Hey all! Hope you enjoyed chapter eight! Here's Chapter nine!


His Lady, Performing

Ciel growled and he threw a book across his office, Evoleht sitting quietly in a chair next to his desk. He'd just learned that the troupe he'd hired to do the play Carmen wasn't going to arrive for another week. The play though was to take place in three days and Evoleht laughed.

"I have an idea my lord." she said softly, "Let's put on the play ourselves!"


Evoleht stood still as Arabella began to sew the last bit of her costume. She was dressed as the gypsy in the play was protrayed. Standing next to her as Sebastian finished the last touches on the costume for Escamillo, was Ciel. He played a dashingly handsome bull fighter. Sebastian was dressed as Don Jose, a soldier in the army. Arabella was dressed as well for her own part as Michaela. Finny came running to tell them that it was time to go on. Arabella smiled and Evoleht returned it with a soft good luck.

At the rising of the curtain, a file of soldiers (Dragoons)are grouped before the guard-house, smoking, and looking at the passers-by in the square, coming and going from all parts. Arabella has been visible for some moments. She wears a blue petti-coat, and her hair falls over her shoulders. She perceives the soldiers, and stands hesitating, not knowing if to advance or recede. A young man that was in Evoleht's service in Paris, Jaques, was playing another soldier named Morales. Arabella played the shy and nervous young woman adaptly.

"Well here is someone rather sweeter, who seems to have something to say. She has! You see, she's turning, we should meet her..." Jaques said as he took a few steps from the group of soldiers.

"We ought to help, and right away!" The group said together.

"Who do you want, my charmer?" Jaques said to Arabella, gallantly stepping toward her.

"Me? A corporal of dragoons." Arabella answered simply and sweetly.

Jaques' chest rose with pride and he straightened his jacket.

"Here your are, that's me!" He said emphatically.

Arabella gave an embarrassed look then took a step back.

"The corporal I have come to see is called Don José ... Do you now him too?" She asked.

The soldiers finally succeed in pushing the women back. They are kept at a distance around the square by a line of dragoons. Evoleht appears at the factory entrance, led by Sebastian and two soldiers. Lau enters the stage, playing a soldier named Zuniga.

"Well, Corporal?" He asked as he stands tall.

"I saw the Señorita ... with her knife." Sebastian answers with a frown.

At this moment five or six women from the right succeed in breaking through the line of soldiers and rush to the center of the stage, shouting "Yes, yes! It was her!" Evoleht goes to attack the woman closest to her; Sebastian prevents her. The soldiers drive off all the women and this time right off the stage. Some soldiers remain in sight, guarding access to the square.

"Hey! Hey! You're certainly free with your hands," Lau says to Evoleht before turning to a few 'soldiers', "Find me some rope!"

A single 'soldier' runs off to find some rope. He returns moments later with rope in hand.

"The rope, Señor." He says as he offers it to Lau.

Lau turns to Sebastian, tossing the rope at him before turning.

"Go and bind those two pretty hands. It really is a pity, because she's attractive! But attractive though you may be, you will go to prison all the same. You can sing your gypsy songs there, and the jailer will tell you what he thinks of them," Lau begins to walk off stage, "I will go and write out the order. Then you can take her."

He leaves, as do all the other soldiers on the stage. All that's left is Evoleht and Sebastian.

"Be quiet, you have been told you must not speak to me!" Sebastian shouts angrily toward Evoleht.

"I didn't speak to you...I sing for my own pleasure, and I'm thinking...It's surely not forbidden to think. I think of a certain Dragoon, who loves me, whom in return, yes, in return, I well may learn to love!" Carmen says innocently.

"Carmen!" Sebastian said as he kneels before Evoleht, her hands in his.

"But my Dragoon is no swaggering Captain, nor Lieutenant. Oh no, he's only a Corporal. But that's good enough for a gypsy girl, I've decided to make do with him!" Evoleht says as she leans in as if to speak softly to him.

"Carmen, I am drunk when I hear you. If I weaken, just to be near you. Do you promise you will be true? And if I love you Carmen, you'll love me too?" He asked as he unties her hands.

Lau enters the stage again and Sebastian moves away quickly as to not give away that he's released Evoleht. Evoleht takes her place between two dragoons, Sebastian behind her. Meantime the women and townspeople gradualy return, kept at a distance by the dragoons. Evoleht crosses the stage from left to right, toward the bridge.

"Oh love that was born to gypsy life, a life that's free, that is as free as air. You may not love me, yet I love you. If I love you, then you take care!" She shouts.

When she arrives at the bridge, Evoleht pushes Sebastian, who lets himself be pushed over. Confusion, chaos. Evoleht escapes. When she reaches the center of the bridge, she stops for a moment and throws the rope over the parapet of the bridge before running off.

