A New Arrival
Ah… what a tumultuous few months it had been… Musing to himself, he made his way through the dark corridors of the Phantomhive manor from the kitchen. The attack on the manor, the elimination of the former head, and then the disappearance of the young master; honestly it was a wonder how things were moving as smoothly as they were. The manor had been rebuilt in a startlingly short time, and the black clad butler that the young master brought back with him was surprisingly efficient. But to run a manor properly, realistically they would need more than two servants. But alas, he was the only one of the former servants to survive the fire, and thus the arduous task of hiring on more servants would have to be taken care of with haste.
He arrived at his destination, a rather nondescript door; one of the servants chambers, left empty until now. He was informed this morning of the arrival of a potential maid, and upon asking, told he could find her here. He knocked on the door, bringing with him an offering of Earl Grey tea and scones. His own thinking was that it would be good to become acquainted with the woman and make her more comfortable in the manor, that once so full of life, had become hollow and empty.
‘Just one more second… he moves and then I-’ but the girl never finished, even though her finger was already bending in order to pull the trigger. The thing that made her turn back was the warm feeling upon her shoulder. Something… no, someone apparently put their hand there. The shooter wouldn’t be so surprised if not for the fact that until now hardly anyone had been able to touch her without asking. Good they hadn’t even put their fingers on her. Otherwise, they would have been already dead.
Now, the same girl was sitting in the room… Hadn’t it been less than twenty four hours ago that she had tried to shoot someone? And yet, she was sitting in a completely unknonwn manor, waiting to meet the one who could provide her with an utterly new life. A warm feeling filled her stomach and for the first time, she felt a hit of hot in her cheeks. She had never blushed before… The girl couldn’t help but touched her face with a surprise in her eyes. Was it pleasant…? Or not?
She was free. Rescued from those people she felt happy like never before. No longer was she nameless; she had got her name from the one who could be her new Master: Mei-Rin. Mei-Rin… Some grimace that probably was meant to be a smile rushed through her face. Her very own name.
That was the moment she heard knocking. Raising her eyes, she stood up and approached the door, pulling the handle to open it. Her hand was shaking strangely; that had never happened before. Quite strange for almost fifteen-year-old but it was probably the first time she actually… felt nervous.
♙ - As the door swung open his eyes met with the striking brown of the young lady's. A warm smile graced his lips as he nodded towards her. "Good afternoon, you must be the new maid." The girl seemed to have quite an air of anxiety to her, but such was to be expected. Even after many a year, the old steward could still vividly remember when he was first recruited to work at the manor as a young man. To become accustom to such an unfamiliar environment had taken him a lengthy amount of time, and he was certain that it would be just the same for her.
"Please let me introduce myself. You may call me Tanaka, I am the steward of the manor. I trust you've already become acquainted with the butler and the young master?" He spoke softly and smoothly, hoping a kind presence would help the new resident feel more at ease. "I do hope the day finds you well. I've brought tea, if you'd care for it. May come in? That is, if I'm not imposing."
