Chapter 2
Her Maid, Cleaning Up
Elizabeth felt warmth on her sternum as she faded back into consciousness. Her eyelids fluttered open to an eyeful of vibrant, green hair.
"What are you doing?" She weakly whispered to Aurora.
"My apologies, my lady." Aurora dipped her head a bit. "I thought it would be best to clean your wounds while you were unconscious, so that you wouldn't feel it sting."
"My wounds?" Elizabeth repeated, still groggy.
"Why, of course. In addition to the branding of the contract seal, you had many, my lady. Don't tell me you were unaware of their presence?"
Elizabeth turned her head to avoid Aurora's gaze, instead finding herself face to face with a grungy wooden wall. "Where are we?" She asked instead.
"My apologies, my lady." Aurora began again. "It's not fitting for someone of your status, but we are in the spare room of a house belonging to a common man."
"What is the reason for us being here?" Elizabeth hadn't minded being outside. She had grown used to it.
"When you cried out during the branding, my lady, you caught the attention of the homeowner in the distance. When he saw the state that you were in, he insisted that I use what little resources he has to care for you."
"That's rather kind of him." The blonde said, affixed on the patterns of the wooden wall. "I will have to get his name so that I can properly thank him later."
"An excellent idea, my lady." Aurora agreed, gently wiping Elizabeth's contract seal with one of the few clean, dry rags on the property.
"I've wiped down and cleansed your body along with your wounds while you were unconscious, my lady. If I may, I'd like to wash your hair next."
"But why?" Elizabeth turned her head to look at Aurora now. "I haven't any clean garments to wear, only filthy ones."
"That isn't entirely true, my lady." Aurora set aside the dry rag and walked over to a bed on the other side of the room, where a couple of boxes of different shapes and sizes were laying. She took the lid off of the biggest box and reached in, pulling out a dress in purple and green.
The maid smiled. "I stopped in the nearest town and picked up a few things. I hope that you don't mind the colors, my lady."
Elizabeth was floored. "I-I don't mind the colors at all!" She didn't even mind the fact that Aurora had, obviously, chosen based on colors that were appealing to herself. "Where did you get the money for those boxes of things?"
Aurora folded up the dress and set it aside on the bed. "There's no need to worry about that, my lady. Now, may I wash your hair?"
"Yes, that would be lovely." Elizabeth answered, laying her head back against whatever it was she was laying on. She presumed it to be another bed.
Aurora lifted the warm water basin she had been using and placed it behind Elizabeth's head.
"I'm afraid there's no liquid soap at this place of residence, my lady." The demoness informed the blonde, removing her green gloves so that the hair washing could commence.
"Elizabeth Midford." The blonde said suddenly as the greenette wettened a bar of soap in the water basin.
"Come again, my lady?" Aurora began to roll the bar of soap over in her hands to work up a lather.
"Lady Elizabeth Ethel Cordelia Midford." The blonde repeated more in-depth. "That's my name. I realized I never gave it to you."
"You have a lovely name, Lady Elizabeth." Aurora complimented, beginning to lather Elizabeth's dirty hair. She realized a moment too late that the hair was still bound in tangled pigtails.
"Oh, well. I'll just-" As the demoness went to undo the pigtails, the hair ties snapped from wear and old age.
"Oh dear. I won't be reusing those." The greenette watched as the remains of the hair ties fell into the water basin. She quickly fished them out and set them aside.
"Is everything alright, Aurora?" Elizabeth asked the demoness, unable to turn her head to see what was happening.
The demoness cleared her throat and proceeded with the hair washing. "Yes, my lady. Everything is fine." Aurora told her young mistress. "Drat. Looks like I'll have to improvise when it comes time to put her hair back up." The demoness thought to herself.
The water in the basin turned murky as Aurora washed Elizabeth's tresses and scrubbed her scalp.
"Oh?" The demoness said suddenly after a minute or two of scrubbing Elizabeth's scalp.
"What is it, Aurora?" Elizabeth asked, angling her emerald eyes up in an attempt to see her new maid.
Aurora sighed and dried her hands off on her purple apron, heading over to the boxes she had laying on the other bed.
"I'm no hairdresser," Aurora began as she fiddled around in the boxes, in search of something. "But it would appear to me that you have head lice, my lady."
"Head lice?!" Elizabeth cried out, horrified. "No, no, no, no, no! That can't be right at all!"
"Worry not, my lady. There is a solution to this. Oh, I'm so glad that I picked this up while I was out." Aurora pulled a vial from one of the smaller boxes.
"Ah, here we are." The maid came back over to her mistress, plucking the lid off of the vial with a popping sound. The maid began to pour into the palm of her hand what appeared to be a clear oil, and started to work it into Elizabeth's scalp.
"Ow, ow, ow!" The blonde winced. "Aurora, what is that? It stings!"
"Tea tree oil, my lady." The greenette answered. "I've heard that it works for treating head lice. How true that is, I do not know. But it is what we have to work with at this time."
"I suppose that's true." Elizabeth sighed, wishing that she didn't have head lice at all.
Aurora gave Elizabeth's scalp and tresses a final rinse in the warm water basin. The water was absolutely filthy now, and even a bit iridescent as the tea tree oil seeped into it.
