The dining room was certainly larger than the small oak doors suggested because just with a glance, I could easily estimate around fifty finely-dressed men, women and children all drinking, conversing and playing around the wide, golden laced wooden table that actually seemed slightly worn out, with scratches and dents on it that were carefully hidden by a laced tablecloth.
All eyes turned and a heavy man made his way towards us, fingers twirling around his mustache just as Salvador would do with a wide smirk. Sebastian and Rodric stepped forward and bowed as the man extended a wine glass in greeting.
"Bonjour, tout le monde!" He announced proudly, eyeing me for a moment before facing Adelina and the rest of her family. "Est-ce que vous avez faim?"1
Two younger boys sprinted around us in a circle and I held my cane closer to myself to avoid tripping them. One held a football as he ran with his cleats on the marble flooring and the other had a dark curtain draped around his neck, black mask included. Sebastian's gaze lingered on them for a moment longer and I myself began to question the need for my presence.
Her family clearly seemed no different than any other.
"No doubt about it, Theodore," responded Sir Russé heartily, opening his arms and puffing his chest out.
He gave a small three note whistle into the dining room and at once, four males suddenly presented themselves at his feet, each smiling proudly and standing tall in descending height order, starting with a strong and young man, then the two boys that had been running around and a smaller toddler who was currently hiding a handful of sweets and wet mud in the same pocket.
"Why don't you all introduce yourselves to Simon and his butler Samuel, hm?" Sir Russé suggested, to which I pursed my lips at and Adelina rose her finger in slight embarrassment.
"It's actually Ciel and Sebastian--"
She, however, was interrupted by the beginning introductions.
"George the Second," the young man saluted.
"Christian," said the one with the cleats who was obviously more concerned with the condition of his ball than anything else.
"Alexander," mumbled the one with the cape, who then proceeded to drape the dark sheet over his mouth in an almost disturbing manner.
Lastly, to avoid questioning Alexander's motives, we all turned to wait for the little boy to respond, when we realized that a toddler very well couldn't speak as clearly as we had expected him to and so Isabella spoke for him.
"And that would be George the Third." She said with a smile as she opened her hand towards him. "Son of George the Second who is the son of George the First."
"Pleasure to meet you all," I said as Sebastian bowed lowly and obediently behind me. "I am Ciel Lord of Phantomhive."
"Simon, wouldn't you want to start dinner?"
Sebastian chuckled and I flashed him a warning glance, well aware of the limited remarks I was allowed to make.
However, no one awaited for my response and at once they all began filing into their seats contentedly. Adelina's small tugs pulled me forward and I followed along with her in slight puzzlement. I clearly had missed the unanimous permission.
Adelina quickly caught on.
"What he says is set in stone," she explained quietly as we made our way towards two empty seats, "when I was a little girl, I remember how obedient--"
We stumbled backwards slightly at the abrupt wall we had bumped into, or more so the young woman who had stood in our way. She sneered slightly and fanned away at herself, her pointy nose and narrowed eyes reminding me of a witch from the fairy tales Elizabeth was so frightened of. Adelina, on the other hand, was not as amused as I was by her appearance.
After a few seconds of exchanging unbreakable eye-contact, Adelina spoke and her grip on my arm oddly tightened, which was unlike her character.
"Dianesse." She said flatly, lips forced upwards into one of the fakest smiles I had ever seen Adelina express.
The woman in front of us batted her eyes and smirked, glancing to her sides swiftly before speaking.
"Adelina, how nice of you to come by... It must be a wonder how you're doing without your dear Mummy and Daddy, hm?"
The lights in the grand chandeliers above us began to flicker but no one payed it any mind. Sebastian stepped forward to my left and Rodric did the same to Adelina's right, each now sending unwavering glares down at Dianesse, who maintained herself occupied by crawling on Adelina's nerves that were clearly wearing thin.
Even I was beginning to curl my lips in disgust at her disrespectful and insolent comment; had we not been in a room full of guests, I might have done something rash.
After all, I had seen first hand what a flashback could do to Adelina and did not want to experience that again since her own panic attack nearly triggered my own pathetic episode.
Much to my surprise and pleasure, Adelina stood firm and let her own piercing words slide easily off her tongue.
"Considering the embarrassment you are to your own, I suppose I'm doing extremely well."
