The Queen Demands a Ball

~O~

I'm a great believer in spontaneity because I think planning is the most destructive thing in the world.

-John Cassavetes-

~O~

As loathe as Ciel was to admit it, Charlotte fit perfectly well within the manor. Yes her large smile was still as large and disconcerting as ever, and the servants were terrified of her, but she didn't cause any trouble. She dusted and washed and swept with no complaints, humming nursery rhymes to herself all the while. Apart from the occasional moment when she unscrewed her limbs to clean out a bit of dust that had collected inside the joints, she acted just like any other servant girl.

It was suspicious. He still didn't trust her, or her reasons, and was annoyed with Sebastian for allowing himself to be trapped in a deal with someone like her.

Sebastian on the other hand, felt that her presence in the manor gave it a little more character, made it a little more interesting. Charlotte did not avoid him, but neither did she go out of her way to seek him out. Mostly she seemed fascinated by the architecture and layout of the building.

Sometimes however, he'd catch her during her chores, and as he stared the smile would drop off her face by degrees until she was staring blankly into the distance, her mind a thousand miles away. And then she would blink, rouse herself from whatever reverie she had fallen into, and resume work. He wondered what she was thinking about during those moments. The circus maybe? At any rate, it was clear that she had no love for anyone in the manor, least of all the servants.

Well she had no love for anyone, save for Agni and Prince Soma, but Sebastian wasn't sure if she liked them as people or as novelties. He'd seen her walking through the garden with the Prince during her free time, the two of them accompanied at a distance by Agni.

"So?" Ciel asked the foreign dignitaries one morning in late September. "When do you plan to leave?"

"What's with that?" Soma pouted, sounding incredibly childish for someone who was most certainly an adult. "And after I took the time out to spend the winter holidays with you!"

"Don't just invent holidays to suit your fancy!" Ciel snapped, glaring over his newspaper at the prince before something caught his eye. It was an article on the death of a wealthy diamond trader in South Africa. He skimmed through the page, skipping over most of the rambling obituaries and empty well-wishes, and vaguely heard Soma say something about beating him in chess.

Ciel scoffed quietly to himself and rose. "Sorry, but I've got work today. Sebastian, let's go."

"But you promised to play a game with me!" Soma whined, puffing out his cheeks and narrowing his eyes. Ciel stared at him and wondered, not for the first time, how this manchild was next in line for his homeland's throne. Yes Soma was better now than he had been before, but he still had a ways to go.

The boy sighed and glanced over his shoulder at him. "Why don't you polish your skills by solving some chess puzzles while I'm working?" He suggested pointedly. "You have too few counter-moves." He ignored Soma's declarations of vengeance as he left the room, his mind already on the work for the next few days.

He caught sight of Charlotte standing at the window, a rag in one hand, and a large tin of polish in the other. She was staring at something outside, but turned to them when she heard their footsteps and grinned jovially at him. "Good morning, young master! How was your breakfast?"

He scowled back, even though she technically hadn't done anything to earn his ire. His anger seemed to amuse her. "Uneventful. What were you staring at?"

"The storm clouds," she replied. "They've been hovering ominously for hours. I don't like that. It should rain so that it can all be over."

It was true that the sky had been an ominous shade of grey since yesterday, and the looming threat of a rainstorm was beginning to grate on everyone's nerves. Ciel huffed. "I'm not paying you to make commentary about the weather."

She blinked at him like she's briefly forgotten about his presence, and then she smiled and shrugged. "I guess that's true!" She tossed the rag into the tin, picked it up, and strolled in the direction of the kitchen. Sebastian watched her go, eying the subtle sway of her hips. The way she moved was odd; it was natural, but it also made you feel wary, like something was wrong, until you noticed how smooth and effortless it all looked. Too smooth to be entirely human.

Charlotte stepped into the kitchen at the same time that the chef made a comment about the weather, and then he clamped his mouth shut. She smiled internally. Yes what she was doing might be considered cruel to some, but look at it from her perspective: these people killed her circus family.

