The Lady's Butler

Separation Arc {Part 11}

(Part 11)

"Miss Louise," Kyrano called politely as he stepped into the room, closing the door behind him softly so that his mistress would not be jolted in shock at his sudden appearance. The woman in question looked up quickly from her desk at the sound of his voice, recognising him immediately even though he and his twin brother were supposed to be of one and the same mould.

Then again, Louise had grown up alongside Kyrano. It would be rather surprising if Miss Louise didn't know who her own butler was.

"Kyrano, you're back!" The lady was shamelessly happy in her room as she jumped to her feet, wanting very much to rush forth to claim her butler in a hug, but remembering her position at the last minute. She still felt very much for her butler, but having suffered the months without him by her side, and knowing that he had suffered very much in punishment for her brief moment of weakness; Louise knew better than to do anything that could put her butler through the same situation all over again.

"I apologise once again for any inconvenience caused, Miss Louise." Kyrano bowed politely in his capacity of a butler, keeping his eyes respectfully off anywhere that might seem inappropriate. "I do hope that Keyron served you well in my absence?"

"Yes, but he isn't as good as you, Kyrano. If you're back, I assume that Keyron is back to Brandon's side?" Louise asked quickly, eager to leave her homework aside for now since her butler was finally back. She had been so worried when Keyron appeared suddenly after one day of fretting about her disappearing butler. Kyrano's twin had explained that Kyrano was rather sick, and had to nurse his fever. However, due to strange circumstances, Kyrano could only do it in Brandon's room, and Keyron had been forced to take care of Miss Louise, or else Kyrano would continue doing it in his sick state.

Of course Louise hadn't had the heart to allow her own butler to serve her while he nursed a sickness bad enough that he had to request for Keyron to substitute him, and so had allowed the arrangement. It had been rather strange to have the other twin serving for her, for it had been easy to forget the one serving her was not her Kyrano.

Situations had been made worse when news of the Greaves and Crawford war came about. Because the Crawford Main House didn't see a general need to update their young mistress about the nature of their business while she was in school, and her reliable updates in the form of Kyrano had been sick, Louise had not heard about the war until much later. She had tried to find Brandon –only to find that he had taken a long leave to help his own family deal with the situation. Keyron had been unusually tight-lipped about the whole thing.

But none of that mattered now that her faithful butler was back, with his usual one eye-patch that somehow –Louise knew not how –made him look even more charming than his perfect twin brother. It was strange: how Louise saw the imperfections of her butler as the very things that made him perfect for her.

"He is currently safely back with his master." Kyrano answered formally, and Louise almost broke into relieved tears when a small sly smirk tiled the corner of his lip. "And I do suspect that they are having a crying session for their reunion like the little girl that Keyron makes himself out to be."

"How are you?" Louise rushed to ask, not really daring to take a step closer to her butler who stood his comfortable distance away from her. She wanted to put a hand to his forehead to feel his temperature, to hold him and make sure that he had not gained any more scars or injuries while she wasn't there to watch him. "Are you well recovered?"

"I am perfectly fine, Miss Louise. Brandon has treat me well during my recovery." Kyrano reassured, but Louise could never trust her own butler whenever he said that. Kyrano had a tendency of insisting that he was fine when the obvious truth was that he wasn't. Still, Louise couldn't be sure whether the man was speaking the truth, or lying once more through his teeth. Louise couldn't ask her butler about it, because the answer was going to be the same –Kyrano insisting that he was fine, and that she as his mistress should not concern herself too much over his welfare.