"This is never going to work," Ciel grumbled.
"Of course it is. You just have to deal with it long enough to get Elizabeth out of your house." Kendall was lacing up a pair of riding boots that were at least three sizes too big for her. Ciel had taken some convincing to let her do so, but he'd snuck back into his own room and loaned her a shirt and a pair of black shorts, which she was now wearing instead of her nightgown. "I'm great with animals; this won't be a problem at all."
"It smells in here," he complained, looking around the stable with a wrinkled nose.
"Really? It's just the smell of horse, Ciel. I kind of like it," Kendall said, shrugging. "You'll get used to it anyway."
A girl of about their age with straight, dirty blonde hair and rectangle-framed glasses led a black horse out from a stable. "Will this one work?" she asked, tilting her head at the pair and their odd request.
"Perfect! A black horse just adds to the image," Kendall said with a grin. "What was your name, by the way?"
"Laura," the stable-girl said, shaking Kendall's hand when it was offered to her. "You're not gonna rat me out for this, are you?"
"Of course not," Kendall said, waving a hand in the air.
"All right then." Laura grinned, a mischievous grin enough to rival Kendall's. "Whenever that Elizabeth girl comes to visit, the horses get antsy because of that voice of hers…" she explained. "Consider this your own little revenge, Lawrent," she said, patting the horse's flank. The horse snorted and stomped its feet.
"Do you have anything like a cape?" Kendall asked. "Something that could hide you completely while you're riding?"
"Oh, sure." Laura climbed up a small wooden ladder into the top level, near the rafters, where the workers in the stable had their bunks. Off a hook on the wall she took a black cloak, tossing it down. "Is that what you had in mind?"
"It'll do nicely," Kendall said mischievously. She wrapped the cloak around herself. It reached all the way down to the floor and had some extra fabric dragging on the ground. "At least it'll make me look taller when I'm on the horse," she said, nodding. "Now I have another weird request…Do you have a pumpkin?"
Laura looked rather doubtful. "We might…I think Finny would be a better person to ask about that…"
"We don't have the time or ability to ask Finny," Ciel interjected. "He's busy dealing with Lizzy right now. We had enough difficulty trying to find a safe way out of the mansion without being caught."
"…I'll go check, but no promises." Laura moved out into the back of the stable, toward where there was a small vegetable garden. Hey, there was plenty of fertilizer available for free at a stable; of course there was a nearby garden. A few moments later, she returned with a large iron pot, the kind used for cooking. "Pumpkins aren't in season. Will this work?"
"I guess so." Kendall glanced over at the horse. "What was its name? Lawrent?"
"Yup. He's a little wild, though," Laura warned.
"Hello there, Lawrent," she said cheerily to the horse, stroking his nose for a moment. Kendall fearlessly hopped up onto his back, and he snorted and impatiently stomped his hooves, tossing his head. She stroked his neck, and he calmed back down. "Hey, Ciel, pass me the pot, will you?" Kendall asked, pulling the cloak up so that it clasped over her head, hiding her entire body from view. Ciel passed it up, and Kendall took the pot and set it atop her head. Ciel rolled his eyes.
"This is never going to work," he stated.
"Don't be such a pessimist, this will work perfectly." Kendall's voice was a little muffled by the cloak. "Now, Ciel, you have to get Lizzy outside somehow. I dunno, say you want to…look at the sunset. It's getting dark out anyway, and girls love that stuff." She peeked out through the space between the folds of the cloak, once again wearing that Cheshire-Cat-esque grin. "And then the Headless Horseman will scare her silly."
"More like the Pot-headed Horseman," Laura interjected with a giggle. This sent Kendall and Laura into a huge laughing fit. The pot nearly fell off its precarious perch on top of Kendall's head as she gasped for breath. A/N: I know that humor's a little ahead of the Victorian era, but I just couldn't resist. Forgive me, history!
Ciel rolled his eyes and sighed. "Quit laughing, you'll start coughing again. Oh, and if this doesn't work, I'm blaming you for it," he informed her, heading out of the stable and toward the mansion.
Kendall followed out on the horse quietly, sticking to a shadowy area near the stable. She could hear Lizzy's squeal when she finally found Ciel, and soon she saw the two exiting the mansion, Lizzy hanging off Ciel's arm. It irritated Kendall, possibly more than it should have.
Kendall clicked her tongue quietly to get Lawrent walking, and the horse started forward. She spurred him onward, and he started galloping recklessly. Lizzy and Ciel watched the approaching horseman, Ciel with a doubtful expression and Lizzy with curiosity and confusion. Kendall yanked on the reins to stop Lawrent directly in front of the mansion, at the same time letting out a massive and unexpected coughing fit, doubling over as she did so. The pot fell off her head and landed with a loud clang on the ground, accompanied by Lizzy's terrified scream at the 'Headless Horseman'.
Unfortunately, all the noise and the falling pot spooked Lawrent, and he reared up on his hind legs with a loud whinny. It was a dramatic scene, for sure, silhouetted against the setting sun, but Kendall wasn't a professional rider. She slid off the back of the horse and landed rather painfully on the ground on her left side with a loud crack; the cobblestone drive wasn't a very forgiving place to land in any case. Ciel had told Lizzy to 'run and he'll take care of this', and for once she'd listened without protest; she was already in her carriage and it was starting to pull away. Apparently, Lizzy's overbearing manner didn't extend to clinging to Ciel with a headless horseman around. Lawrent had taken off back toward the stable now that his rider was on the ground, neighing loudly as he did so.
Seeing that the coast was clear, Ciel hurried over to Kendall, pulling the cloak away from her face. He was surprised to see a grimace and a pained expression, and tears starting in her eyes, which were shut tightly in agony. "I landed on my arm," she whimpered in a strained voice, curled up on her side and trying to roll off the injured arm. "It hurts…"
"Sebastian!" Ciel shouted. The butler appeared in moments, carefully helping her sit up and removing the cloak from around her so he could take a better look.
"I do believe it's broken," he said, reaching down and gently picking up the now-crying Lady Kendall. "I'll alert the nearest doctor."