Ciel had no idea what was wrong or what had happened, but Sebastian had suddenly burst into his study and said that it was time for him to retire, which it most certainly wasn't. He should have had another hour at least, but when he opened his mouth to protest, his butler just lunged for him, tucked him underneath his arm, and took him to his room against his will. And once they were in his room, Ciel was prepared to retire faster than he had ever been before and then dumped into his bed. Sebastian then walked out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

That was the weirdest part of the whole thing—Sebastian hadn't looked or acted angry at all. His face had been calm—almost serene—throughout the forced bedtime process, and he never slammed a drawer or behaved roughly with him out of anger.

Which only confused Ciel even more as he lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. If his butler wasn't angry, why was he acting so strangely?

Eleanora found Sebastian in his room, lying on the bed and staring up at the ceiling. She had knocked, but he hadn't answered. The door, however, was unlocked, so she took a liberty and went in anyway.

"Hello," she said quietly. He didn't answer her; didn't even look at her as she approached. "Um…How much did you hear?"

"Right around the part where you told the Madam that I had said that I loved you."

Eleanora sucked in one of her cheeks. That was quite a lot of listening in to regrettably-incriminating parts.

"…Look…That is to say, listen…"

"There's nothing left to say," he said, rolling over onto his side, still not looking at her. "You don't love me. That's it."

"I'm…really, really, really sorry…"

"Sorry for what? Sorry that you don't love me? Sorry that you said those things? Sorry that you got caught saying those things?"

"…Yes to all?"

"I don't care anymore," he said, still speaking in an eerily composed voice. "I just don't care."

"You don't care about what?"

"About anything. About you, about our relationship…I'm so tired of it, Eleanora. I'm tired of playing this ridiculous marriage game which will inevitably lead to nothing. It seems that with every step we take forward, we take three steps backwards. If we continue down this road, then, mathematically speaking, we will still get to nothing. So I'm giving up. I just don't care anymore. Go do what you want. Go say what you want. Do anything you please, just leave me out of it."

The telephone rang and he rose up to answer it.

"We tried at this," he said in passing, "and it didn't work. So I'm quitting now before I get hurt some more."

"Sebastian, I'm so, so sorry…"

"Good evening, Miss Black," he said and left the room.

Eleanora stood there for a few minutes in shock. Then she realized that she had no business being in a butler's room all alone, so she went out just in time to catch Sebastian on his return trip to his room.

"That was Lady Elizabeth just now," he said, still with a blank expression, still with a calm tone. "Her maid is sick, but she wants to go to London and she wanted to know if you'd be available as a replacement. Naturally I'd told her that you'll be delighted to assist in her shopping. You leave early tomorrow morning."

Eleanora would normally have protested this, but she decided that now was not the time to do so. She just nodded and stepped aside to let him pass.

It was so strange how these things progressed so quickly. Yesterday she had been loved. And now she was an absolute stranger.

She didn't know which one was worse.