*** Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from Catherine, although it is awesome :D***
"Oi! Maid get your arse down here." Shouted a rough sailor. Gritting my teeth, I stiffly turned to look at the scum claiming to be a human. I made a start to walk over and serve him when I was groped. I glared at the weasel of a man. Unshaven and drunk, this was really the lowest form of humanity.
"Please let go kind sir." I spoke through my teeth. When he made no attempt to remove the offending appendage, I whacked weasel man on his head with the tray I was carrying. He jumped up and grabbed my throat, his pungent breath making me gag. I squirmed and dropped the tray, earning the attention of the tavern. I blindly reached out to the table and grasped a tankard. Smashing it against his empty skull, he let go and fell to floor.
"What're lookin' at?" The punters went back to staring into the abyss of depression their drinks provided for them. I fell back onto one of the wooden support beams, breathing heavily. 'I really need a better job' I thought.
"Wooould you liiike a shoooee?" A singsong voice came from behind. Alfred had woken up. I chuckled. He was normally annoying but his stupidity was what I needed to cheer up. At times it was like I was his mother, when his wife died, his mind died too. I was genuinely surprised that no one has complained to officials to get him taken away.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" A sleepy Alfred asked.
"I'm Catherine and I work here, you employ me as a maid and I run the tavern for you." I spoke slowly and softly to avoid one of his violent mood swings. I was still healing from the last one.
"Do you now? See I thought it was just me and Martha that worked here." He looked confused. His mind sometimes slipped like this.
"Alfred, Martha died 5 years ago. I help you take care of the tavern." I colour drained from his face and he began to sob. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and shuffled him back to his room. Plonking him on the bed, I gave him Martha's coat. It always comforted him. I left him a glass of water and some handkerchiefs and allowed him to, once again, mourn. I went back into the tavern and began serving customers once more and cleaning up the mess from earlier.
A couple of hours later, my feet were killing me and I was weary. Thankfully the night was getting calmer and people were beginning to leave. Eventually only one person remained.
"Sir I'm going to have to ask you to leave. It's closing time." Silently he downed his drink and staggered out. I wiped the tables and put up the chairs onto them. When I finished mopping the floor, I made Alfred a cheese sandwich. I wrote a note to Alfred explaining that I had locked up and his sandwich was on the counter. I was just locked the door when a smartly dressed child, a man in black with black hair, a man with grey hair and dressed in black and another man dressed in red with dark red hair appeared in the door way.
"May we come in? I see that you are a tavern." Asked the smartly dressed child.
"I'm sorry but we just closed, we are open tomorrow from 8pm to 3am. Come back then." I attempted to leave when the blacked haired man stepped in front of me blocking my path.
"Sebastian offer her something for the trouble." Sebastian held out 3 shiny coins in a white gloved hand. I looked at them startled.
"I'm afraid that I won't be allowed to invite you in here, however if you aren't in need of a large amount of alcohol, then you can come to my place." I wasn't afraid of taking them home with me, my dog was there and he was big enough to take all of them, if I ordered it. Plus I didn't think they would try anything with a child with them.
"That will suffice. Thank you." Said the child. I whipped the money out of Sebastian's hand in a flash, leaving the man with black hair puzzled. I gestured for them to follow me. It was a relatively short walk from the tavern to my small house. It was a tiny village after all. My house was quite small but it was larger than most people on my wage can afford. The landlord gave me a good deal on it as I was a friend of the family. I unlocked the door only to be pinned by my old English sheep dog. He was large for his breed but beautiful. He licked my face and I giggled.
"Ben, c-cease." I chocked out between giggles. Obeying my order Ben hopped off and stood at my side. "Sorry about that, Ben gets excited when I come home." I explained while petting his furry head.
"Quite." Sebastian said. I gathered that he wasn't very fond of dogs.
"Come on in." I led them through to my living room. I gestured for them to sit down. "Brandy?" The men nodded. "And what would you like, young sir?" I asked the child.
"Tea will be fine, thank you." I nodded and poured the brandy. Then I went through to the kitchen to put some water on to boil.
"Tea will be around a couple of minutes." The child nodded. "So what is a smartly dressed child and 3 men doing in the village of Abbyviel? We don't get many tourists anymore." I asked casually.
