-Chapter 10-

Ciel could feel his blood rushing through his ears as the carriage sped through the streets of London towards the Buckingham Palace. Although it was barely three streets from the Lancaster Mansion to the Buckingham Palace, to him it felt miles apart. Clutching his fist, he stared blankly out the window, his mind racing. What would he do if the Princess was dead?

It seemed almost eons later before the carriage came to an abrupt stop. Jumping out, Ciel ran to the palace door, barely stopping to ask for the princess's location before setting off at a dead run. He was sweating profusely and out of breath when he saw the princess. She was sitting in her gazebo in the rose garden drinking tea. She was alright. Ciel silently let out a sigh of relief as he made his way into the garden. However, he suddenly realized the princess was not alone. There was a boy with her. Ciel tensed as he observed the boy. Ciel had never seen him before.

Stepping into the gazebo, Ciel bowed to the princess.

"Your highness"

"Oh", the Princess said, glancing up. "Earl Phantomhive, we were expecting you-"

Carmelia had barely finished her sentence when Ciel was suddenly embraced by the boy.

"Ciel!" the boy exclaimed. "It's really you! Ciel Phantomhive! I've wanted to meet you for so long, since I saw you in that suitcase."

Ciel suddenly felt something wet behind his ear as the boy's tongue shot out, licking him. Ciel instinctively pushed him away, shocked and angered by his sudden action.

"What suitcase? Who are you?" Ciel demanded, his eyes promising retribution for the insult.

"Me?" the boy smiled eagerly "I'm Alois Trancy. You should have heard of me by now. I'm the Spider." Giggling excitedly, he peered expectantly at Ciel.

"That's enough, Alois." Carmelia said disapprovingly. "I'm sure Earl Phantomhive didn't come here to exchange pleasantries with you."

"Yes, your highness." Ciel immediately responded. "I have come to inform you about a plot to assassinate you-"

"Oh, that" the princess said airily, waving a gloved hand at him. "I'm afraid you're a tad late. The assassin's dead, Alois made sure of that."

Ciel flushed with humiliation at the Princess's insinuation. However, he quickly regained his composure, trying his best to ignore Alois who was still grinning smugly at him. Turning back to the princess, he asked "Did you question the assassin before he died?"

"He?" Princess Carmelia frowned. "Oh my, it seems you really are behind Earl. It was a 'she' not a 'he'; and no I did not question her. Unfortunately, she had a cyanide capsule hidden in her mouth. She poisoned herself before we got anything out of her. I'm sure Alois will be more than happy to fill you in on the details."

Gesturing towards Alois, Carmelia proceeded to ignore Ciel, choosing instead to dig into the delicious strawberry shortcake that her butler had brought. Meanwhile, Alois was more than happy to oblige the princess. Leaning forward, he started talking animatedly to Ciel, the rush of words barely intelligible.

"You know when the old fart, I mean the Guardian, got himself killed. Claude found this gray powder at the crime scene. Claude's my butler. Isn't he amazing?" At this point, Alois sighed with admiration, before plunging back into his narration.

"Anyway, Claude traced it to this French cosmetics shop and stole their accounting books to figure out who was the murderer. It was this French spy who had been living with Lancaster. Bet you didn't know that, did you? We staked out the shop to catch the little slut but she gave us the slip before we caught her. But Claude found out where she lived so we searched her place and found out about the plot and came here to stop it. Claude caught her before she could do anything. Too bad she died before we could have some fun. But it's ok now, because I got to meet you."

Alois's eyes practically sparkled with delight as he gazed gleefully at Ciel who remained stoically passive. Trying not to let his irritation show, Ciel leaned back into his sit, assessing his new competition. It would seem this Alois Trancy was not very bright. However, he had beaten Ciel this round. He would do well to be more careful about Alois, Ciel thought. Alois Trancy was definitely not what he seemed.

"Ahem" Princess Carmelia cleared her throat now that Alois was done with his story. She had tried not to grimace at his crudeness but still could not mask the distaste in her eyes. How could he use that kind of language in public!

"I'm afraid, Alois has also brought me something from the assassin's lodging." Princess paused, placing something on the table. "I believe these belong to you."

Gleaming golden in the afternoon sunlight, the gold cufflinks seemed blinding to Ciel. He knew it would probably be useless to protest if the Princess thought him capable of treason. He did not have any proof to show that he was innocent.

"Your highness," Sebastian suddenly spoke, stepping silently forward. Alois and Carmelia glanced up in surprise at the sudden interruption. Sebastian had been so quiet and still before that Alois and Carmelia had barely noticed his presence.

"I'm afraid that in all the excitement my master has forgotten about these." Sebastian said, brandishing Lord Lancaster's journals. Selecting one of them, he opened it and presented it to the Princess.

"I'm sure you can see the evidence here, your highness. These cufflinks were actually commissioned by a Duke Lawrence and collected by Lord Lancaster."

"Oh I see" the Princess said in surprise as she scrutinised the faded receipt. There was no doubt about it now; Duke Lawrence had set Phantomhive up to take the fall while plotting murder.

"One more thing, your highness," Sebastian continued, flipping the journal to an earlier page. "I'm sure you would like to know where the crown jewels have been hidden."

Author's note:

Hello everyone, thank you so much for reading my story. Don't worry, I'm not done yet. There's still quite a lot more to go. I just want to mention that I'm going to incorporate part of Kuroshitsuji season 2 into my plot in case you get confused about the references to Madam Red (in the last chapter) and the suitcase (which Alois talks about in this chapter). If you haven't watched season 2 yet, Ciel has lost his memories about what happened in season 1 as his soul was stolen by Claude before Sebastian ate him. During that time, Sebastian went to the Trancy mansion to retrieve Ciel's soul while carrying Ciel's body around in a suitcase. Alois's comment the suitcase is hence referring to the first time he saw Ciel when Ciel was lying lifelessly in a suitcase. That's all for now, I hope you've enjoyed the story and please continue reading!