"Stop! Look, there is someone there, trying to hide!" Evoleht shouts as she lets go of Sebastian's arm, taking a few steps back.

Arabella is brought onto the stage roughly and pushed forward. Evoleht gives her a seething look and Sebastian stares in surprise.

"A woman!" Evoleht growls.

"Micaela!" Sebastian shouts.

"Don José!" Arabella said with smile.

"You're in danger! Whatever brings you here?" Sebastian asks as he steps toward her.

"Me? I came here for you...Down there, nearly despairing, she is waiting at home. All alone there your mother prays in tears for you, her son! Through her tears she prays you'll hear her, calls and holds out her arms for you! Oh, come home and be near her, José, come home to her, oh do!" Arabella cries as she rushes to Sebastian, grabbing his arm.

"Go on, go on, it's better so. Our sort of life's no good to you." Evoleht says turning away with a wave of her hand.

"Do you tell me to follow her?" Sebastian asks, turning to face Evoleht's back.

"Yes, you should go!" Evoleht shouts.

"You tell me to follow her...So that you can then run away to that other man you want. No! No, I won't! For me death before I leave you! No, Carmen, I'll never go, not I! For our lives are bound together, bound together, till we die!" Sebastian shouts as he grabs Evoleht's arm roughly.

"Don't let him leave Carmen!" Comes a shout from the audience.

Evoleht fights the urge to laugh, keeping an angry look on her face.

"Yeah! Don't let him leave Carmen!" Comes another cry.

"Don José, it's your mother who entreats you not to stay. And what binds your lives together, José, you must break today!" Arabella shouts.

"Go away Micaela! Leave them alone!" Comes another shout.

"Let me be! For I know I am damned!" Sebastian shouts at Arabella.

Arabella recoils from the shout, her hands clasped together over her heart. Sebastian turns back to Evoleht and pulls her toward him.

"You are mine, daughter of Satan! I will make you yield again to the destiny that made us! That welded your fate to mine! For me death before I leave you. No, Carmen, I'll never go, not I!" He cries out to her.

Evoleht gives him a look of hatred and pulls her arm free from his grasp. She steps back from him and rubs where he held her tightly.

"I've one more word to say and I won't speak again. Your mother is ill! She's ill and she's dying! And your mother would never want to die without pardoning you!" Arabella shouts with some strength in her voice.

Evoleht's eyes grow wide in surprise. Sebastian turns back to Arabella with his own surprise showing.

"My mother...She'e going to die?" He asks softly.

A few children gasped in the audience.

"Go with him Carmen! His mom is dying!" A little girl shouts.

"Yes, Don José." Arabella answers Sebastian.

Sebastian turns to Evoleht, falling to his knees before her. He grabs her hands, looking up to her.

"Carmen, I impore you...come with me." He says softly.

Evoleht's face twists with rage and she pulls her hands from his.

"No! My love for you is gone! Go! I detest you!" She shouts as she takes a few steps further back.

"No!" Comes a little girls shout.

"You can't just leave him Carmen! He needs you!"

Sebastian reels back from her words, pain clearly forming across his face.

"Please Carmen!" He shouts.

"Goodbye! Don't come near me again!" She screams as she turns from him.

Sebastian stands and moves toward Arabella. He stops upstage among the rocks. Watching Carmen, who is listening, he hesitates, then after a moment turns back to Arabella.

"Micaela, let's go!" He says as he leaves the stage with Arabella.

Evoleht has turned from the two and stands with her back straight and defiant. A few children begin to shout for Evoleht to go after Sebastian but she walks off the stage the opposite way.

"If you love me, Carmen, you will find, very shortly you can be proud of me." Ciel said as he stood before Evoleht, spinning her a few times.

They'd switched Evoleht's heels for flats when she'd exited the stage and given Ciel a pair of higher heels, so he would seem taller than Evoleht. He'd trained with Sebastian for the sword fight he'd have to have while wearing them, as long as they took it easy.

"I love you, Escamillo, I love you. May death take me, if I have ever loved any man more than you!" Evoleht said as she leaned her head on Ciel's shoulder.

"Carmen!" Comes Sebastian's cry from the opposite side of the stage.

Ciel turns and Evoleht steps away from him.

"José!" She cries.

"It's José!" Comes a little girls cry.

"Yeah! José's back!" Comes another cry from the audience.

"I offer you no threat! I beg you, I implore you! All that has passed, Carmen, is forgotten! Yes, we'll begin again. Start our life again together far from here, away from Spain. Please leave this man and come with me!" Sebastian says as he steps closer.

