Chapter 10

By morning our resident time traveler had arrived at the Phantomhive manor. It hadn't taken her that long. A carriage driver she had gotten to know over her time here was nice enough to take her- after she had payed. She sighed. Standing before the manor made her feel damned small. She wouldn't even call it a manor anymore; it was more of a mansion. She made her way to the back door and knocked, instantly greeted by the handsome devil.

"Morning." The girl smiled.

"Luce. Do come in. The young master won't wake until a while longer. So you will have to wait." He led her into the kitchen. It looked nice, definitely an improvement to the lodging's. "I would show you to your room but you will be sharing with our maid and she isn't awake yet."

"That's fine." It didn't really matter and it wasn't like she had much stuff to put away. But what surprised her was that the servants weren't awake yet. If common sense was anything to go by, then they should already be up, preparations and all that. "So none of other servants are awake yet?"

"No." 'What an intricate answer...' she sighed lightly and watched the demon begin some food preparations. 'Shouldn't the cook do that?' She frowned at his back. This place was already odd and she hadn't even been here for more than a few minutes. "You understand what working for the young master entails, correct?" He looked at her from the corner of his eyes.

'To be honest; not really no.' She really wished she had read the manga, but alas... She did have some idea. "If you mean any possible danger it may entail, then yes." She looked up at the room's ceiling frowning slightly. "Though I'm beginning to doubt my sanity." She mumbled. Sebastian had obviously heard her if his chuckle was any indication. And damn, it sounded hot. "So what would my job be exactly?"

"Officially, the parlor maid." That honestly meant nothing to her. 'What did a parlor maid do?' But his wording was what really caught her interest.

"And in reality?" She raised an eyebrow at his back.

"My assistant." She scoffed. Was he serious? She was to help him? A demon? The thought made her chuckle. Obviously not understanding the joke Sebastian looked at her curiously. "Is it that amusing?"

"Isn't it? You look perfectly fine without help." 'In more ways than one.' She smirked.

"Thank you." He sent her a sly knowing smirk. Luce didn't know whether to blush or lick her lips.

She settled for neither and cleared her throat. "Would you like some help then?"

He seemed to be debating for an awful long time. 'Why? It wasn't like she would destroy the kitchen.' "Can you prepare-?"

A series of 'good mornings' interrupted the butler as a trio of servants walked into the kitchen. They quickly noticed Luciana sitting on the bench with a curious look. "Sebastian, who's the pretty lady?" Said a gruff looking man who was maybe in his late twenties or early thirties.

"She is our new parlor maid; Miss Luciana Kaligan." The butler checked his watch as the servants all huddled together and looked at her as if she were the most interesting thing in the world.

"Call me Luce." She happily waved her hands at them and smiled.

"Introduce yourselves while I tend to the young master." He turned to the three servants with a stern expression. "Afterwards, attend to your duties." And with that he left, pushing out a teacart.

Luciana watched the three servants as they whispered amongst themselves. 'They must be the hilarious trio Kat kept laughing about.' She remembered her saying something about horrible messes and hilarious fails. She didn't really know what to expect, but they certainly seemed eager as they stumbled over to the table.

"The name's Bard, I'm the cook." He took a seat beside her. "What's your story?"

'Oh, you know- I'm from 2016.' As if she could say cocked her head to the side while debating on how to answer and noticed a pack of cigarettes peek out of the cook's jacket. "Age before beauty." She grinned at him.

"Ex-soldier in the American war." He tapped his pockets possibly looking for his pack but came up empty. 'So he was in the civil war...cool.' Luciana thought excitedly as she lazily dangled his smokes in front of his nose. "How-?"

"Thief." She smirked as the servants gaped at her.

"Amazing!"

"That was so cool!" The strawberry blond boy beamed. "I'm Finny by the way, the gardener." Luciana swore she could see sparkles and flowers appear as he grinned.

He just seemed so innocent; it was hard not to smile. "Nice to meet you, Finny."

"I'm Mey-Rin, yes I am!" The maid stumbled over her words a bit but seemed quite nice. "I- my eyes are really good, so I was- worked as a sniper."

Wow. Luciana did not expect that. 'So why does she wear those glasses?' She shook her head subtly. It wasn't any of her business. "Oh, by the way, Sebastian said we would share a room."

Mey-Rin perked up at her words. "Really? So we can share stories, gossip and all that?" If it weren't for her glasses, everyone would have seen her eyes sparkle with delight. Suddenly she stood up and dragged Luciana off. "I'll lead you to it, yes I will!"

After a while of gossiping with Mey-Rin, Sebastian had come looking for Luce. Apparently it was time to meet her new boss. The butler stayed behind the earl as the meeting quickly turned from informing her about her duties to a game of 20 questions, her skills, knowledge and experience.

"You were his assistant. Does that mean you also-?" The kid looked a little green in the face.

"Cleaned and stitched the bodies?" She grinned at the earl. "Yes, I did." He seemed to pale at the thought. Well, normal people would find it disgusting. She still couldn't understand why it didn't bother her but she supposed it was something to be glad about.

"Then you said you were a thief." He prodded moving onto the next topic. Luciana nodded. There wasn't much to say. Thieving was thieving, not much to it. Ciel sighed. "Tell me about yourself."

"Well, where to begin..." She thoughtfully cocked her head to the side. "Used to live with my parents until I was 6. They died and I went into the foster system."

The young earl raised a surprised brow at that. "So you're an orphan?"

"Yes." She smirked at him. Not all that bothered by the question. Over the years she had been asked that many times. Be it by adults, kids or people her age. Everyone had a different reaction and it amused her greatly. She used to hate the pity and the fake smiles but now it was something to laugh about. Nothing would change her situation. Her parents were dead, her other family didn't care. She moved on. "Then I went from orphanage to orphanage. Some were annoyingly strict others so leisure they didn't care to even make food for the kids. I improvised." She smirked. "Found my own clothes, food and money. Apparently that didn't sit well with the orphanage." Luciana chuckled as she remembered the day she was first thrown out.

"You got caught?" By now the kid was intrigued by her story. His elbows were propped onto the table and his chin rested on his folded hands.

"No. I don't get caught." She chuckled as both butler and earl seemed surprised. It was surprising even to her, you'd think with all the CCTV someone would notice, but Luce had really never gotten caught while in the act. People knew of what she did but none could prove it. It was funny really. "Eventually I was sent to catholic school." She held up a black rosary that was more for fashion than anything else.

The kid sent a subtle look of amusement to his butler, smirking slightly. He thought it funny. The demon however didn't seem fazed. He kept his mask perfectly. Luciana didn't miss the exchange but kept her face innocent. "So you're now strict religious?" She tilted her head to the side with a gentle smile blinking innocently, not at all intending to answer. It seemed to annoy the kid and he glared at her smiling face, waiting for her to crack. But she didn't. His expression only fueled Luciana's amusement.

"You know, that glare is mighty cute." She chuckled delightfully as the kid's face went red with embarrassment.

"You're dismissed." He huffed in annoyance. "Sebastian, show her the ropes."

"Yes, my lord."

Well then, another chapter done :) I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading and the reviews!