Elizabeth Midford stared dully at the crowd of dancing figures and swirling colors. Dressed in white like a heavenly angel, she seemed to be the opposite with her grim expression.
"Was it really necessary for me to come?" She fanned herself with her left hand, while her right hand rested in the crook of her fiance's arm. This summer had been positively stifling and no lady was caught without a fan in her hand. "You know how I can't stand pointless activities when I could be doing something much more productive."
"Mother has been worrying about you and your hermit tendencies," Ciel couldn't help but grin a little at her bored pouting. "Besides you always loved dancing, they thought it would be fun to get you out of your study."
"I don't like being holed up in my study believe it or not," She tried to wave the fan faster, but that didn't help. "I'm just busy, you understand that, don't you?"
"Yeah but your always busy," Ciel sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "You wouldn't be so stressed if you relaxed once and a while. Come on, if things get bad I can always fake an asthma attack and get Father and Mother to take us home," He winked with his right eye like he always did when scheming up a joke or something.
"My knight in shining armor," Elizabeth allowed her lips to curl into a smile ever so slightly. It was an old trick that always made Uncle Vincent and Aunt Rachel furious. They'd warn of boys who cried to wolves and how one day they might not believe him, but Ciel kept right on doing it still. He had an impish side that could turn downright manipulative sometimes.
"Does that mean you will permit me with a dance, milady?" Ciel gave a long sweeping bow as a laugh bubbled out of his throat.
"Well, one can't hurt I suppose," She replied ever so coyly. They joined hands and away they flew.
As they glided around the ballroom floor, it occurred to her they made an odd couple: a tall, reserved girl who tried to hide her enjoyment and a shorter boy that smiled freely. But then the Phantomhives had always been unconventional, so Elizabeth allowed herself to be Lizzy again, at least for a little while.
One dance became two, then three, four, and five. She was a bit rusty after a year without dancing, but she was fast relearning those familiar steps. Ciel was patient and let her work out her own pace, slowly getting faster and faster.
At times like this I could almost forget.
Red flashed before her eyes, and Elizabeth had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming.
"Ow," Ciel muttered and she looked down to see that she had stepped on his toes accidentally.
"My apologies, just got a little dizzy," She tried on an awkward smile to reassure him.
"Are you sure?" He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Elizabeth rarely fell ill, especially compared to him.
"Of course."
Ciel opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again and sighed, "Why do you always do that?"
"Do what?"
"Act like nothing is ever wrong. You could have your arm hanging out of its socket and you'd insist you were only feeling a little under the weather."
"Because you Phantomhives blow everything out of portion," She blew a strand of her hair out of her face. "I cough once and you all bully me to spend the rest of the day in bed. I'm sixteen now, not ten. I can take care of myself."
Still Ciel wore that same worrying expression that managed to turn her stomach inside out.
"Ugh, would you feel better if we took a break?"
"It's a start," His face screamed 'I told you so,'. Once the music started to fade away, they hurried off to the side, where old mothers whispered among themselves.
"Can't believe Lady Burland is saying that about Lady Wiltshire when her dress looks like something Frankenstein's monster would wear," Ciel muttered to himself
Elizabeth pinched the inside of his elbow for that.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"Don't be pert. No one likes a gossip."
"That never stops you," A sly grin slipped back onto his face.
"Oh hush," She did not care to acknowledge he was right. "Since you decided I'm too frail to dance, what do you suggest we do?"
"Weren't you moping earlier about not wanting to be here?"
"Well I'm already here, might as well do something," She tapped her chin with her fan, deep in thought. "I'm feeling a little parched. Why don't you get us some drinks?"
"If the lady insists, that I can't say no," Once again, Ciel made a grand sweeping bow. "Until we meet again."
"You're just going across the room."
"Details, details," He tried to scoff in reply, but a flicker of laughter danced behind his eyes. With that, he went in search of drinks.
For a minute, Elizabeth allowed herself to laugh softly at her cousin's antics. He always had a flair for the dramatic, and she had grown to find it entertaining.
But then she stopped herself and set her face into a stoic expression.
Sorry Ciel but I'm going to have to leave you with these gossips.
She gave a cursory sweep of the perimeter to check no one was watching her, and then she made her way toward the stairs.
Elizabeth had to go slowly, as to not draw attention. The Midford name did not turn as many heads as it used, but she couldn't count on not being recognized.
Once she was near the stairwell, she checked again that no one had spotted her. Once she was sure, she dashed up the stairs as fast as she could.
After what felt like an eternity, she was at the top of the stairway, and she let out a sigh of relief. Her feet throbbed in pain, begging for her to rest, but Elizabeth had to just bite her lip and ignore it.
