Blood, Body, and Soul

Her Matron, Unwelcomed

It was Saturday morning, far too early than Katrine would care it to be. Even when she got better, her sleeping schedule remained the same, but soon the Earl Ciel Phantomhive would be arriving. Her maids were cleaning the house, the cooks preparing breakfast, and her Gameskeeper was primping the garden and grooming the horses, and feeding the hounds and stray cats.

"My Lady, sit straight," Evangeline said for the seventh time. 

"I'm just so tired," Katrine whined. "Why couldn't they have come in the afternoon?"

"It's about time you learn to wake up in the morning. It's not proper for a woman of your stature to be sleeping well into the afternoon."

Katrine scoffed at the comment, watching her Matron file down her nails. They no longer looked like corpse's fingers, but the nails were still black, as if polished that way. Evangeline was just clipping them down so they were less threatening and wouldn't poke through her gloves. 

Looking out the window she could see the front yard, and in the distance a carriage could be seen, "It seems our guests have arrived." She sighed, and leaned back into her chair, "ANNABELLE! ANNABELLE! ANNA-- Oh, there you are. Prepare the patio, and see to it that Daniel greets our guests, and get Lily to take their horses." 

"Yes, My Lady," The Hand Maid bowed, her kind brown eyes shining through her glasses. The brunette promptly left to set out her duties, leaving Katrine with her Matron. 

Suddenly, Evangeline paused her work, "What is it?"

The doctor looked up at her, "I smell a demon." 

Katrine sat up in her chair, looking perplexed, but then something dawned on her, and turned back to the window, seeing the carriage nearing the entrance. 

The Duchess was sitting in the back patio, wearing green and white spring dress, and white lace gloves when the young Earl and his butler came. She stood up upon his arrival, and he bowed.

"Good morning, My Lady Duchess," The young Earl stood straight and peered at the red haired woman barely older than him. "You look healthy. I heard you were ill for some quite some time."

"I was, but then I got better," she extended her hand, and he took it, planting a formal kiss on the back of it. Katrine turned her attention to the tall man cladded in a black tail coat, "And this must be your butler."

"Yes. Sebastian Michaelis. I believe you know why we are here," he closed his eyes, or rather, eye, as if to look apologetic in a professional way.  

Katrine nodded, "Yes. Please, sit. Your Butler can join as well." She sat back down into her seat. 

"Your Lady is kind, but that is not necessary. I am merely a butler," Sebastian smiled light heartedly. 

"Nonsense, as long as you are in my manor, you are a guest. Your usual duties will be mute unless it deals with taking care of your master, of course," Katrine watched Annabelle pour three cups of tea, and then Katrine turned to look at the Butler, who bowed lowly. 

"As you wish, My lady," He took his seat next to Ciel and shortly after, food was put in front of us by Anna. Eggs Benedict with ham, at least it was ham for Ciel and Sebastian. 

"What can you tell me about the disappearings the past half year?" The Earl went straight to business as he started to cut his meat.

"That they started six months ago, and they are all young females... Between the ages of twelve and seventeen," Katrine explained, plopping in six sugar cubes into her cup. 

Sebastian took notice to this, and raised a thin eyebrow. It seemed like she had much as a sweet tooth as his own master. Instead he adverted his eyes down to his plate, untouched, and impeccable, save for the spot of butter that reached the edge. Using his napkin, he wiped the edge, "As I take it, it started a fortnight after your seventeenth birthday."

Katrine's eyes shot towards the Butler. She refrained from narrowing her eyes, "That is right. It started directly after the city's pedophile went missing."

"Yes, I heard about that," Ciel closed his eyes, remembering the article he had read. "A man was leaving nude corpses of children in lewd poses all around the city. The article stated that he was arrested, not missing."

"That's what I wanted them to think," Katrine explained. If she said to Ciel that he was arrested, he would want to talk to him. But he was gone, somewhere in the bowls of the Duchess. She inwardly smirked at that thought. "I didn't want to alarm anyone. In any case, there are no traces of him. He is no longer my problem now." She sipped her tea. 

"If I'm not mistaken, My Lady, these new series could be a crime committed by the same criminal," Sebastian suggested, his food still untouched and beginning to get cold. 

"Not possible. The man took a liking to prepubescent children, especially boys. No older than eleven."

"Sebastian may be right, Lady Katrine," Ciel put in, his eye opening, and peering at the older teenager. His blue eyes, or rather eye was a bit unnerving. Unsightly for a youth his age. It was like he had a soul of someone thrice his age. "He may purposely be doing a new pattern."

"Now why would he do that?" She asked, now crossing her legs, flattening her skirt over them. 

"That's why we're here," Sebastian smiled, no humour or kindness behind it. It was rather unnerving. "To figure it out. Naturally this pedophile is a suspect, but we hardly brushed the surface."

"Correct," Ciel put in, then looked at Katrine, his hands on his lap, his food half eaten. "We would like to talk to the families to the girls, as well as the families to the children who were murdered."

"Of course," Katrine waved a hand of dismissal, as if saying it was not a problem, "I'll get my squire to get a list of them. Annabelle, inform Daniel, please. And get Evangeline, it's time for my medicine." 

"Yes, My Lady," Annabelle nodded and then excused herself. 

"I thought you were doing better, Lady Katrine?" Ciel asked, his hand on his teacup now. 

"I am. Doesn't mean I have to stop taking what helps me," she explained. 

"If you don't mind me asking, Lady Katrine, but how was it you became sick?" Sebastian asked, his voice too proper to be real. 

She studied him before she answered, "I was born with a strange illness," she began, wiping the lipstick off the edge of her tea cup. "My mother died after giving birth to me... I came out with harlequin skin and swollen eyes." That was the story she told when people asked. The Harlequin's Disease wasn't common, but scientists have documented such children with it. Most of the babes don't survive more than an hour. "My Matron has nursed me to this day."

"It took her seventeen years to cure you?" Sebastian asked, his eyes closed in what looked like amusement. 

"I'm not Jesus Christ, but I did more than any doctor could do," came the snap of the voice from behind them. Evangeline stood there, her arms crossed over her white coat, buttoned off to the side of her bosom, and black riding pants and boots. Her glasses slid to her nose, so she promptly pushed them back up with a white-gloved hand. "Which was write her off as good as dead, and arrange a two foot tall coffin next to a seven foot one that held her mother. Tell me, Butler, if you could nurse a half dead child to life, how long would it take you?" 

The Butler was staring at the silver-haired matron with narrow suspicious eyes. He did not enjoy her smell. It was familiar, but at the same time, not. It was not inviting.

He remained speechless to her question.