PART ONE
Chapter One: Engagement Party
Viola stood in the drawing room with her cousin Lottie Swanborough. Viola was no noble, in fact Viola's aunt had married a rich lord. Whereas her father is a average lawyer. Viola's life was by no means hard, she just had a few more siblings than Lottie.
Tonight there was a party in honour of her cousins engagement. The only good thing that had came out of this for Viola was the fact that she got to go shopping with her aunt and cousin so she could pick out a dress for the ball.
"I'm so excited!" Lottie said as she jumped and clasped her hands together. Lottie soon noticed Viola's hard expression. "Why are you excited cousin?"
"Believe me I am." Viola replied as she placed a hand on her chest. "But marrying someone you have only met once?!"
Lottie sat there completely unsure what to say. She knew that arranged marriages were becoming less frequent. People had started to love people and marry them because of love and not the pile of money behind them. As if someone had answered a silent pray, someone knocked at the door.
"Excuse me." The maid stated as she walked into the room. "The lord wishes that you start to prepare for the occasion tonight." She said with a bow.
"Alright," Lottie said. "Viola and I will begin getting ready."
"I will inform the master." The maid said with another bow and soon walked out of the room.
Viola and Lottie made their way into Lottie's dressing room, there it had both of the dresses and different hair and make up things that will help to change their looks for the night. With some help from the maids the pair began to get into their dresses. Lottie's dress was a nice deep red, where Viola's was a deep green. Viola had also brought her mothers pearls to wear. She may not agree to the whole 'arranged marriage' thing but she was very excited to have a reason to dress up like she was royalty.
Just plain make up was currently the fashion in London, so the girls did nothing but had some powder, a little bit of blush and lip gloss. They smiled at each other once they had finished doing their hair and make up.
"You look beautiful Viola." Lottie exclaimed as she came around to give her cousin a hug.
"You do too." Viola smiled back at her cousin.
The pair waked down to Lord Swanborough's study to say that they were ready for tonight. Viola could never get tried of the decor of the house. Just walking down the gallery was beautiful. Everything had gold trimmings and many paintings that adorned the walls around it. AlHe though Viola did stay at her cousins often, she would never get used to the posh lifestyle that they lived.
"Father." Lottie called out as she walked into the room.
Lord Swanborough looked up from the paper that he was writing on and looked at both Viola and Lottie. He smiled warmly at the girls.
"You both look very beautiful." He said as he placed his quill in the pot of ink on his desk.
Viola felt a deep red blush across her cheeks and looked down at the ground. Lottie just smiled brightly at her father.
"Do you think that Edward will like it?" Lottie questioned.
Viola had to stop herself from rolling her eyes, that didn't mean that she didn't roll her eyes at him. She couldn't stand her cousins fiancee. He was too uptight and didn't know the true meaning of hard work.
"I would say that he will find you very beautiful tonight." Her father replied with the uttermost respect for her daughter. Lord Swanborough looked over at the clock on his desk. "We have little over 45 minutes before the guests come." He said getting up. "I will clean up a bit before the ball. I suggest that you should both go into the drawing room and wait for the ball to start." Lord Swanborough said as he stood up from behind his chair. The girls nodded and left the room.
They walked down a flight of stairs and down the hallway into the drawing room. Where there was a maid preparing tea for them. It smelled exotic, it smelled like it had a lot of spice to it. Viola loved the scent. Back at her house she had access to tea, but she didn't have access for tea that was being imported from all over the world. The answer was simple. Her family couldn't afford it. Even though her father was a respected lawyer, they didn't have the money to spend it on tea as she had three other siblings. The maid placed the made tea in front of Lottie and Viola.
"What is this tea?" Lottie said as her nose twisted up in disgust.
"It is a new tea shipped from India." The maid explained quickly as she bowed.
"Hmm." Lottie said as she smelt it again. "I would like to try it."
Viola wanted to say a thing or two to Lottie, but as her mother would say, it is completely un-lady-like to do such thing. So Viola just sighed as sipped her tea quietly.
