The murderers, as Eleanora had predicted, were found in a high-class brothel. Arresting them had been easy—they were so drunk that all Scotland Yard had to do was walk them to the carriage. They had promised Phantomhive that they would tell him everything once the men had confessed, but it was taking them a while to sober up. Meanwhile, the servants were assisting with the ball.

Sebastian truly had gotten lucky. He had hired other maids before, all of which he had then fired. They might have been competent, they might have been good, hard workers, but all of them had cleverly hidden it. Apparently, they all thought that the way to a butler's heart was through behaving like a giggly silly twit who couldn't stop batting their eyelashes. They needed help with everything—from doing the laundry to washing the dishes to cutting up vegetables…The kicker was the one who kept on falling down and always needed "assistance" to get back up again, all while giggling and saying cutesy, annoying things like "silly me!" and "oh, I'm such a klutz!" It was so irritating that eventually Sebastian stopped helping her up and instead just walked on right by her, and when she said something like "oh, I'm so clumsy!" he agreed and told her to stop behaving so stupidly and do something worthwhile with her time. This made her burst into tears and run to her room, and then she got upset because he didn't chase after her to console her. As if he was obligated to fall in "love" with every pretty face that came his way. Yawn.

Eleanora wasn't like that. Like him, she seemed to hate incompetence of any kind. She would frequently "assist" the other servants, only it was mostly her doing their jobs for them because she knew that—somehow—they were going to mess it up anyway. One time, he caught her trying to teach the young Master how to tie his shoes.

"But I don't need to know!" he had protested. "I know lots of other things; they balance it out!"

Eleanora had scoffed.

"My Lord, if you're kidnapped, what's going to save your life: you telling them the year that William the Conqueror ascended the throne of England or you being able to properly tie your shoes so that you can effectively run away?"

The young Master didn't have an argument for that, and the next day, he had demonstrated how he could tie his shoes. Eleanora had clapped for him while Madam Red had cheered and then the next day he had forgotten all over again and Eleanora didn't have the patience to teach him again. Sebastian found the whole thing quite amusing and actually sided with Eleanora when the young Master complained (not that he told the Earl or anything).

Working with her was—surprisingly—tolerable. They had spent many hours together, making dinner in companionable silence, interrupted every now and then by questions:

"Where's the salt?"

"Where did you put the flour?"

"Can I see the recipe again?"

He wasn't so sure that he could have handled working with another "cute" maid. Eleanora didn't blink excessively, she didn't downplay her abilities, she didn't try to make herself look like a fool in order to endear herself to others. She swore every now and then, but it was always very quiet and she usually apologized immediately if someone had heard her.

She had major trust issues; she didn't like talking to anyone if it didn't involve work in some way; she seemed desirous not to make any friends. This was more than fine with Sebastian; he didn't want to make friends with her either. She was a good, capable worker and that was enough for him.

The ball arrived and all of the servants were forced to enter the party and assist with things. Eleanora had always been a bit of a wallflower at parties, so she just stood to the side and didn't move until it seemed that someone needed her help. She fought back a sigh and tried to look blank; she didn't think that she could pull off an interested look. She hated parties.

There was a young gentleman in front of her, talking to a group of people, laughing. Eleanora didn't pay any attention to the conversation until the young man said that he had to use the necessary. She prepared herself for the question on where it was, but the man had completely ignored her and walked away. She followed him with her eyes and realized that he wasn't going to the necessary—rather, he was going upstairs, to the young Master's study.

"This should be interesting," she thought and followed him.