"What you ask can never happen! I never yet have lied! My mind is made up completely, For me and you ... it's the end. To you I've never lied! For us both it's the end." Evoleht returns.

"You will not have her! She is mine!" Ciel shouts as he draws his sword.

Sebastian draws his own sword and their fight begins, blade clashing against blade as they fight. Evoleht stands to the side, hatred for José flaring in her eyes. The fight goes on, the children watching closely to see who would win.

"Stop this! Escamillo, you are needed in the arena! Go!" Evoleht shouts as she steps forward to stop the two.

Ciel gives a huff then turns to Sebastian.

"José, remember she loves me! Not you!" He shouts before running off stage.

Evoleht and Sebastian are again alone on stage. She's standing tall against his eyes.

"Oh Carmen, I still love you. Carmen! I adore you! I gave up my honor in the army and committed mutiny for you! You should understand what that means!" Sebastian cried.

"Oh what's the good of that? A lot of useless words! Free I was born, and free I will die!" Evoleht returned.

"He still loves you Carmen! Tell him you still love him!" Comes a shout from the audience.

"Carmen! Please! Let's go off somewhere together, start over again! Oh my Carmen! Ah! Do recall. You must recall the past, how much in love we both were! You cannot leave me now, Carmen! You cannot leave me now!" Sebastian says as he moves to take Evoleht's hands in his.

Both Evoleht and Sebastian listen to the cheering in silence. Evoleht, when she hears the final shouts herself, lets out a cry of "Ah!" in pride and joy. Sebastian does not once take his eyes off her. As the chorus finishes, Evoleht moves toward the bullring.

"Where are you going?" Sebastian asks as he barrs her way.

"Let me pass!" She cries.

"This fellow they are cheering, He is your latest love!"

"Let me pass, let me pass! Let me pass, Don José, I'll never go with you!" Evoleht shouts as she tries to past Sebastian again.

"You mean to go to him! Speak! It's him you love?" Sebastian asks as he roughly grabs Evoleht's arms.

"I love him, I love him, and in face of death I repeat again that I love him." Evoleht snarls into Sebastian's face, pulling her hands from his.

"And so, every hope of salvation. Now I shall have lost, all for you. For you to go running, you harlot, Into his arms, laughing at me. No, by the saints, you'll not do that, Carmen, for you're coming with me." Sebastian growls as he grabs her hands again.

"No! No! Never!" Evoleht shouts as she pulls away from Sebastian yet again.

"I am tired of using threats!" Sebastian says as he again moves toward Evoleht.

"All right, kill me at once, or let me go inside." Evoleht retorts furiously, pushing at Sebastian chest.

"Now for the last time, you fiend...Will you come with me?" Sebastian asks, his eyes wide with insanity.

"Never!" Evoleht shouts as she runs past him.

Sebastian's hands shake and he reaches for his sword.

"Carmen!" He screams.

Evoleht turns, only to be "stabbed" by Sebastian's sword in the stomach. Cries around the audience are loud and children are screaming. Evoleht gasps, mimicking death and slides to the ground. All goes quiet as Sebastian drops his sword moments later. He kneels beside her then lifts her into his arms. Her body limp and he hugs her tight.

"Oh Carmen...Carmen..."

Sebastian's voice grows louder and louder each time he says her stage name.

"Carmen...Carmen...CARMEN!" He screams.

Suddenly he stabs himself and falls into deaths embrace. The audience is loud as the curtains fall, the children saying that Carmen should have stayed with José. If she had she would have lived. Evoleht smiled as Sebastian stood to help her to her feet. As he pulled her up, she moved into his arms. Evoleht bit her lip before she stands on her toes, pressing her lips against his.

"For all things in this world, I would pick you over anyone." She whispered before stepping back.

Sebastian stared for a moment before a grin sets on his face. His mistress felt something for him then. That's all he needed to know. Everyone formed a line on the stage and linked hands as they bowed to the children and the rest of the audience. She looks to her fellow 'cast members' and smiles.


When the theater was finally empty, Evoleht straightened her hat and linked her am with Sebastian's. He leaned down and smiled at her.

"And if I love you Carmen, you'll love me too?" He whispered as he stopped her before she entered the carriage.

Evoleht stared up at him, surprise leaping out of her eyes, only to smile and step closer.

"Do you really have to ask?" She whispered as he leaned down, his lips claiming hers.

Yes she loved him. She'd known since the day she'd met him again that she loved him. He heart ached for him and in turn, she discovered that his own ached for her. His arms were strong as he wrapped her tight and held her close. This devilishly handsome man, her butler, returned her feelings.


I didn't have too much of an intention of starting the love part of the story just yet, but it felt right. I hope you enjoyed chapter nine! I know I had fun writing it! Please leave reviews! I love hearing from ya!