The Lady's Butler

Separation Arc {Part 1}

(Separation)(Part 1)

"Take care of yourself, Kyrano." Keyron said grimly, and though both of them knew that it wasn't going to be an easy journey ahead, Kyrano had been through worse.

"I am simply going back to the Main House for a short while. I will have to trouble you to help Butler Maiko look after Miss Louise." Kyrano said formally, but both of them knew what he meant beneath the surface. In front of Maiko, who stood at the side, silently observing the procedure of departure, the Reyes Brothers had to make their words sound formal and normative. Beneath the surface, however, Keyron knew to read into a deeper meaning.

"I will." Keyron nodded to show that he had received his brother's message –both implicit and explicit. "Leave her to us."

"Then, this is farewell." Kyrano nodded and climbed into the backseat of the awaiting car. It would send him straight back to the Main House, where Kyrano would undoubtedly face his punishment.

"We will be waiting for you." Keyron bade with strength in his belief, passing his brother an encouraging smile as he kept the door open with a hand. "Come back refreshed as a new butler."

"I have every intention of doing that." Kyrano nodded, and then there were no more well-wishes for each other as Keyron closed the door and stepped back. There was a single second of hesitation, and then the car drove off from the school's drop-off point, rounding around the beautiful fountain, and making a beeline straight for the entrance.

Standing at the window of her room, Louise leaned heavily against her window, ignoring the fact that both Maiko and Keyron could see her standing there. Tears streaked from her eyes as she followed the car off with her eyes, until it disappeared into the distance, taking her faithful butler along with it.

Kyrano was leaving, and there hadn't been a single look backward at all. Ever since receiving the letter from Main House, stating her uncle's decision to take her butler back for punishment, Kyrano hadn't looked back at Louise. It was like the butler that she fell in love with had resigned himself completely to his fate –and that he had finally found his legitimate excuse to be away from her, to erase those same feelings that she knew he harboured as well.

"Have faith in him." The voice that sounds coming from behind her reminds Louise that even though the person who had first captured her heart was on his way back to the Main House, part of her heart was still on its steady progress to being enamoured by another more appropriate target. Brandon walked up till he stood behind her, offering the support that Kyrano no longer was giving. "If there's anything I can safely say of Kyrano, then it is his dedication to you. He won't be gone for too long."

"And yet he was so eager to leave." Louise's answer was made grimly. "Kyrano knows how harshly he will be treated once he returns to the Main House, and yet he returns without a word or a look left behind him."

"He is a butler. Furthermore, he is a butler of the Reyes family." Brandon replied softly, wrapping his arms around Louise. Though they were no longer engaged –thanks to Oscar's declaration of annulment –but it didn't mean that Brandon had lost all feelings for the capable woman. They might not be set up to marry each other anymore, but it didn't mean that Brandon couldn't try to woo the woman back into a marriage. After all, he didn't have to fear his famiy rejected his lady love for her status, because Louise was the best candidate, after all, to boost his family's reputation as well.

Louise made no reply as she took Brandon's warmth against his back, his arms providing the support that had been taken away from her by just a letter. Both of them watched as Keyron and Maiko –Louise's new butler and Crawford's Head Butler –conversed shortly, and then the both of them made towards the dormitory. Soon, they would appear at the door, and Louise would have to start putting up a front pretending that she wasn't affected. She needed to be a Crawford again –something that she had never felt so seriously in her bones whenever Kyrano was with her. With Kyrano, she was just Louise.