Episode 5 Continued - The Mark of the Eye
“Oh, my,” Madam Beham said, looking around the entrance to the manor, “I haven’t been here in some time.”
“May I please take your coat?” I said kindly, holding my hand out.
“Oh, why, yes!” She shuffled off her jacket, handing it to me. “What an amazing butler you are, Sebastian. All tall and handsome. They don’t have many handsome butlers around anymore,” she laughed, “they’re all old and shriveled. We need more of them, right?”
I just smiled after hanging it on the rack beside the front door. “What can I say? I am simply one hell of a butler.”
“Say, where is my Yumi girl?” Madam Beham said, gazing around in a pout. “I came all the way to see her! I am her grandmother, after all.”
I just smiled. “She’s currently getting ready, my lady. She will be down soon.”
“Good, good!” She smiled and entered the house further, standing in the front of the room.
I never understood why Yumi disliked her grandmother. She was the only family member that treated her like a person, she was the kindest soul in existence.
Perhaps Yumi was so used to be treated badly that she disliked being treated like a person… but she didn’t seem to mind it from me or her servants.
“Oh, finally we’re here,” a girl said, scoffing as she entered the mansion.
I glanced over in boredom.
“That flight lasted for hours!” she said, yawning. “Who knew London was so far.” She then gazed up, blinking. “Oh, hello, Sebastian. Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”
I bowed before master Yumi’s cousin. “It’s my pleasure to be meeting you again, Lady Matilda. May I take your coat?”
“Oh, yes, please,” she sighed and shuffled it off, setting it in my hands, “it’s like a hundred degrees out there.”
She then walked further in the room, and I glanced over at her in annoyance.
It’s fifty degrees today…
A flood of people came in after her, making me stand up straight as three more women and a male walked in the room.
“Hello Madam Beth, Minister Curtis,” I bowed to master’s aunt and uncle, “it’s a pleasure to see you.”
“You, too, Sebastian,” Madam Beth said, patting my head as I stood up straight, irritated at the motion.
Ugh. I hate humans and their careless touching.
“What about us, Sebastian?” two other girls said, pouting. “Aren’t you glad to see us?”
Ugh… master’s cousins.
I forced a smile despite being repulsed by their wicked smiles. “Yes, it’s great to see you, too, Lady Kate and Lady Jamison.”
They just smiled in response and skipped into the manor.
I closed the door behind them.
“I never understood why the manor’s so black,” Yumi’s aunt said, glancing around. “The floors are black, and the walls are white. This lets in no light what-so-ever. Does Yumi like living in the dark?”
“Master Yumi did not design the mansion, Madam Beth,” I said, walking past them to the staircase. “It’s been like this since the late 1800s. Remodeled a couple times, yes, but mainly just to fix the foundation.”
I just stepped up the staircase, smiling down at them. “Give me one minute while I fetch my master.” I then glanced to the right where Cammie and Scarlet stood, holding brooms tightly in their hands. “Go guide them into the room, and nothing else, got it?”
They nodded in unison. “Yes, sir!”
And they trotted down the stairs.
Master’s cousin, Jamison, scoffed. “I wanted a butler. Why can’t we have butlers mother?”
“They’re expensive,” Madam Beth said kindly, “I bet Yumi pays Sebastian a high salary. Like a thousand an hour or something.”
I smiled a little.
She gazed up at me. “Does she pay you a lot, Sebastian? She better. With all you do she might as well give you her soul.”
My lips curled as my eyes darkened. “Why, yes. It is much, isn’t it? I guess my salary would classify as a soul itself.”
It was her soul. The idiots.
“Well, I must go fetch my master,” I said, bowing. “With how long she’s taking, she might have a wardrobe malfunction. And we can’t have that, now, can we?”
“Knowing her, I’d think she’d be having one every day,” Matilda, Yumi’s cousin said.
“You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?” someone said from the head of the staircase.
All of them gazed up immediately, following with me.
Master Yumi came gracefully down the steps, wearing a long, thin, navy blue dress with frills at the end, as well as covering the sleeves.
“Master,” I greeted, “you sure took your sweet time.”
She glared at me. “Bite your tongue.”
I just smiled.
“Aw, Yumi dear!” Her grandmother covered her mouth. “You look so gorgous in that dress.”