I smirked at the flash of mortification that came and went on Dianesse's face. Flustered, she hastily pulled out her fan and began waving it around for a few moments before hissing lowly.
"It's truly a grace that I've only half of your blood as a cousin," she sneered with a deep scowl, "if anyone here is to be ashamed, it should b-- AHH!"
Adelina and I jumped as a metallic platter clattered to the ground --along with a few small cherries that slipped from the heavily frosted cake, which had been accidentally smushed against the back of the witch's dress. Slowly, the two-layer dessert slid down until it plopped onto the ground with a nice splat. Her arms and shoulders were raised high as she stood in absolute shock, anger now contorting itself into her features as the twins began apologizing behind her.
I frowned at the waste of a delicious-seeming pastry but brushed my disappointment away since, it had, after all, silenced Dianesse.
"How clumsy of you two, now what will our young Masters eat?" Sebastian scolded lightly with a click of his tongue. The sarcasm on his comment was light and thin enough to be regarded as genuine, but even Eren and Erin knew he did not care.
"We apologize!" They both shouted as they dipped their heads down before scurrying away into the hall.
Adelina flashed a deviously white smile and stepped around the pile of abandoned cake, head held high as we left her butter-creamed half-cousin alone in the middle of the large room. She was slowly swarmed by the smaller children of the reunion who immediately began taking handfuls of the dessert without abandon.
"Don't talk to her without me," Adelina muttered once we reached our designated spots. By instinct, I pulled her seat out for her and was rewarded with a warm smile. I rolled my eyes and sat down beside her, nodding for her to continue on with her sentence.
Sighing, she complied.
"She's a twisted one, Ciel. And extremely greedy. Enough to almost drown her own family in debt." She explained in a low voice as the seat to her left was taken.
There was a soft coo and the plates and silverware all began to clatter to the floor along with the small bowls that contained bread rolls and slices of butter. The tablecloth wrinkled and slid out of place as a small baby continued on his way across the table, unaffected by Rodric who easily caught the crystal glasses and Sebastian who returned the unharmed table placements before they could touch the ground.
A pair of hands seized the small bundle of trouble and Adelina sighed in relief, setting down the set of knives she had snatched up before he could have reached them. I smirked and looked up at Yuki as she cradled the boy in her arms.
"Young Master David, why are you making such a ruckus?" she asked in a gentle voice I had never heard her use before.
"That would be my other cousin," Adelina said to me as a second pair of hands took him away. The woman seemed in a state of panic and quickly looked over David to assure he had not been harmed before looking to us in weariness.
"By any chance, have you seen the boys?"
"Lady Melinda, what a wonderful dress!" Yuki exclaimed with a clap of her hands, head tilted with a wide smile.
Immediately, her worry simmered away and was replaced by bubbling excitement, hand going down to tug at the cloth of her dress in order to present it better to Yuki.
Adelina placed a hand over her mouth and indicated for me to watch, which I did.
"Oh, this old thing? You're so kind, Yuki, how lovely it is to see you again," Melinda rambled, bouncing David on her hip as she spoke. "You know, I think I have another dress in my luggage that I think would be perfect for you, why don't you come with me..."
Yuki left half-heartedly with Melinda and in front of us, Isabella pulled up the tablecloth and out popped up the smallest of the three Georges who seemed to have fallen on a large slab of cake by the amount of frosting messily lacing his features.
A pair of pigtails followed him out from behind and I was surprised to see a little girl around the same age as him, large lollipop in hand and wearing the most ridiculous, pink and frilly dress I had ever seen. Her poofy ensemble reminded me of something Elizabeth would wear and I cringed.
"That's Christian's little sister, Alexandra." Isabella announced when both children began tottering away. "She's a bit... spoiled."
Adelina shook her head and as if on cue, Alexandra turned around and stuck her tongue out at us both, nose held high along with her sweet.
"I can see," I mumbled with a slight twitch of my lips.
The table bumped up underneath our hands once again and a much larger and older body slowly crawled out, top hat slipping off with a short groan.
George the Second hastily brushed off the front of his pants and immediately made a run for the nearest exit, chasing after his son and Alexandra without mercy. Adelina's cheeks tinged pink as her uncle jogged away, glancing away from the public eye in a fluster.
