Chapter 16: The Color of Friendship

Elizabeth lay in the field of wild flowers, shielding her eyes from the bright sun above. She smiled and listened to the tweeting of the sparrows and little birds as they flew around and above her. The whole of the field was covered in lovely prairie grass and yellow and white flowers that she loved so much. Elizabeth breathed in the fresh air deeply. It smelled nothing like London city air…it was more pure and clean. She did not feel like gagging whenever she opened her mouth to speak…instead she embraced the oxygen that the countryside presented her.

"Eliza! Eliza! Look the flowers…they are pretty!" Elizabeth sat up to see a tanned young woman running to her, arms full of yellow and pink flowers. White Owl grinned and pointed behind her where the small creek was.

"Lots and lots! I gathered them for you."

"Oh, White Owl they are beautiful! Thank you!" The young native woman handed Elizabeth the bouquet and smiled. White Owl plopped next to Elizabeth and looked beyond the mountains, a fare away gaze in her dark eyes. Elizabeth imagined White Owl was thinking about her home…far over the hills that she longed to climb over. It had only been two weeks since the native girls had begun attending St. Augusta Josephina School, yet they had adapted quickly, and were much friendlier than the adults had led them to believe.

They call them a bunch of savage red skins…what folly. White Owl, Running Fawn and the others are all kind people. Adults…they are worse than we are! What silliness!

Elizabeth looked at White Owl, a small grin crossing her face. White Owl had such a kind heart and a strong passion for the world around her. Elizabeth had never met anyone like her…

"White Owl, you really are something special." Elizabeth complimented. White Owl nodded.

"Eliza is something special too." Suddenly, a chime sounded, carried across the valley by the window. Elizabeth looked towards the chapel, straining her eyes. Ms. Westford stood at the chapel entrance, ringing the bell for the students to come back to the campus. It was then Elizabeth remembered the time, and ushered White Owl to stand quickly. The other girls crowded the chapel entrance just as Elizabeth and White Owl returned from the field. Chattering and commotion exploded as the girls spoke among themselves about their studies and life at school. The little chimes rang repeatedly as the girls found their seats. Elizabeth and White Owl sat next to Hannah and Running Fawn in the middle row.

"Where were you today, Eliza? I was looking all over for you…" Hannah whispered. Elizabeth leaned over to whisper in Hannah's ear.

"White Owl and I were in the field picking flowers." Hannah nodded. The priest stood from his chair and began chanting. The organ music began and the girls rose to their feet, their hymnals open. Hannah made a funny face at Elizabeth, causing her to snicker silently. White Owl poked Hannah in her side, making the young girl giggle and almost drop her book. Running Fawn kept shaking her head, which made the girls burst into laughter.

"Ssh…" One of the girls behind them mumbled, and then pointed to the front row. Mrs. Huddersfield had turned around and was now starting at them in a most crude manner as if she would hit them with the wooden paddle…again. The girls hushed quickly, not wanting to be punished for their behavior. Elizabeth sang as loud as she could, after all this was her favorite hymn that her Aunt Angelina used to sing to her.

"For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies. For the love which from our birth, over and around us lies. Christ our Lord to Thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise-." Elizabeth glanced around the room, her eyes falling to the girls in the second pew. A tingle of annoyance rose within her as she saw them pointing her way and silently giggling.

Those girls…are always making fun of the natives. How would they like it if someone made fun of them? Didn't their mothers teach them proper etiquette? How unbecoming!

After chapel time and lunch the girls were allowed to spend time in the gardens, planting flowers or spending time near the small creek that ran alongside the tool shed. Elizabeth and Hannah sat on the wooden bench, watching White Owl and Running Fawn run through the long green grass, flipping and spinning cartwheels. Elizabeth clapped and laughed as White Owl twisted gracefully in the air and landed on her hands. White Owl's tanned legs stood straight up in the air, while her dress fell down around her.

