Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you enjoy! I don't own any of Black Butler! Updates on the second and fourth Saturday of each month!
—
"Look, Mummy! There's a little robin there, sitting on the tree!" The small, blonde girl exclaimed as she pointed excitedly across the stone balcony.
"Sit down, Elizabeth. You know better than to jump about like a wild animal." The cold response to the girl's announcement echoed out like a swift arrow.
The young girl pouted and trudged back over to the nearby wicker table.
She huffed as she sank down into the cushioned chair next to her mother, who had failed to share in her daughter's joy at the small bird's appearance.
The birds chirped in the bright sunlight of the warm, spring day as the woman beside the small girl looked out over the estate grounds.
Women's fashion in 1899 was anything but comfortable and the little girl shifted irritably as she sat on the many layers of her fluffy petticoats.
Some women, like the girls' mother, managed to escape society's imprisoning ideas about what constituted proper dress.
"Why can't I wear pants like you, Mummy?" The little girl asked sadly as she looked over at her mother with a pout and admired the pantsuit that she wore.
The woman's jacket and shorts were made of matching blue velvet and intricately detailed with ruffles and lace.
A white, frilly undershirt peeked out from the collar of the woman's fine jacket.
"Because your father won't allow it." The girl's mother firmly replied.
The little girl sighed in frustration as an elderly man in a dapper black suit, complete with tailcoats, joined them on the patio.
In his gloved hands, the elderly man held a shining, silver teapot.
"Do you care for more tea, Lady Midford?" The elderly gentleman asked the girl's mother.
It was the mother that sighed then.
She looked up at the aged man and as she responded, the sun glinted off of her hair, highlighting the unusual mix of blue and grey strands, "How many times have I told you, Mr. Tanaka? When I'm at home, I wish to be called by my real name, not the one forced upon me by my unfortunate marriage."
"My apologies, my lady." The elderly gentleman, and house butler, said with a respectful bow as he laid a hand over his chest. Little Elizabeth smiled up at him knowingly and he kindly smiled back before he asked her mother once more, "Lady Phantomhive, would you care for more tea?"
"...Is it Earl grey?" Lady Phantomhive asked.
Tanaka nodded and Lady Phantomhive sat back in her chair. He took that as his silent permission to fill her cup.
Elizabeth tried to straighten out the wrinkles from her pastel pink dress as Tanaka obliged his mistress and refreshed her beverage.
"Mummy, the robin's gone." Elizabeth commented with a frown after she glanced back over at the tree and saw the bird was no longer in sight.
"That's what robins do, Elizabeth. They fly away." Lady Phantomhive answered her daughter with a sad hint of bitter envy in her voice.
—
Truthfully, Lady Phantomhive was jealous of the robin's escape off of the stone balcony.
She idly mused over how liberating it must be to spread one's wings and fly somewhere new when a place became too tiresome.
Ciel Midford, er, Ciel Phantomhive had never known such freedom.
Born into a British noble house and losing her twin brother at birth, Ciel had been raised to serve two roles.
She would become a proper lady and a proper wife to her slightly older cousin, Edward Midford.
She would also oversee the Phantomhive household during her parents' frequent and confidential trips once she came of age.
Noblewomen obeyed their duties.
Omegas obeyed even more so.
Ciel fulfilled all of her requirements, much to her parents' delight.
She was quiet and petite, with a delicate complexion and watery, sapphire eyes, which were very fashionable in her day.
Ciel did prefer to wear her pantsuits that resembled what a young boy may wear when she was at home, but when she was in the public eye, she followed social custom and with great loathing, wore dresses.
Ciel had good manners and good breeding.
Ciel was a proper lady.
When her twentieth birthday arrived, she had been required to wed Edward, and she took her vows without protest.
A year later, their only child, Elizabeth, had been born.
Birthing her had been a struggle for Ciel, but conceiving her had been even harder.
Ciel was an omega, a married omega who ironically remained unmated.
Marriage did not constitute mating.
The strapping and strong Edward Midfor, shockingly, was a beta.
He had little interest in his beautiful wife or her heat cycles. He also had an amazing lack of virility and after much awkward effort, he only managed to sire small, delicate Elizabeth.
Edward was handsome, but lacking, in Ciel's eyes.
Ciel wanted more.
Ciel wanted to be more than a ghostly image of a woman who appeared at pompous balls and events and spent her days aimlessly passing through the grand halls of her sprawling, empty house.
