The colour of devil eyes (Black Butler love story)

Chapter 4 - Pain

"This man is actually known to me.", he replied as he looked around the room and Serena's heart jumped with excitement. Should she really be lucky this time?

„Oh really?", Serena managed a little nervously, "Then you also know where to find this man?".

"I'm sorry, no.", the Earl answered, dampening Serena's exhilaration immediately. Slightly disappointed, she sighed softly and blamed herself for having such high expectations immediately.

"During a business dinner a few weeks ago, I got to know this man.", he continued and Serena immediately looked at him again excitedly, "A very loud and witty man who did not have the best manners. Without ceasing he railed against that employee that you just mentioned, and left the company far too early.".

However, this did not help Serena and she started to get a bit frustrated, frowning and sighing again. She had expected so much of this ball and of the Queen's watchdog and now everything seemed to turn out to be a failure. The Earl's soft laugh brought Serena back to smooth her forehead and look at him questioningly.

"But maybe I can help you anyway.", he said, "If only a little.". For a moment, Serena wondered why the Earl was so eager to reveal information to her, but in fact she could not care less about his exact motives. After all, it was only important that he gave her information.

"I would be glad about everything you can tell me.", Serena said immediately and she felt her heart beating faster again. At that moment, the waltz the orchestra was playing ended and she and Earl Phantomhive came to a halt. Slowly they gave up their dancing posture, but stayed on the dance floor.

Almost imperceptibly, the Earl nodded to a corner of the hall, where a small group of well-dressed ladies stood. Confused, Serena looked at this little group and could not explain at first, what was on the Earls mind. As Serena looked there, she felt Earl Phantomhive lowering his head slowly behind her until their faces were very close together.

"Do you see the lady with the dark red dress and the black hair?", he asked quietly, his lips so close to her ear that she felt the breeze he made when he spoke. This sudden closeness to Earl Phantomhive made her heart beat faster, though she could be sure she had no feelings for him. But the mere knowledge that this charismatic, handsome man was so close to her made her a little nervous. Silently, Serena nodded and looked at the woman the Earl was talking about.

"This is the wife of John Fiaid.", he whispered in a deep voice, "If you believe rumors, she is not exactly well-disposed to her husband and is usually found without him on occasions like this one.".

With these words he straightened up again and set a distance to Serena, who was still looking at the woman in the dark red dress. That opened up unexpected possibilities, because she had finally found someone who was very close to Fiaid. And the fact that his own wife did not seem to credit him well was even of tremendous benefit to her. Serena really had a good chance of getting closer to her goal.

Almost as if in a trance, she turned half back to the Earl and looked at him attentively. As if nothing had happened, he gave her his charismatic, polite smile again and Serena forced herself to smile at him as well.

"I thank you, Earl Phantomhive.", she said gratefully and the Earl nodded knowingly. He also did not ask why she was looking for this man and what she was doing with it. But Serena was really grateful to him for helping her so willingly.

"If you'll excuse me, please.", Serena said politely and the Earl nodded once more with a knowing smile. Slowly he turned around to pay attention to other guests and Serena wanted to get back to Sebastian as soon as possible. She forced herself not to run too fast, but internally she was upset. The nervous tickling in her grew stronger and stronger as she was sure she was making significant progress.