"And I wore low-heels to avoid this," She muttered to herself. Of course flats would have been better, but she looked ridiculous enough as it was, wearing low-heels at her age. Flats would have made her stand out even more,
Whatever, she had a job to do. Elizabeth steeled her nerves and went in search of her target.
"Ugh, Uncle could have told me what I was looking for," She sighed as she tapped her fan against her chin. He had told her to find Duke Diviny's study, but it wasn't as if there was a nice sign pointing her the way.
Looks like I'll have to do this the hard way.
Elizabeth opened the doors one by one, praying she wouldn't run into a servant or someone else. Things would get messy, and this plan was messy enough to begin with.
On her twentieth or so try, (she had given up counting) she opened to find a room decked with bookcases and strange trinkets. In the middle sat an ornate desk, and Elizabeth had to hold back a squeal.
Quickly, she scurried over to the desk, eyes scanning for any loose papers. However, she found all the documents left out were loaded with verbiage. This time she couldn't help but groan. She didn't have time to sift through all this, and she couldn't just take all of them.
So Elizabeth scanned as quickly as she could for words that popped out: human trafficking, Bombay, Forrester. As she should have expected, she found nothing like that.
Think Lizzy, he wouldn't leave important stuff like that out where anyone could find it.
This time, she examined the desk for any irregularities. In the end her scrutiny paid off. On the bottom side of the desk, there was a strange shaped keyhole.
"Diviny probably has the key, but that won't stop me." She pulled a hairpin out with a satisfied smirk and went to work. It took longer than she would have liked, but her unorthodox position was probably the reason why. Finally, she heard a quiet click that was almost music to her ears. The bottom of the desk swung out and a package of papers fell out onto her.
Elizabeth would have been annoyed if she didn't spot the tell-tale signs these were the papers she had been looking for. This time she allowed herself to squeak in delight at her good luck.
She pushed the bottom of the desk back into place and stood up and pushed the papers into her corset.
"I thought I told Nina last time I specifically didn't want to wear white anymore," She grumbled as she tried to make sure nothing tipped off she had been sneaking around. White made every speck of dirt so noticeable, it didn't matter it 'brought out her green eyes'.
Once she deemed herself presentable, Elizabeth took a deep breath and picked her fan back up.
Now's the hard part. Getting out with my life.
With as much confidence as she could muster she marched toward the door. However just as she reached for the doorknob, it swung open. Immediately, she switched her entire demeanor and opened the fan so it covered her face.
"Oi, what are you doing here?" She peeked out to see a giant brute glaring at her.
"My apologies, milord," She adopted a French accent. "I was looking for Lady Diviny. I have been feeling quite unwell and wished to know where the lavatory was."
"She was downstairs at the ball you fool," He growled.
"She was? Ah haha, how silly of me, my father often said I could get lost even in our own home. I apologize," She tried to side-step the man, but he blocked her path.
"Wait a second, you're the-" Elizabeth didn't wait for him to finish that sentence. With a flick of her wrists, knives popped out of her fan, and she slashed his face in one fluid motion.
The man cried out in pain as blood blinded his vision. He reached out to grab her, but Elizabeth easily evaded him and exited the room.
Elizabeth ran and ran. She didn't care about how much her feet hurt or how she must look like a madwoman with blood staining her dress.
Find Uncle Vincent, he said he would be near the servants quarters.
Last week he had given her a map of the place so she could plan an escape route. She couldn't drag all the civilians from the ball into this.
As she rounded a corner, she saw another brutish fellow heading towards her. Her fist clenched tighter around her fan. Looked like she had a fight coming. However, behind her she could here the guy from before roaring in pain. Elizabeth wasn't as powerless as she appeared, but she wasn't sure she'd be able to handle both of them with just her trick fan.
As the thug before her approached, she braced for battle. All of a sudden though, the man collapsed in front of her. She looked up to see Vincent with his poison ring exposed.
"Took you long enough," She panted as she eyed the butler uniform he had donned.
"No time to be smart with me, let's back slang it!" He took the lead as they made there way towards the servant's exit.
They paused several other servants on the way down, but they seemed to be normal for they scurried away at the sight of Vincent's pistol. Though they made quite the ruckus, things didn't start going bad til they made it to the kitchen.
"Take one more step and she gets it," A third brute held a knife to a maid's neck.
In a matter of milliseconds, Vincent and Elizabeth exchanged a silent conversation.
"We can't let normal civilians be dragged into this."
"But we can't hurt more just to save one."
"Can't you shoot his arm?"
"Even if I react before he does, what next? She'll still be in danger, your trick fan would be too short to reach him."
