The Queen's Black Cat
Chapter 2: A White Lily
Ciel
I sit on my bed waiting, Sebastian slipped on my shoes and had begun to tie the laces together when he noticed my aggravated expression.
"Sir, is the ball really causing you so much distress?" I hate balls, parties, and dancing most of all. They all require socializing and putting on a face that does not belong to me. Like a fake man, like a blank expression I must mold to their preferences and do as I am told. A young boy like me should just shut up and listen to the adults. But the adults are the worst of all. They are so blind to not notice that they were once children, that they are only criticising their horrible skills to bring me up right. It is their fault, and adults are too childish to want to fix the problem.
"I suppose." I roll my eyes. This nautical decor was really putting a damper on my mood. Not that it needed any help. While Lady Florence had explained that my room had collected pieces from all the most famous ships in the world. Some travelled across oceans to make a home in my room. Too me they just look like they maid picked them up after they washed up on the shore.
After Sebastian finished my shoes, he helped me into my dinner jacket and tied my bow tie tight around my neck. When he finishes, I turn around and look up into his blood red eyes.
"The maid told me that during the middle of the ball that the Countess arranged for you two to meet. There you will discuss your arrangement.
"Sebastian." Looking up at the ceiling I sigh, maybe Sebastian would know how to describe our hosts. "What do you think about our host and her maid?"
I hear the door close and glance over at my butler. His shining black hair and captivating red eyes seem to glow. Why, I have no idea.
He closes his eyes as though to think about his answer. "The Countess seems like an obsessive young woman that looks like her childhood was cut short. Her maturity is far beyond her age level. Yet her maid... Her maid is mysterious and dark. Her accent suggests that she is from London, yet her behavior and mannerisms suggest otherwise."
"I see." I hold my hand behind my back and walk over to the windows looking out over the midnight garden.
"Is that all your lordship?"
"Mmm? Yes. I expect to see you in the ballroom later. "
"Of course m'lord." And with that the door closes and he leaves. Now all I had was time. Minutes until I would be expected downstairs and then expected to dance and expected to socialize.
...
I walked down the red silk hallway. Passing the painting and tapestries that would be passed down from generation to generation. Portraits of older relatives, yet there are none in the building. Odd. Very odd. Everything about this manor screams odd. The way the maid can take charge over a butler and he to not even think anything of it. No male heir to a company. Her fiance no where in sight. And even she, the Countess, in her strange eccentric ways. We had tea an hour after our usual time, which is even late for some other nobles. Odd. Very odd.
I could hear my heels clicking on the stairs, yet when I stop to observe the guests in their play and merriment the clicks of someone's heels continue. I look behind me up to see the Countess walking down the vast staircase. Her pure blonde hair tumbling and curling gracefully down her shoulders like the waterfall she replicates in her architecture. Her seamless bangs curve into her ear where a vibrant lily lay. Her elegant violet eyes stare seductively down at me. The sage green on her dress alludes her growing breasts that were soon to grow in her youth. While her curves are very few there is a hint of them in her age, she must be older than I if this were to be true. Long elegant white gloves ride all the way up to her forearm where they ripple off. A tiny velvet ribbon is tied in a bow around her neck, draping down her elegantly. Everything about her appearance is perfect and precisely placed in accordance to a single flower.
I stare at her not realizing the fact that it is so obvious. Her clothes are all dedicated around a single flower. Her morning dress mimicked the white and pink cherry blossoms and her evening ball gown practically screamed the meaning behind the white lily that the Greek culture so believes. Her gowns were simple and pure, just like her. Her practically blonde hair against the darkness of the world reveals her genuine personality. The Countess is not some kind of woman wishing only to get married and pass on a heir to her empire, she is an intelligent woman that knows the natural from the normal. Why else would she serve me tea at the correct tea time if we were still traveling around her home. It would have broken the train of thought and corrupt our minds. Everything for the Countess is calculated, unequivocal in her thinking, and absolute.
I have never met another person like her. Her pure blood natural, her glorified ruling over every person is definite and completely sound in every order. She is a true noble, and I respect her like a Queen.
