The men left the bathroom several hours later, each one of them smelling strongly of bubbles and bath salts. They had been very thorough and dignified when cleaning Sebastian, but after that, they decided that it would be a waste to just drain the huge bathtub and had a water fight. There were water pistols involved and everything. Ciel was still soaking wet and he hadn't even entered the tub.
Dinner was ready and they all sat down. The women were already there. Ciel wondered where Eleanora was and who the big black blob of clothes on the far side of the table was. Then he realized that they were one and the same.
Everything was covered. Ciel couldn't find a single area of Eleanora's skin, or even any trace that she ever had any to begin with. Black gloves, long trousers and long-sleeved tops, layers upon layers of skirts and shirts, several layers of cloth on her face so that even her mouth wasn't visible as she ate. Her stomach had settled by this time, so she thought that it would be alright to eat a little something.
Rose had been right when she talked about "physical torture." She was sweltering. Maybe it would have been fine with just the usual five or so layers, but, in total, she was walking around in forty-six. Apparently the unholy didn't do anything by halves.
Rose had very kindly opened every window and turned on some strange, electrical appliance that she called "air conditioning" (as if air needed to be conditioned), which significantly cooled everything down, but that didn't change the fact that she was roasting. She felt as if she was being boiled alive in her own sweat.
Plus the butler wouldn't stop looking at her. Rose had said that the men had given him a certain type of wine which made him forget almost everything about her. Apparently he still remembered her, and all the arguments they had and the fights they got into, but he didn't remember her face or her voice or any specific details. This was his cleansing ritual, and Rose made it very clear to her that she wasn't allowed to speak when Sebastian was in the room, and it was probably better if she just ignored him completely.
"Tantalize him, honey," Rose said, winking. "There's nothing that gets men more sexually frustrated than being ignored."
"But why would I want him to be sexually frustrated?"
"For the honeymoon, darling! Trust me, a man who hasn't had any affection in three months is bound to make the nights as hellish as possible!"
Eleanora was staring to understand unholy slang; "hellish" meant the same as "heavenly" did to humans.
She didn't want to "tantalize" him. She could already ignore him as good as the rest of them; she didn't want to have anything to do with him at night. But wait! Maybe…he was already filled with demonic lust? After all, hadn't she mostly-ignored him for a year? Maybe he was already anxiously waiting for the honeymoon!
Eleanora bent her head and picked at her food. She dreaded to know what he was thinking about at this very moment.
"No, but what is the color of her hair?" Sebastian thought, frowning at her. "And what did her voice sound like? I remember she had a good singing voice, but I can't remember what it sounded like at all…"
Sebastian sighed and picked at his food. It was going to be a long three months.