Author's Note: It's been... *checks calendar* almost a year? *promptly dies* An awful year. Anyway, I promise this story WILL eventually be completed. Key word eventually. As always, thank you for your patience!
Chapter 2
The Unwanted Visit
The next morning, Alois recalled with a groan that he was scheduled to have visitors today. After spending roughly five minutes lying in bed with his pillow over his face in frustrated exasperation, he finally got up.
It was strange, having to dress and otherwise get himself ready in the morning again. Which was ludicrous seeing as how he couldn't have even dreamed of someone else doing it for him up until just a few years ago. As he put his clothes on in a presentable fashion and admired himself in the mirror, he felt the hollowness inside him yawning and threatening to swallow him up completely.
Instead, he put on his best, most charming smile, and left the room.
Claude was waiting for him in the manor's foyer. He glanced sidelong at Alois and said, "Lord Arnold Trancy and the Viscount Druitt are due to arrive any moment now."
"And I'm sure they'll both prance in here, all smiles and kind words, while cursing my guts under their breath." A brief pause. "I despise them."
Claude didn't respond to that. Not that he ever did, though Alois so desperately wanted him to.
A moment of silence passed between them, like the calm before the storm. Alois took a deep breath, letting it whoosh out through his nose. He clenched and unclenched his hands a bit. "Claude, last night—"
He never got to finish because the sound of horses and carriages clattering up the way to the manor had become distantly audible. Claude moved to the door and headed outside to greet the new arrivals, and, feeling bile rise in his throat, Alois did the same. As soon as he was through the door he plastered a huge smile across his face. The look of a pure, innocent child, as if he could remember what that felt like.
"Uncle Arnold, how good to see you!" he exclaimed as he rushed up and gave a great big hug to the large, older man stepping out of the carriage. Behind him, Alois could see the Viscount Druitt, his golden locks shimmering in the morning sunlight as he took in everything around him with a kind of doe-eyed wonder. Last came the priest, a man Alois had not seen before, though he'd been told his uncle was planning to have one accompany him to offer "emotional comfort."
"Hello dear boy," Arnold said, smiling at him and stiffly returning the boy's hug, but it couldn't have looked more fake if he'd tried. Druitt, on the other hand, stared at him with awestruck, sparkling eyes. "Oh my, what an exceptionally beautiful youth! It's as though he's an angel descended from the very heavens themselves. What travesty must have brought you down to this sinful earth."
Alois stole a quick glance at Claude, amused at the irony of the viscount's comments and wondering if the demon would show any response. To Alois' disappointment, he did not.
Turning back to his guests, the young earl said, "Well, I bid you welcome! Do come in." With idle chatter about the weather and how their other relatives were doing, they all headed inside to the foyer where the guests had their coats taken. As the party made their way to the dining hall, Druitt glanced at the artwork on the walls, the items in display cases, and the general décor. As he did, he remarked, "It feels as though Lord Trancy never left. Everything is exactly as it was. Amazing."
Alois, who'd just that morning had the servants rearrange the house back to how it'd looked when the old man had been alive, responded, "Of course. I couldn't bear to change any of it. I want to be reminded of his warmth and love every single day."
The priest regarded Alois with a look of such pity that he thought he might vomit. If this man knew the half of what Alois had done, that sympathy would evaporate in a heartbeat and the man would send him straight to hell himself without a second thought if he could. "You must have loved him very much," he said.
Alois just nodded silently through the tears he had conjured while thinking of someone else.
Arriving in the dining hall, they each took their seats – Alois at the head of the table, Druitt and the priest on either side of him, and Arnold farther down. Claude went into the kitchen to bring out the meal.
"Now my boy, please tell me your story," the priest began gently.
Alois sighed and began, having gone over this story a hundred times in his head so he would never have a detail out of place when telling it.
"I was held captive in a village somewhere out in the countryside. I never knew what it was called or where it was located. T—They made me work like some kind of slave and showed me unspeakable cruelty. I befriended another boy there who was in the same situation as I was. I… thought of him as a younger brother." Alois paused there to collect himself, showing the depth of his pain. "Then Father came to rescue me! But then he too…" he broke off, tears threatening to spill over his lashes.
"You poor boy. Your suffering has been immense, there's no question about that," the priest said quietly, looking like he was on the verge of tears himself.
"That someone of such grace was subject to such horrors proves just how depraved our world really is," Druitt lamented dramatically. Given how he had supposedly been quite close to the late Earl, and with his own beautiful appearance, Alois wondered idly if the former Earl had… It wasn't a thought he entertained for long.
Then Claude returned with a cart full of elegant dishes giving off a delicious aroma that made Alois' mouth water. Behind Claude, somewhat to Alois' surprise, followed Arthur, somewhat awkwardly carrying a salad bowl and serving tongs on a polished platter.
All eyes in the room drifted to Arthur as the food was being served. It was all too clear why – there hadn't exactly been a servant uniform lying around in a size that would fit a young teenager, so they'd needed to make due with what they had. As a result, Arthur hardly looked like the neatly kempt servant that he should. Arnold was the one who spoke up. "And who is this lad? I don't recall seeing him here before."
"Arthur here is the newest member of my staff," Alois informed him. "He had nowhere else to go so I took him in."
"I see," was all Arnold said.
