Ciel paced around in his study. "Why isn't she back yet?" he demanded.
"I am not sure, my lord. Perhaps she got distracted by some of the other stores. It is rare she gets to go into town."
"It's unlike her to do something like this. I've never known her to be distracted by anything. The town isn't far away. She should've been back at least three hours ago."
"Shall I go look for her?"
"Yes. Start by the bookstore where she was retrieving the package and see what you can find."
"Yes, my young lord."
Sebastian took off outside the manor and was in town in no time flat. He tried to sense Adalina, but she was not in the vicinity. That struck him as odd. Even if she did get distracted by something, he should still be able to sense her. As the butler made his way down the streets, something caught his eye.
He knelt down and picked up three books that had been tossed to the curb. Then he quickly returned to his young master's study.
"I found these a few feet away from the bookstore. They are relatively new, but it's clear they have been on the sidewalk for quite a while."
Ciel took the books from Sebastian. "These were the books I ordered her to fetch for me. Something must have happened to her. Sebastian, this is an order. Find Adalina and bring her back safely."
Sebastian bowed as he placed his hand on his chest. "Yes, my young lord."
While Sebastian didn't want Adalina to be put in such a dire situation (after all, it created more work for him), he could very well use this to his advantage. Tonight would be the night that he finally got things back to the way they were.
Adalina opened her eyes but saw nothing. As the effects of the knockout drug the two strangers had given her in the carriage wore off, her heart began to hammer in her chest as she tried to figure out what was going on. She realized that she was blindfolded and her hands were tied in front of her. On her back, she felt cold steel bars and guessed she had been put in some kind of cage.
"Our last item of the day!" a male's voice said near her. "Our finest one yet. A right pretty young girl with a perfect slender body. She is a mute, but to some, that might be a desired trait. We shall start off the bidding at £2,000."
Bidding?
She was in an auction. She was to be sold, and from the sound of it, the buyer was looking to buy women for prostitution. Tears escaped from the confines of the blindfold and ran down her cheeks at the idea of what the man who bought her was going to do to her.
Ciel must know she was gone by now. But did he even care? Perhaps it was his plan all along for her to go to town alone so that something would happen to her and his secret would be safe without him having to dirty his own hands.
"£2,500!" someone in the audience in front of her shouted.
"4,000!"
"5,000!"
"5,000 going once!" the auctioneer called out. "Going twice!"
'Sold' was never said. Instead, Adalina flinched as she heard various people crying out in surprise and pain. Angry and panicked shouts filled the room.
"What is that thing?!" she heard someone yell.
She could make out thuds and more screams and then suddenly...all was quiet. All she could hear was her own ragged breathing. Soft footsteps made their way towards her. Then her blindfold was taken down off her eyes. Once her eyes adjusted to the new light, her breath hitched in her throat when she saw Sebastian's face in front of her. Her body tensed up as she tried to back away, but seeing as she was indeed in a cage, there was nowhere for her to go.
However, in the back of her mind, she couldn't help but feel relief. He had come for her.
Sebastian knelt down so that he was at eye level with her. "Adalina," he said gently. "I would truly like to apologize for my actions a few nights ago. I want you to understand that I do not intend to harm you. I would not have hired you to work at the manor if my intentions were anything but the safety of my master. I realize that I have frightened you terribly, and I am sorry for that. You were not meant to ever find out who I really am simply because the master and I knew how you would react. Your reaction is only natural to finding out such news in the way that you did. Please understand that I will do what I can to protect you for as long as I serve my master."
Adalina didn't know if he was using his demon powers or if he was being sincere, but for some reason, she believed what he said. She slowly held her arms out towards him and with a flick of his finger, the ropes came undone and fell from her wrists.
"You may not believe this coming from me, but you can trust me. After all, contrary to popular opinion, I never lie."
Sebastian stood up and extended his hand. For the first time in nearly two weeks, Adalina made contact with him and took his outstretched hand. He gently helped her up off the floor. Then he hopped out of the top of the cage and stood on one of the bars on the top. He took Adalina's hand and hefted her up so that she was standing on the bar across from him. His hands remained on her waist in order to help her keep her balance.
"I'm afraid I was in a hurry to find you before something happened to you, so I don't have a carriage prepared. I do hope you're not terribly afraid of heights."
Before Adalina could figure out what he meant, Sebastian quickly pulled her up into his arms and shot through the skylight above them. The young woman clung to him as he landed on the roof of the building and began sprinting across it, flying over the London rooftops.
