Black Butler: Demons in our Hearts

Chapter 35: A Lady In Red

Ciel sat silently in the carriage toying with the large sapphire ring on his finger. The blue surfaces reflecting his mood. Sebastian, who sat next to him, remained silent. Ever since Kat had died in the explosion at Lizzie’s he had fallen back into his formal and stiff demeanor and if it was possible it was even worse. He no longer performed the ‘jokes’ he used to, deliberately misinterpreting an order, or causing his own brand of trouble.

Nothing.

He seemed to have fallen into a stupor or sorts and nothing would bring him out of it.

Nothing but brining her back. Her body had never been found, and for a while that had caused a slight change in Sebastian. He had searched the city for weeks, combing ever inch of the ton, before searching the countryside. When his efforts proved fruitless he had returned to the manor.

“My Lord Phantomhive, I realize that you are mourning the death of a servant at the moment, but the Queen felt that this case was something only her loyal watchdog could handle.” The Queen’s manservant said, drawing the Earl out of his reverie.

“Yes, what is it?” He replied tiredly. This was one of those days that made being the Queens Watchdog a pain in the bum.

The manservant frowned at the disrespectfulness of the tone but continued, “It has come to the Queen’s attention that there is someone in London that is collecting massive amounts of information on military and government secrets from neighboring countries. The Queen wants to know who this woman is, why she is doing it, and if it would be possible to…encourage her to share these secrets she has collected. Do you believe you can find her? I have a list here, of places the woman has been spotted.”

The Earl took the proffered envelope, and began searching through its contents, papers of shady descriptions and a few rough sketches stood out. “These aren’t much to work on. Is this the best you have?”

The man nodded, “Yes, my lord, the woman is exceedingly careful in not allowing her face to be seen. We only have the information that she has long dark hair, is average in height, maybe a little below. That is all we have been able to gather. The people of the city have begun to call her dame de la nuit, Lady of the Night.”

“Why would they give her a French name?”

The man shrugged, “Perhaps it is because she has an accent, this part is still under investigation.”

“Fine,” Ciel sighed, “Tell her Majesty that I will perform my duty as expected. She will have her Lady of the Night very soon.”

____________________________________________________________

The port of London town were filled to the brim with merchants hawking their wares and customers browbeating them for their steep prices. Ciel stood next to Sebastian in his peasant costume, a set of coarse black breeches, an oversized white shirt, and a plain leather eye patch. His butler was in a similar costume, though his were better fitting.

“Are you sure of this, my lord? Just because there are French merchants here does not mean that this Lady will be.”

Ciel scanned the crowd, looking for any women that looked suspicious, “It will work. This is the port, full of taverns and merchants both have very loose tongues when drunk or negotiating a deal.” A flash of red caught his eye as a young lady brushed passed the two of them.

Her dress was of fine red and black silk. A fine top hat, edged in ribbons and pink flowers covered her hair while a black lace shawl covered her shoulders. A dove fluttered by to settle on her shoulder, and began preening the ribbon that dangled from the hat.