We arrived at the Drake estate within twenty minutes. I showed Ciel to the lounge where we sat in silence for a long while. I looked up at him to find him studying me. "You haven't changed much." he commented.

"I've changed more than you think, Master Phantomhive." I told him.

"Yes, I noticed that." he agreed. "I was referring, however, to your appearance. I would have thought you would look, perhaps, a little older."

"You know the Drake curse. We each look younger than we are." I mused.

He rolled his eye, or both. He had put back on his eye patch. Then he looked at me with the most peculiar expression. "I was sorry to hear about your parents." he said softly looking at the floor. "It is a terrible thing to loose ones parents for one so young."

"You should know." I commented.

His eye snapped back up to me. "Yes," he agreed "but the difference is: I know how and why my parents died, you do not." he said.

"Not to mention my brothers and sisters."

There was silence.

"I am sorry." he said then he frowned. "Most young women who have lost everything would be in tears by now. You would be wallowing in self pity and regretting all the things you ought to have done. You are an odd thing, Lady Shina."

"Perhaps." I said. "But, if I were to cry, I must fight against it. If I were to regret, I must walk away. If I were only to complain about my own misfortunes, I would be nothing but a common pig."


It was just over an hour later when our butlers arrived. Gabriel was at my side instantly but Sebastian took his time. "Did you find anything?" Ciel asked impatiently.

"We did, my Lord" Sebastian replied holding up several scrolls. "and one in particular fitted the criteria."

"Oh?" I asked.

"Lord Jack Griffith." Gabriel said. "He and Lord David Beaumont had a . . . a disagreement. David involved Sir Richard which angered Griffith greatly."

"And what was this disagreement?"

"Marriage." Gabriel answered.

"It appears Griffith wanted to marry one of Sir Richard's Daughters, Emma." Sebastian explained. "Emma was with child. . ."

"What!" Ciel and I chorused. I glanced at Ciel.

So he did have a heart.

"Emma was with child and Griffith was the father." Gabriel told us.

"So, Griffith wanted to marry Emma before her pregnancy became public and Lord David was having none of it?" I guessed.

"Yes. Lord David stirred things up, made up rumours that Griffith was. . ."

"Unclean." I interrupted and Ciel glanced at me. "But they were correct. He had bedded Emma Somerset."

"Yes and we think Griffith decided that, if he couldn't have Emma, no one could." Sebastian said. "It's so romantic, it makes me sick."

"Here, here." Ciel said.

A sudden thought came to mind, a thought so disturbing that I had to voice it. "Was there anything . . . missing from the bodies?" I asked.

"Yes." Gabriel said.

"Someone had removed the eyelids." Sebastian told us.

My hand flew to my mouth in horror, Ciel's eye widened and turned red and the Butlers shifted uncomfortably where they stood. To remove someone's eyelids when they die was to deny them entry to the next life, whether that be Heaven or Hell or rebirth, they would be forced to wander between worlds until their bodies were burned.

Only someone truly cruel would do such a thing.

"We must go speak to this Lord Jack Griffith." I said.

"There is only one problem with that." Gabriel said.

"Griffith will only speak to females since Emma was denied to him, which means. . ." Sebastian was saying but was interrupted with Ciel's:

"Oh, no! Not again!"