02. Garden of Eden.
This is a happy end cause' you don't understand everything you have done, why's everything so wrong. — new soul, yael naim.
As a baby, Eden had those very intelligent eyes that were sometimes able to leave Francis surprised. Edward gave the nanny some severe night headaches, but Eden was of a stillness that reminded Francis of her brother.
She reminded her so much of his brother that the first time Vincent came to visit his nephews, he stayed with Eden on his arms while talking. The baby kept quiet though awake, her intelligent eyes watching her uncle's face and giving baby smiles whenever he touched her head or cheek.
As rigid as she was, Francis had to admit that she made lovely children. Vincent came whenever he had time, it was a little funny to see her brother always sunk in work coming to her house to play with his nephews. Vincent seemed simply very much in love with the two, especially with Eden — the one most like him.
Francis was not surprised when he verbalized his desire to have an heir. Rachel was also wanting to have a child, as Francis assumed that it would not be long before the couple finally had their own children.
"She's very quiet," Vincent whispered, swinging the baby in his arms. "Is that normal?"
"She's an educated baby. You couldn't expect less of a daughter of mine," Francis said proudly, shoulders erect and arms folded.
Vincent laughed in a low voice.
"Yes, as expected of you, sister," he added smiling. "But she still has my blood, that explains a lot, doesn't it, Eddie?"
Francis rolled her eyes at him.
She really liked her daughter's behavior, only if she felt a little jealous of her not to look as much like her as she would like. Alexis told her that it was too early to define a baby's personality, but Francis believed that her daughter already had too much personality to be ignored.
Alexis loved his children from the first time he saw them. Edward — at the tender age of one year — was a little gentleman, and Eden... Oh, Eden... His daughter was a very precocious child. At such a young age, she had strong opinions of the things she liked and disliked.
Although she spoke no more than a couple of words and never cried, she frowned whenever she was forced to do what she didn't want, and had her own way of manipulation to get what she wanted.
It was strange to notice such a deep characteristic in his one-year-old daughter.
She also enjoyed listening to stories; Edward was not patient enough to sit and listen, but Eden could listen to her father talk for hours without getting bored, which was also not a behavior of children her age.
"You care too much, Alexis. Your daughter is smart, there's nothing wrong with that," Angelina Durless, Vincent's wife's sister and a former friend, pointed to raising an eyebrow. "You should enjoy while she's so little, she's going to grow up and become a young lady, you know? You'll have more work ahead."
Angelina raised her indicator as she spoke, one hand over her waist and a smile on her lips.
"She's just... So different from Edward," Alexis muttered, not feeling exactly disgruntled that his daughter was different from his son, only sad that he didn't understand her as he would have liked.
Eden, who listened to the conversation leaning against the edge of the wall at the office door, left the place where she was and went towards her father. Alexis' eyes opened when his daughter put her hand on his and smiled.
An illuminated and precious smile.
"My little daughter is so cute!" He finally exclaimed, raising her from the ground and putting her on his lap.
Angelina laughed quietly, nodding her head.
When Eden and Edward were near their fourth birthday, their younger sister was born.
Little Elizabeth was the new light of the house, Edward was happy with the new sister, was delighted since the baby faced him with adorable green eyes.
Francis' fears of Eden's possible jealousy of her younger sister were in vain; Eden loved Lizzy as much as Edward, but, unlike Edward's childlike joy at having a young sister to protect, Eden was always trying to learn from the nanny how to take care of Elizabeth.
Francis and Alexis were happy to see the union of their children.
A year later, the Phantomhive twins were born.
Ciel quickly became the most popular of the twins, the younger of the two being too ill to go out with the family.
Eden found herself seriously annoyed to only see one of them every time her uncles visited her. While visiting his uncles' mansion for the first time, Eden took advantage of his uncle and aunt distraction with Lizzy and Ciel to leave the garden. She walked into the house with slow steps, her low shoes made no sound at all on the floor.
"Tanaka, can you take me to the room where he is?" Asked the butler of the residence, Tanaka gave a gentle smile.
"Understood. Please come with me, my lady."
Tanaka guided her through the corridors of the mansion, and Eden's determined eyes observed the place she had never been before.
She saw them when they were still babies because her aunt took them to the Midford manor, now they were both almost seven years old and Eden has not seen the youngest of the twins since birth.
Tanaka opened the bedroom door and revealed the little child on the other side; he had sharp eyes and a doll face identical to his twin who was playing happily with Elizabeth outside the building.
He looked at her looking nervous and held his fingers tightly to the point that Eden could see the white on the joints of his little fingers.
"Today looks very beautiful, doesn't it?" Eden started, her jumps hit the ground when she took a step towards the child. He jumped off in fright and Eden stopped in place. "You've grown a lot, when I saw you last time, you're was just a little bean."
Eden smiled kindly, the little boy still seemed suspicious.
"Do you remember me?" He asked, shyly.
Eden laughed.
"Of course! How would I forget my baby cousin?"
She approached him when she realized that he seemed a little more convinced.