"A truly magnanimous act, dear boy," the priest said. "God smiles on all who help the needy."
Druitt agreed wholeheartedly and Arnold nodded politely, but Alois could see what they really felt in their reactions to Arthur. Arnold gave Arthur dirty looks throughout the lunch, as if he were some diseased, mangy dog off the street. The priest hid his feelings better, but he too avoided the food served by Arthur and favored the dishes served by Claude instead. Even Druitt seemed to be thinking the boy was way below his station when he said, "Quite fortunate that the new Earl Trancy is so benevolent. So full of grace, so above other nobles. Most aristocrats of your rank wouldn't want someone of such background anywhere near their households."
"No self-respecting house would," Alois heard Arnold mutter under his breath.
Alois glanced over at his uncle, eyes narrowed in anger, before he began to eat the incredibly tender chicken dish Claude had prepared. The sauce was suitably savory as well.
Druitt began a long and confusing rant about what he thought of the quality of his meal, comparing it to something some famous explorer or another would have traversed the entire world for, while the priest said, "My compliments to your chef – this is truly an exemplary meal."
"You can thank Claude here," Alois said proudly. He felt a rush at publicly declaring Claude as his servant, as if that somehow made it true in reality.
The priest did give his compliments to Claude, who accepted them with his customary disinterested cordial way. Alois knew the demon didn't care one whit about any of these people, seeing them as boring lesser life forms, though he'd always dared to hope Claude's feelings about him were a little bit different.
Throughout the rest of the meal and after, the guests continued to make their disdain for Arthur's very presence more than abundantly clear. They put upon him more than would be expected, made backhanded compliments, and even sneered at him once or twice. As the afternoon wore on, Alois got angrier and angrier, especially as he watched the clear suppression of Arthur's incensed rage and the boy regularly biting back what he really wanted to say to these people.
Early evening arrived and the guests finally made ready to depart. As the triplets retrieved their guests' hats and coats, Alois saw them to the front door through the central hallway as they all made their goodbyes.
The moment the other two were out of earshot, Alois turned towards Arnold with a barely concealed sneer. "It sadly seems that I need to remind you of this, Uncle, but in your rudeness to my staff you overstep your place. Should you ever hold the title of Earl Trancy, then such matters will concern you."
Alois didn't think he'd ever seen a man's face get that red before. Clearly furious and with a huff to match, Arnold strode out the front door towards his flustered coachman, who observed his approaching master's mood in apprehension.
His smirk widening now that all his visitors had gone out the front door, Alois took the steps, two at a time, up to the balcony that overlooked the front courtyard. Good. One of the triplets had brought up the banknotes and other documents as he'd requested. Glancing down, he noted that Arnold was preparing to get into his carriage. Probably calling Alois all kinds of unsavory names, no doubt.
"Uncle Arnold!" Alois called to get the man's attention. "I know all you want is my money!" With that, he began reaching into the boxes, yanking out handfuls of paper, and tossing them over the railing of the balcony. "Here, have some banknotes! Some deeds to some land! Oh, and horses too!"
For a brief moment, Arnold stood there, slack-jawed, but when it set in what was happening after a couple of seconds, he began scrambling for the notes. "You!" he called to the poor coachman, "Get down here and help me pick these up!"
Alois couldn't help it, he burst out laughing at the sight. He glanced around, wanting to comment on the situation to Claude, so used to having the other as his shadow.
The only person he could really be honest with.
But of course, he wasn't there.
With a deep sigh, the giddy joy of humiliating Arnold evaporated and Alois descended the marble steps with much less enthusiasm than he had climbed them. Claude was there, standing in the entrance hall. The last sounds of the carriages clattering away died in the distance.
"Claude," Alois said, "there's something I need to talk to you about."
When the demon looked at him sidelong but didn't answer, Alois took it as an invitation to continue. "Last night, I had a talk with Hannah."
Claude gave him a look that plainly communicated how he was mildly surprised to hear this, given Alois' usual feelings on their maid.
"She told me everything."
Alois didn't think he'd ever seen Claude truly surprised before, but that was the only word he could find to adequately describe it. The demon remained silent for a good long while before finally saying, "Did she now?
"She was the one who made a contract with Luka. Which means you lied to me. Sebastian never had anything to do with this in the first place."
"Perhaps I didn't know."
"I don't believe you."
Claude just stared at him in response, in a "what would you like me to say" kind of way.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't make a new contract with her right now," Alois said nonchalantly, though the threat was well understood. He searched Claude's impassable expression, trying to discern his reaction to such a possibility.
"Such a decision, in my view, would be… rash," Claude said slowly.
"Oh, so you do care after all?" Alois snapped. "Then prove it. Make a new contract with me."
"I would… perhaps be willing," Claude said, glancing around as if looking to see if Hannah was nearby.
Those were the words Alois had been dying to hear for days. His heart leapt in his chest, and he wanted more than anything to agree to bind them together once more. But what Hannah had said, and how Claude had lied to him, lurked in his mind, and in spite of how desperately he wanted to say yes, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
"Sounds like the game is on, then. Only one of you gets me. Convince me which it should be."
Alois turned away abruptly and strode towards his room, wanting to be alone and honestly unsure how he felt now.
Damn demons, he snarled to himself. They all make me sick.
It felt amazing to have both of them fighting over him.