Adalina wanted to scream, but she had no voice to do so. So instead, she shielded her face by leaning into Sebastian's neck and tightened her arms around him even more. She thought for sure she heard him chuckle, but she couldn't be sure over the loud wind in her ears.
Finally, the loud noise stopped, and they ceased moving.
"You may open your eyes now," Sebastian said.
Adalina did so and found that they were in front of Phantomhive Manor.
"That wasn't so bad now, was it?"
Sebastian set Adalina down on the ground, and the two servants walked into the manor.
"Adalina!" Finnian cried as he threw his arms around her. "I'm so glad you're okay!"
"We were so worried, yes, we were!" Mey-Rin sobbed.
"You're not hurt, are you?"
Adalina shook her head, a barely noticeable smile crossing her face. She was touched that the other servants had been so worried about her disappearance. Sometimes she forgot that despite the fact that they were perfectly awful at their jobs, they did have good hearts.
"You hungry?" Baldroy asked. "I've still got some dinner left over."
"I think it would be better if she had something fresh," Sebastian told the cook, knowing that there was no way he had made anything edible. He looked over at Adalina. "I will go and make something for you, and you should go let the young master know that we have returned."
Adalina nodded once and headed up to Ciel's study. She softly knocked on the door.
"It's open," Ciel called.
She slowly entered the room and stood before Ciel's desk where he was sorting through some paperwork.
"Adalina," he stated when he looked up. He got up from behind the desk and came around to the front of it. "I'm glad to see you're all right. I apologize for you getting caught up in such a situation. Are you well?"
Adalina nodded.
"Good. Get something to eat and rest for the remainder of the night. And one more thing. I'm well aware you have been nervous about being near Sebastian. Hopefully, tonight's events have changed your opinion of him at least a little. But I know that you have also been concerned about how I am reacting to you finding out the truth. To be honest, I don't really care so long as you keep it a secret. I don't think I have to worry about that. I am not angry with you, and I still value you as a Phantomhive servant. I swear to you on the Phantomhive name that I will never order Sebastian to harm you."
Adalina knew how important the Phantomhive name was to Ciel, so she did not take his promise lightly. She politely curtseyed before she exited the room and headed down to the kitchen.
"Here you are," Sebastian smiled as he presented her with a plate of food. "I put some extra care into this. You deserve it after what you have been through in the past two weeks. I will prepare a bath for you and then you are free to retire for the night. We shall have a busy day tomorrow."
Adalina furrowed her brow. Sebastian usually didn't say that to her seeing that even with their workload, it usually wasn't all that busy of a day.
Noticing her look, he added, "I think it is time we taught you how to properly defend yourself. You are a Phantomhive servant after all, and I cannot be worrying about your safety every second of the day. That concern is to be placed solely on my master. So starting tomorrow in between chores while the young master takes his lessons, I will be teaching you proper sword-fighting. If time allows later on, I will teach you other ways to defend yourself, but we will just start with that. Until then."
Sebastian left the kitchen and Adalina let out a sigh.
This was certainly going to be interesting.
"Now we have approximately an hour before the master's lesson is completed," Sebastian said once he and Adalina were in one of the ballrooms. "We shall start with foils so no one gets injured. Once I believe you have mastered these, we shall move on to using actual swords."
Adalina held her foil in front of her, unsure of what she was supposed to do. She had watched Ciel use one multiple times when he had fencing lessons, but actually using one was something else entirely.
"To start off, you must get into the proper position. Left foot forward, feet shoulder length apart."
Adalina followed his instructions.
"Let's start with some blocks. Simply try to block my attacks. I'll go slowly."
Sebastian lunged forward, and Adalina quickly pulled up her foil so she could block his foil from hitting her.
"Good. Try to analyze my movements so you are prepared to know where I am going to strike."
Adalina focused on every single twitch Sebastian made, and in the end, she managed to block many of his attacks. Several times he had hit her arm or leg, but for a beginner, she was doing fairly well.
For what felt like a day, Sebastian helped Adalina learn blocking and striking with her foil. By the end of their session, she had learned a good deal, but she still had a very long way to go.
"Oh, dear, it appears our hour is over. Keep practicing, and I shall teach you more tomorrow."
Adalina nodded once to show her appreciation.
Sebastian could sense how grateful she was that he was teaching her this new skill. She was certainly going to need it. Now that she knew he was a demon, he planned on having her accompany him and his young master on more of their missions. The three other servants could protect the manor while she could protect the young master when he was not around to do so. He would feel much better with another pair of eyes to watch over his master.