"So, what do you think about playing a little bit in here?"
"But why do you want to play here? The day is beautiful outside..." he turned his head to the side, his voice seeming overwhelmed.
"Hm? But it's boring outside without you."
He opened more his eyes looking even more adorable.
"Really?"
"Yes. All I could think of was 'how can I play if my other baby cousin isn't here?', so I came looking for you." His cheeks were dyed with a shade of pink. "But if you don't want to play, I can go out..."
"No! I mean, don't leave, please." He lowered his head, Eden was now close enough to put her hand on top of his head.
"I'll stay. But now, what do you like to play with?"
Behind the two, Tanaka gave a soft smile before closing the door.
Eden played with him all afternoon, soon discovering that her other cousin was smart and could play chess very well at the age of seven. Eden hadn't regretted spending this time with her cousin; she found herself joining him very quickly.
"Eden, will you come back and play with me again?"
He asked her looking with his beautiful blue eyes. Eden bent down to level to his height and gave him a kiss on the forehead.
"Of course, yes, I really enjoyed playing today. From now on, you're my favorite cousin, but it's our secret, right?"
He nodded with a broad smile.
"Yes!"
"Let's do it like this, this will be the symbol of our secret," Eden raised her index finger and took her cousin's little hand, she interlaced her index finger into his index finger.
The child observed the gesture looking fascinated.
Eden didn't hold back her smile as she left her cousin's room, he was so lovely.
At Lady Camellia College for girls,
Eden excelled.
She enjoyed reading very much and this resulted in an unbridled passion for debate; she had been sent to punishment or received severe slaps on the palms of her hands with a ruler for disrespect to professors.
Eden simply didn't like unfair rules and her professors — although they were women — were always talking about why women were weaker and therefore needed strong men nearby, or how the subjects she was learning seemed futile in relation to what her brother was learning. Eden's mother was strong and her aunts too, Eden couldn't see how to make inferior women more apt to contribute to the society in which they lived.
Over the years, Eden has discovered a painful truth. Women were not created to contribute to society, they were an ornament, like a hair ornament. They were raised to bear children and stay behind their husbands, always being obedient, delicate and a perfect wall flower.
Eden found that not all women had the same — although still minimal — freedom that the women in her family had. Some women couldn't leave their homes because their husbands were the only providers of sustenance and they wouldn't get any decent jobs if they left home, the worst is that many of these men on whom they depended were insane, violent and everybody in that rotten society would be on their side anyway.
Deeply disappointed with the society in which they lived, Eden found a woman who thought like her: her aunt Angelina. Her mother was everything violent men hated and so Eden admired her, but she still had a firm foot on the archaic social laws in which women simply had to conform to the life they had.
Her aunt Angelina had a more modernist mindset; she was a doctor and was always being exposed to the mistrust of others simply because of her gender. Talking to her aunt Angelina, Eden found another ally, her aunt Rachel - wife of her uncle Vincent. She was such an intelligent woman and had so much to teach her, Rachel showed her a wonderful read about a woman who also thought like all of them, Mary Wollstonecraft.
Eden also realized that reading Mary's work was not well regarded in society and what her aunts did was apparently an insult, so they had their political books so well hidden.
Eden found that she wanted to be like her aunts when she grew up.
"Waaaaa- That was scary..." Ciel later commented on being defeated by Elizabeth and Eden's mother during training. Eden put another piece of cake on her other cousin's plate, seeing the interaction of Ciel and Lizzy.
"It's because mother is so strict." Lizzy tried to comfort her little fiance.
Eden listened to his cousin's next words.
"Aunt Francis is pretty, but... Such a strong wife..." Eden pay attention to her cousin's next words. "That scares me, I'm glad that you're the one who's going to be my wife."
Eden stood up to see her sister's mortified expression, she caressed Lizzy's hair curls and stooped down next to ciel.
"Ciel, there's nothing wrong with a girl being strong. And there's nothing wrong with a boy being strong too, so you can be a very strong and amazing couple." Eden explained softly, seeing her cousin frowning and seeming to think of her words.
"But I want to be the only one to protect Lizzy." Ciel countered by appearing unconvinced.
"I know, little one. But you want to protect Lizzy because you like her so much, don't you?" He agreed. "Lizzy also likes you and she also wants to protect you. Isn't it, Lizzy?"
The little girl nodded vehemently with pink cheeks.
Ciel gave a smile, at last.
"I understand. So let's protect each other, Lizzy!" Ciel spoke and her little sister seemed happy again.
Eden smiled, glad that a simple explanation had avoided a problem that could perhaps become bigger.
She went near the little boy at the table that was in silence. Eden stared at him fondly.
"Do you want play chess while they play together?"
The other twin consented, watching his brother and Lizzy play together. At least with Eden, he no longer felt so lonely.
"Yes!"
[author's note]
Thank you for those who commented in the fic. Thanks for Haruka Chouko and the anonymous reader for the reviews!
And please, let your review before go, all the constructive opinions are welcome!
*English isn't my first language, please, feel free to point out any grammar mistakes 3