The demoness now went back over to the boxes of things she had bought, opening one of the smaller boxes and pulling out a new hairbrush. She came back over to her mistress and set the brush aside as she began to dry Elizabeth's hair with a clean towel. Then, once the blonde hair was acceptably dry, she began to brush the tangles out.
Elizabeth tried to close her emerald eyes and relax, but found that to be a difficult thing to do. Aurora wasn't a very gentle hairbrusher. Perhaps it was because Aurora's own hair was straight and Elizabeth's was not.
"You-you're being a little rough there, Aurora." Elizabeth squeaked.
"My apologies, my lady." Aurora said as she struggled to free the brush from her lady's tresses. "It's just that these tangles-"
"Paula would usually comb my wet hair, then comb it again when it was dry." Elizabeth explained to the demoness. "Paula.. She was my lady's maid before I left home sometime ago. But.."
"But what, my lady?" The demoness smirked slyly from behind Elizabeth, already suspecting what she was going to say.
"..But that's in the past. I suppose it doesn't matter what Paula would have done, because you're my lady's maid now, Aurora." Admitting this hurt Elizabeth a little. Paula had been her lady's maid for years now. What would she tell the brunette when she finally returned home? That she had been replaced by someone that Elizabeth had only just met?
Aurora half-lidded her purple eyes and smiled in satisfaction, almost as if she could tell what Elizabeth was thinking. Yes, Elizabeth would no longer require Paula as a lady's maid with Aurora around her.
After freeing the hairbrush from Elizabeth's blonde tresses, the demoness spoke up.
"My lady, it is time for the dressing."
Aurora had done an adequate job in picking out an outfit and accessories for Elizabeth. The dress, which was previously mentioned to be in purple and green, was of the "toilette de voyage" style, one meant for traveling. While the neckline of the dress showed off Elizabeth's collarbone and the choker matching the dress, it was not so low that one would have to worry about the contract seal being exposed.
The demoness had chosen shoes for Elizabeth with an adequate heel, as the maid had no idea of the blonde's preference for low-heeled shoes or why.
"In the future," Elizabeth began anxiously as Aurora placed the new shoes onto her feet. "I'd prefer low-heeled shoes."
"Oh?" Aurora gazed up momentarily at her mistress, then resumed her task. "I would have thought that a young lady of your age would look forward to adult shoes."
Elizabeth frowned and gazed down a bit as Aurora stood up behind Elizabeth, preparing to do the blonde's hair. "I do, but.. My fiancee.. He tries so hard to be seen as an adult, I don't want to tower over him in women's shoes. But.." Elizabeth bit her lip. "My thoughts towards being his fiancee.. They've changed. So.. Perhaps.. It no longer matters if I tower over him."
Aurora listened as she inspected Elizabeth's hair at all angles, wondering how she would tie the blonde hair up without the assistance of hair ties. Wait a moment..
Aurora reached up to her own hair, unfastening the brass clasps that kept her loose pigtails in place. Vibrant, green tresses fell all around her. Bundling Elizabeth's hair up, she fastened the hair into loose pigtails using her own hair clasps.
"Um.. Aurora!" Elizabeth blinked as she gazed at her reflection in the dirty mirror on the wall. "..Now I look like you."
"Yes, it's cute, is it not?" The demoness beamed proudly at her work.
"Erm.." Elizabeth turned her head as she gazed at her hair in the mirror. Aurora's hairstyle didn't suit her at all! "It's quite cute on you, but I think I would prefer high pigtails!"
Aurora smiled, not making her inner dissent very noticeable. The truth was, the demoness had little experience or success in creating up-do hairstyles.
"Y-Yes, my lady." Aurora's smile did not falter, unlike her voice, as she approached the dirty mirror hanging on the wall. She lifted the mirror off of its hook and leaned it against the wall on the floor, reflective side concealed.
"Why did you do that?" Elizabeth asked as Aurora came back over to give the pigtails another shot.
"Oh, no reason." Aurora lied, the truth being that she didn't want Elizabeth to see just how bad she was at creating high pigtails.
After several attempts at doing Elizabeth's hair, Aurora finally gave up. She did not, however, admit this to Elizabeth. Instead, she insisted that Elizabeth looked wonderful, and cleaned up the guest room that she and the blonde had used.
Aurora introduced Elizabeth to the man who owned the house they had been in, and thanked him for loaning them his resources. He was instructed to keep an eye on the postage in the following weeks for a proper token of their appreciation.
Aurora loaded Elizabeth and the boxes of things she had purchased into a carriage from the closest town.
"Where to, my lady?" Aurora asked Elizabeth after helping her into the carriage.
Elizabeth did not have to think very hard at all about where she wanted to go. "The Phantomhive Manor." She told the maid. "I wish to see my.. My fiancee." Elizabeth said the word hesitantly. "Though, to be honest, I no longer view him as my fiancee. I care about him immensely, just not in that way."
"Yes, my lady." Aurora crossed her hand over her chest and bowed to her mistress before informing the man who would be drawing the carriage. She made a mental note to herself to inquire more about the situation with her lady's betrothed at a later time.
Once Aurora had gotten into the carriage and the door was closed, the carriage pulled away, heading for the outskirts of London where the Phantomhive Manor resided.