Black Butler: Demons in our Hearts

Chapter 22: Of Selfish and Cute things...

“You weren’t frightened? Not even a little?” Vinny gaped incredulously as Kat explained what had had happened that morning to the other servants. Meyrin and Baldroy merely gaped, speechless.

“Well, maybe I was a little scared at first, I had to learn to walk again and everything, it’s not the same as if you had two feet.” Out of the corner of her eye she caught Sebastian watching her. He had been doing that since they had left the Earl’s study. She raised her eyebrows in question and he looked away, weird…

“Meyrin, Baldroy, Vinny, I believe you have work to finish before the end of the week, yes?” There was a collective groan amongst the dispersing servants. Here’s my chance to ask. “Sebastian, is there something wrong?”

“Hmmm, oh my Kat I believe you will have to repeat yourself I’m not at all with it this morning.”

Kat frowned; internal alarm system going crazy, since when did Sebastian need something repeated? “Is something-“

The butler glanced at his watch, “Oh, my look at the time, I have to dust the library. Kat, be a dear and straighten the kitchen, then muck out the stables and exercise the horses, please?” He beat a hasty retreat out of the kitchen before Kat could recover from her shock.

Dear, please, what in the…there is something seriously wrong here, that didn’t even sound like Sebastian. Usually he’s a grouch in the morning and he never calls anyone dear.There was a slight temptation to pursue the answers to her questions but...there was work to be done.

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That had been close; Sebastian dusted the library that morning deliberately slow, needing time to think. About Kat, about the Earl, about the Demon who had gotten away, about everything.

The last two should have been his priorities, simple, right? But for some reason seeing Kat like that had made him feel…ashamed. Like he had let her down or something, she had been gorgeous as far as cats went but still, this nagging feeling of disappointment persisted, and he had no clue why.

Maybe it’s because she is the Earl’s servant as well, and if I failed her I failed the Earl. That must be it. There is no other explanation. He looked up and caught sight of Kat galloping the gray along the forests edge, black hair flying behind her like an ebony banner, a look of pure happiness on her face. Why do I feel as if there is something happening I cannot explain?

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The wind whipped in Kat’s face as she pushed the gray gelding to his limits, feeling the muscles of his legs flexing beneath her as they ran over the velvet green of the Phantomhive lawn. This was a chore she didn’t mind doing, she didn’t get to do it often, the Earl usually rode at least once a day with his instructor but the poor instructor had called in sick today, cold or something.

Gently pulling the reins, she brought the horse to a gradual halt, rewarding him with a pat on the neck. He glanced back at her with his large brown equine eye.

Feels nice…

Kat blinked, frozen, what in the world was that? Turning in the saddle Kat looked around her for anyone who could have spoken. Seeing no one she turned the horse towards the stable where she curried the sweat from him and gave him a good rub down.

Patting him once more on the neck she went back into the kitchen, expecting to see Sebastian there, new questions for the currently oddly acting butler. One of them being who else was outside except for Vinny? She knew Vinny’s voice and while the voice she had had heard had been male, it wasn’t Vinny.