Won't You Stay This Time?

Deathly Butler (Part 1)

Author's Note:

What's up guys!! Sorry I'm so late! It's senior year, so it's a bit busy! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter to the fullest!!

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~~Claire's POV~~

The birds chirped outside the manor windows as I held Corrin in my arms. Hide and Ziva had been put down for their midmorning nap already, but Corrin was being especially fussy that morning. I was worried he wasn't feeling well. Despite my concerns, Phantomhive work still had to be done, so I sat near Ciel as Sebastian briefly went over the day's schedule.

"At noon you have the Funtom Company's regular meeting, and then at two o'clock your dance lesson with Mrs. Hyatt", Sebastian explained to Ciel. "At six Professor Macmillan will give you your political studies lesson. That's all you have scheduled for today."

"Oh, before I forget, love, Lenora called this morning. She wants to come over with Tom for a play date with the triplets", I said. Ciel sighed.

"Is now really the best time for a play date?", he asked. "You said yourself that you think Corrin is coming down with something."

"Yes, I agree, but she sounded strange on the phone. I thought it best to agree", I explained. "She should be here around three o'clock or three thirty."

"Fine."

"One more thing", Sebastian cut in. "We received this, my lord." Sebastian held out a tray in front of Ciel. On the tray there was a single envelope with the wax seal of a spider. The Trancy estate, no doubt. I had expected that there would be further conflict with Alois, but I dreaded it all the same. Especially with the triplets now being out of the womb. Ciel looked over his newspaper at the tray before picking up the envelope and cutting it opened at the seal. He unfolded the letter inside and read it aloud to Sebastian and I.

"'On behalf of the Earl Alois Trancy'", he began, "'I write to Lord Ciel Phantomhive and Lady Claire Torabaru this day to apologize for my master's discourtesy at the ball the other day and request your most honored presences at the ball to be held here at the Trancy mansion tomorrow afternoon at four o'clock.'" After reading the straightforward letter, Ciel ripped it to pieces without hesitation. "Alois Trancy... I will kill you."

I sat silently beside him as he mumbled to himself. His obsession with Alois was unsettling and I knew sooner or later it would lead to something unwarrented--it always did. I only dreaded finding out what it would be this time.

"Incidents in the English underworld which wrong the Queen are judged in darkness by the Phantomhives, the 'Queen's guard dogs', and erased in darkness by the Trancys, the 'Queen's spiders'", Sebastian began to explained.

"The two houses had the Queen's trust as her 'villainous nobles'", Ciel continued from the research he had done himself. "But Alois Trancy would not let matters lie. Seeking to monopolize Her Majesty's favor, Alois spread the rumor that the guard dog was possessed by a demon." I hated to hear Ciel theorize something like that. It seemed Sebastian was placing Ciel's target for revenge on Alois when the real culprit had already been caught and killed. And what would happen after Alois was killed?

"At that time", Sebastian continued, "the previous head of the Phantomhives was investigating a series of mysterious live burnings."

"Alois proclaimed that the crimes were the result of the Phantomhives' demonic possession, and decided at his own discretion to purge them..."

"In the name of 'exorcism'."

"And then Alois and his butler destroyed all the evidence", Ciel concluded.