“Why, thank you, grandmother.” She bowed lightly before standing up straight. “Sebastian picked it out for me, so the credit doesn’t go straight to me, anyway.”
I glanced over at her in suspicion. “Master,” I said so only she could hear, “is there a reason why you’re playing the kind, passive, little girl?”
She turned to look at me and sent me a dark smile, and she then gazed back forward face lightening.
“Ah,” I said then, smiling as I closed my eyes, “I see.”
“I’m so glad to see you all here!” Yumi said, laughing kindly. “It’s been a long time, indeed!”
“Aw, Yumi, what has you in such a good mood today?” her grandmother said, smiling softly. “I haven’t seen you so happy since your fifteenth birthday, my dear.”
When I gazed down at the room, all other family members looked at Yumi in distaste.
“Ah,” I said to myself, “so it is jealousy, then.”
It explained why the grandmother was the only one who was elated at this moment. Madam Beham was part of the decision to give the Phantomhive name to Yumi’s father, after all. So she must’ve been proud of it.
Yumi just smiled. “I’m just happy to see you, that’s all.”
As she descended down the stairs, her grandmother suddenly sucked in a breath, surprise wiping across her smile. “Yumi… you’re wearing an eye patch?”
“Why, yes,” she smiled, tipping her head to the side kindly, “I have been for quite some time.”
“How long?” her grandmother said, brows drawing together. “I’ve never seen it on you.”
“Oh, because I always hid it with my hair!” She giggled, tipping her head to the side. “But I decided I was done with hiding the patch, so I cut them!”
“Is it injured?” Madam Beham stepped closer, brows drawing together in worry. “Can you no longer see out of it?”
“It was injured for a while,” Yumi said, nodding. “But it’s healed now. I can see out of it. I just prefer to hide it because it looks a little odd.”
“Odd?” her grandmother said, lips parting. “Is it that bad?”
Yumi just smiled and nodded.
“Oh… I see.” She just stood up straight. “How did you get it, my dear?”
Yumi just opened her eyes. “We can discuss it over dinner, mama.”
I smiled at the name she called Madam Beham and started descending down the stairs. “The dining hall is this way. Follow our maid, Cammie, she will show you the way.”
Her grandmother just smiled. “Why, thank you, Sebastian. I don’t mind if I do.”
And she exited to the hallway, following Cammie as Scarlet remained behind, standing by the staircase.
“You can see out of it?” one of Master’s cousins, Matilda, said, looking shocked. “That’s impossible!”
Yumi just gazed up, lips parting as her brows drew together. “What do you mean?” Her brows drew together. “Why would I lie about that?”
“It was cut so badly!” Kate said frantically. “Your sister used a steak knife and it cut the entire eye in half! How would you recover from that?”
Yumi just looked down, closing her eyes.
I just smirked.
Still playing the innocent, timid girl, I see.
“You’ve been hiding that eye for ages,” Madam Beth said, shaking her head. “Something tells me you’re lying. You’re always lying. You can’t even admit it, can you? I still don’t understand why mama chose your family over mine. You’re all so timid and stupid.”
I saw master’s lips twitch, but she kept the act up. “We try our best, auntie. Can’t you see that? I just want to follow in my father’s footsteps.”
“Yeah, you want to die?” Kate said, scoffing.
I then flickered my eyes to hers, narrowing them in anger.
The moment I started to her, Yumi flipped her hand out, making me stop.
No one seemed to notice.
Yumi gave me a short glance before she gazed up fully, sighing. “Let’s just get dinner, okay? I’m sorry that mama chose me, but I had no say in the matter.”
I watched as all of them scoffed and turned, walking down the hall and following Scarlet this time.
I just turned to master who straightened up and adjusted her eye patch, gazing up at me seconds later. “What?”
I just smiled. “Is it me putting on the show, master, or is it you?”
She just smirked, stepping forward as I followed her. “Why can’t it be both? We both can have our fun, can’t we?”
“They think you’re a timid little girl, don’t they?” I questioned, chuckling. “They think that’s what you’ve been all this time. They don’t know the real you. That’s going to be a rude awakening for them, isn’t it?”
“Playing people is very easy, Sebastian,” she answered then, making my lashes lower. “You just have to pull the right strings.”
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