I arched my brow and Sebastian chuckled lightly behind me.
"He is a child at heart."
Consequently, Melinda's sudden scolding caught our attention and all eyes shifted away from the berating she was lashing out at her son and husband, both being held tightly by each ear as Yuki held onto the baby.
"As expected from them," Sir Russé huffed as he took his seat at the end of the long dinner table, finally indicating the start of the long-awaited dinner.
Personally, I had begun to feel a bit peckish.
"Sorry for the ridiculous wait," Adelina whispered to me as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Conversation sometimes gets the best of everyone."
There was a loud thump and a number of trays were rolled into the dining room, each butler to his own holding an assortment of appetizing food. Rodric stood among them and a few seats on our left across the table, a young man caught Adelina's attention with a hasty wave of his hand.
I leaned my hand against the arm of the chair and watched them speak.
"Adelina, just a question: do you need someone to take over that heavy business? After all, you being such a young lady and now that you don't have your--"
A silver flash whizzed past our heads and a fork stabbed itself into the leathery wine tinted head cushion of the seat, vibrating slightly as it gradually slowed down until it finally rested in its new sudden place.
The man's mouth no longer moved and instead stayed still in frozen shock, eyes locked on the item that could have easily pierced and impaired his vision.
"I do apologize for my clumsiness," Rodric's voice said politely as he continued on handing out the polished silverware, eyes closed and smile present. "My hand must have slipped."
I blinked and stared both at him and the young man who had just scrambled out of the room in a panic, making sure to catch Sebastian's eye long enough for him to see me tap my finger on the desk twice.
Oddities did not occur by coincidence.
He bowed his head and Adelina shrugged her shoulders.
"You don't suppose he wanted a job, do you...?" she said with her finger placed on her chin, a slight frown tugging down at her delicately confused features that I was sure were genuine.
Before I could comment on her cluelessness, a jumble of mumbled high-pitched pecking words caught my attention and the phrases I managed to understand here and there spiked my curiosity.
The faint image of maids gossiping over a cup of tea played in my mind.
"--poor thing, I just knew--"
"...'posse she feels stained, how dreadful..."
"--can't blame either of them..."
There were abrupt screams and the peppery scent of black tea which then simmered into a heated warmth alerted Sebastian enough for him to step forward with an arm extended out, but the twins were instantly at his side to assure him that there was no danger. Adelina and I jumped when a clatter of glass hit the floor and the group of older women --who were wearing top hats with ridiculously large feathers-- all continued to scream, each frantically jumping out of their seats and peeling off the articles of clothing that were emitting steam.
Yuki stood still with the now empty tea-kettle and in hand and refused to move, aware that the only ones that had seen her 'fluke' had been Sebastian and I.
Adelina had been conveniently distracted by Erin with little David and fortunately did not see the small incident.
"So, darling, who is this dashing young man and why has he come with you?"
We glanced upwards at the high-pitched voice that had caught our attention from behind and saw a woman dressed from head to toe in fur coats, eyeing us curiously and moving her long cigarette around as she waited for our response.
I blinked dully at her compliment and did not respond to her question as I myself did not know either. In fact, at this, I turned to Adelina and smirked a bit smugly.
By the looks of her panic stricken face, I could see that she had not expected to face this topic any time soon. Silent seconds ticked by and to her horror, the more and more she remained gaping like a fish, the more attention was being attained.
I drummed my fingers on the tabletop and cleared my throat impatiently. Catching on, she quickly looked over and again began to stammer, cheeks now tinged red.
"I... I-I..."
My elbow leaned on the armchair and I raised a brow.
"He is actually... my... fiancé!"
-
In shock, Ciel's arm slipped off from where it had been perched and his chin hit the edge of the table, leaving me feeling even more embarrassed than when I had first spoken. I forced myself to stare down at my plate as everyone else's interest either spiked or plummeted and began to play with the hem of the tablecloth until Rodric passed by and began serving the soup, distracting them all enough for me quickly excuse myself and rush out to the hall.
The last minute excuse I pulled out of the back of my mind did not suit as well as I thought it would have, especially since it had been in the spur of the moment.
Hopefully, Ciel understood my situation.
-
...My Countess orders, I obey; Anyone who dares interfere, will have Hell to pay...