"Your petticoats!" Hannah yelled and covered her eyes. Elizabeth giggled.

"That's wonderful White Owl! How wonderful!" White Owl and Running Fawn walked back to where Elizabeth and Hannah sat in the garden.

"You see? I went up!" Running Fawn exclaimed pointing to the sky. Hannah smiled and patted the little girl's shoulder.

"Of course darling. You are so very agile."

The four girls sat in the green field, watching the clouds pass them by. Elizabeth reached up at the vast blue firmament, slowly watching the clouds between her fingers as she spread them apart. So many thoughts…and so much change had happened since the Indian girls came to the school.

Many of the English girls are afraid of them…they make fun of them and call them terrible names…

Elizabeth shook her head in dismay. If only the girls could let go of their hate for the natives…if only people would not be so cruel.

"Elizabeth! Elizabeth, stay with me!" Ciel yelled. He hugged Elizabeth's wet form, holding his hand over her wound.

"Who are you?" Ciel yelled.

"I'm the Doctor's…you know him. You've met him. He knows you. Do you remember?" Ciel's mind felt as if it were about to burst from past memories that he could not recall. Something from within his conscious was telling him…he knew this Doctor. He knew deep down inside…there was something that he had forgotten in his childhood…

"N-no…way…" Ciel's eyes widened at the realization of what was transpiring. Everything made sense now…The natives' illegally shipped to England, St. Josephina Augusta School burning down…everything was coming together now! The men that had tried to abduct Elizabeth several months ago…circus tattoos…

"Baron Kelvin…the Doctor…and Noah's Circus…" Ciel said, his voice shaking from unbelief. The smoke cleared and Ciel strained his eyesight to see into the thinning mist. Slowly, he reached for his pistol that was tucked away in his boot…

"There's something special about Lady Elizabeth…Earl Phantomhive…her soul…is so unlike yours…so pure, clean and yet…so fierce. Lady Elizabeth's soul is the only one…that I have encountered in my short several hundred years of life…" Ciel opened his mouth to retort…but suddenly everything came together. Everything made sense!

"Helen Eckard…you…you're the one who told the Doctor about Elizabeth's whereabouts and it was Glaudusa that introduce you to the Middlefords…after you murdered Paula in the school fire because of Elizabeth…and Lady Glaudusa isn't a Lady at at…she is Baroness Kelvin…the widow of Baron Kelvin!"

Helen laughed loudly, her shoulder shaking so much Ciel that she would fall to her knees. Helen staggered back, holding her stomach and laughed until she fell to the floor.

"Oh Earl! I knew you were ever so the smart one! Hahaha! Haha! Ah…" Helen glared at Ciel…her gaze one of amusement and morbid pleasure.

"Baroness Kelvin…was quite obsessed with Lady Elizabeth…just like Baron Kelvin was obsessed with your beauty Earl…and can you blame her?" Helen stood, raising her hands towards the ceiling and breathing in deeply.

"Lady Elizabeth's soul…everything about her…intrigues us…intrigues me…together…with the Doctor we can create a new species of demon…and a new species of human! Don't you see Earl? Everything will be made beautiful! Ahahaha! Ahahahahaha! Hahaha!"

"It was all a set up…the school burning down…you, the Doctor and Baroness Kelvin wanted to destroy all evidence of your experiments…just like her husband-,"

"No Earl Phantomhive! Not like Baroness Kelvin…just like you…"

"What?"

"Yes…you were the one who burned down Baron Kelvin's mansion…all those years ago…you were the one who started all of this…"

Hello! I am so, so , so sorry for the lateness and forgetfulness! My schooling has certainly been coming first and I apologize for how slow this story is in coming. Please enjoy this chapter. I'm so sorry that it is not any longer, but there is no possible way that I could have worked on it more! My finals are coming up, and this semester has been extremely hard for me and my fiancee with wedding planning and his work beginning in the summer (he is a children's minister and works as Assistant Director at a camp). Please enjoy this chapter!