Black Butler: Demons in our Hearts

Chapter 6: What Happened Before the Rain

TWO WEEKS LATER

"Kat! Kat, where are you?" Sebastian’s foot tapped impatiently as he waited for his wayward assistant to appear. Finally she did in a huff of white and black. "I’m here, I’m here. Give me that." She snatched the tray laden with beverages out of his hands before disappearing again.

This is not worth the stress…

But in truth Sebastian knew it was better than it had been. At least now he didn’t have to worry about the dinner guests being drenched in the wine or the food being burnt into an unrecognizable lump. Pardon his language but the girl was a gift from whatever deity of darkness that watched over him.

It was hard to believe that she had just entered the Phantomhive employ only a matter of weeks ago; she had dramatically reduced Sebastian’s workload, and had even managed to keep the other servants out of trouble, a feat indeed.

The only bad point, well points, she seemed to have is if left to her own devices she would work without cease, he actually had to order her to stop and rest. There was her hatred for lies, and somehow she could always tell when someone was lying to her. But it wasn’t me, that time! Vinny had been complimenting how she looked in one of Meyrin’s old uniforms and had found that out. And the final flaw was that she liked Pluto.

Whenever she had work outside, the big dumb mutt would follow her around like a very large, and very ugly, duckling. And she didn’t care; she had actually taken to keeping what she called jerky in her pocket, just for the demon hound. It had been the only thing so far she had asked for; if she could have the scraps of meat off the cuts he got for supper.

Better her than me, though. I can’t stand dogs.

Maybe that was why he was delaying his entrance into the dining room tonight; the dinner guest this evening was a stock holder in the young masters company that enjoyed dogs, not to mention resembled one.

An idiot in Sebastian’s opinion, but who was he to say such things, at least aloud? I suppose I should go, the sooner this is over the sooner we are done for the evening. He lifted the serving platter of roasted beef with lightly seasoned potatoes and exited the kitchen.

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How did I let Sebastian talk me into this? I know I’m supposed to be his assistant but I haven’t the first idea of how to do this! I haven’t done this before, everything else yes, but actually serving? No, no, no, NO!

Kat quietly fretted over how to properly do things, the two lords paying her absolutely no heed, when the doors opened admitting the butler.

Thank god.

Sebastian cocked his eyebrow at her but made no comment, merely sat the main course on the table with a flourish, "Dinner is served Gentlemen."

"Jolly good, that. I must say Lord Phantomhive you have a first rate butler here, I’d steal him from you if I hadn’t already heard the numerous failed attempts to do so." The dinner guest was a rotund little man, with deep set eyes and a round face. He had a squashed nose, and thin lips. Obviously there was a reason he wasn’t married.

Sebastian took a bottle of the wine off of her tray and poured it in the guest’s glass, mimicking him Kat did the same.

That wasn’t so bad.

"And you have a new maid as well, I must say you have a small amount of servants but they are all very skilled. What say you girl, would you like to leave Lord Phantomhive, I could probably pay you double if you decided to work for me."

Kat hid her reaction; did he really think she didn’t see that glimmer in his eye? She knew what he had in mind, and even if she was inclined to leave the Earl’s service it wouldn’t be for him. "I’m afraid not, sir," She said, once more imitating Sebastian’s more formal speech structure, "but the offer is kind."

The round man frowned, "Pity, but that’s how it is, now about this beef…" Kat lost track of the conversation at this point. She took up her place at the far side of the room, beside Sebastian, waiting in case either noble required their assistance.

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"You did very well you know. I was curious though…did you imitate me in there?" Sebastian handed her another stack of dishes to dry. Over the past few weeks they had fallen into a cycle, he would do the dishes and she would dry one night and the next it would be reversed.

Kat ducked her head sheepishly, "Actually, yeah, I did. I’ve never served a noble before during supper and wanted to make sure I was doing it right."

For a few moments they lapsed into companionable silence. She, stacking the dried dishes to be put away once they were done and him scrubbing the serving plate which was covered in grease.

"Why didn’t you take his offer, he would have paid you more than the young master would."

Kat looked up at him, searching his profile for a moment, what did he mean by that? After finding nothing she shrugged, "If I cared truly about money, I wouldn’t be in London to begin with. I’ve had much more…financially attractive offers than the one I took here in London, but…I don’t know, for some reason this one was more appealing. But really, I mean no offense, but…I don’t like that man, there’s something off with him. And besides that, all I need is food, water, someplace warm to sleep, and maybe someone to talk to on occasion, and I’m happy. Money has virtually no value to me."

"Really?"

"Really and truly."

He passed her the serving plate, and suddenly switched the topic, "I just thought of something, do you remember how you told me about the man after you?" She nodded, "Why don’t you just kill him and be done with it?"

Kat sighed, "I would if it were that simple, you see sometimes, assassins have backings from the government to take out officials and other high ranking people. But if they don’t that makes them rogue and when you’re a rogue, everyone is after you, including other assassins. The guy after me is a noble, not a high ranking one, but one with friends in the queen’s court."

"So essentially he is untouchable at the moment."

"At the moment," she conceded. "But enough talk of things like that, what’s to do tomorrow? I got the one well boarded up like you asked so Pluto doesn’t step in it again." I really don’t like talking about my problems, please, please just go with the switch in topic.

He looked at her drolly out of the corner of his eye, as if he suspected just this but thankfully went along with it, "I believe that it should be wise to finish up the garden tomorrow, there have been heavy rain storms moving through the area and I would like to have everything done out there before the rains arrive."