She and Edward bore each other no hard feelings, but they both acknowledged the fact that their marriage was like so many others of their era.
It was a business contract, established by custom and tradition without their consent, nothing more.
Edward tried to keep his distance from his wife whenever possible. He often found Ciel frustrating to talk to since they had so very little in common besides their nobility and Elizabeth.
Ciel wasn't bothered by Edward's nearly constant absence.
She had her daughter and her servants and that was enough…..
Well, it wasn't really enough, but Ciel told herself otherwise.
She had almost convinced herself to believe her own blatant lie.
Empty.
It all seemed…...empty, to the bluenette.
Ciel's parents, Earl Vincent and Lady Rachel Phantomhive spent much of their time traveling on their missions from the Queen, so she saw little of them as well.
As Ciel neared her twenty-fifth birthday, Ciel approached what was nearly midlife for the time period in which she lived.
Entire days passed where all she wanted to do was fling herself onto her bed and weep.
A life unfulfilled.
A life of duty.
Ciel had been dedicated to her parents, then her family, then the Queen, then her dignity, then her husband, and finally, her child.
Ciel had never belonged to herself.
Although she was a noblewoman that was surrounded by only the best, her life choices had never been her own.
Edward came to visit one evening, and the meal that the family of three shared was so vapid that Ciel found it hard to breathe.
She knew her corset was not to blame for the uncomfortable suffocation she staved off as she sat at the table.
Ciel was frightened for a while that she may very well strangle in that overwhelming awkwardness.
Being only three and a half, Elizabeth didn't notice the tension, but Edward certainly did. He chatted with his daughter but besides that, he tried to keep his eyes on his plate and off of Ciel as much as possible.
Edward left that night just after Mey-Rin, the Phantomhive maid, walked little Elizabeth up to bed.
Ciel stood at the front door and watched as Edward's ornate carriage pulled away.
Once the vehicle disappeared into the distance, she was again left with her daughter in the massive, vacant Phantomhive manor.
Ciel let out a breath while she looked into the empty night.
She remembered standing at that same doorway and watching her father race off to whatever adventurous errand he had been sent on when she had been Elizabeth's age.
As a girl, Ciel remembered dreaming about the life she would lead and the adventures that she would go on.
It made her frown deeply when she took a moment to consider that her in life as a grown, married woman, little had actually changed.
She was still standing in that same doorway, watching people come and go.
The bleak reality became too much to bear.
Ciel turned around to look at the checkered, tiled floor and the elegant chandelier as she gasped for breath.
Elizabeth would be alright.
Tanaka and Mey-Rin were with her, Baldroy, the cook, was downstairs, and Finny, the gardener, was right outside.
Ciel stepped forward and left the doorway.
It wasn't even a conscious decision, really.
Forward.
She had to move forward.
Ciel stumbled out into the driveway and found the mysterious coachman that she had hired during the previous year.
He was silent and young, but kind for the most part, and he looked up in surprise when he saw that Ciel was approaching him.
"Snake?" Ciel called out.
Snake blinked his green eyes back at his mistress in silent curiosity.
"I require a ride to London." Ciel ordered.
Snake seemed a little suspicious of his mistress's command, but he nodded and walked over to the nearest carriage.
As he prepared the vehicle for Ciel's journey, she felt excitement tingle in her extremities.
She was ashamed of the way she was behaving, but at the same time, she finally felt…...free.
Perhaps though, what shamed her more was that she already knew exactly where in the city she intended to go.
Ciel was present at every high society soirée, every ball, and every social gathering among Britain's ruling class.
Ciel wasn't the only bored omega among the nobles, either.
She had heard the other's complaints and she had also heard the sympathetic whisperings of advice they received when they expressed their woes.
Snake finished with the carriage and he bowed to Ciel before he assisted her with boarding.
Once Ciel was safely inside, Snake pulled on the reins, and they departed into the night.
As the carriage clattered along, Ciel looked out the window across the dark, moonlit landscape.
Lady Phantomhive had heard of a certain establishment on the edge of London's fashion district that catered to wealthy omegas who were lonely and sad.
Catered?
Lady Phantomhive didn't know what that meant exactly, but she was ready to find out.
Lady Phantomhive was tired of being lonely.
Lady Phantomhive was tired of being sad.