INSTALLMENT 6
"Are you quite well now?"
"Indeed," she was floating on cloud nine. The intimacy of warm hands and sweet caresses, the cool contrast of his breath and the liquid at her lips. It was all too much. Grell was developing a crush. She looked the boy up and down. No, she did not find him attractive. He was too small, too lacking in the imposing figure of… of that demon who had cast her aside from the moment they met. It was not a crush in the fashion of instantaneous attraction, as she had felt with many over time. But the worry in his voice, the true concept of someone caring for her left Grell speechless. She desired his company, his proximity, his flattery. This was an attraction that spoke to her femininity.
"Has a member of my family wronged you?" his words held that protective pride once more. So beautiful.
"No, not of your family per say," she decided to change the subject. This was not something she wanted to recall. "But I do know your… may I venture to say your cousin? Ciel Phantomhive?""
"Ciel. Unfortunate boy. How did you meet him?"
"I was the but—I knew his aunt, Madame Red." A pang of guilt and regret coursed through her body as she remembered how that woman had abandoned her—left her like every other person in her life. She had chosen her nephew over her lover. Her little brat of a nephew over the woman she supposedly loved. Clearly, she did not.
"Ah, yes, a most unpleasant business. May I offer my condolences, then?"
"You may. Thank you." Grell took another sip of the water. Yes, she would take his condolences, but not for Madame Red. She would accept them as condolences for her heart, now bruised in one too many places.
They sat together for a while more, exchanging pleasantries. Vivien suppressed his desire to compliment the lady, to run his hands through her long, red hair, and fall in love with all her eccentricities. Grell suppressed her wish to throw herself upon this young man's breast and be held in the contact she seldom experienced and often yearned. To feel his life, his energy, his oh-so human heart.
TBC