here and try to get it fitted to your size or just go with the ugly dress?"
Becca contemplated for a while before shaking her head. "I'll just use the ugly one, at least it looks like a dress fit for a wedding banquet."
I turned to the worker, "sorry, we are going to have to pass on these dress. We will figure out a way to fix our original dress instead."
The women's face quickly turned pale. "I'm so sorry Duke Harrison!"
I waved my hand, "it's not your fault. There are absolutely no hard feelings."
The woman hesitantly replied, "next time you need a dress, we will give it to you for free."
I protested, "You don't have to do that, we have plenty of money to spare and want to pay a fair price to our local businesses."
Becca and I soon entered our carriage with the woman still bowing profusely outside of the dress shop.