"Forgive me for not introducing myself, I am Ciel Phantomhive, the current Earl of Phantomhive. This is Sebastian, my butler. That is thing Grell and that is Undertaker. We are here on business and Grell is tagging along, it's business is similar to ours. Actually that isn't supposed to be here but he kept following us" Ciel pointed at Grell, to which Grell gave a look of mock shock. "And Undertaker, well why are you here?"
Undertaker just shrugged and gave a made smile. The kettle squealed and I began to make tea.
"Milk? Sugar?" I called out.
"Neither please." The boy answered.
"Good because we haven't got any." I giggled. I brought it out to him and he flicked his hair. I noticed then that he wore an eye patch. This made him seem more grown up compared to the child he was before. The misfortune of this child just seemed to grow.
"I see you have an eye patch, if you don't mind me asking, what happened?"
"There was an accident in which my parents and my eye were lost." He looked sad. So me being me I rushed over and hugged him. I latched on and clutched his head to my chest. I rocked backwards and forwards with him gently whilst repeating whispers of 'you poor, poor boy'. Ciel struggled a bit then went limp once realising resistance was futile. I glanced at Sebastian to see him smirking. "Swebasstiam." The boy attempted to say while he was muffled by my shirt. Sebastian either ignored his master or didn't hear him as he didn't react at all.
"Ben, blanket." I ordered the dog, to which he trotted from my side and left the room, he went upstairs and returned with a patchwork quilt I had crocheted over many years with the help of my mother. It was large and thick, perfect for nights with a chill. I released Ciel and took his coat. I swapped items with Ben and he again skipped off. "Good boy." I ruffled Ben's head. I held Ciel close and tucked him in to me and the couch. Surprisingly he didn't put up much resistance, I put it down to the time of night. Within minutes the young Earl was asleep. I looked up to receive strange looks from each of the men, well all apart from undertaker who's eyes were unseen. "What?"
"The young master never falls asleep this easily, especially like that." Sebastian deadpanned.
"Oh how I wish to be a mother." Both of us looked at one another then at Grell, we sweat dropped. It kind of made sense what with the way he was dressed and the length of his red hair. He was a bit... feminine. "Especially to your offspring, Bassy dear." I coughed.
"...Anyways, you can all stay to for the night, unless you have alternate lodgings. There is one spare bedroom upstairs, so you will have to share. I'll sleep down here and the Earl can have my bed. Is that ok?"
"Its ok I don't need to sleep. However that would be very nice, miss?" Sebastian answered. Grell glared at Sebastian, I gathered that he wanted to share wit him
"Ok each to their own I suppose... Anyway I'm Catherine Rutherford, but I'm more used to being called Cat so you can call me that too. And none of that miss business, I'm a common working woman." I rose up and lifted my chin. I gently picked up the Earl, I received a small murmur. I smiled and started carrying him upstairs.
"Can you manage, mi- Cat?" Sebastian called.
"Shhh you'll wake him, and I can mange. Years of carrying barrels of ale have treated my well." I whispered. I resumed my journey up the stairs and into my room.
My room was small and filled with three pieces of furniture: a double bed, a small dresser and a small wardrobe. The walls were festooned with a mosaic of sketches and paintings, creating the illusion of wall paper. I lay the boy down, still cocooned in the blanket. I slowly and gently removed his shoes, causing him to wake for a moment.
"Seb- Sebastian?"
"No its me, from before. I'm Cat. I'm just taking off your shoes so you can go to sleep. I told Sebastian that I could manage and that you could have my bed, you fell asleep down stairs." I had finished removing his shoes. "Do you want your patch taken off?" He looked panicky so I didn't touch it. "Its ok, I won't touch it if you don't want me to." I smiled and earned a smile back.
"Thank you, Cat." I tucked him in and he fell asleep once more. I crept out of the room and back down the stairs.
"Ok all done, your room is first on the left. I wanna go to sleep so get your buts up there." They shuffled out. I flopped down on the sofa and patted my lap, Ben jumped up beside me and nuzzled his head into my stomach. I sighed.