"Good evening Earl Phantomhive. Have you also just finished changing?" Rose lips move into words that I absorb into my ears.
"Yes Lady Florence." I hold out my hand to glide her down the stairs, her delicate hand slips into mine like a silk glove. Her lips pass my ear as she begins to walk past me.
"Your butler will show you into the morning parlor at around ten sharp. There we can continue our discussion further." Her whisper is like a fairy.
"Of course your ladyship."
Then we part until later that night.
…
I never dance. While Sebastian requires me to take lessons, I hate it with a burning passion. That is why I never dance unless it is in dire need. There is a saying that dancing is a social act, where one might meet their mate, however I find it to be filled with nervousness, and trite. Women must dress up like clowns and prance around like they are dogs in a circus. The men, oh!, the men. The men, even I, must dress up and act like fools as well. Speaking politely, not showing any true emotion. As if we are hiding our true selves under our own skin. Must we all act like pawns so that one couple may come out of here together tonight?
The Countess's ballroom is set on the eastern side of the house, taking up most of the space with its long rectangular shape and tall windows. The walls are painted like it is midday on a summer's morning. Long grass with wild flowers decorate the walls and puffy white clouds adorn the ceiling, some small yellow couches dot the corners of the room and tall roman pillars sit in between each set of doors. I peer over into the darkness to see what is beyond the glass doors which protect the guests and I from the elements outside.
Outside, a large stone wall sits near the edge of the ballroom, the wooden gate connects to a brick pathway that weaves and curves its way around the garden. And a garden it is. Quietly sleeping flowers of all places lay resting. Roses, Tulips, Forget-me-nots, Lilies are just a few ones I could see through the little light that shines through the windows. In the center of this flower garden sits three muscular men. They hold up a plate, which three more men hold, however they are small, then so on and so forth. Small bubbles of water drip from the top and trickle down creating a waterfall effect that astonishes me. I have never seen a water feature like this before in my life. Even in all my travels.
In the back of the room a tall grandfather clock chimes ten times and I feel a hand on my shoulder. The touch is light and calm. "Yes, Sebastian? Is it time?"
"Yes m'lord."
I turn to him and look up at him. His glossy hair and pale skin radiates in the candle light that shines from the two large crystal chandeliers. In the lapel of his jacket a white rose glistens in the light, which was not there when he dressed me earlier on in the evening.
We walk walk out of the large ballroom and cross the front hall with the curved staircase that opens up to the second level. We cross the hall and enter the sun yellow parlor. Yet at night the color that once seemed quiet reverted into a peach orange. The crackling fireplace fills the empty air. Sebastian opens the door for me and quickly exits once I enter the room. The Countess sits in a silk blue chair facing the fireplace. Her face lighting up with the glow of the embers. I sit in the adjoining chair next to her.
She reached over and lifts a small golden bell. A tiny jingle enters my ears then disappears almost as though signaling that this meeting would not be too long, however I could just be over analyzing everything.
"How do you like the party Mr. Phantomhive? Is it to your liking?"
I look over at her, at the stairs she seemed so large. Larger than life, yet now. Now she looks like a young girl thrown into a position that she never wished to have. Almost like…. "Yes. Your musicians are especially well versed."
She pauses and turns her head to me, a kind and almost pitiful expression is displaced on her face.
"I had tried to write to your fiancee, but her butler wrote back that she was out on holiday over in Ireland."
"Yes, Elizabeth is visiting with her brother. She would have loved all your decorations." I smile at her. It seems odd, but I had completely forgotten all about Lizzy until just now. How could I be such an airhead?
"Next time you must both come. I'm sure Alois would love to meet you two as well."
Alois? I know I have heard that name somewhere. But for some reason nothing is connecting.
We both look back to fire for a moment before a reticent knock rippled through the room.
"Come in Estelle."
I turn to look at maid coming into the room with a silver tray. Two small tea cups with delicates Lilies painted on it are placed on the small table between the Countess and I. A silver tea pot adorned with flowers pours hot water into the cups.
