Auntie Grell
Chapter One: Little Girl
Ferdinand Kingsley held out his arms for Lavanda to place a jacket on him. She buttoned him up, pulled his hair out of it gently before tying it into a ponytail and buffed his shoes. He nudged her impatiently before leaving the room to join his father for breakfast. Lavanda made the nine year old boy's bed before returning to the room she shared with her parents and getting changed from her night gown to her day clothes. She looked over at one of the maids, who had been feverish the night before and went to the kitchen for tea to give her. She brewed the tea and went to the servant's quarters, setting the tea down on the stand next to the maid and wishing her well. She left the room and went to the garden, pulling out the weeds as asked. It was a difficult task, especially for a six year old, but she worked hard.
In exchange for her work, the Baron gave her picture books. It was not money, like her parents received, but she was determined to obtain more. She even asked some of the other servants if any of them happened to know how to read, so she might learn how. Ferdinand's tutor had agreed to teach her at night if she cleaned his room, so she did. She was a very busy six year old, so it had surprised everyone that she had noticed the sick maid and had found the time to send her remedies and flowers. It was because of these trips to wish the maid well that she had been the first to notice that the maid was worsening and was likely to not survive the night. She had told her mother, who stroked her hair and hushed her gently, and her mother had asked the maid if she felt weak. It had been as Lavanda foretold, and the maid passed in the night, while Lavanda was studying her picture book now with notes from the tutor.
Since the girl was still up, she had noticed the figure of a woman entering the mansion. She followed the woman, who went into the maids' sleeping room and saw her looking at a clipboard before surveying the room. Lavanda spoke up, "You look familiar. What is your name, please?"
"Oh! Hmm. You can't be Maude Eileen Scotts, but you can see me?" Grell wondered aloud.
"Maude Eileen is in the second bed from the left. She's been sick for a week now. You, are you a doctor?" Lavanda walked closer.
"Thank you, little girl. No, not a doctor. You should not be able to see me." She approached the correct bed.
"Hmm... I remember you, I think? You feel familiar."
"Little girl, I don't think so. I only see people once. She is done, I also have... Lobo Pepper..." There was a small sound which might have been to suppress a laugh before she continued, "Lobo Peppermint."
"That is my Papa! He is sleeping." Lavanda looked up at the woman with the long, red hair. "If you are looking for my Papa, you must be my auntie! He says I have many aunties, but I never met them. We sleep in that room," she pointed to a door across the hall and two down from where they stood.
Grell walked to it, replying. "Hey, little girl, are you ill?" She felt a small amount of pity that this child could see her, and was also about to lose her father. The girl did not seem to notice the expression of sorrow that ghosted on the reaper as she followed.
"I'm fine, Auntie! Um, your name please?"
"Grell. My name is Grell Sutcliffe." She answered, thinking to herself that she might as well humor a dying child. On top of that, a child that was witnessing two deaths.
"Auntie Grell, my name is Lavender Chamomile Peppermint!"
Grell could not stop the laughter, "Lavender Chamomile Peppermint?"
"That's how the master says I should give my name. Mama and Papa still call me Lavanda Manzanilla! Just Lavanda."
"L. C. Peppermint. Hmm, still a little much. Elsie sounds close to your initials, I will just call you that." Grell looked at a clock in the hall. Three minutes until the girl's father died.
"Elsie, it is pretty! Not as much as Grell but..."
For the first time in a long time, Grell actually felt bad about taking someone's cinematic record. She knew his time was up, but the girl standing close behind was his daughter and she regretted taking him away. She hoped the girl would not suffer for long, at the very least. Only humans close to death could see reapers, so she believed little "Elsie" would soon join her father.
Baron Kingsley actually held decent funerals for Wolf and Maude Eileen, and Lavanda had cried as they were lowered into the ground. She had somehow known that they were dying, but had not wanted to acknowledge the fact. She clung to her mother, who had picked her up so she could bury her face in her mother's neck. Instead, Lavanda faced straight ahead and thought she saw red hair fluttering from the corner of her eye, moving out of sight to the cemetery exit.