Evelyn watched as Ricardo paced up and down, inspecting the male servants under his control as well as glancing every other second in the direction of the women. She had no idea why he was doing this- she was actually in charge. Technically, they had exactly the same position in the Tawnera household, but Evelyn’s mistress, Lady Tawnera had been born into the family, whereas Lord Tawnera had to marry to earn his reputation and riches. “Okay,” Ricardo said, “We have exactly fifteen hours until guests start arriving. Let’s not fuck anything up.” As he said this, he looked directly in Evelyn’s direction. She rolled her eyes and decided to take over from there.
“Over forty guests are going to be coming to this event and if anything goes wrong, then I will find out who to blame,” she made a point of glaring at Ricardo, “And I will see that her Ladyship punishes them. Properly.” There was a long silence as he bit his lips and clenched his fists. He was annoyed at her, but she could tell that no harm would come to her. If he did, lady Tawnera would become suspicious and…
Evelyn was separated from her thoughts as Ricardo dismissed the servants and she found herself alone. For a moment, she just stood there, before leaving the room and making her way through the women’s servant corridor to her mistress’ room. It had been three years since things started going wrong between Lord and Lady Tawnera. Apparently, one of them had an affair with someone else and things started going downhill. They started to distrust each other, thinking that they’d fall in love with anyone of the opposite sex. And so, the house was split in two: women on one side and men on the other. Not even servants were allowed to cross into the other side of the house, and so the amount of staff doubled on either side, and male roles had female versions for Lady Tawnera and vice versa. After serving her mistress since she was eight, Evelyn was the suitable choice for one of the highest jobs. So, Evelyn went from being just another serving girl to a butler of all people. Ricardo had become the male butler about six months before her, but she hated him. She was suspicious of how he’d been given his job, how he’d managed to go from being a nobody to top of the household. And then there was how quickly Lord Tawnera had taken to him, how he suddenly favoured his butler more than anyone else, more than his peers, more than his own wife (Though this didn’t exactly surprise Evelyn) Overall, she thought that splitting the whole house into two was pathetic and pointless.
As she entered Lady Tawnera’s room, she held back a sigh and opened the curtains. It was six am, and she knew that her mistress found it impossible to sleep in daylight. There was a noise from the bed as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. “It’s today isn’t it?” she asked Evelyn, who nodded as she went on, “Why was this dinner even organised?”
Still not saying a word, Evelyn shrugged and helped her put on her corset, underskirts and dress. To be honest, she couldn’t really care less. As long as she was able to do her job, she would be fine. However, there was a small part of her that was starting to wonder why this gathering was taking place and something told her that this wasn’t being held out of kindness or hospitality. No, there was definitely something wrong and Evelyn was sure to find out what it was, no matter what.
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Evelyn was sure that the day passed uneventfully, keeping a close eye on both her servants and those on the men’s side of the house. She also kept a close eye on Ricardo, as she had a feeling that he was keeping something from her- from everyone. As the evening drew near, she told several other servants to look after the house while she attended on her mistress. “Why is he even holding this… thing?” she asked as Evelyn pulled her hair into a tight knot, “It isn’t like there’s any kind of special occasion at the moment…”
Evelyn shrugged, not saying a word. She had been wondering the same thing ever since Lord Tawnera had announced the event two months ago. Almost instantly, he, Ricardo and a few other male servants had been holding meetings in private. Evelyn had often gone to see what they were about, and she’d only ever heard tiny details before she was spotted by Ricardo. For some reasons, this did nothing but fuel her curiosity. All she could ever seem to understand from these sessions of eavesdropping when she should’ve been working was that these meetings weren’t about the dinner- or at least, she hoped they weren’t. Death. That was all they spoke about. And when she was caught, the look she received from Ricardo was menacing and seemed to tell her to not eavesdrop again. Even so, she ignored him. She could look after herself and her curiosity became stronger and stronger every day.
It wasn’t long until Lady Tawnera was ready, and Evelyn followed her down to the entrance hall. Half of it had been decorated in the traditional style- this was Lord Tawnera’s side of the house. The other side was a rich deep purple in colour, and there was silver lights handing from the ceiling. Soon enough, guests started to arrive. Evelyn recognised most of them as Lord Tawnera’s business partners, the ones that he was particularly close to. The entrance hall became over-crowded quickly and Evelyn found herself looking away from them and at Ricardo, who stood behind his master on the other side of the room. Her look had a clear meaning: ‘Let’s go’. But Ricardo shook his head, making a symbol in his hands. The two of them had to come up with a way of communicating when the first became butlers, and Evelyn knew exactly what this meant: ‘One more’. She rolled her, eyes, as she had not checked up on the kitchens for a few hours and had no idea if the starters were ready. Even so, she waited.
Soon enough, the final guest arrived. Unlike the others, they were not a partner of Lord Tawnera’s. In fact, Evelyn didn’t recognise him at all. Lady Tawnera, however, did. “My goodness…” she muttered to herself, as Evelyn followed her over to him, “Is that Vincent’s son…? I do believe it is.” Suddenly, Evelyn realised who he was: Earl Ciel Phantomhive. She studied him closely. He couldn’t have been much older than twelve, for he was short and hadn’t seemed to have entered puberty in any way. Behind him stood a man in a suit, probably a butler, with dark hair that framed his face. They both seemed to share the same bored and slightly suspicious expression. She suddenly felt someone’s hand on her shoulder. Ricardo.
She turned around silently and began to make her way towards the servant’s corridor, but she managed to catch sight of Ricardo as he looked both the boy and his butler in the eye. Then, he too turned and left. Evelyn went into the kitchens on the female side of the house as she heard chatting and laughing coming from the guests. But she couldn’t seem to forget Ricardo’s glare as she left. Perhaps it was about time she to start looking into his masters little meetings…
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