Chapter 10: Another child, on the way.

Christmas was a grand affair, with copious amounts of gifts exchanged and many celebrations had. Sebastian had surprised January with an official engagement ring; a silver band set with a green stone that sparkled under the light and mesmerized Scarlet when she caught a glimpse of it. Elizabeth had practically forced her gift for Ciel into his arms within seconds of him sitting down and she squealed with glee when he presented her with gifts of fine lace dresses, pretty shoes and a beautiful, sapphire set necklace that brought her to tears. The babies had gurgled and wailed and acted as they normally would, after all, they were both still small and had yet to even start to learn about traditions such as Christmas. The servants had also received gifts from Ciel and Elizabeth, new sets of nightclothes and also a new book each. Mey-Rin could hardly hold herself together and Bard and Finny were in good spirits all day long.

Lady Elizabeth's family, Alexis, Francis and Edward, also visited to celebrate Christmas with the Phantomhives. January couldn't help but feel her aunt Francis' occasional expression of disappointment when she would glance at her and Scarlet. Elizabeth had gingerly explained the situation; that being that January's brother, Cassius, had been murdered after attempting to murder his sister in the night and fleeing and January had established a relationship with Ciel's infamous butler after deciding she couldn't return home out of fear of her own family. January had faked her own death to escape seeing them again, knowing that they would never return to the Phantomhive manor after the recent events.

Francis, ever the skeptic, had accepted this partially true explanation with a sour taste in her mouth - constantly trying not to acknowledge that nagging feeling she had that this story was partly fabricated. She had reluctantly agreed to follow along with the narrative that January was dead. Despite the close bond between the cousins, Francis had never been close with Beatrice nor Alexander. They were Alexis' relatives, not hers.

She technically wasn't wrong, though. Demons aren't exactly alive.

She was right, after all; the story was partly fabricated. There was no way Elizabeth could possibly explain to her mother that January had actually been courting - ahem, sleeping with - Sebastian in secret much before any of the troubling events involving her deceased brother had taken place. But, January was a blood relation, after all. They had grown up together and Elizabeth had a true friendship with her. The letter written to Lord and Lady Huxley had been...awkward, to say the least. Faking the death of their daughter had been a...strange experience.

January had only expressed her sorrows to Elizabeth in private, which mostly consisted of how she was going to miss her little sister Aurora. They quickly had buried these feelings and agreed to carry on, as a family, so their children could grow up together and be oblivious to the situation.

Christmas day continued, with smiles and laughter and everyone forgot about the imminent danger that seemed to be lurking just around the corner for one day.

January was a cold and cruel month; snow had descended again and the manor was covered in a layer of pure white. The manor seemed to move slowly and painfully as Scarlet began teething, which was accompanied by plenty of wailing and sobbing and maybe also a tear or two from January, who couldn't seem to soothe the distraught baby no matter what she did. Sebastian had the magic touch, of course, and he often dedicated his evenings to rocking the little girl back and forth and offering her his finger to chomp down on for comfort.

February came and went seemingly quickly, with a small celebration for January's birthday on the 10th and then the rest of the month was spent assisting Ciel with business deals, new toy developments and ideas and other such boring, business related things.

March was a little bit warmer, with spring starting to make an appearance and the mood of the whole manor seemed to lift alongside the weather. The sun started to show itself a little more and it was a pleasant sight, even if the wind was still chilly enough to make sure Elizabeth and January never left the manor without a coat on.

April was a wonderful month for the household; Easter brought celebrations again and now that Arthur was over a year old and beginning to walk, Elizabeth decided to host an Easter egg hunt for the whole manor. She had the manor decorated with banners and bows and ribbons which were made up of an array of pastel colours and she had eggs painted with intricate, pretty designs hidden around the manor in varying places. The whole family joined in, with Ciel and Sebastian teaming up in a juvenile attempt to find the most eggs and get the hunt over with sooner rather than later. Elizabeth joined forces with January and the little ones and the servants operated as a trio to find the painted eggs.

Easter Sunday had been gloriously warm, so after the hunt was finished, they all ventured out into the manor gardens that Finny (Sebastian) had dressed up and perfected with various types of flowers that were just coming into bloom; rows of daffodils, tulips, violets and chrysanthemums and irises looked scenic alongside the lush, vibrant green grass.
They sat at the patio table and ate dinner there that evening, Arthur toddling along being carefully eyed by a slightly on edge Elizabeth. That evening, life seemed content and everyone seemed happy with the way their lives were playing out.

May and June were hot months and the manor was bustling. Finny was hard at work, keeping the garden in top condition and Mey-Rin tirelessly cleaned the manor and washed the bed-sheets on a seemingly endless repeat. Bard burnt the food, as usual, but was actively trying to find cooler recipes and meals, meals that weren't stuffy or too suited to winter, he was assembling a summer menu of sorts. Or, he was trying to, at least.

July was steadily slowing down, the heat had ceased for a few days as a storm struck England. It was desperately needed, and nobody was complaining about the break from the blistering heat that had plagued them weeks prior.

Elizabeth looked at her reflection in the mirror, her green eyes scanning herself over and over, her gaze returning to the same place each time. Her hand rested on her growing abdomen, another tiny human in her womb. She grinned as she rubbed her bump, feeling slight movement from the baby was only 4 or 4 and a half months along, so the movement was still very light but Elizabeth swore she could feel every movement and simply wagered that the baby was a strong one.

Everyone had been thrilled when she had announced she and Ciel were expecting another baby. Ciel had been told in private and Elizabeth said she swore he was going to faint when those words left her mouth. He had come around, of course, but being the worrier that he was, Ciel couldn't help but feel more protective over Elizabeth now that she was pregnant again and he and Sebastian had yet another worrying case from the Queen to work on.

Being the Queen's Watchdog was never going to be an easy feat, he had known this since he was a boy, but he had never expected his position to come with this much grief.

"More murders, my Lord." Sebastian said, bringing Ciel back to reality and drawing his attention to the letter he had placed in front of him. Ciel lifted it, skimmed over it and a look of disgust crossed his face as he lowered the letter back down to his desk.

"What is wrong with these people? They act like savages." Ciel spat, the revulsion clear in his voice.

"There seems to be a prostitution ring, my Lord," Sebastian said, pointing to a lead written in the letter, "These murders are occurring in the same area and the police have taken a number of women into custody on suspicion that they are committing the murders. The victims all have a common theme; they are all men of particular wealth and they are all found dead and robbed."

Ciel sighed as he mulled the possibility over in his head. This was the opposite of what he wanted to be dealing with right now, with a toddler who was now walking and another child on the way. He was responsible for too many lives for a supposed group of angry prostitutes to be murdering and robbing their clients. However, he was the Queen's Watchdog, and it was his duty to find the puppet masters behind these heinous crimes and snuff them out for the safety of himself, the Queen and the whole of London.

"Sebastian, prepare a carriage. We'll travel into London to get a closer look of the crime scenes and see if we can gather any evidence whilst we're there." He stood up from his chair, folding the letter and putting it in his pocket. "Make it quick. I want to be home in time for dinner."

Sebastian nodded and bowed, followed by a curt: "Yes, my Lord."

A/N: Hi! A new chapter, I bet nobody was expecting this, haha! I took a bit of an unplanned break. I unfortunately went through a breakup, followed by a month of stressful exams so needless to say, my mind was all over the place. I'm back and ready to write again now, with more excitement than ever! I'm excited to get this story going again and I hope you can forgive me for taking off with no explanation. Thank you for being wonderful, as per usual and I hope you enjoy chapter 10!