Out of the corner of her eye, Elizabeth spotted a poker, sharp and deadly in the right hands.
Vincent saw where her eyes were focused and nodded in agreement.
"Well?" The thug pressed the knife even deeper.
"Go to Hell!" Elizabeth grabbed the poker and ran to stab him. He moved to slit the maid's throat, but Vincent shot the hand holding the knife, causing him to drop it.
He cursed in pain, but the rest of his words were stuck in his throat. The man looked down and saw Elizabeth had buried the poker in his stomach.
"Look a man in the eye, if you ever are forced to kill."
Mama's words from her childhood echoed in her mind.
"As the future wife of the Queen's Watchdog, Lizzy, you must be willing to stain your hands. You'll be forced in a situation where you will have to decide a man's fate later than sooner, but if the time comes you have no choice, you must be ready."
Mama had been a little wrong when she said the time would come later than sooner, but the rest of her advice had rang true like gospel.
So Elizabeth forced herself to hold eye contact as her victim fell.
The brute's breath grew short as Elizabeth turned away.
"Let's get going, they're waiting on us," Vincent put his hand on her shoulder.
"You're right," She sighed as they made their escape.
When the maid was later questioned by Duke Diviny, she couldn't say much about the intruders except that one had had brown eyes both warm and cold and the other had been a swordswoman of white.
As they all sat in the carriage, each member of the Phantomhive household sat with a different expression.
Vincent's face held exhaustion and fatigue, but the little edges of relief could been seen.
Elizabeth was also tired, but her features still were firm in her stubbornness, green eyes dared for someone to just try to start a fight.
Rachel mainly looked uneasy, concern for her family blatant.
Ciel's face however only held an intense anger, barely bridled. All the levity from the ball was long gone.
"Why didn't you tell us?" His voice came out ice cold as he glared at Vincent and Elizabeth. "Mother and I could have been in danger and not have a clue what was going on."
"Aunt Rachel knew we were in the middle of an investigation," Only after she had muttered those words did she regret them.
"Mother?!" Ciel stared in shock at her. "How come I was the only one in the dark here?"
"Son," Rachel replied, trying to be as soothing as possible. "We didn't tell you because we didn't want you to worry."
"I'm a Phantomhive and fifteen, I can take info like this. Do you take me for a fool?"
"No, but you wear your heart on a sleeve," Elizabeth drawled out. "Could you act so relaxed if you knew I'd be risking my life in a few minutes. You wouldn't. Your stubborn head would insist on coming and then-"
"Enough!" Vincent interrupted. "Lizzy, only speak the truth to inform and comfort, never to hurt."
"So you think I'm an excuse for a Phantomhive as well, Father," Ciel gave a bitter smile. "Lizzy can handle this line of work at thirteen, but I'm still too weak to do anything."
"Ciel, it's not like that," Rachel sighed. "You have asthma, never even shot a gun... We just want you to be safe,"
"When will people stop worrying about me and take me seriously? Do I need to lose my parents as well!?"
Elizabeth saw red again, and this time she bit her tongue so hard it bled in her attempt to say calm.
Throughout the carriage, silence hung. Ciel himself seemed shocked at his words.
"Alright apologize to Lizzy, right now," Vincent was the first to speak, loud and commanding.
"It's fine, Uncle," Elizabeth replied. "We all know my family's dead. I haven't been staying with you for six years because they were on a trip to the Continent or something," She blew a strand of hair out of her face. "Besides we have more pressing matters."
With that she shoved a hand down her dress, while everyone else looked away in disgust.
"Really Lizzy, do you have to be so brazen?" Rachel sighed again.
"I don't have time to be a proper lady," She sniffed in reply. "Anyway... here we go!" She smirked as she pulled out the documents from before. "Sorry if they're crumpled, I couldn't just carry them out in the open, so my corset was the only other option."
"Smart thing, you bricky girl!" Vincent laughed as he ruffled her hair.
"Well now I'm glad I wasn't invited," Ciel was focused now on the floor of the carriage. "The idea of wearing a corset isn't too appealing."
That caused the entire group to laugh, tensions long forgotten now. Even Elizabeth couldn't help but giggle a little.
That's right they're my family, I don't need to worry about being Elizabeth.
And so she allowed Lizzy to live once more, at least for a little while.
A.N. Guess who's back with another long au! Another product of me and my friend Angela, we wondered what it would be like if it was the Midford's house that was set on fire and Lizzy was the only survivor. As you can see many things changed, but many things, some for the better and some for the worse. Don't worry a certain demon butler will pop up soon, but not the way you'll expect. Thanks for reading this and I hope you will follow the rest of Elizabeth's adventures