"A mixture of lavender and rose petals as to ease a tension filled night. Shortbread cookies from the states with a vanilla icing on top." The maid plops two sugar cubes into the Countess' tea and places a small cookie on the side of her plate.
With a clink of the silver tray and a click of the door closing, the maid leaves the two of us in silence once again.
Personally silence always seemed to be a bother. If nothing was being said, then I need not be there. Say then leave and get me away from this party so I do not have to dance any longer. Well, then maybe this silence is postponing my dancing. But to any accord I speak as to get this tension done with and the meeting over which the Queen so desperately wishes for us to meet.
"We might as well begin this. The Queen has sent me a letter ordering me to attend a ball here. Supposedly we have a new found partnership that neither I nor you have consented to. Would you know the root of this problem?"
She looks down and picks up her tea and sips as the sTeam and fragrance puffs into her face. Placing it down on the side table next to her she calmly looks back at me and smiles.
"Ciel let me tell you a story."
"A story? What kind of meeting do you think this is?!" I stand agitated with the Countess's presence. How could she treat her guests like they were children? While I am a child still, I have been told many a time that I am more mature than any of my peers.
She looks up at me. Her lavender eyes speak with a serene delicacy mimicking a calm ocean breeze. Her calm demeanor eases my high tension that seems to be building in my core. I sit back down.
"When I was much younger and my parents were still alive I had often questioned what my father did for work. It is common knowledge that every Taylor family member has worked with fragrances and perfumes since their early years, including myself. So it was not odd for my father to leave on a business trip return home for a few days. Yet there was always a certain trip that he would take, on the same day, and same month year after year.
"That trip was on this month, and on this weekend. While it has been few years since the last time my father and the other recipient have met, there is supposed to be a correspondence between the two. Because in the good words of my father "to know the right cases from the wrong ones, you have to know the investigator."
She ended her short story and cocked her head to the side a little like she had done in the conservatory. She waited for my response. What was she implying? Does she think I am some kind of scotland yard detective? Or could she know about…. No. That is not possible. Yet it is a known fact among the nobles. She she trying to say that she is the… No, she is not the Queen. The Queen an elderly woman living in her mansion in the north. Is she saying that she is the infamous Black Cat?
"Are who you say you are?" I did not want to say in case of making a fool of myself. In detective work the best way to get answers is to know at least three possible answers to your questions.
A smile crept on to her face and her violet eyes teased my tormented mind. "And who would that be?"
I sit further back into the chair, she knows my methods. This girl was no ordinary heiress. Her intellect was high above Lizzy's, her grace and stature far beyond any other peer her age, and she successfully runs her company without flinching. This girl was taught by a master of their trade.
There was only one thing to do, play the game which she placed on the board. "Depends. I have three options, and you can only be one of them I presume?"
The fire light dances in her eyes and the candle light dims. The laughter and hum of conversation from the party seem to be disappearing as the guests depart, leaving the house empty except for me, the Countess, and the servants.
"Yes. Unless I am all three, but that is false. I am one, only one."
"Have you ever played the game Destiny?" To find out who she is without making a fool of myself I must one up her on almost every sentence.
"Destiny? Such as the game from your toy company?"
"Yes, do you know the rules?"
She does not speak but only waits. One point for me.
"I will ask a series of questions that can only yes or no answers, I will then eliminate any answers until I find out who you are. However there is a certain amount of time that is I do not get the answer in that time, I lose. We then switch roles."
"But Earl, there is a flaw."
My eyes widen. A flaw. None of my games ever have a flaw. In all of them I am in control. I created it, how could she already beat me at my own game. "A flaw, how?"
"I already know who you are." Her lavender eyes mock me. She mocks me. But I grin anyway. She is a truly worthy opponent for me. One point for the Countess.
Hi again everyone! I hope you all like the progression of the story. I'm sorry it is a bit slow, but the story seemed to like this pace! Also I think that I'll try to make the updates to once a week on Fridays. While my midterms are coming up in two weeks, I'll still try to keep posting. I already got a head start on Chapter 3. See you next friday! Review!
~Karisma Jestler