Alright, so her circus family had been made up of kidnappers and murderers, but she'd loved them all the same. Most of them anyway. Sometimes she woke up in the middle of night, an arm outstretched to reach for Snake or Beast, and then she remembered that they were gone. She'd cry if she felt like she could.

The girl placed the polish on the proper shelf in the cupboard, and pushed it shut. At that same moment, someone kicked the door in with unnecessary force. She turned to see two men standing at the entrance, both in silver and white uniforms. The one in front smirked round the room. His hand rested casually on the rapier at his waist.

"Good morning~!" He greeted cheerfully. His voice had the same lilting, sing-song quality as her papa, only less jovial and more annoying. "Is Earl Phantomhive in?"

Charlotte leaned back to watch as Bard and Mey-Rin got to their feet, recovering quickly from the shock. "Who the hell are you?" The chef snarled.

The man's grin widened. "What? Are you going to play with me?"

He swung his sword in a wide arc, nearly taking off their heads. The two jumped back, and Mey-Rin whipped out two guns from somewhere on her person. Charlotte eyed them curiously – she needed new guns too. The maid knocked her glasses to her forehead and launched a volley of bullets at the man, destroying all the plates in the shelf behind him.

"Wow! Double guns are so cool~!" He laughed, and darted forward bringing his sword up. "But up close, I win~! Isn't that just too bad?" He brought his knee up and slammed it into Mey-Rin's stomach.

This is a massacre, Charlotte tapped her bottom lip with one painted finger while she considered the pros and cons of helping. Then she saw the trajectory and intended target of the sword, and immediately reached a decision. Charlotte stretched her hand out into the path of the incoming sword, catching it on the flat end and stopping it in its tracks. The man's eyes widened. "I wasn't aware that the Earl had any other servants~."

"I'm new," she smiled and wrapped her hands firmly around the sword, yanking it out of his surprised hands. In the next second she had the point of it at his throat. "I love destruction as much as the next girl, but since I work here now, and a funeral might interfere with the overall atmosphere, I have to ask you to state your business."

He swallowed, but the smile never left his face. "Or what? You'll stab me~?"

"Buddy I have done worse for less."

"Charlotte, that's quite enough." She rolled her eyes as Sebastian approached, and lowered the rapier. She examined her palms for cracks, but found none, as expected. She wasn't sure what material her papa had used to craft her body, but it certainly didn't break easily. She saw the other uniformed man staring at her hand as well, and waved at him jauntily with the undamaged appendage. "I apologise for our maid. She is new and unused to acting in a decorous manner befitting her position."

She shrugged and handed the man back his sword. "I'll be over there then."

"To make up for this, why don't you try one of the cream puffs?"

"Hmm. They're so-so, I guess. Kind of like the lowest passing mark?"

"S-Sebastian, what the hell are these guys?" Bard burst out once he could speak.

The first man smirked and licked the last of his cream from his thumb. "I'm Charles Grey. This is my associate, Charles Phipps. We're codenamed Double Charles."

"We are Her Majesty's private secretarial officers and butlers," Phipps said in a deeper voice than his associate. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"That doesn't explain why you're here though," Charlotte piped loudly, bored now that the fight was over. She ignored Sebastian's warning glare, mostly.

Grey laughed. "Oh, how remiss of me~! We simply came here to deliver a letter to the Earl." He pulled a crisp white envelope from his jacket pocket, sealed with red wax and bearing what Charlotte could see was the royal insignia.

Sebastian sighed quietly, and handed the tray of baked goods to Bard. "Clean up this mess, the four of you. I will escort our guest to see the young master," he nodded to Phipps and Grey. "Please follow me."

Charlotte watched the three of them go, and then plucked a chocolate croissant from the bottom tier of the tray and took a bite. She didn't need to eat, but it certainly felt good to. She swallowed and stared up at the sky through the window, and frowned at the dark, circling clouds.

This would be a problem. "Um…Miss. Charlotte?"

Charlotte turned around and stared blankly at the redhead behind her. She looked a lot more competent without her glasses, though the unfocused expression on her face told Charlotte that the maid was very blind without them.

"I wanted to thank you for stopping him when you did," she said. "If you hadn't jumped in, I don't know what would have happened."

