Daniel kissed her hand. "You look beautiful this evening."
Adalina nodded once as she allowed herself to smile a little.
"I heard that this is your first social event. What an exciting time for a young woman such as yourself. You are now ready for suitors to begin courting you."
Adalina looked away bashfully, playing her part.
"May I pull you away for a moment? There are some matters I would like to speak to you about privately."
The young woman looked around for Sebastian but she couldn't seem to find him in the crowd of people.
"Oh, don't worry about your escort," Daniel said quickly when he noticed her looking around. "This will only take a moment."
Adalina took Daniel's outstretched hand and let him lead her towards the back of the house where he could get out the back entrance.
This was it. All of the hours upon hours of training, the torturous etiquette lessons, and the exhausting makeover led to this one moment.
As Daniel led Madeline out of the house, he silently fumed to himself. This woman. She looked so much like…her. She even smelled like her. He couldn't take it. She had to go. Just like her. There was that one woman who had gotten away when he had been chased by that stupid kid a few nights ago, but he never saw her again. If he didn't see her, she wasn't a problem anymore. But this woman…she was different. She was too much like her. That was why she needed to go.
Daniel pulled out his knife.
But Adalina knew better. She had prepared for him to pull his knife as soon as he was alone with her.
When he went to bring the knife down, she quickly turned around and blocked his arm from finishing the job. Then with her free hand, she punched him in the face. It made her hand throb, but she ignored the pain.
Daniel was shocked as he stumbled back. She had actually been prepared for his attack! Why wasn't this woman scared of him? He had a knife in his hand! And yet, she was able to fight back. She shouldn't be able to fight back! She was a proper young lady!
Adalina whipped away the heavy skirt of her dress to reveal a short, thin piece of black fabric around her waist that came just above her knees along with her knee-high black boots. She untied the whip from around her thigh that she had secretly placed there with Nina's help. The tailor had been all too ecstatic to realize that she was able to create a short skirt for her to wear under the dress, and she loved her choice of weapon even more.
"What kind of woman are you?!" Daniel cried as his eyes widened and sweat began to drip down his face.
Adalina smirked a little. Her signature smirk that while barely noticeable could scare even the bravest men.
That was when it hit the lord. That one night when he had been chased by that stupid kid, someone had tripped him with a whip and almost got him caught. It was her! She was working for the kid!
Daniel came at her again with the knife raised above his head. If he could just get in one good strike, he could escape and be free of her.
However, Adalina was not going to give him that chance. She used her whip to knock the knife out of his hand, and it went flying to the ground. Daniel then tried to use his fists to immobilize her long enough for him to grab the knife.
Adalina was able to block every single one of his attacks and toss in a couple of good punches to his face and gut. With one very well-timed kick, she sent him to the ground.
Daniel dove for the knife and went for Adalina as her back was turned. Hearing him approach, Adalina quickly spun around and flung her whip at him. It wrapped around the knife, so she pulled hard. The knife flew out of his hand into the air before she caught it with another smirk.
Daniel's eyes widened at the maid's abilities. Seeing that he had no chance, he took off running. But Adalina was not about to allow him to escape from her again.
She flung the whip at him once more, and it wrapped around his arm. She then yanked hard on the whip, and he spun back towards her with a cry of surprise. Her arm wrapped around him, and she put the knife to his throat as he whimpered.
The sound of clapping filled the quiet night air.
Adalina looked up to find Sebastian standing there with a smirk on his own face.
"Well done, Madeline," he said to her. "It appears that all the training was worth it."
Sebastian walked up the man in her clutches.
"I'm afraid your game is over," he said calmly. "You will go to Scotland Yard immediately, and you will confess to your crimes. If you don't…"
Adalina watched as his eyes began to glow and his pupils turned into slits.
"…you will meet quite a messy end."
Daniel started screaming his head off, so Adalina quickly released him before he drew attention to either of them. The two of them watched him run off right to Scotland Yard as he was told.
Sebastian picked up the skirt of Adalina's dress. After the young woman tied her whip back around her thigh, he reattached the skirt to the dress.
"I do believe you have become a true Phantomhive servant," he smirked.
Adalina looked up at him and smiled a little. She was unbelievably proud of herself and had no doubt that Ciel would be too.
For the first time, Adalina felt sure and confident of herself and knew that she had the power to make sure no one ever hurt her again.
"Shall we return to the party? It would be quite rude for a young woman on her first outing to leave so early."
Adalina curtseyed and took Sebastian's arm again before returning to the house.
The young woman stayed for a while longer, dancing with many young men who had no idea that they were actually dancing with a maid. The idea of their reactions if they found out the truth was almost enough to make her laugh.
Finally, the party came to a close, and she was allowed to leave. Sebastian helped her and Ciel into the carriage. However, they went to Scotland Yard first before returning to the manor to find out more about why Daniel had murdered the women.
"Ciel Phantomhive?" Detective Abberline said in surprise when he saw the young Earl. "What are you doing here so late?"
"I know that a Lord Daniel came here tonight to confess to the murders of the young women," Ciel stated, a couple coughs leaving his mouth that he tried to hide.
"What?! He just did that a few hours ago! How did you possibly find that out already?"
"It's my job to know these things. Now, so I may inform the Queen, why did he decide to murder all those women and why did they all look similar?"
Abberline tossed a distrustful look to Adalina.
"No need to worry about her. She is a mute and won't tell anyone your secrets."
Abberline let out a sigh. "Very well. Lord Daniel ran in here in a panic, screaming that he was responsible for the three murders that had happened in the last few weeks. He claimed that his wife had left him some time ago in the middle of the night. He had been very much in love with her, so to see her gone was devastating. Therefore, every time someone passed him who looked like her and he caught the same scent of perfume she wore, something inside him snapped. He felt angry all over again at his wife's departure and killed the woman who reminded him of his beloved wife out of his anger for her betrayal. Then he started ranting about running into a blue siren and some kind of demon."
Adalina and Sebastian made eye contact and smiled a little. He had called a mute a siren? The only logical reason for that was because she had tried to draw him in before attempting to kill him. She certainly hadn't been singing to him.
"Thank you, Abberline," Ciel said. "I'll inform the Queen of this turn of events. She will be most pleased the killer has been caught."
"Lord Phantomhive, did you have anything to do with this?"
"My good sir, I can honestly say that I never even saw Lord Daniel tonight."
The three of them left Scotland Yard and went back to the manor. Adalina was exhausted and desired to go to sleep more than anything.
"Bloody tired," Ciel yawned as they stepped inside with a couple more coughs. "Sebastian, bring me some tea and then prepare my bed."
"Right away, young master," Sebastian answered.
Ciel went upstairs while Adalina made her way to the head maid's quarters.
"Miss Madeline," Sebastian called. "You did very well tonight. I know the young master is quite pleased. I'll send Mey-Rin to help you undress. Sleep in tomorrow morning. You've earned it." He took her hand and lightly kissed her knuckles again. "I bid you goodnight…my lady."
Adalina smiled just a bit bigger than she usually did, her cheeks reddening just a touch.
As Sebastian watched the head maid go, he let out a small sigh. That strange feeling had not left him once since he had seen her transformation before they left for the party. And he felt something else as he watched Adalina dance with all those young men tonight. It was similar to the feeling he got when someone messed with his contract but worse.
This wasn't right. He didn't know how it happened, but he could deny it no longer.
Sebastian Michaelis had feelings for Adalina.