"Ok what are you going to be doing while everyone is sleeping? There's a couple of books over there, there's not much but its enough for me. There's some paper and charcoal over there if you want to draw. You can only use two sheets though, that stuff is expensive. Or you can-"
"Why are you doing this for us Miss Cat?" I tilted my head at him and stared for a moment.
"Well why not? You gave me money, a lot of money. I may as well keep up my end of the bargain."
"That's not all is it?" He narrowed his eyes at me. Seriously he was starting to give the creeps.
"I get lonely, Ben is only so much company. Sometimes I need a decent human to converse with. Alfred is kinda loopy and the customers at the tavern are scum. You and the others seemed fairly respectable. What more of a reason do I need?" He shrugged.
"The books are fine. Thank you." He reached a gloved hand into his jacket and pulled out a pair of reading glasses. When he put them on he looked so different, it was hilarious. I chuckled to myself quietly. "Have I amused you Cat?" He looked innocent and confused. Suddenly I burst out laughing. "What is it?" He looked really annoyed.
"Be-en. C-c-cease." Ben stopped licking the crook of my elbow, everyone knows I'm ticklish there. Ben always knows how to help me avoid awkward situations. Sebastian shook his head slightly and wandered over to the arm chair and oil lamp. He narrowed his eyes and glared at Ben out of the corner of his eyes. He definitely didn't like dogs. He began to read 'The Origin of Species' by Charles Darwin. I smiled and snuggled into Ben. I sat thinking about the nights events and how I had gotten into this situation, generally speaking stuff like this happens to me a lot. Thinking about my past made me curious about Sebastian's. He seemed different to the other butlers I've seen, more capable. So how did a twelve year old kid end up with him as a butler?
"Sebastian?" I asked quietly after pondering for a while.
"What is it my lady?" He replied, looking up from the book with a genuine curiosity. He looked rather cute.
"Please just call me Cat." I blushed slightly. "What's your story? I mean how did you wind up with Ciel as a master?"
"There's not much to say, his parents perished in an dreadful fire, he needed a butler after his previous butler was wounded, I needed employment. We formed a contract of sorts and a series of events far too elaborate to explain now brought up to this moment."
"But you could have easily gotten a job with someone with a much higher social rank. You seem flawless." He smirked at the compliment.
"Well I am one hell of a butler." I creased, the line was so cheesy and unexpected, but I felt like he said it a lot, like it was rehearsed. He frowned at me and I stopped laughing. "So what about you?" That question was unexpected.
"What do you mean?" I laughed nervously.
"You live in this moderately sized house, and if you don't mind me saying, you shouldn't be able to afford this on that sort of wage..." I could tell he was trying to be delicate with matter, but I wasn't amused.
"What do you mean that sort of wage? Its true I don't make that much but its the same as my previous job, I'm also an artist so that gives me extra money. And my house is rented from a good friend of the family, well we kinda swapped houses but that's besides the point. I think I have a pretty good standard or living, thank you very much. It may not be overly large or grand like your young master's but it's my home. I spent a long time making this what it is." I sighed. "Sorry I know you didn't mean it like that, I'm just tired and today wasn't... great." I shut my eyes and flopped my head back, like a doll I went limp, leaving Sebastian looking stunned. It was like no female had ranted at him before, I guess Ciel had done many times- it's what children do.
"No I apologise, it was rude of me to assume." He paused, careful about his next words. "How was today bad?"
"The customers are generally sleaze bags which try to, lets just say that they try to do indecent things when they are drunk to female members of staff. My boss has lost his marbles so it is literally me running the place, my wage isn't great and I just hate it. But I need the job in order to by my equipment so I can make actual money. People sometimes pay a boat load for my portraits." I said the last part proudly. Art was the light to the otherwise dark parts of my life- past or present.
"I will have to see some of your work at some time. The young master was thinking about getting a portrait of fiancée done for her birthday, she would enjoy modelling. Perhaps we should see a sample some of your work."
"That. Would. Be. Fantastic. Please Sebastian, please mention me to the earl. Work has been a little dry at the moment, I need a job." My hands met, praying to him.
"I'll see what I can do." He gave a closed eye smile, then continued to read his book. With the conversation ended I snuggled into Ben and fell into the welcome abyss I call sleep.