9~ That Lady, Defending
I watched silently as Arthur knelt down to examine the body. Everyone was quite shocked. I turned to Ciel before moving forward to sit next to Arthur and the body of Mr. Phelps.
"Quite some time has passed, rigor mortis has already set in..." I spoke in a calm and soft manner.
"Please tell me this is just some nightmare, this can't be real..." Grimsby finally said as he stood in front of Irene, shielding her from view.
"There isn't any external trauma like the other three," Arthur stated.
I leaned closer to the body and saw bite marks, "Look," I pointed to his neck, "There are puncture wounds, maybe he was injected with poison from a needle or something..."
"A needle?" Ciel glared at Lau, only to find him rummaging through his personal wardrobe. I had gotten up to stand by his side, watching them.
"Oh my! The Lord has such wonderful living quarters indeed!" Lau commented while Ran-Mao was trying on one of Ciel's hats.
"Don't go searching through someone's things as you please!" Ciel shouted.
"Oh and you kept the dress I gave you! Have you worn it?" Lau asked completely ignoring Ciel.
"Listen when I'm talking to you!" Ciel shouted.
For the first time since the incident, I smiled slightly. Ciel walked over and gave me a small kiss on the cheek. I saw his eyes flash to Lau with a grim look.
"They could also be bite marks from a beast..." Arthur pondered.
"Bite marks on the neck...kind of reminds you of Carmilla don't you think?" Irene wondered aloud.
"You mean like the vampire?" Ciel asked while he held me around the waist. I leaned onto his shoulder.
"Complete rubbish! You're trying to say that he was killed by something as unscientific as a vampire!?" Woodley complained.
"Huh, unscientific? Well I guess you could say that..." Ciel mumbled while holding me tighter.
"2:38." Arthur spoke from beside Ciel's bed. He was looking at a clock.
Ciel shifted away from me and went to go speak with Arthur, "Isn't that the clock I kept at my bedside?" I nodded confirming his suspicion.
"He must have knocked it over while he was thrashing around in pain," I spoke.
"So in other words, he died at 2:38, correct?" Ciel asked.
"Yes," Arthur confirmed.
"Hey, instead of standing around why don't we sit and discuss this somewhere else?" Lau suggested, "We could have some tea as well."
"Indeed, Tanaka escort everyone to the drawing room," Ciel ordered.
"Vincent, help him..." I spoke quietly.
"Certainly," Tanaka replied.
"Yes my lady," Vincent bowed before going to help Tanaka.
Once we were all seated and had been served steaming cups of tea, we began discussing the murders and their times.
I perched myself on the arm of the large seat Ciel occupied. I honestly couldn't be bothered, the men wouldn't listen to me anyway. They determined that Siemens was killed "first" then is was Mr. Phelps and then Sebastian and Veronica.
"We saw Sebastian!" Finny piped up. Ciel, Arthur and I couldn't read the clock at the time when they visited us. The servants were given orders by him.
"Veronica came to my room around that time as well, telling me to take care of the mistress..." Vincent spoke quietly from his corner in the room.
I looked at my butler for a moment, barely listening to the others in the room. Something wasn't right, then again ever since these murders started happening...
"WHAA!!!" Grimsby and Woodley started shouting at Lau when I snapped out of my thoughts. They started shouting accusations at the man, pinning blame on him. Lau calmly explained himself and threw logic into their faces, I almost laughed.
"Even so, no one person could have killed all four people, I was only teasing," Ciel took another sip of his tea.
"That's true!" Arthur began sketching out a chart of the alibis, "If you drew out the alibis it would look like this!" he showed a cute little chart. "The only ones who could have killed Siemens were Earl Phantomhive and Lady Sin, the only ones who could have killed Mr. Phelps were Sebastian and Veronica, and anyone but Siren, Ciel, and I could have killed those two!" he announced.
"So even if someone worked with Sebastian or Veronica, no one person alone could have completed each murder!" I continued.
"Exactly!" Arthur agreed. Woodley being hot headed as always started blaming Grimsby and Irene, which cased Grimsby to retaliate. "Now just a moment! I'm not trying to blame anyone here!" Arthur tried to calm everyone down.
"Even so! I've had enough!" Woodley exclaimed.
"What do you plan to do with things as they stand?" I asked crossing my legs while I sat.
"You have no right to speak to me in such a way girl!" Woodley shouted at me, "You both are the ones that-!"
"We what?" Ciel replied in a bored.
"This was your plan all along! Trapping us here just to kill us off!" Mr. Woodley shouted out in anger.
Ciel sat in his chair calmly sipping tea while I did the same. Since to previous events, I had calmed and returned to normal slightly. But the look in Woodley's eyes told me that I needed to be careful in this situation.
"You dog of the Queen!" Woodley continued in a loud voice.
"I think that is quite enough!" I spoke firmly with a sharp glare towards the man.
"Shut up! You're nothing but a bloody whore for that dog! I refuse to stay here like a lamb to the slaughter!" he exclaimed.
My anger flared while Ciel glared darker than usual. Arthur tried to reason with Woodley but ended up being knocked into the table with a loud crash.
"Woodley. I'm telling you to sit. So sit down. Now." Ciel commanded.
Woodley seemed to growl at Ciel, "How dare you command me!" Woodley took a fast swing towards Ciel. There was no way I would allow that to happen.
"My lord!"
...Smack...
The sound of his fist being caught by my hand resonated around the silent room.
"Enough of your bloody foolishness...no on dares harm him, or you have to deal with me..." my tone was dark, I crushed his fist in my hand slowly until I flipped him over my shoulder and onto the floor, using his body weight as leverage. I grabbed his tie and pulled his face close to mine as I spoke, "I can be very scary when provoked..." I let go, allowing him to drop to the floor once more before making my way to Ciel's side once more.
"Pardon my mistress, she gets very protective about those she cares for. Plus she hasn't had the best time as of late..." Vincent stated calmly coming to my side.
"You see Master Woodley, even if Miss Sin hadn't gotten to you first, we servants of the Phantomhive household would not have tolerated a threat coming for our master," Tanaka spoke darkly, it was quite a shock to see the kind old man speak like that...I believe it scared Woodley more than my confrontation.
"Tanaka, enough..." Ciel took another sip of tea while pulling me closer to him until I sat on his lap.
"You will follow our orders, right Mr. Woodley?" Tanaka asked while the man got up nodding.
"Well then, as it would stand..." Ciel spoke.
"The only one with an alibi for all of the murders is Sir Arthur," I continued.
"Wouldn't it be the safest decision to let him decide our next move?" Ciel suggested.
"Me?" Arthur sounded surprised.
"Of corse! I believe that Ciel is right, besides I wouldn't want a murderer running around in my manor so I can understand his thoughts..." I explained calmly. After a bit, the other guests began to agree.
"Then it's decided..." Ciel replied as an impish grin began to take over his face.
I smirked and leaned closer to him, "We will take our time to corner the criminal, won't we?"
"Indeed...isn't that right, Professor?" Ciel smiled at the man, malicious intent evident. My smirk stayed on my face, this is on of the reasons why I love him so much, everything around my lord seems to turn into a dark game. Then again...isn't it more fun that way?