She shrugged off Mey-Rin's gratitude like it was a particularly ugly, out-of-style scarf and replied smoothly, "Don't expect it to happen again. Now don't you have cleaning to get to?"

"But-!"

Charlotte had already walked off. Normally she'd stay and play dutiful servant-girl with them, but this sounded much more interesting. She had explored the Phantomhive ventilation system extensively during her first two weeks on the job, so it was fairly simple to contort her body inside and slither through the crawlspace until she found one of the six openings into the main parlour room. She heard the door open as they entered, and pressed her ear to the floor.

She heard Sebastian offering snacks, quiet murmurs of decline, the sound of fabric rustling before Phipps finally brought up the reason for their surprise visit. "In accordance with the Queen's request, we would like for you to host a banquet and entertain a guest who is coming to visit England in two weeks time."

"Why me?" Ciel asked, sounding equal parts annoyed and confused. "I do not think the guest will be at ease if he is being entertained by someone he hardly knows."

"The person we'd like you to entertain is a certain German person. He also happens to be a distant relative of the Queen. It is to be a sneak visit to England. He is interested in our country's industry and popular literature. He also wishes to mingle with persons of profound scholarship. The Funtom Company is one of England's businesses that is boasted of all over the world. With connections such as yours, you should be able to call forth some guests to please our visitor."

"That may be so, but think about it. Is it alright for the Queen to let me entertain him?"

Grey spoke now, having been silent and letting his partner broach the topic. "The Queen has been having some doubts about the earl since the report on the incident the other day. We have disposed of the criminals. Since the children were beyond help, we made them nonexistent along with the mansion. The decision to tell the parents the truth is up to the government. Surely there were no cover-ups in your report?"

Charlotte recalled what she'd heard regarding the circus case; a fire burning throughout the night where a manor had once stood. She'd never asked what had happened to the children, she'd just assumed that they were all dead after that the doctor had told her, and she'd been right about that, but not about their killer.

"Don't you think there's a chance to restore your image with this mission? Then again," Grey added slyly. "This is really just a request from the Queen to the noble earl, and not the watchdog."

"Noblesse oblige," Phipps agreed. "We would like you to think of it as an obligation as one of the ones who have it all."

There was silence for a moment, presumably while Ciel considered it, before she finally heard the boy sigh quietly. "I understand," he said to them. "I'll take it."

"By the way, since I'm the overseeing officer, it's okay if I participate as well, right?" Grey sounded far too jovial for the topic of conversation, and he cheered when Phipps agreed to his request. "Also, we just confirmed the safety of the mansion. It looks like you don't need an increase in security guards."

Huh, so that's what that was about, Charlotte thought. "The mansion's security is flawless," Ciel said. "Still, it can't be helped that our risk factor will increase due to uninvited people."

The noise level increased both men rose to their feet. "Since it's settled then, we'll be taking our leave. You don't need to see us out," Phipps said politely. "Good day, Earl Phantomhive."

In the room, Ciel stared at the door that the two men had exited through, and sighed resignedly to himself. He'd hoped to have at least another month of nothing before the Queen decided to punish him for what he liked to consider a 'momentary lapse of judgement'. (It sounded better than 'brief mental breakdown triggered by being placed in a replica of the place I was tortured in for several months as a child').

"Well then, Sebastian, prepare the invitations at once. And, after that," he made his way to the window to watch the butlers as they left the manor grounds. "Contact Lau and Undertaker as well."

"Undertaker?" Ciel would deny the loud half-screech, half-squeak of panic he made 'til the day he died. Charlotte cocked the head that was sticking out of the vent near the floor, grinning happily.
"We're going to see the Undertaker?"

Sebastian pulled her out. "You have a knack for being in unexpected places, don't you?"

"It's a talent. So, are we? Oh please say we are!"

Ciel cleared his throat, half-tempted to throw her out, but also curious about her apparent excitement. "You know the Undertaker?"

"Yes!" She chirped. "He's my favourite person in the whole world! Please let me go with you!"

"I will make all arrangements, my lord. Please excuse us," Sebastian tucked Charlotte under his arm, bowed courteously, and walked out of the room.