Eleanora had seen dead bodies before. The fact that there was a dead body in the room didn't bother her. The fact that someone had actually died in Phantomhive during a party was a bit more disturbing to her. The circumstances were far more bizarre than the actual occurrence. How could somebody just drop dead and die in the middle of a party? Who did that? That was so rude! And in an Earl's manor, no less. Perhaps it would have been more understandable if the dead person was a relative or a close family friend, but this was a guest. That was even ruder. And just plain weird.
She almost dropped the water pitcher, but luckily, as she always turned stiff when frightened, she almost crushed the handle in her grip.
"If it could happen to a guest," she thought as she looked at all the others, "it could happen to anyone here…"
All of the other people around had looks of horror on their faces—all of them except for the butler, that is. He had a pensive face, but it wasn't the right kind of pensive face. It wasn't the kind of face one would have when they were thinking:
"OH SHITNUGGETS; SOMEONE JUST DIED HERE; I NEED HELP RIGHT NOW SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE SOMEONE DO SOMETHING I AM TOTALLY FREAKING OUT HERE!"
Which was of course the right attitude to have at the moment.
The butler's thinking face was more like as if he had just realized that someone had eaten the young Master's cake:
"Hmm, now let's see, who could have done this?"
Which was totally inappropriate; Eleanora desperately needed him to start panicking.
Mostly because that was what she was about to do.
She remembered what had happened at the party—she had gotten hit on by the murdered man, almost slapped the bejeezus out of him when she was rescued by the butler and spent the rest of the evening in the kitchen—alone. Nobody was with her. Nobody saw her. If attention was diverted on her…if they thought that she had done it…All she would have was her word, and her word wasn't worth shit. She could be a suspect. She could be jailed. She could be hung.
"I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE; I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE; I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE AND I DIDN'T DO IT I SWEAR ON THE SOUL OF MY MOTHER AND THE SOUL OF MY FATHER IF HE'S NOT ALREADY DEAD YET WHICH I HOPE HE IS HORRIBLE BASTARD!"
She caught the eye of the butler, who looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
And something happened. It was almost like magic. She just suddenly felt calmer, as if he was telling her to calm down.
"It's alright," he seemed to say. "They don't know where you were. Nobody is suspicious of you. Besides, I know that you're innocent. I know you didn't do it."
She nodded at him and he nodded back. He even smiled at her, which she didn't return. She was not in a smiling mood, and besides, it was horribly rude to start smiling in the presence of a dead person.
Meanwhile, the servants and the guests were arguing about what to do. One of them wanted to wait until the police arrived, but the cook said that they had to move the body now.
The body was accordingly moved and then that damned Earl Grey piped up.
"I want insurance," he said. "Insurance that we'll get out of here alive."