Moments passed as did the useless conversation passed between Viola and Lottie. Viola watched as the sun started to slowly set below the tall trees that covered the Swanborough Estate. Viola sighed. She knew that the main reason why her mother wanted to come to this ball was so she could have a rich husband. Her mother wouldn't marry out of an arrangement. So she was hoping that she would fall head over heels for a rich lord at the party tonight.
A maid soon came and asked them if they would follow her as the first guests had started to arrive. Viola had stayed in the corner as she watched all of the lords and ladies arrive at the party. Lottie had Edward around her arm as she walked around introducing herself to everyone. By nine o'clock most of the guests had arrived and Viola had danced with a few lords.
Viola stood once again in the corner by herself. She had really thought about leaving the party and going home. She would be more than happy to go away and never attend another party like this one ever again. Viola was hoping that she wouldn't be noticed as she tried to slip away, sadly her cousin saw her and started to run to her.
"Viola!" She called out. "Why are you leaving?" Lottie questioned.
"I have things I must attend to at home." Viola lied and hope that Lottie wouldn't suspect a thing.
"Could you wait one moment?" Lottie asked. "I want you meet one of my very good friends!"
Viola reluctantly nodded and followed Lottie to the other side of the hall. That was when she saw three people. Two appeared to be just younger than her and the other man appeared to be a few years older than her.
"Lizzie!" Lottie exclaimed as she ran to a blonde girl with her hair in curled pig tails.
"Lottie!" Elizabeth exclaimed with the same enthusiasm as Lottie.
"Viola, this is my friend Elizabeth, or Lizzie for short and her fiancee Ciel Phantomhive." Lottie explained as she pointed to them all. "Oh and the person behind Ciel is his butler Sebastian."
"Its a pleasure to meet all of your acquaintances." Viola said as she bowed to them.
Elizabeth and Lottie soon striked up a conversation. That left Viola, Ciel and Sebastian to awkwardly talk to each other. Viola heard the clock go off and she looked at the time and realised that it was eleven o'clock.
"I'm sorry to be abrupt, but I must go." Viola said ready to run back to the carriage to take her home.
"Do you have a carriage?" Ciel questioned.
"No. I was going to borrow one of my uncles." Viola explained.
"Please allow Sebastian to take you home." Ciel replied.
"I wouldn't want to put you out of your way." Viola said.
"It really won't be, after all, he is just my butler." Ciel replied.
Viola nodded and walked with Sebastian towards Ciel's carriage. It was quiet and awkward to say the less. She wasn't expecting a great deal of conversation from Sebastian.
"How long have you been working for Lord Phantomhive? If you don't mind me asking." Viola asked.
"A few years." Sebastian replied as he reached the carriage and opens the door Viola.
"Thank you." Viola replied as Sebastian helped her into the carriage.
"Where about's in London do you live?" Sebastian asked
"Just north of this state, on Penshurting Street." Viola replied.
Sebastian said nothing but got up the front and grabbed the reins. Viola had to admit it was quite a smooth journey home. It was something that she wasn't used to. After all she is a second-class citizen of London. She rolled into the familiar neighborhood that she had grown up in. The houses slowly got better as you got further up the street and towards the high street. Sebastian stopped at the house. He got down and opened the carriage door for Viola and helped her step out. Sebastian stood by the carriage, waiting for Viola to be safely in her house. A woman that closely resembled her opened the door and embraced her into a hug and was quickly asking how her night had gone.
"Thank you Sebastian." Viola replied as she walked into her house. Sebastian nodded and started to return to the Swanborough Estate.
Author's Note: I am back with a new story! It's going to be big and exciting! I did original post this on Wattpad, but soon took it down after the lack of response from it. So, I have decided to post it here! This story will take a back seat on all my current stories. It start's just a few months before the anime starts. It will be obvious when it starts following the anime. I'm slowly working on buying my own laptop, but that probably won't happen until the late future! Also, I've currently go exams on so there won't be any updates on any stories until the end of this month! I hope you are all well…
-ashley
